Class 12 Kings, Farmers and Towns: Early States and Economies Mock Test (CBSE)

Topics in Kings, Farmers and Towns: Early States and Economies

• Prinsep and Piyadassi
• The earliest states: the sixteen mahajanapadas
• First amongst sixteen: Magadha
• An early empire: the Mauryas
• New notions of kingship
• A changing countryside
• Towns and trade
• Back to basics: how are inscriptions deciphered
• The limitations of inscriptional evidence

Kings, Farmers and Towns: Early States and Economies practice questions with answers

1. Q1Multiple choice·1 mark
   Which of the following best describes the general location and nature of major urban centers like Pataliputra, Ujjayani, and Puhar that emerged from the sixth century BCE?

   1. (a)They were planned grid cities laid out around raised citadels, like Harappan towns.
   2. (b)They were frontier garrison towns set up mainly to guard the outer borders of the kingdom.
   3. (c)They were fortress cities ringed by hills and chosen mainly for defence, like early Rajagaha.
   4. (d)They were towns that grew up mainly along river, land and coastal routes of communication.
   Show answer and step marks

   1. Correct option: (d) They were towns that grew up mainly along river, land and coastal routes of communication. Pataliputra lay on a river route, Ujjayini on land routes and Puhar on the coast.+1

   Answer: (d)
2. Q2Multiple choice·1 mark
   Which of the following strategies was widely adopted to increase agricultural production in the fertile alluvial river valleys from around the sixth century BCE?

   1. (a)Adoption of paddy transplantation in areas of high rainfall
   2. (b)Complete reliance on dry farming without artificial irrigation
   3. (c)Exclusive use of wooden ploughshares in all soil types
   4. (d)Abandonment of iron technology in rural settlements
   Show answer and step marks

   1. Correct option: (a)+1

   Answer: (a)
3. Q3Short answer·3 marks
   Who was James Prinsep? Explain his contribution to the decipherment of early Indian scripts in the 1830s.
   Show answer and step marks

   1. James Prinsep was an officer in the mint of the East India Company.+1
   2. In the 1830s (by 1838) he deciphered Brahmi, the script of most Ashokan inscriptions, and found that they mentioned a king called Piyadassi ('pleasant to behold'), some also calling him Asoka.+1
   3. He also deciphered Kharosthi, used in the north-west, by comparing the Greek and Kharosthi legends on coins of Indo-Greek kings, opening the way for the study of early Indian political history.+1

   Answer: Prinsep, an officer in the East India Company's mint, deciphered Brahmi and Kharosthi in the 1830s; this showed the inscriptions referred to a king Piyadassi (Asoka) and made early inscriptions and coins readable.
4. Q4Short answer·3 marks
   Explain any three major limitations faced by historians while using inscriptional evidence to reconstruct early Indian history.
   Show answer and step marks

   1. First limitation, any one of: letters are faintly engraved, so readings and reconstructions are uncertain; inscriptions are damaged or letters are missing; the exact meaning of some words is unclear because they were specific to a place or time; many inscriptions have not been deciphered, published or translated; many have not survived, so those available are only a fraction; they record only what their authors thought important, not routine agriculture or the joys and sorrows of daily life; they project the view of the person who commissioned them; or any other valid limitation.+1
   2. Second limitation, a different one from the same list.+1
   3. Third limitation, a different one from the same list.+1

   Answer: Any three of: faint or damaged lettering makes readings uncertain; the meaning of some words is unclear; many inscriptions are undeciphered or unpublished; many have not survived; they ignore routine and everyday life; they reflect the view of those who commissioned them.

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