Deck 2: Ancient India

Question 1

What were some of the main characteristics of Indian politics and government during the first millennium B.C.E.,and how can they be compared and contrasted with those of ancient Egypt and Mesopotamia?

Answer 1

Answer not provided.

Question 2

Identify the following terms.
Harappans

Answer 2

Answer not provided.

Question 3

Identify the following terms.
Dravidians

Answer 3

Answer not provided.

Question 4

Were the beliefs of early Hindus and Buddhists fundamentally the same? Why or why not? Why was Buddhism able to make such inroads among the Indian people at a time when Brahmanical beliefs had long been dominant in the subcontinent?

Question 5

How did the geography of the Indian subcontinent influence the development of civilization there?

Question 6

Discuss the concept of reincarnation as it is understood by Hindus,and then by Buddhists.Are there any differences? How did each religion influence Indian civilization?

Question 7

Identify the following terms.
Ganges and Indus rivers

Question 8

Identify the following terms.
Aryans

Question 9

What opinions have been presented concerning the origins of the Aryans? Why is a proper understanding of the origin of the Aryans so crucial for the historian of India?

Question 10

In what ways did the events of Ashoka's reign mark the high point of Buddhism in India? Why?

Question 11

Identify the following terms.
Arjuna and Krishna

Question 12

Identify the following terms.
Harappan seals

Question 13

Why was India unable to maintain a unified empire in the first millennium B.C.E.,and how was the Mauryan Empire temporarily able to overcome the tendencies toward disunity? What was the role of the Greeks under Alexander in the Mauryan ascendancy?

Question 14

Identify the following terms.
Mohenjo-Daro

Question 15

Discuss the possible monotheistic elements in Hindu polytheism.

Question 16

In what way is the perspective on the role women presented in the Law of Manu ambiguous? How does this perspective compare with that found in early Mesopotamia and Egypt? What social convention undergirded the practice of Suti? How was this practice presented by the Greek writer Megasthenes?

Question 17

Identify the following terms.
raja and maharaja

Question 18

What are the major Indian castes? Was the caste system a stabilizing or a destabilizing factor in Indian society,or both? Give specific examples.

Question 19

Identify the following terms.
the Deccan Plateau

Question 20

Discuss the possible impact of India's climate on the beliefs and practices of early Hinduism.

Question 21

Identify the following terms.
Sudras

Question 22

Identify the following terms.
Dyaus and Indra

Question 23

Identify the following terms.
Chandragupta Maurya

Question 24

Identify the following terms.
asceticism

Question 25

Identify the following terms.
sati

Question 26

Identify the following terms.
Varuna

Question 27

Identify the following terms.
Arthasastra

Question 28

Identify the following terms.
Upanishads

Question 29

Identify the following terms.
Vedas

Question 30

Identify the following terms.
Kshatriya

Question 31

Identify the following terms.
Hinduism

Question 32

Identify the following terms.
Rigveda

Question 33

Identify the following terms.
Brahmins

Question 34

Identify the following terms.
Law of Manu

Question 35

Identify the following terms.
untouchables/pariahs

Question 36

Identify the following terms.
varna/caste

Question 37

Identify the following terms.
jati

Question 38

Identify the following terms.
Vaisya

Question 39

Identify the following terms.
the monsoon

Question 40

Identify the following terms.
Alexander the Great

Question 41

Identify the following terms.
reincarnation

Question 42

Identify the following terms.
Mahabharata and Ramayana

Question 43

Identify the following terms.
Four Noble Truths

Question 44

Identify the following terms.
Panini

Question 45

Identify the following terms.
Vishnu and Siva

Question 46

Identify the following terms.
Brahman

Question 47

Identify the following terms.
Mahavira and Jainism

Question 48

Identify the following terms.
karma

Question 49

Identify the following terms.
stupas and rock chambers

Question 50

Identify the following terms.
dharma

Question 51

Identify the following terms.
Mauryan Empire

Question 52

Identify the following terms.
Buddhism

Question 53

Identify the following terms.
Middle Path/Eightfold Way

Question 54

Identify the following terms.
bodhi

Question 55

Identify the following terms.
Nirvana

Question 56

Identify the following terms.
Siddhartha Gautama

Question 57

Identify the following terms.
Sanskrit and Prakrit

Question 58

Identify the following terms.
Ashokan pillars

Question 59

Identify the following terms.
Atman

Question 60

Identify the following terms.
sermon at the deer park at Sarnath/Benares

Question 61

The Aryans

A) dominated ancient India after their arrival from the north.
B) assimilated with the Dravidians to form an egalitarian India.
C) introduced agriculture to India.
D) created a unified system of tribal alliances and kingdoms within ancient India.
E) came originally from Persia and the Arabian peninsula.

