Static Quiz 19 April 2024 (History)

Solution: (a)

Justification: Options B, C, and D existed much prior to the 6th century, so they can’t be the answer. The institution is considered to belong properly to the Gupta Empire, however, some vague evidence is found in South India as well. The Samanta in South-India was used to mean a vassal to an emperor. In North-India, the earliest use of the term in a similar sense was in Bengal where someone was described as Samanta-Chudamanih (best among feudatories) of the imperial Guptas. The Samanta vassal provided military support to the Monarch and governed over a portion of a territory.

Learning: The term Indian feudalism is used to describe zamindar, jagirdar, sardar, mankari, deshmukh, chaudhary and samanta.
In this system, a nobility gave the emperor military services in exchange of land. There was a separate class of labourers or peasants who were provided military protection in exchange of labour and share of their produce. They were allowed to live on the lord’s land.

Solution: (b)

Justification: Statement 4: Between 399 and 414 CE, the Chinese monk Fa Hien undertook a trip via Central Asia to India seeking better copies of Buddhist books than were currently available in China.

Statement 2: As far as the Gupta empire is concerned, although his account is valuable in many respects, he did not mention the name of Chandragupta II. He was not interested in political affairs. His interest was primarily religion.

Statement 3: According to him, Buddhism was in a flourishing condition in the north-western India but in the Gangetic valley it was in a state of neglect. He refers to the Gangetic valley as the ‘land of Brahmanism’.

Statement 1: He indicates clearly the importance of the seven precious substances for Buddhist worship, the widespread practice of stupa veneration, and his acquaintance with several of the jataka tales about the previous lives of the Buddha Sakyamuni.

Solution: (b)
Learning: In early India, a land possessed great value and the gift of an estate was a marker of status. While the earliest inscriptions recording royal land grants were issued during Satavahana rule, the practice truly grew in scope from the fourth century CE.
By the 5th-6th centuries, ruling dynasties across the subcontinent, as well as their subordinates and feudatories were all engaged in making suchgrants. Land grant charters were usually engraved on sheets of hammered copper. They are described as tamrapatta, a ‘plate of copper’ or tamrashasana, ‘an order in copper’.

Solution: (a)

Justification: Statement 2: Xuan Zang was of Chinese origin, not Korean, so 2 is wrong. They observed this not only on the social conditions but also the rules laid down in texts like Manusmriti such as lower castes had to: live outside the village or wear clothes of the dead etc.

Solution: (b)
Justification: Statement 1: There were regular drills with officials.
Statement 2 and 3: There were tolls and customs on goods taken from one place to another, various kinds of professional taxes, dues levied on ceremonial occasions like marriages and judicial fines. Moreover, the land revenue department was well organized. It was called as puravuvarithinaikkalam. The residential portion of the village was called ur nattam. These and other lands such as the lands belonging to temples were exempted from tax.
Statement 4: During the hard times, there were remission of taxes and Kulottunga I became famous by abolishing tolls and earned the title – Sungam Tavirtta Cholan. The main items of government expenditure were the king and his court, army and navy, roads, irrigation tanks and canals.