Vedic age & the Mahajanapadas

Answer: (c) Both 1 and 2

Coins in the Pali (Buddhist) texts and the silver punch-marked coins found at many sites both belong to the age of the mahajanapadas (c. sixth century BCE). That age saw the Second Urbanisation of the Ganga valley, and coins came into use because trade was growing, so the evidence speaks to both urban life and a shift to money.

• ✓ 1. Punch-marked coins appear alongside the rise of towns and cities in the Ganga valley (c. 600–500 BCE); coinage was a product of the growing urban trade of this period.
• ✓ 2. Named coins such as the kahapana and actual silver punch-marked coins show exchange moving from barter towards payment in money.

Remember · Sixth century BCE: mahajanapadas, Second Urbanisation in the Ganga valley and the first Indian coins, silver punch-marked coins (kahapana in Pali texts).

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Answer: (c) 1 and 3 only

The two statements are about well irrigation and animal power. The Rigveda knows irrigation from wells, and a long prior use of oxen for ploughing and carts makes it plausible that the same animals worked the wells. Axes and sickles say nothing about wells or draught animals.

• ✓ 1. The Rigveda knows irrigation from wells: the Vedic Heritage Portal (Ministry of Education) notes that Rigveda VII.49.2 lists well water among the kinds of irrigation water. UPSC's official key counts this item as supporting; we could not confirm the water-lifting detail in the item from an official source, so we do not explain it here.
• ✗ 2. Axes (for clearing land) and sickles (for harvesting) are farming tools, but they have no bearing on drawing water from wells or on draught-animal power.
• ✓ 3. Harappan seals and terracottas show the bull, terracotta plough models come from Banawali and Cholistan, and a ploughed field was found at Kalibangan; oxen already served as draught animals before the Rigveda.

Remember · Inference questions: keep only the evidence that bears on the claim. Well irrigation and older ox use support the Rigvedic statements; tool lists do not.

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Answer: (c) 3 only

The Rigvedic names of the Punjab rivers are Vitasta (Jhelum), Asikni (Chenab), Parushni (Ravi), Vipasa/Vipash (Beas) and Sutudri/Shutudri (Sutlej). Pairs 1 and 2 are swapped and the Beas was the Vipasa, so only Parushni-Ravi is right.

• ✗ 1. Vitasta is the Jhelum; the Chenab was called Asikni.
• ✗ 2. Asikni is the Chenab; the Jhelum was the Vitasta.
• ✓ 3. Parushni is the Rigvedic name of the Ravi.
• ✗ 4. The Beas was the Vipasa (Sanskrit Vipasha), not Yavyavati.

Remember · Rigvedic Punjab rivers: Vitasta–Jhelum, Asikni–Chenab, Parushni–Ravi, Vipash–Beas, Shutudri–Sutlej.

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Answer: (b) Atharvaveda

The feminine kshetrasya patni, the 'mistress' of the field, is invoked in the Atharvaveda (Book 2, hymn 12), alongside heaven, earth and the atmosphere. The Rigveda's farming hymn (Book 4, hymn 57) praises the masculine Kshetrapati, the 'lord of the field'.

• ✓ (b) Atharvaveda 2.12.1 names the 'mistress of the field' among the powers called upon, alongside heaven-and-earth and the wide atmosphere.
• ✗ (a) Rigveda 4.57 is the Rigvedic farming hymn; the Vedic Heritage Portal describes the 'lord of the field' (Kshetrasya pati) as the presiding deity of the field, so the masculine form belongs here and not the feminine kshetra-patni.
• ✗ (d) The Arthashastra is a later treatise on statecraft, not a Vedic hymn text invoking the deity of the field.

Remember · Kshetrapati (lord of the field) - Rigveda 4.57; kshetra-patni (mistress of the field) - Atharvaveda 2.12.1.

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Answer: (b) Only two

Of the sixteen mahajanapadas, Asmaka lay on the Godavari in the Deccan and Kosala around Ayodhya on the Sarayu, so those two pairs are right. Kamboja lay in the north-west beside Gandhara, not on the Vipas (the Beas of Himachal Pradesh and Punjab), and Avanti, whose capital was Ujjayini in western Madhya Pradesh, is nowhere near the Mahanadi.

