General Awareness practice

Ancient History Questions with Answers

Ancient History questions in SSC CGL, CHSL, MTS and RRB NTPC/Group D papers are mostly one-line factual recalls: Indus Valley sites and their features, Vedic texts, Buddhism and Jainism, the Mauryan and Gupta empires, foreign travellers and inscriptions. The pattern repeats from year to year, so a compact list of sites, rulers, books and their authors goes a long way. Tip: learn each fact as a pair (ruler with text, site with feature) because options are usually built from such pairs.

Key facts

Harappa lies on the Ravi and Mohenjo-daro on the Indus; the Great Bath was found at Mohenjo-daro
Lothal (Gujarat) is known for its dockyard; Dholavira (Gujarat) for its water-conservation system and large signboard-like inscription
The Rigveda is the oldest Veda and is divided into ten mandalas
Mahavira was the 24th Tirthankara of Jainism; the Buddha was born at Lumbini, attained enlightenment at Bodh Gaya, gave his first sermon at Sarnath and died at Kushinagar
There were sixteen Mahajanapadas in the 6th century BCE, with Magadha emerging as the most powerful
Chandragupta Maurya founded the Maurya Empire; Kautilya wrote the Arthashastra; Megasthenes, envoy of Seleucus Nicator, wrote Indica
Ashoka fought the Kalinga war and then adopted Buddhism; most of his edicts are in the Brahmi script
The Lion Capital at Sarnath, from Ashoka's period, is the national emblem of India
Samudragupta's achievements are recorded in the Allahabad Pillar inscription composed by Harishena
Chandragupta II (Vikramaditya) ruled during the Gupta period when the Chinese traveller Fa-Hien visited India
Harshavardhana's reign was described by Banabhatta in the Harshacharita and by the Chinese traveller Hiuen Tsang
The Chola temple at Thanjavur (Brihadeeswara) was built by Rajaraja I

Worked examples

Q1. The Great Bath, a famous structure of the Indus Valley Civilisation, was found at: (A) Harappa (B) Mohenjo-daro (C) Lothal (D) Kalibangan

Link the Great Bath with the citadel mound of Mohenjo-daro.
Lothal is linked with the dockyard, so option C is a different pair.

Answer: (B) Mohenjo-daro

Q2. Who was the Greek ambassador at the court of Chandragupta Maurya? (A) Fa-Hien (B) Hiuen Tsang (C) Megasthenes (D) Al-Biruni

Fa-Hien and Hiuen Tsang were Chinese travellers and came much later.
Al-Biruni belongs to the time of Mahmud of Ghazni.
Megasthenes wrote Indica about the Mauryan court.

Answer: (C) Megasthenes

Q3. The Allahabad Pillar inscription describing Samudragupta was composed by: (A) Kalidasa (B) Banabhatta (C) Harishena (D) Visakhadatta

Banabhatta wrote about Harsha, not a Gupta king.
Kalidasa was a poet and Visakhadatta a playwright.
The Prayag Prashasti is the work of Harishena.

Answer: (C) Harishena

Shortcuts that save time

Group facts into pairs such as ruler and book, or site and feature. When two options look close, the pair you remember well usually breaks the tie, which saves you from a guess that costs negative marks.
Use the Chinese-traveller clue: Fa-Hien is Gupta, Hiuen Tsang is Harsha. Eliminate wrong periods first and you are often left with one option.
Skip a question if two options are both unfamiliar. