APPSC Group-1 2023 History and Culture Previous Year Questions

Ans: (3) Chanhudaro (as per APPSC official final key)

The Harappans were skilled craftsmen, and some towns specialised in particular crafts. Chanhudaro (Sindh, Pakistan), excavated by N.G. Majumdar (1931) and later Ernest Mackay, was a major bead-making centre. Excavators found a bead factory with drills, unfinished beads of carnelian and agate, and stages of manufacture. Chanhudaro is also the only Harappan city without a citadel.

Lothal (Gujarat) also had a bead-making workshop, but among the options Chanhudaro is the classic answer. Dholavira (Gujarat) is known for its water-management system and the signboard inscription; Sutkagendor (Baluchistan) was a coastal trading post; Daimabad (Maharashtra) is a late Harappan site famous for a bronze hoard (chariot, rhinoceros, elephant, buffalo).

Note:

• Chanhudaro also yielded an inkpot and a lipstick, and evidence of shell, bone and seal making.
• Lothal: dockyard, rice husk, bead factory, fire altars.
• Dholavira became a UNESCO World Heritage Site in 2021.

Ans: (3) I, III and IV only (as per APPSC official final key)

The Rig Vedic Aryans worshipped the forces of nature as gods. Dyaus (sky, the father) is the oldest celestial god and is linguistically the same as the Greek Zeus and Roman Jupiter (“Dyaus-pitar” = Jupiter). Agni, the fire god, was the intermediary between gods and men: offerings poured into the fire were believed to be carried by him to the gods. About 200 hymns are addressed to Agni, second only to Indra (about 250).

The cow was called aghnya (“not to be killed”) in the Rig Veda, but animal sacrifice, including cattle, is referred to in Vedic ritual, and the key accepts statement IV. Prithvi (earth) was paired with Dyaus as the parent pair of the world, but she was not regarded as the “mother of all gods”; Aditi is described as the mother of the gods (Adityas).

Note:

• Indra: Purandara (breaker of forts), rain god, the most important Rig Vedic god.
• Varuna upheld rita, the cosmic order.
• Soma: the plant-drink; the whole 9th Mandala is devoted to Soma.

Ans: (2) a-II, b-III, c-IV, d-I (as per APPSC official final key)

Indian philosophy has six orthodox (astika) schools, which accept the Vedas, and heterodox (nastika) schools, which reject them.

• Sankhya (Kapila) is dualist: the world evolves from the interaction of prakriti (nature/matter) and purusha (spirit). So the world is formed by nature.
• Vaisheshika (Kanada) holds that the world is made of atoms (anu/paramanu), the beginnings of physics in India.
• Lokayata or Charvaka (Brihaspati) is materialist: only what is perceived is real; no soul, no afterlife.
• Ajivika (Makkhali Gosala) believed in niyati, predetermined fate: everything is fixed and human effort cannot change it.

So a-II, b-III, c-IV, d-I.

Note:

• Other orthodox schools: Nyaya (Gautama, logic), Yoga (Patanjali), Mimamsa (Jaimini), Vedanta (Badarayana).
• Ajivikas were patronised by Ashoka and Dasharatha, who gave them the Barabar caves.

Ans: (1) Mahapadmananda (as per APPSC official final key)

The Hathigumpha (“elephant cave”) inscription at Udayagiri near Bhubaneswar was issued by Kharavela, the Chedi (Mahameghavahana) king of Kalinga (1st century BCE). Written in Prakrit in Brahmi script, it records his reign year by year.

In his fifth year Kharavela extended an aqueduct/canal that had been opened by “Nandaraja” three hundred years earlier. This Nanda king is identified with Mahapadma Nanda, and this is one of the earliest references to irrigation works in Kalinga. The inscription also says a Jina image taken away by the Nanda king was brought back.

Note:

• Kharavela was a follower of Jainism; the Udayagiri-Khandagiri caves were made for Jain monks.
• Mahapadma Nanda is called Ekarat and Sarva-kshatrantaka (destroyer of all Kshatriyas).
• Kalinga was conquered by Ashoka in 261 BCE (13th Rock Edict).

Ans: (1) I, II and III only (as per APPSC official final key)

Ashoka’s inscriptions are the first deciphered written records of India (deciphered by James Prinsep, 1837). They are in Prakrit language and in four scripts: Brahmi (most of India), Kharosthi (north-west, e.g. Shahbazgarhi, Mansehra), and Greek and Aramaic (Afghanistan, e.g. Kandahar).

In most edicts the king is called Devanampiya Piyadasi (“beloved of the gods, of pleasing looks”). His personal name Ashoka appears only in a few minor rock edicts: Maski (Karnataka, found 1915), Gujarra (Madhya Pradesh), and also Nittur and Udegolam. Rock Edict XIII describes the Kalinga war and names five Greek kings: Antiochus II (Syria), Ptolemy II (Egypt), Antigonus (Macedonia), Magas (Cyrene) and Alexander (Epirus/Corinth).

No edict speaks of a war of succession with his brothers; that story comes from Buddhist texts (Dipavamsa, Mahavamsa). So I, II and III are correct.

Note:

• Rock Edict XII: tolerance among sects. RE XIII: Kalinga war, dhamma-vijaya.
• Minor Rock Edicts appear in AP at Erragudi, Rajula Mandagiri (Kurnool).

Ans: (3) a-III, b-I, c-IV, d-II (as per APPSC official final key)

This question matches works from Buddhist, Jain, Prakrit and Sanskrit grammar traditions.

• Prajnaparamita (“perfection of wisdom”) texts are linked with Acharya Nagarjuna, the founder of the Madhyamika (Shunyavada) school of Mahayana Buddhism, who lived at Nagarjunakonda/Amaravati in the Satavahana age. His commentary on them is the Mahaprajnaparamita-shastra.
• Samayasara is a major Digambara Jain work by Acharya Kundakunda (Konakondla, Anantapur district, AP).
• Lilavati Parinayam (Lilavai) is a Prakrit poem by Kuthuhala describing the marriage of Satavahana king Hala with Lilavati of Sri Lanka.
• Katantra Vyakaranam, a simple Sanskrit grammar, was written by Sarvavarma, who according to tradition taught Sanskrit to a Satavahana king.

So a-III, b-I, c-IV, d-II.

Note:

• Hala compiled Gathasaptashati (Gaha Sattasai) in Maharashtri Prakrit.
• Gunadhya wrote Brihatkatha in Paishachi Prakrit in the Satavahana age.

Ans: (2) Non-Autonomous Bodies (as per APPSC official final key)

During the Gupta period trade and crafts were organised in guilds (shreni), which were largely autonomous. Seals from Vaishali and Bhita show that guilds of bankers (shreshthis), traders (sarthavahas) and artisans (kulikas) had their own seals and rules.

Guilds made their own laws, settled internal disputes and acted as banks, accepting deposits and paying interest (inscriptions record endowments kept with guilds). Some guilds maintained armed bodies to protect their caravans, and seals and some coins issued by guilds have been found. Kings were advised to respect guild laws. So guilds were not “non-autonomous”; that is the feature they lacked.

Note:

• The Mandasor inscription (436 CE) records a guild of silk weavers who migrated from Lata (Gujarat) and built a Sun temple.
• Narada and Brihaspati smritis describe guild rules.

Ans: (1) I, II and III (as per APPSC official final key)

Pushyamitra Shunga killed the last Mauryan king Brihadratha (c. 185 BCE) and founded the Shunga dynasty. Three sources refer to the Yavana (Indo-Greek) invasions of his time:

• Gargi Samhita (Yuga Purana section), an astrological text, describes Yavanas reaching Saketa, Panchala, Mathura and Pataliputra.
• Patanjali’s Mahabhashya (a commentary on Panini) gives the examples “the Yavana besieged Saketa” and “the Yavana besieged Madhyamika”. Patanjali is said to have been Pushyamitra’s priest.
• Kalidasa’s Malavikagnimitra tells how Pushyamitra’s grandson Vasumitra defeated the Yavanas on the Sindhu river while guarding the sacrificial horse.

Mudrarakshasa of Vishakhadatta deals with Chanakya and Chandragupta Maurya overthrowing the Nandas, not with the Shungas. So I, II and III.

Note:

• Pushyamitra performed two Ashvamedha sacrifices (Ayodhya inscription of Dhanadeva).
• Heliodorus, Indo-Greek ambassador, erected the Garuda pillar at Besnagar for the Shunga king Bhagabhadra.

Ans: (3) Silabhadra was the Chancellor of the university. (as per APPSC official final key)

Nalanda (Bihar), founded by the Gupta ruler Kumaragupta I (5th century), was the most famous Buddhist mahavihara. In Harsha’s time (606–647 CE) it was described by Hiuen Tsang (Xuanzang), who studied there.

The head (chancellor) of Nalanda then was Shilabhadra, a great Yogachara scholar and Hiuen Tsang’s teacher. According to Hiuen Tsang the university was maintained from the revenue of 100 villages (later 200, per I-tsing), not 10,000. It had about 10,000 students and about 1,500 teachers. Teaching was in Sanskrit, not Pali, and covered Mahayana, the Vedas, logic, grammar and medicine.

Note:

• Nalanda was destroyed by Bakhtiyar Khalji (c. 1193).
• Vikramashila was founded by the Pala king Dharmapala.
• Nalanda Mahavihara became a UNESCO World Heritage Site in 2016.

Ans: (1) a-II, b-III, c-IV, d-I (as per APPSC official final key)

Medieval Kannada and Telugu inscriptions (Kakatiya, Vijayanagara and western Chalukya periods) list many local taxes. Their names describe what was taxed:

• Navidadere (navida = barber) – tax on barbers.
• Melivamsam – tax on ploughs.
• Manevana (mane = house) – tax on houses.
• Tudimeya – tax on marriage.

So a-II, b-III, c-IV, d-I.

Note:

• Vijayanagara even taxed marriages (Krishnadeva Raya abolished the marriage tax).
• Land revenue was the main source; Vijayanagara collected about one-sixth, at times more.

Ans: (3) III, I, IV, II (as per APPSC official final key)

Ellora (Aurangabad, Maharashtra) has 34 rock-cut caves: Buddhist (1–12), Hindu (13–29) and Jain (30–34), made between about the 6th and 10th centuries. The order of the temples in the question, by the key, is:

• Dashavatara (Cave 15) – begun as a Buddhist vihara and finished as a Hindu shrine; it carries the inscription of the Rashtrakuta king Dantidurga (8th century).
• Ravan ki Khai (Cave 14) – an early Shaiva cave.
• Dumar Lena (Cave 29) – a large Shiva cave similar to Elephanta.
• Kailasanatha (Cave 16) – the monolithic temple carved out of a single rock by the Rashtrakuta king Krishna I (8th century), the latest of these.

So III, I, IV, II.

Note:

• Ellora is a UNESCO World Heritage Site (1983).
• Kailasa covers twice the area of the Parthenon and was cut from the top downward.

Ans: (3) a-IV, b-I, c-II, d-III (as per APPSC official final key)

The Uttaramerur inscriptions (Kanchipuram district) of Chola king Parantaka I (919 and 921 CE) describe village self-government in detail.

• The village was divided into kudumbus (wards); each ward sent one member.
• Members were chosen by kudavolai (“pot-ticket”): names were written on palm leaves, put in a pot, and a young boy drew one – a lottery system.
• The assembly worked through variyams (committees), such as the garden committee, tank committee and annual committee.
• Perumakkal were the members of the village assembly (sabha).

So a-IV, b-I, c-II, d-III.

Note:

• Ur was the assembly of ordinary villages; Sabha (Mahasabha) was the assembly of Brahmana villages (brahmadeya).
• Nagaram was the assembly of merchants.

Ans: (3) III and IV only (as per APPSC official final key)

The Kakatiyas (capital Orugallu/Warangal, c. 1163–1323) encouraged trade by building roads that linked the capital to ports and temple towns. Two main highways mentioned in inscriptions were:

• Motupalli – Tripurantakam – Ballari, connecting the main sea port on the east coast to the interior and Karnataka.
• Palnadu – Nalgonda – Nekarikallu – Orugallu, linking Palnadu to the capital.

So III and IV are correct.

Note:

• Motupalli Abhaya Sasanam (1244) of Ganapatideva gave protection to foreign merchants.
• Marco Polo visited Motupalli during Rudramadevi’s reign.

Ans: (1) I, II and III only (as per APPSC official final key)

The Bhakti movement (Alvars and Nayanars in the south, later Kabir, Nanak, Chaitanya and others) and the Sufi movement (Chishti, Suhrawardi etc.) shared several ideas:

• Monotheism – devotion to one God.
• Asceticism / renunciation – simple life, rejection of wealth and ritual; Sufis had khanqahs, Bhakti saints renounced worldly life.
• Religious tolerance – both preached love and the equality of all people, rejecting caste and religious bigotry.

Idol worship was not common: Sufis rejected it completely, and nirguna saints like Kabir opposed it. So I, II and III.

Note:

• Kabir and Nanak are nirguna saints (God without form); Tulsidas, Surdas are saguna.
• Chishti order was founded in India by Khwaja Muinuddin Chishti at Ajmer.

Ans: (4) Nikitin – Visited during the reign of Achyuta Devaraya (as per APPSC official final key)

Many foreign visitors described the Vijayanagara empire (1336–1565):

• Abdur Razzaq, ambassador of the Timurid Shah Rukh of Persia, came during Devaraya II (1443).
• Domingo Paes, Portuguese, described Vijayanagara under Krishnadeva Raya (c. 1520).
• Caesar Frederick (Cesare Federici), Italian, visited in 1567 and described the deserted city after the battle of Rakshasa-Tangadi (Talikota, 1565).
• Athanasius Nikitin, Russian merchant, visited the Bahmani kingdom (1469–74), not Vijayanagara under Achyuta Devaraya. So pair (4) is incorrect.

Note:

• Nicolo de Conti (Italian) visited during Devaraya I (1420).
• Fernao Nuniz (Portuguese horse dealer) visited during Achyuta Devaraya.
• Duarte Barbosa visited during Krishnadeva Raya.

Ans: (2) Venkatapati Raya II (as per APPSC official final key)

After Talikota (1565), the Aravidu dynasty ruled from Penukonda and later Chandragiri. Venkatapati Raya II (Venkata II, 1586–1614) was the most notable Aravidu ruler. He was friendly with the Portuguese and Jesuit missionaries and permitted them to build churches at Chandragiri and Nellore.

He also faced the revolt of local chiefs and recognised the Wodeyar of Mysore (Raja Wodeyar, 1610). The Dutch were allowed to build a fort at Pulicat during his time.

Note:

• Aravidu dynasty founder: Tirumala Raya (brother of Rama Raya).
• Sriranga III, the last ruler, lost to Golconda and Bijapur.

Ans: (4) I, II and IV only (as per APPSC official final key)

Jahangir (1605–1627) was Akbar’s son. Key events of his reign:

• Execution of the fifth Sikh Guru Arjan Dev (1606) for helping the rebel prince Khusrau.
• Submission of Mewar: Rana Amar Singh accepted Mughal suzerainty (1615) after campaigns led by Prince Khurram.
• Arrival of the English: William Hawkins (1608) and Sir Thomas Roe (1615) came to his court; the English got permission to trade at Surat.

Kabul was already Mughal; Kandahar was in fact lost to Persia (Shah Abbas) in 1622. So III is wrong and the answer is I, II and IV.

Note:

• Jahangir set up the ‘Chain of Justice’ at Agra.
• Nur Jahan’s group (junta): Itimad-ud-Daula, Asaf Khan, Khurram.

Ans: (1) a-II, b-IV, c-I, d-III (as per APPSC official final key)

Under Akbar’s zabti (Todar Mal’s bandobast) system, revenue officials worked at different levels:

• Amalguzar (amil) – the revenue collector in charge of a district (sarkar).
• Karkun – clerk who prepared crop statistics and records of cultivation each season.
• Qanungo – hereditary pargana officer who kept the records of land and revenue payable by villages.
• Bitikchi – accountant who prepared the revenue papers.

So a-II, b-IV, c-I, d-III.

Note:

• Dahsala system (1580): average produce and prices of the past ten years.
• Land classes: Polaj, Parauti, Chachar, Banjar.

Ans: (2) Indus to Sonargaon (as per APPSC official final key)

Sher Shah Suri (1540–45) built roads and sarais (rest houses) for trade and administration. His longest road ran from Sonargaon (Bengal) to the Indus (Peshawar region), later called the Sarak-i-Azam and the Grand Trunk Road. It still exists as a highway (NH-19/NH-44 sections in India).

His other roads included Agra–Burhanpur, Agra–Jodhpur–Chittor and Lahore–Multan, but these were shorter.

Note:

• Sher Shah built about 1,700 sarais, which also served as dak chowkis.
• He issued the silver rupiya and copper dam.

Ans: (3) a-IV, b-I, c-II, d-III (as per APPSC official final key)

These are standard works on Mughal India:

• India at the Death of Akbar (1920) – W.H. Moreland, an economic historian.
• The Agrarian System of Mughal India, 1556–1707 (1963) – Irfan Habib.
• Travels in the Mogul Empire, 1656–1668 – François Bernier, French physician at Aurangzeb’s court.
• Early Travels in India, 1583–1619 – edited by William Foster (accounts of Ralph Fitch, Hawkins and others).

So a-IV, b-I, c-II, d-III.

Note:

• Bernier said there was no private property in land in Mughal India.
• Moreland also wrote From Akbar to Aurangzeb.

Ans: (3) V.A. Smith (as per APPSC official final key)

The Taj Mahal (Agra) was built by Shah Jahan (1632–c.1653) for Mumtaz Mahal; its chief architect was Ustad Ahmad Lahauri. Historian V.A. Smith believed that European artists might have contributed, and described it as the product of a combination of European and Asiatic genius. This view is now rejected; the Taj is seen as the climax of Indo-Persian Mughal architecture.

Fergusson was an architectural historian; Tavernier, a French jeweller, saw the Taj being built; Ralph Fitch was an English traveller under Akbar.

Note:

• Pietra dura (inlay work) was a hallmark of Shah Jahan’s buildings.
• The Taj became a UNESCO World Heritage Site in 1983.

Ans: (4) a-III, b-II, c-IV, d-I (as per APPSC official final key)

These are British-era measures of the 19th century:

• Charles Wood’s Despatch on education – 1854 (the “Magna Carta of English education in India”).
• Vernacular Press Act – 1878, by Lord Lytton, to curb Indian-language newspapers; repealed by Ripon (1882).
• First Factory Act – 1881, under Ripon; banned employment of children under 7.
• Famine Code – 1883, framed on the recommendations of the Strachey Famine Commission (1880).

So a-III, b-II, c-IV, d-I.

Note:

• Ilbert Bill controversy: 1883 (Ripon).
• Hunter Commission on education: 1882.

Ans: (2) II, III, I, IV (as per APPSC official final key)

The 1857 revolt also spread to the Nizam’s dominions. According to the key the order is:

• Mubariz-ud-Daula, brother of the Nizam, was imprisoned in Golconda Fort (1854) for anti-British conspiracies (the Wahabi movement).
• In Aurangabad, the 1st Cavalry of the Hyderabad Contingent was suspected, disarmed and arrested (June 1857).
• Turrebaz Khan and Maulvi Allauddin attacked the British Residency at Hyderabad on 17 July 1857.
• Raja Venkatappa Nayaka of Shorapur rose in 1858.

So II, III, I, IV.

Note:

• Salar Jung I, Diwan of Hyderabad, supported the British in 1857.
• Turrebaz Khan was later shot dead (1859); a memorial stands at Koti, Hyderabad.

Ans: (3) a-IV, b-I, c-III, d-II (as per APPSC official final key)

The early sessions of the Indian National Congress (founded 1885, Bombay, W.C. Bonnerjee president) were:

• 1886 – Calcutta – Dadabhai Naoroji.
• 1887 – Madras – Badruddin Tyabji, first Muslim president.
• 1888 – Allahabad – George Yule, first English president.
• 1889 – Bombay – William Wedderburn.

So a-IV, b-I, c-III, d-II.

Note:

• Dadabhai Naoroji presided thrice: 1886, 1893, 1906 (Swaraj demand).
• First woman president: Annie Besant (1917); first Indian woman: Sarojini Naidu (1925).

Ans: (1) John Ruskin – Unto This Last (as per APPSC official final key)

Gandhiji read John Ruskin’s Unto This Last (1860) on a train journey in South Africa (1904) and said it changed his life. He paraphrased it in Gujarati as “Sarvodaya” (“welfare of all”). Its lessons for him were: the good of the individual lies in the good of all; a lawyer’s work has the same value as a barber’s; and the life of labour is the life worth living. He founded the Phoenix Settlement on these ideas.

