Riyaz-us-Salatin of Ghulam Husain Salim

Riyaz-us-Salatin is a historical work by Ghulam Husain Salim. Written in Persian, it traces the history of Bengal from Turkish general Bakhtyar Khalji’s invasion of the province in 1204-05 AD to 1788, the date in which the work was completed.

History MCQs – Set 2 - Modern India

1. First session of the Indian National Congress (INC) was conducted in Bombay from 28 to 31 December 1885. The second session of INC was presided by 

a) Badruddin Tyabji

b) Womesh Chandra Bonnerjee

c) Dadabhai Naoroji

d) William Wedderburn

2. Who among the following had popularized the festivals associated with Ganesh and Shivaji during the national movement?

a) Vinayak Damodar Savarkar

b) Lala Lajpat Rai 

c) Jyotirao Govindrao Phule

d) Bal Gangadhar Tilak

3. Who had launched the Bardoli satyagraha in February 1928?

a) Sardar Vallabhai Patel 

b) Mohandas Karamchand Gandhi

c) Vinoba Bhave

d) None of the above

4. Who among the following was a leader of the Indian militant peasant movement Eka (unity) Movement?

a) Madari Pasi

b) Alluri Sitarama Raju

c) Laxman Nayak

d) Uyyalawada Narasimha Reddy

5. Who was the most prominent leader of Tamralipta Jatiya Sarkar?

a) Ganesh Ghosh

b) Satish Chandra Samanta

c) Dinesh Chandra Gupta 

d) Bagha Jatin

6. Who was the Nawab of Bengal when the Battle of Buxar took place?

a) Mir Qasim

b) Siraj-ud-Daulah

c) Mir Jafar

d) Shuja ud daula

7. Who among the following has won Bharat Ratna, India’s highest civilian honour and Nishan-e-Pakistan, Pakistan’s highest civilian honour?

a) Morarji Desai

b) Lal Bahadur Shastri

c) Vallabhbhai Jhaverbhai Patel

d) Jawaharlal Nehru

8. When did Choudhary Rahmat Ali coin the word Pakistan?

a) 1930

b) 1933

c) 1940

d) 1942

9. Gandhiji had launched Champaran Satyagrah in 1917 for

a) Uplift of Depressed Class of India

b) Unifying Hindu Society

c) Protesting against the injustice meted out to Indigo farmers 

d) All of the above

10. Who among the following was an important Muslim leader of the Swadeshi Movement?

i. Abdul Halim Guznavi 

ii. Liakat Hossain

iii. Liakat Ali Khan

a) i

b) ii

c) i and ii

d) i, ii and iii

Answers

1- c

2- d, Before the advent of the Mahatma Gandhi, Bal Gangadhar Tilak (1856-1920) was the tallest Congress leader.

3- a

4- a, Bal Gangadhar Tilak was called the "father of Indian unrest" by Sir Ignatius Valentine Chirol, a British journalist.

Madari Pasi belonged to the ‘untouchable’ Pasi caste that had been classified by the British administration as a “criminal” caste. He was born in the village of Mohanjganj in Uttar Pradesh’s Hardoi district in 1860. 

5- b

6- a

7- a

8- b, In 1933, Choudhary Rahmat Ali published a pamphlet, "Now or Never: Are We to Live or Perish for Ever?" coining the word Pakistan for the first time.

9- c

10- c

Muizuddin Bahram, Sultan of the Mamluk Dynasty

Muiz-ud-din Bahram, Iltutmish’s third son, was raised to the throne of Delhi Sultanate in 1240 by the aristocratic Turkish nobles who put the then reigning ruler Raziya Sultana into prison in the Bhatinda fort, north-western India. Razia tried to retrieve the situation by marrying her captor Altuniya, the governor of Bhatinda. However, both were defeated by the Delhi forces.   

Muizuddin Bahram was a savage and bloodthirsty ruler. He was, according to medieval historian  Minhaj-us-Siraj, ‘a fearless, intrepid and sanguinary man’. 

During his reign in 1241 the Mongols reached the gates of Lahore and sacked the city. 

As part of the agreement under which Muizuddin Bahram was raised to the throne by the nobles, he designated Aitigin as Naib-i-Mamlikat, regent of the kingdom and assigned the highest executive power of the state to him. Naib-i-Mamlikat was intended to be the de facto ruler., the Sultan merely a figurehead.  

However, if the nobles expected Muizuddin Bahram to be a puppet in their hands, they were living in fool’s paradise. He executed  Aitigin who had offended him by marrying one of his sisters. The nobles became terrified and got him killed in May 1242 A.D. Ala-ud-din Masud Shah, son of Rukn ud-Din Firuz, was raised to the throne by the nobles.

Sultan Ghari: Delhi’s Oldest Tomb

                                            Image Credit: Wikimedia Commons

Located in the Malakpur Kohli village near Vasant Kunj in Delhi, Sultan Ghari (Sultan of the Cave) is the tomb of Prince Nasiruddin Mahmud, eldest son of Slave Sultan Iltutmish and brother of Razia Sultan. During the reign of Iltutmish, Nasiruddin Mahmud was in charge of Awadh and Bengal where Hasmuddin Iwaz Khilji was trying to establish an independent Sultanate. 

Though Nasiruddin Mahmud suppressed the rebellion of Hasmuddin Iwaz Khilji and killed him, he himself died in 1229. Iltutmish founded the Nasiriyya college of Delhi in memory of his son. The celebrated contemporary historian Minhaj-us-Siraj was appointed to the principalship of the college. 

