maurya & post mauryan period Practice Questions Answers Test with Solutions

Answer: (a)

There is little information regarding the early life of Asoka. He acted as Governor of Ujjain and also suppressed a revolt in Taxila during his father Bindusara’s reign. There was an interval of four years between Asoka’s accession to the throne (273 B.C.) and his actual coronation (269 B.C.).

Therefore, it appears from the available evidence that there was a struggle for the throne after Bindusara’s death. The Ceylonese Chronicles, Dipavamsa and Mahavamsa state that Asoka captured power after killing his ninety-nine brothers including the elder brother Susima.

The youngest brother Tissa was spared. But according to Taranatha of Tibet, Asoka killed only six of his brothers. Asoka’s Edict also refers to his brothers acting as officers in his administration. However, it is clear that the succession of Asoka was a disputed one.

The most important event of Asoka’s reign was his victorious war with Kalinga in 261 B.C. Although there is no detail about the cause and course of the war, the effects of the war were described by Asoka himself in the Rock edict XIII: “A hundred and fifty thousand were killed and many times that number perished…” After the war, he annexed Kalinga to the Mauryan Empire.

Answer: (d)

The inscriptions of Ashoka are written in two scripts known as Brahmi and Kharosthi. Kharosthi script has been used in the inscriptions found at Shahbazgarhi in Mardan District of KhyberPakhtunkhwa province of Pakistan and Manshera also in Pakistan.

Answer: (d)

Devabhuti was the last Sunga ruler who was killed by his own minister Vasudeva Kanva in around 73 BC and founded the Kanva dynasty.

Answer: (c)

Bindusara is said to have conquered the Deccan up to Mysore. Taranatha, the Tibetan monk states that Bindusara conquered 16 states comprising ‘the land between the two seas’. The Sangam Tamil literature also confirms the Mauryan invasion of the far south.

Therefore, it can be said that the Mauryan Empire under Bindusara extended up to Mysore. Bindusara received Deimachus as ambassador from the Syrian king Antiochus I. Bindusara wrote to Antiochus I asking for sweet wine, dried figs and a sophist.

The latter sent all but a sophist because the Greek law prohibited sending a sophist. Bindusara supported the Ajivikas, a religious sect. Bindusara appointed his son Asoka as the governor of Ujjain.

Answer: (a)

The Satavahana kings mostly used lead as the material for their coins. Next to lead they used an alloy of silver and copper, called ‘potin’. Most of the Satavahana coins have on one side the figure of an elephant, horse, lion or Chaitya. The other side shows the so-called Ujjain symbol – a cross with four circles at the end of the two crossing lines.