Ancient Indian History Quiz

Seleucus Nicator was defeated by Chandragupta Maurya. Chandragupta extended the borders of the Maurya Empire toward Seleucid Persia, after defeating Seleucus in 305 BCE.

The language used to write source materials in ancient times was Sanskrit. Sanskrit had been a language that was in vogue from the Vedic period. Sanskrit, which is considered an Indo-Aryan language, was the liturgical language of Jainism, Hinduism, and Buddhism. Pali is considered a Prakrit language or a middle Indo-Aryan language.

A unique style of Buddhist sculpture called Gandhara art developed in ancient times in the Gandhara region of the Indian subcontinent. The Gandhara School of art had developed in the first century AD during the reign of Kushana emperor Kanishka.

A Buddha is one who has attained Bodhi; and by Bodhi is meant wisdom, an ideal state of intellectual and ethical perfection which can be achieved by man through purely human means. The term Buddha literally means enlightened one, a knower.

Chanhu Daro is an archaeological site belonging to the Indus Valley Civilization. The site is located 130 km south of Mohenjo-Daro, in Sindh, Pakistan. It was the only Indus city without a citadel.

• Alberuni was a Persian scholar who came to India with Mahmud of Ghazni in 1017 CE.
• Fa-Hien was a Chinese pilgrim, who visited India in 399 CE, during the reign of Chandragupta-II. He came to India to study Buddhism.
• Hiuen Tsang was a Chinese Buddhist monk, visited India during Harsha Vardhana's reign in 627 CE, in search of Buddhist scriptures.
• Megasthanes came to India in 302 BC as an ambassador for Seleucus, the representative in India from the greek Prince Alexander.

Fa-Hien was the first Chinese monk to travel to India in search of great Buddhist scriptures. He travelled to India during the term of Chandragupta II.

Mithila (in Bihar) was the home of the three scholar sages — Gargi, Maitreya and Kapila. It was the capital town of Raja Janak's territory.

Lothal was one of the southernmost cities of the ancient Indus Valley Civilization, located in the Bhal region of Gujarāt. Construction of the city began around 2200 BCE. The dominant sight at Lothal is the massive dockyard which has helped make this place so important to international archaeology.

The earliest city discovered in India was Harappa in Punjab, in present-day Pakistan.