Iltutmish also built a mausoleum for Nasiruddin Mahmud. Built in 1231-32, the cenotaph is in an underground chamber. Hence the name Sultan Ghari (Sultan of the Cave).

The roof of the mausoleum is an octagonal platform. The materials were taken from Hindu monuments. 

Kapilavastu: Ancient City where the Buddha spent the first 29 years of his life

About 29km west of Lumbini  (the birthplace of Lord Buddha) and 30km from the border with India, Tilaurakot in the Terai region of Nepal is the site of the Shakya capital of Kapilavastu where the Buddha spent the first 29 years of his life before setting out on the path of enlightenment. The Buddha, known as Siddharth Gautam before he got enlightenment, was the son of Shakya king Suddhodana. 

One school of archaeologists has identified Kapilavastu with modern day Piprahwa, a village in the Siddharthnagar district of India’s Uttar Pradesh. 

Distance between Piprahwa and Tilaurakot is just 30 km.

The Buddha had paid a visit to Kapilavastu in the first year after his attainment of enlightenment and converted his father, wife Yashodhra and son Rahula. He continued to visit the place in his later years. Once he came to his native city to convert a war between the Shakyas and the Koliyas over the question of their sharing water of the Rohini. 

The excavations at Tilaurakot have unearthed remains of fortified city. Kapilavastu was visited by both the famous Chinese travelers Fa-Hien and Hiuen Tsang who came here in the 5th and 7th centuries AD respectively.

Located on the banks of the Banganga River, Tilaurakot is home to Tilaurakot museum which contains the artefacts found at the site of Kapilavastu.

How to Reach Kapilavastu

Air: the nearest airport to Kapilavastu is Gautam Buddha International Airport at Bhairahawa which is 40 km east of Tilaurakot. Gautam Buddha Airport is connected by flights to Kathmandu, the capital of Nepal. 

Rail: The nearest station to Tilaurakot is at Nautanwa in India. However, Gorakhpur is the major railway station nearest to Tilaurakot. From Delhi you can board several trains including the Mahaparinirvan Express which will take you to Gorakhpur.

Road: Tilaurakot is connected by daily bus services with Gorakhpur. 

Best time to visit Kapilavastu 

In Kapilavastu temperatures in winters and summers are extreme. October to March is the best time to visit Kapilavastu.

Prarthana Samaj (Prayer Society): An Indian Response to Western Rationalism

Founded in 1867 by Atmaram Pandurang, a physician and social reformer, Prarthana Samaj (Prayer Society) is a socio religious reform movement that took inspiration from the Brahmo Samaj movement spearheaded by Keshab Chandra Sen in West Bengal. Other important leaders of Prarthana Samaj were famous Indologist and Sanskritist R G Bhandarkar and Mahadev Govind Ranade (1842-1901) who also comes lauded as the prophet of cultural renaissance in western India. N. G. Chandavarkar was another leader of Prarthana Samaj.

Theistic worship and social reform were the two main planks on which the Prarthana Samaj movement was built. The movement fostered a firm belief in the existence of one god. The society opposed the prevailing caste system, untouchability, dowry system, polygamy and advocated widow remarriage, female education, intermarriage among different castes, and abolition of child marriage.

Prarthana Samaj used to publish a magazine called Subodh Patrika. 

History Ancient India - MCQs – Set 1

1. At which of the following Indus Valley Sites, the remains of camel bones have been found?

(a) Surkotada

(b) Kalibangan

(c) Lothal

(d) Kot Diji

2. Which one of the following was not cultivated in the Indus Valley civilization?

a) Wheat

b) Barley.

c) Sugarcane

d) Sesamum

3. Which of the following birds was worshiped by the people of Harappan civilization?

(a) Pigeon

(b) Eagle

(c) Crow

(d) Peacock

4. What does the name Kalibangan mean?

(a) Black Bangles

(b) Clay Bangles

(c) Glass Bangles

(d) Yellow Bangles

 5. Which of the following events in Buddha's life did not take place on a full moon day (Purnima)?

(a) Birth

(b) Death (Mahaparinirvana)

(c) Enlightenment

(d) Renunciation (Mahabhinishkramana) 

6. To whom is the sacred text of Jainism, Kalpasutra, ascribed to ?

(a) Bhadrabahu

(b) Sthulabhadra

(c) Hemachandra

(d) Nayachandra

7. Who among the following rulers was not a patron of Jainism?

(a) Kharavela 

(b) Amoghavarsha

(c) Gaud Shashank

(d) Chandragupta Maurya

8. To whom is Sariputra-prakarana ascribed to?

(a) Asvaghosha

(b) Mahendravikramavarman

(c) Nagasena

(d) Meander

9. Which God is the famous Gayatri mantra addressed to?

(a) Savitr

(b) Indra

(c) Varuna

(d) Soma

10. Which among the rulers was called Vindhya Adhipati? 

(a) Harshvardhan 

(b) Gautamiputra Satkarni 

(c) Samudragupta 

(d) Chandragupta Maurya 

Answers

1-b

2-c

3-a

4-a

5-d

6-a

7-c: In the latter half of the first century B.C. King Kharavela of Orissa professed Jainism and became its great patron. 

8-a: Asvaghosha was a great Buddhist scholar who was a contemporary of the great Kushan ruler Knishka. He is the author of the famous Buddhist tract, Vajrasuchi (Diamond needle). Buddhacharita, the earliest surviving classical Sanskrit work written in verse, is also ascribed to him.

9-a: Gayatri mantra is contained in the Rig Veda and is dedicated to the old solar god Savitr.

10-b: The greatest ruler of the Satavahana dynasty was Gautamiputra Satkarni.