Daily Static Quiz Prelims Practice 2027
The Mauryan Empire under Ashoka is widely regarded as an early welfare state, since his edicts describe roads, rest houses, hospitals for humans and animals, and wells built purely for public benefit.
- Ashoka's Major Rock Edict XIII describes the devastation of the Kalinga War and his turn towards Dhamma.
- Ashoka's Dhamma was a sectarian effort aimed at converting all subjects to Buddhism.
Statement 1 is correct — Major Rock Edict XIII records the devastation of the Kalinga War and Ashoka's remorse-driven turn towards Dhamma. Statement 2 is incorrect, since Ashoka's Dhamma was a universal ethical code rather than a Buddhist conversion drive — historians read it as an instrument of statecraft, not proselytisation.
Option (a) is incorrect — Chakra is not the standard term for Mauryan provinces; these were indeed governed by a royal prince or Kumara, but the provincial units themselves carried different names. Options (b), (c), and (d) are all correctly described — Megasthenes' account of Pataliputra's civic administration, the Arthashastra's wide scope, and Ashoka's Dhamma Mahamattas are all established facts.
- Assertion (A): The Mauryan Empire declined rapidly after Ashoka, collapsing within fifty years of his death.
- Reason (R): Weakened military under pacifist policy, fiscal strain, assertive provincial governors, and weak successors together caused this swift decline.
Assertion A is correct — Ashoka died around 232 BCE, and the last Mauryan ruler was killed in 185 BCE, barely fifty years later. Reason R is correct and directly explains A, since a weakened military under pacifist policy, fiscal strain, assertive provincial governors, and weak successors together account for the empire's swift collapse.
- James Prinsep deciphered the Brahmi script of Ashoka's edicts in 1837.
- The edicts are written exclusively in Sanskrit.
- The Bhabru edict shows Ashoka's personal faith in Buddha, Dhamma, and Sangha.
- Pillar Edicts are found only in the Gangetic plains.
Statement 1 is correct — James Prinsep deciphered the Brahmi script of Ashoka's edicts in 1837. Statement 2 is incorrect, since the edicts are written in Prakrit, not Sanskrit, with Aramaic and Greek used in the northwest. Statement 3 is correct, as the Bhabru edict shows Ashoka's personal faith in the Buddha, Dhamma, and Sangha. Statement 4 is incorrect, since Pillar Edicts are found beyond the Gangetic plains too, including at Topra, Meerut, Lauriya sites, and Rampurwa.
