SECTION A [ANCIENT INDIA]

Q.1 Identify the following places marked on the map supplied to you and write a short note of about 30 words on each of them in your Question-cum-Answer Booklet. Locational hints for each of the places marked on the map are given below seriatim. [50 Marks]

(i) Brick temple site

(ii) Early Harappan site

(iii) Ancient seaport and trade centre

(iv) Stone age site

(v) Neolithic site

(vi) Archaeological site

(vii) Ancient capital city

(viii) Ancient capital 

(ix) Harappan site

(x) Ancient inscriptions site

(xi) A Rock-cut cave site

(xii) Ancient capital city

(xiii) Famous temple site

(xiv) Centre of School of art

(xv) Ancient inscriptional site

(xvi) Ancient education centre

(xvii) pre-Harappan site

(xviii) Chalcolithic period site

(xix) Early inscriptional site

(xx) Ancient petroglyphs site

Q.2 (a) Do you agree that archaeological evidence often helps in the better understanding of literary sources? Comment. [15 Marks]

Q.2 (b) The development of art and architecture during the Sunga period belies the belief that they were anti-Buddhist. Discuss. [15 Marks]

Q.2 (c) Did the mastery over agriculture act as a leverage for the rise of Harappan towns and cities? Discuss. [15 Marks]

Q.3 (a) The flourishing international trade during the Kushana period gave tremendous impetus to the development of art. Discuss. [15 Marks]

Q.3 (b) Examine how the transformation of the Varna system from the Rigvedic to the Later-Vedic period affected the position of women. [15 Marks]

Q.3 (c) There is no literary sources for the Harappan culture and no archaeological evidence for the Vedic period. Explain the phenomenon. [20 Marks]

Q.4 (a) Explain how Ashoka used religion as a tool of political aggrandizement. [15 Marks]

Q.4 (b) Do you agree that the system of land grants from the Gupta-Vakataka period was connected with the decentralisation of state in any way? [20 Marks]

Q.4 (c) The discovery of monsoons by Hippalus gave a new direction to Indo-Roman trade during the Satavahana period. Comment. [15 Marks]