Quiz

Reshaping India's Political Map — Quiz

15 questions 15 min Apply concepts

Q1. Cautions that applying the term 'medieval' to India is not ideal mainly because
- A. Indian historians invented the term in the 19th century
- B. The Renaissance happened in India earlier than in Europe
- C. Indian texts never had any word for time periods
- D. The term was originally framed for European history between Rome's fall and the Renaissance, and Europe's history is very different from India's
Q2. The spate of invasions that reshaped India's political map from the early 11th century came chiefly from beyond which mountain range?
- A. The Himalayas
- B. The Vindhyas
- C. The Hindu Kush
- D. The Western Ghats
Q3. Almost two out of three Delhi sultans seized power by eliminating their predecessor. Which of the following BEST explains the average reign of a sultan being 'hardly more than nine years'?
- A. Sultans deliberately abdicated after nine years
- B. Each new dynasty deposed the previous sultan after exactly nine years
- C. Mongol invasions killed every new sultan
- D. Frequent violent successions cut short most sultans' reigns
Q4. Why does the chapter remember Ala-ud-din Khilji not just as a conqueror in north and central India but also as a defender of the Sultanate?
- A. He built the Konark Sūrya temple
- B. He founded the city of Daulatabad
- C. He defeated the Hoysalas of Karnataka in person
- D. He repelled several Mongol invasions that were trying to add India to the vast Mongol Empire
Q5. Aarti reads that Muhammad bin Tughlaq declared cheap copper coins to be 'tokens' equal in value to silver or gold coins. The chapter says this scheme failed mainly because
- A. Copper was rarer than gold in India
- B. Akbar later abolished the use of copper
- C. The Mongols refused to accept copper coins as tribute
- D. It confused trade and encouraged people to counterfeit copper coins, causing the economy to decline
Q6. The caption to Fig. 2.5 states that the Quwwat-ul-Islam mosque in Delhi's Qutub Minar complex was built using material from
- A. Stone quarried near Agra
- B. Imported marble from Iran
- C. 27 destroyed Hindu and Jain temples
- D. An older Buddhist monastery in Bengal
Q7. Around 1330–1336, the Musunuri Nayakas — Telugu chieftains — managed to expel Muhammad bin Tughlaq's army from Warangal. The 'Think About It' asks readers to appreciate that the key to this success was
- A. Help from the Portuguese navy
- B. Adopting Persian-style cavalry tactics
- C. An alliance with the Hoysalas of Karnataka
- D. Forming a confederacy of more than 75 chieftains of the region
Q8. The Hoysala kingdom finally declined and, in the mid-14th century, was absorbed into
- A. The Delhi Sultanate
- B. The Bahmani Sultanate
- C. The Vijayanagara Empire
- D. The Eastern Ganga kingdom
Q9. The 'Don't Miss Out' says Kumbhalgarh Fort, built by Rana Kumbha in the 15th century, is famous for a massive continuous wall that is about
- A. 6 km long
- B. 16 km long
- C. 36 km long
- D. 60 km long
Q10. The founders of the Vijayanagara Empire, Harihara and Bukka, were originally
- A. Hoysala princes who escaped Mongol attacks
- B. Bahmani Sultanate generals who rebelled in 1347
- C. Two brothers who had initially served as governors under Muhammad bin Tughlaq before rejecting Delhi's authority
- D. Portuguese traders who married into a local family
Q11. The Bahmani Sultanate eventually fragmented into five independent states called the 'Deccan Sultanates'. These five were
- A. Delhi, Agra, Lahore, Multan and Daulatabad
- B. Surat, Goa, Calicut, Cochin and Mangalore
- C. Hampi, Mysuru, Madurai, Srirangam and Tirupati
- D. Bijapur, Golconda, Berar, Ahmednagar and Bidar
Q12. Priya reads that Krishnadevaraya, the celebrated Vijayanagara ruler, himself composed an epic poem in Telugu titled Āmuktamālyada. The poem is built around
- A. The military campaigns of his grandfather
- B. The construction of Hampi's temples
- C. The life of the Tamil poet-saint Āṇḍāl, with a section on Rājanīti (royal policy)
- D. The travels of Domingo Paes in Vijayanagara
Q13. Ravi reads that Babur's victory at Panipat in 1526 'relied heavily' on three new weapons recently introduced in Indian warfare. Which option lists all three correctly?
- A. Bows, swords and elephants
- B. Crossbows, catapults and battle axes
- C. War chariots, slingshots and javelins
- D. Gunpowder, field artillery and matchlock guns
Q14. As Akbar's empire grew, he 'increasingly used political strategies to stabilise it'. Which of the following BEST captures the strategies the chapter actually lists?
- A. Banning all trade with Central Asia
- B. Moving the Mughal capital to Daulatabad
- C. Marriage alliances with neighbouring princesses, welcoming Rajput leaders into his court, abolishing jizya and promoting sulh-i-kul
- D. Introducing token copper currency across north India
Q15. The side-note explains that jizya was a tax which
- A. Every Muslim subject paid to support pilgrimage
- B. Rajput rulers paid to Akbar after marriage alliances
- C. Vijayanagara rulers collected from Portuguese horse traders
- D. Was imposed on non-Muslim subjects in return for protection and exemption from military service

Your score and per-question explanations appear here instantly.