Tolstoy’s The Kingdom of God is Within You also influenced him (Tolstoy Farm, 1910), but it was not translated as Sarvodaya.

Note:

• Sarvodaya later became the movement of Vinoba Bhave (Bhoodan, 1951, Pochampally).
• Hind Swaraj (1909) is Gandhi’s own book.

Ans: (1) a-II, b-III, c-I, d-IV (as per APPSC official final key)

Revolutionaries abroad ran papers to spread nationalist ideas:

• The Indian Sociologist – Shyamji Krishna Varma, London (1905), founder of India House.
• Islamic Fraternity – Maulana Barkatullah, from Tokyo; he was later PM of the Provisional Government of India at Kabul (1915).
• Talwar – Virendranath Chattopadhyay, from Berlin.
• Swadesh Sevak – G.D. Kumar, from Vancouver (Canada), in Gurmukhi.

So a-II, b-III, c-I, d-IV.

Note:

• Ghadar newspaper: Lala Har Dayal, San Francisco (1913).
• Bande Mataram (Paris/Geneva): Madame Bhikaji Cama.

Ans: (4) M.N. Roy (as per APPSC official final key)

The idea of a Constituent Assembly for India was first put forward by M.N. Roy, a pioneer of the communist movement in India, in 1934. In 1935 the Indian National Congress officially demanded a Constituent Assembly, and in 1938 Nehru said it should be elected by adult franchise.

The demand was accepted in principle by the British in the August Offer (1940), and the Assembly was finally formed in 1946 under the Cabinet Mission Plan. It first met on 9 December 1946.

Note:

• Sachchidananda Sinha was the temporary president; Rajendra Prasad the permanent president.
• Ambedkar chaired the Drafting Committee (29 August 1947).

Ans: (1) a-II, b-IV, c-I, d-III (as per APPSC official final key)

These are major Persian/Arabic sources of medieval India:

• Al-Biruni came with Mahmud of Ghazni and wrote Tahqiq-i-Hind (Kitab-ul-Hind) in Arabic on Indian society and science.
• Minhaj-us-Siraj wrote Tabaqat-i-Nasiri, dedicated to Sultan Nasiruddin Mahmud.
• Ziauddin Barani wrote Tarikh-i-Firoz Shahi (and Fatwa-i-Jahandari).
• Ibn Battuta, Moroccan traveller, wrote the Rihla; he was the qazi of Delhi under Muhammad bin Tughlaq.

So a-II, b-IV, c-I, d-III.

Note:

• Amir Khusrau: Khazain-ul-Futuh, Tughlaq Nama.
• Shams Siraj Afif also wrote a Tarikh-i-Firoz Shahi.

Ans: (4) I and IV only (as per APPSC official final key)

During the Non-Cooperation Movement (1920–22), students left government institutions and national institutions were set up, such as Jamia Millia Islamia (Aligarh 1920, later moved to Delhi), Kashi Vidyapith (Benaras, 1921), Gujarat Vidyapith and Bihar Vidyapith.

Aligarh Muslim University grew from Sir Syed Ahmad Khan’s MAO College (1875) and became a university in 1920 by an Act of the government, not as a non-cooperation institution. Besant Theosophical College, Madanapalle was set up in 1915 by Annie Besant, before the movement. So I and IV.

Note:

• Andhra Jateeya Kalasala, Machilipatnam (1910) was a Swadeshi-era national college.
• Non-Cooperation was withdrawn after Chauri Chaura (5 Feb 1922).

Ans: (3) 4th July, 1947 (as per APPSC official final key)

After the Mountbatten Plan (3 June 1947), the Indian Independence Bill was introduced in the British Parliament on 4 July 1947. It was passed quickly and received royal assent on 18 July 1947, becoming the Indian Independence Act. India and Pakistan became independent dominions on 15 August 1947.

The Act ended British paramountcy over princely states, abolished the post of Secretary of State for India and made the Constituent Assemblies sovereign.

Note:

• Attlee announced on 20 February 1947 that the British would leave by June 1948.
• Radcliffe drew the boundaries of Punjab and Bengal.