Q 01/05

According to Jain tradition, how did Chandragupta Maurya die after giving up his throne to live as a monk?

A) Fell in battle

B) Killed by a rival

C) Fasted to death

D) Died of plague

Answer · why

C) Fasted to death

Fasted to death is the Jain account: the old emperor is said to have starved himself in the rite of sallekhana at Shravanabelagola. The hill where he ...

Q 02/05

India's national emblem copies a Mauryan sculpture from Ashoka's reign showing four of which animals set back to back?

A) Lions

B) Bulls

C) Horses

D) Tigers

Answer · why

A) Lions

Lions, four of them, crown the pillar top carved for Ashoka. On the emblem only three can be seen, because the fourth is hidden at the back.

Q 03/05

Legend says Chandragupta Maurya's minister secretly laced the emperor's food with small doses of what to protect him?

A) Opium

B) Poison

C) Gold dust

D) Holy ash

Answer · why

B) Poison

Poison in tiny doses was meant to make the emperor immune to assassins. In the tale his pregnant queen shared a meal by mistake, and the drop that tou...

Q 04/05

Chandragupta Maurya sealed a peace treaty with a Macedonian rival by handing over 500 of which prized military assets?

A) Cavalry horses

B) Iron chariots

C) Siege engines

D) War elephants

Answer · why

D) War elephants

War elephants were the price of peace, and they changed history far to the west. The herd played a key role in the Battle of Ipsus, fought in Anatolia...

Q 05/05

Remorse over the bloodshed of conquering which east-coast kingdom led Ashoka to renounce war and turn toward Buddhism?

A) Kalinga

B) Vanga

C) Kosala

D) Kamarupa

Answer · why

A) Kalinga

Kalinga, in modern Odisha, fell in the eighth year of Ashoka's reign. His own edict counts 100,000 killed and 150,000 carried off, and says the victor...