The Mauryan empire

Answer: (b) district-level administration

In Rock Edict III Ashoka orders his officers, the Rajjukas and Pradeshikas in Sircar's translation (the Yuktas being the 'officers' of the Girnar text, as his note explains), to go on circuit every five years, which marks them as the officers running the districts. NCERT calls the pradeshikas district governors, and Sircar's glossary says the Rajjukas were probably governors of districts.

• ✓ (b) All three were district-level officers: NCERT calls the pradeshikas district governors with judicial and administrative functions, Sircar's glossary says the Rajjukas were probably governors of districts, and the Yuktas are a class of officers who toured with them.
• ✗ (c) NCERT describes provinces as the level above divisions and districts; the officers named in the edict work at the district level beneath the provinces.
• ✗ (a) Villages were led by a headman called the gramika (NCERT); the three officers worked above the village, at the district level.

Remember · Rock Edict III: Rajjukas, Pradeshikas (and Yuktas, 'officers') to tour every five years for dhamma; district-level officers; villages under the gramika.

📘 Read it in NCERT: Class 9 Understanding Society: India and Beyond, Ch 5 (practise this chapter) · Class 7 Exploring Society: India and Beyond (Part 1), Ch 5 (practise this chapter)

Question and answer: UPSC's official GS Paper I (2025, Series A) — paper ↗ · answer key ↗. Explanation: Minimalist IAS, checked 1 Oct 2026 (how we verify). Permalink · Report an error

Answer: (b) 2 and 3 only

Statements 2 and 3 are correct: a female slave who bore her master a son was legally free, and the child took the legal status of the master's son. UPSC's key does not count statement 1: Kautilya lays down that an Arya cannot be reduced to slavery, lists slaves as those born in the house, inherited, bought, pledged, self-sold or captured in war, and treats a man sentenced to a fine as one who works the fine off, not as a slave.

• ✗ 1. The Arthashastra (Book III, ch. 13) says 'never shall an Arya be subjected to slavery'; a man pledged to raise money for a fine or decree must be redeemed, and one sentenced to a fine works it off (3.13.18). Judicial punishment is not among the text's own categories of slaves: born in the house, inherited, bought, pledged, self-sold, captured in war.
• ✓ 2. If a female slave bore her master a son, she was legally free.
• ✓ 3. Such a child was entitled to the legal status of the master's son.

Remember · Arthashastra on slaves (dasa): no slavery for an Arya; a slave-mother who bore her master a son became free, and her son took the legal status of the master's son.

Question and answer: UPSC's official GS Paper I (2022, Series A) — paper ↗ · answer key ↗. Explanation: Minimalist IAS, checked 1 Oct 2026 (how we verify). Permalink · Report an error

Answer: (b) Only two pairs

Only pairs 1 and 2 are correct: Dhauli is in Odisha and Erragudi is in Andhra Pradesh. Jaugada is also in Odisha (Ganjam district), and Kalsi is in Uttarakhand (near Dehradun), so pairs 3 and 4 fail.

• ✓ 1. Dhauli, near Bhubaneswar in Khurda district, has Ashoka's Kalinga rock edicts and is a centrally protected monument of the Archaeological Survey of India in Odisha.
• ✓ 2. Erragudi (also spelt Yerragudi) is a major rock edict site in Andhra Pradesh, in the south-west of the state near the Karnataka border.
• ✗ 3. Jaugada is in Ganjam district of Odisha, on the Rushikulya river; its edicts duplicate those at Dhauli. It is not in Madhya Pradesh.
• ✗ 4. Kalsi lies near Dehradun in Uttarakhand, at the meeting of the Yamuna and the Tons. Karnataka's Ashokan sites are other places, for example Brahmagiri, which has minor rock edicts.

Remember · Major rock edicts: Dhauli and Jaugada (Odisha), Kalsi (Uttarakhand), Erragudi (Andhra Pradesh), Girnar (Gujarat), Sopara (Maharashtra), Mansehra and Shahbazgarhi (Pakistan).

Question and answer: UPSC's official GS Paper I (2022, Series A) — paper ↗ · answer key ↗. Explanation: Minimalist IAS, checked 30 Sept 2026 (how we verify). Permalink · Report an error

Answer: (a) Ashoka

The inscription is Ashoka's Rock Edict XII. In it he urges restraint in speech: no praising one's own sect or running down others, because that harms one's own sect most and every sect deserves honour.

• ✓ (a) Ashoka's rock edicts advise respect for all sects; Rock Edict XII says a person who extols his own sect and disparages others out of attachment to it injures his own sect very severely. His Dhamma officers were also appointed to work among all sects.
• ✗ (b) Samudragupta (Gupta period) is known for conquests recorded in the Allahabad pillar inscription, not for edicts advising subjects on sectarian restraint.
• ✗ (c) Harshavardhana patronised several faiths, but no such edict is associated with him.
• ✗ (d) Krishnadeva Raya of Vijayanagara (16th century) is known for the Telugu poem Amuktamalyada and for his patronage of temples and scholars, not for edicts advising subjects on sectarian restraint.

