Gupta Empire MCQs for UPSC Prelims

Correct answer: A - ports handling foreign trade

Ghantasala on the Andhra coast, Kadura (Kaduva) and Chaul on the western Konkan coast were thriving maritime ports that handled India's flourishing overseas trade during the Gupta period. They were trading and shipping centres rather than seats of royal power, so the capitals option is wrong. They are not primarily remembered for monumental stone art or as major Buddhist pilgrimage sites such as Bodh Gaya or Sarnath, so those options are wrong. Hence they were well known as ports handling foreign trade.

Correct answer: C - Madhyama-vyayoga

Madhyama-vyayoga, a one-act play based on an episode involving Bhima and Ghatotkacha, is among the thirteen Sanskrit plays attributed to Bhasa that were discovered in the early twentieth century. Kavyalankara is a treatise on poetics by Bhamaha, the Natyashastra on dramaturgy is ascribed to Bharata Muni, and the Mahabhashya is Patanjali's grammatical commentary on Panini. None of the other three works is a drama by Bhasa.

Correct answer: A - It was considered a source of income for the State, a sort of tax paid by the people.

In the Gupta period, vishti or forced labour was regarded as a legitimate due of the state, effectively a tax paid in labour rather than in cash or kind, which makes option (a) correct. Option (b) is wrong because inscriptions indicate that vishti was in fact prevalent in central India and the Kathiawar region, not absent there. Option (c) fails since the essence of vishti was unpaid compulsory labour; no weekly wage was attached to it. Option (d) describes no known rule of the period; there was no prescription that the eldest son had to serve as the forced labourer.

Correct answer: C - 1, 3 and 4 only

Statements 1, 3 and 4 are correct. Sushruta's tradition of surgery with a range of specialised instruments was well established by the 1st century AD. Aryabhata worked out sine tables in the 5th century AD, and Brahmagupta's 7th century work dealt with the properties of cyclic quadrilaterals, including his famous formula for their area. Statement 2 is wrong because there is no evidence of internal organ transplantation in ancient India; ancient surgery extended to procedures like rhinoplasty and removal of stones, not transplants. Eliminating statement 2 gives (c).

Correct answer: B - Chandragupta II

Fa-hien visited India between about 399 and 414 CE in search of Buddhist texts, which falls within the reign of Chandragupta II Vikramaditya, and his account describes the prosperity of the Gupta empire of that period, so (b) is correct. Samudragupta ruled earlier in the fourth century, before Fa-hien's journey. Kumaragupta I and Skandagupta ruled after Chandragupta II, in the fifth century, by which time Fa-hien had already returned to China. This is a standard NCERT-level fact.

Correct answer: A - measurement of land

Kulyavapa and dronavapa are land measures found in Gupta-period inscriptions and land-grant records, especially from Bengal; they denote the area of land that could be sown with a kulya or a drona measure of seed grain. They are thus units of land measurement, not currency, and Gupta coins were known by names such as dinara and suvarna instead. The terms applied to agricultural plots mentioned in land sale and grant documents, not to any scheme of classifying urban land. They have no connection with religious rituals; the suffix 'vapa' relates to sowing.

Correct answer: C - 3 only

Only statement 3 is correct: Kalidasa, the great Sanskrit poet, is traditionally placed in the court of Chandra Gupta II (Vikramaditya). Statement 1 is wrong because the grammarian Panini predates the Shungas by centuries and is not associated with Pushyamitra Shunga. Statement 2 is wrong because the lexicographer Amarasimha, author of the Amarakosha, is counted among the navaratnas of Chandra Gupta II, not Harshavardhana. Hence only statement 3 holds true.

Correct answer: A - Fa-Hien

Fa-Hien (Faxian) travelled to India in the early 5th century CE during the reign of Chandragupta II (Vikramaditya) and recorded observations on the prosperity, administration and Buddhist establishments of the Gupta realm. Hiuen Tsang (Xuanzang) came much later, in the 7th century, during Harsha's reign. I-tsing also visited in the late 7th century. Sung Yun travelled in the early 6th century but is associated with a different mission. Hence Fa-Hien is correct.