• ✓ I Asmaka (Ashmaka) lay in central India close to the Godavari River, as NCERT says.
• ✗ II Kamboja lay in the north-west, beside Gandhara on NCERT's map of the early states. The Vipas is the Sanskrit name of the Beas, a river of Himachal Pradesh and Punjab, so the pair is wrong.
• ✗ III Avanti's capital was Ujjayini (NCERT map), the present Ujjain in western Madhya Pradesh on the Malwa Plateau; the Mahanadi rises in Chhattisgarh and flows through Odisha.
• ✓ IV Kosala was the ancient kingdom whose capital was Ayodhya, which stands on the banks of the Saryu (Sarayu).

Remember · Mahajanapada rivers: Asmaka–Godavari (Deccan); Kosala–Sarayu (Ayodhya); Avanti–Ujjayini (Malwa); Kamboja–north-west, beside Gandhara; Vipas = Beas.

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Answer: (b) 2 only

Only Statement 2 is correct. The Upanishads do contain many teaching stories, such as the tale of Shvetaketu and his father, and they are much older than the Puranas, which were compiled only from about the early centuries CE.

• ✗ 1. NCERT points to many stories in the Upanishads, for example Shvetaketu and the seed of reality in the Chhandogya Upanishad, and Nachiketa and Yama. Stories that teach a lesson are parables.
• ✓ 2. The early Upanishads date from about the sixth century BCE onwards, while the Puranas were compiled by about the middle of the first millennium CE (from c. 200 CE onwards).

Remember · Upanishads (c. 6th century BCE onwards) are full of teaching stories and are far older than the Puranas (compiled from c. 200 CE onwards).

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Answer: (c) 1 and 3 only

Statement 2 is the one to reject: Harappan metal workers used gold, silver, lead and copper, and iron came into use in the subcontinent only around 1000 BCE, long after the Harappan cities. The other two statements reflect the standard contrast between a warlike, horse-centred Rigvedic society and the Harappan record.

• ✓ 1. Rigvedic Aryan warriors are described as fighting in coats of mail and headgear, whereas Harappan sites have yielded no armour, and re-examination of Mohenjodaro found no warriors clad in armour.
• ✗ 2. Harappans worked gold, silver, lead and copper, and alloyed copper with tin and arsenic. Iron belongs to a much later phase, around 1000 BCE, so 'only copper and iron' is wrong on both counts.
• ✓ 3. The horse-drawn chariot was one of the two new instruments of combat the Rigvedic Aryans brought, and the horse is central to the Rigveda. Harappan seals show the bull, rhinoceros, tiger, elephant, bison, goat and buffalo, but not the horse, which is why the key treats it as absent.

Remember · Harappans: bronze-age, knew gold, silver, copper, lead, tin; no iron (iron c. 1000 BCE). Horse and armour are Rigvedic hallmarks, not Harappan.

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Answer: (d) Maagadha

The Maagadha (Magadha) belonged, along with the sutas, to the bardic tradition of ancient India, whose members sang the deeds of kings and heroes and kept dynastic memories alive by recitation. The other three options are not bardic professions: a shramana and a parivrajaka are wandering renouncers, and an agraharika is linked to an agrahara land grant.

• ✓ (d) Bards kept ancient tradition alive by memory and recitation. NCERT notes that the original Mahabharata story was probably composed by charioteer-bards called sutas, and that such compositions circulated orally. University study material adds that the bardic tradition emerged from the Sutas and Magadhas, the earliest authors of the Itihasas and Puranas, and that Kautilya lists the pauranika, the suta and the Magadha among the king's salaried officials for the Itihasa and Purana.
• ✗ (a) A shramana ("one who strives") is a renouncer who left household life for an ascetic path, as in the Buddhist and Jain traditions; it is not the name of a bard.
• ✗ (b) A parivrajaka is a wanderer who has given up settled life, not a keeper of dynastic histories.
• ✗ (c) An agrahara was land granted to a Brahmana, usually free of land revenue; an agraharika is linked to such a grant, not to reciting chronicles.

Remember · Sutas and Maagadhas were the bards of ancient India who remembered and recited royal deeds, genealogies and epic tales; shramanas and parivrajakas were renouncers.

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