Remember · Ashoka's Rock Edict XII: praising your own sect and blaming others harms your own sect; all sects should be honoured. Tolerance was a core part of his Dhamma.

📘 Read it in NCERT: Class 7 Exploring Society: India and Beyond (Part 1), Ch 5 (practise this chapter)

Question and answer: UPSC's official GS Paper I (2020, Series A) — paper ↗ · answer key ↗. Explanation: Minimalist IAS, checked 30 Sept 2026 (how we verify). Permalink · Report an error

Answer: (c) Sohgaura

Sohgaura, in Uttar Pradesh, is known for a copper-plate inscription of the 4th–3rd century BCE in Brahmi, a Mauryan-age record far later than the Harappan cities. Chanhudaro, Kot Diji and Desalpur (Kutch) are Harappan settlements.

• ✓ (c) Sohgaura's fame is its copper-plate inscription (4th–3rd century BCE, Prakrit in Brahmi) about storing grain against famine, an early administrative record, not a Harappan settlement.
• ✗ (a) Chanhudaro is marked among the important Mature Harappan sites; it was a small settlement almost wholly given to crafts such as bead-making and shell-cutting.
• ✗ (b) Kot Diji is shown among Mature Harappan sites, and NCERT's map of Early Harappan occupation also names a Kot Diji culture area.

Remember · Sohgaura (Uttar Pradesh) = Mauryan-age copper-plate inscription on famine relief granaries; not Harappan. Chanhudaro, Kot Diji, Desalpur = Harappan sites.

📘 Read it in NCERT: Class 7 Exploring Society: India and Beyond (Part 1), Ch 5 (practise this chapter) · Class 12 Themes in Indian History, Part I, Ch 1 (practise this chapter) · Class 12 Themes in Indian History, Part I, Ch 1 (practise this chapter)

Question and answer: UPSC's official GS Paper I (2019, Series A) — paper ↗ · answer key ↗. Explanation: Minimalist IAS, checked 30 Sept 2026 (how we verify). Permalink · Report an error

Answer: (a) Kanganahalli

The ruined stupa at Kanaganahalli, part of the Sannati complex on the Bhima in Kalaburagi (Gulbarga) district of Karnataka, yielded a relief of Ashoka with his queens that carries an inscription naming him, 'Ranyo Ashoka' (King Ashoka). That is the site the question describes.

• ✓ (a) The Sannati–Kanaganahalli stupa in Gulbarga district, the largest stupa site excavated in Karnataka, was decorated with sculptural reliefs; one panel shows Ashoka with his queens together with an inscription mentioning him.
• ✗ (c) Shahbazgarhi (in present-day Pakistan) has one of Ashoka's Major Rock Edicts, a text carved on rock with no portrait of the king.
• ✗ (d) Sohgaura in Uttar Pradesh is known for a copper-plate inscription of the 4th–3rd century BCE, not a relief sculpture.

Remember · Kanaganahalli (Sannati, Kalaburagi, Karnataka): relief of Ashoka with his queens, with the inscription 'Ranyo Ashoka'. Shahbazgarhi and Mansehra: sites of Ashoka's Major Rock Edicts.

📘 Read it in NCERT: Class 11 An Introduction to Indian Art, Part I, Ch 4 (practise this chapter) · Class 12 Themes in Indian History, Part I, Ch 2 (practise this chapter)

Question and answer: UPSC's official GS Paper I (2019, Series A) — paper ↗ · answer key ↗. Explanation: Minimalist IAS, checked 30 Sept 2026 (how we verify). Permalink · Report an error

Answer: (b) James Prinsep

James Prinsep, an officer in the mint of the East India Company, deciphered the Brahmi script of Ashoka's inscriptions in 1838. Once Brahmi could be read, historians found that the king named in them, Piyadassi, was Ashoka.

• ✓ (b) Prinsep deciphered Brahmi and Kharosthi in the 1830s and read Ashokan Brahmi in 1838. NCERT says he also found that most inscriptions named a king called Piyadassi, meaning “pleasant to behold”.
• ✗ (d) William Jones came to Calcutta in 1783 as a junior judge of the Company's Supreme Court and is remembered as an Orientalist scholar; he did not read Ashokan Brahmi.
• ✗ (a) Georg Bühler was a later scholar of Indian inscriptions; the first decipherment was Prinsep's.
• ✗ (c) Max Müller is known for editing and translating Sanskrit texts such as the Rig Veda, not for deciphering Ashoka's edicts.

Remember · James Prinsep deciphered Ashokan Brahmi in 1838; the Piyadassi of the inscriptions was identified as Ashoka.

📘 Read it in NCERT: Class 12 Themes in Indian History, Part I, Ch 2 (practise this chapter) · Class 12 Themes in Indian History, Part I, Ch 2 (practise this chapter)

Question and answer: UPSC's official GS Paper I (2016, Series A) — paper ↗ · answer key ↗. Explanation: Minimalist IAS, checked 30 Sept 2026 (how we verify). Permalink · Report an error