Question 62

The Indian warrior caste was known as the

A) kshatriya.
B) pariah.
C) brahmin.
D) vaisya.
E) jati.

Question 63

The Harappan economy

A) was based upon war and conquest.
B) is unknown, due to the lack of physical or written evidence.
C) was devoted to the maintenance of the god Seth.
D) was based primarily on agriculture.
E) was exclusively involved in manufacturing and trade.

Question 64

The Indian term dharma referred to laws setting behavioral standards for which groups in Indian society?

A) bodhis and kshatriyas.
B) rajas and maharajas.
C) the Dao.
D) the untouchables.
E) all inhabitants of India, of all classes.

Question 65

According to the Arthasastra,

A) the king was required to rule solely in a despotic manner.
B) for the king, practical politics and results are more important than the divine law.
C) there was to be egalitarian use of political power in the society.
D) a primitive form of self-rule were to be given to peasants.
E) rulers were to be morally flawless.

Question 66

Identify the following terms.
"rule of the fishes"

Question 67

The two major cities of the Harappan civilization

A) were Gujarat and Panini.
B) were both located near the Indian Ocean coast.
C) each had over 500,000 inhabitants.
D) were Harappa and Mohenjo-Daro.
E) were established on the bank of the Ganges River.

Question 68

What army of occupation was driven from India by Chandragupta Maurya?

A) the Akkadian army.
B) the army of Ramses IV.
C) the forces of the Assyrian king.
D) the Greek administrators who had remained after Alexander the Great.
E) the army of Tamir the Lame.

Question 69

The third-ranked caste,usually viewed as the merchant caste,was the

A) kshatriya.
B) pariah.
C) brahmins.
D) vaisya.
E) sudras.

Question 70

During the Mauryan Dynasty,

A) the government extensively regulated economic activities.
B) the rulers showed no interest in major religious developments.
C) women were able to own and inherit land and one, Omione, even reigned for years.
D) Ashoka created and publicized the ideas of karma and irgun.
E) Alexander built a city on the Ganges.

Question 71

The Aryans

A) were an Indo-European people who spoke the German language.
B) crushed Mohenjo-Daro when the Harappan Civilization was at its peak.
C) never controlled any of the Deccan Plateau.
D) were the first Dravidian people to settle in the Indus Valley.
E) were led by tribal chieftains who were called rajas.

Question 72

The caste system

A) was applicable to every member of Indian society.
B) was a central element of Buddhist belief.
C) was actually more flexible than the Egyptian social structure.
D) originated in Macedonia.
E) was unsuccessfully opposed by Aryan warriors' wives.

Question 73

Which of the following correctly describes Harappan civilization?

A) It showed no similarity to the civilizations of ancient Egypt and Mesopotamia.
B) Its culture never attained the status of a true civilization.
C) It was much more agricultural than its contemporaries in Egypt and Mesopotamia.
D) It was a collection of over fifteen hundred towns and cities, ruled by landlords and rich merchants.
E) It never developed an urban center of over 3,000 people.

Question 74

Women in ancient India

A) were legally owned by their husbands and male children.
B) were never permitted to study the Vedas or own land, but could often serve as gurus.
C) never married before the age of twenty-one years.
D) were in theory required that a widow throw herself upon her dead husband's funeral pyre.
E) were barred from even viewing the ritual of sati.

Question 75

The Indian priestly caste was known as the

A) kshatriya.
B) pariah.
C) brahmin.
D) vaisya.
E) volcana.

Question 76

The authority of Mauryan kings was

A) limited by the practical aspects of administering a numerous independent city states.
B) curtailed by an institutionalized bureaucracy of powerful governors and ministers.
C) unlimited by law or custom.
D) established by Alexander the Great.
E) diminished by the onset of the Black Death.

Question 77

The three "twice-born" castes were the

A) Sikh, Hamar and Maltese.
B) sudras, brahmins and kshatriya.
C) vaisya, kshatriya and brahmins.
D) brahmins, bodhi and mahayana.
E) sudra, ashakan and pariah.

Question 78

The members of the caste known as the untouchables,or pariahs,were

A) so holy that they would be contaminated if touched even by high priests.
B) given extensive opportunity to achieve social mobility.
C) required to have a minimum of five children during their lifetimes.
D) composed primarily of priests and financial planners.
E) given jobs such as handling dead bodies or collecting trash.

Question 79

The southern area of the Indian subcontinent,a region of hills and upland plateau,is called the

A) Ganges River Valley.
B) Indus River Valley.
C) Deccan Plateau.
D) Kara Korum.
E) Hindu Kush.

Question 80

Chandragupta Maurya

A) may have been a member of the army of Alexander the Great.
B) feared assassination and had a secret police.
C) was the last major Mauryan ruler.
D) worshiped the god Mithras.
E) abolished Buddhism in India.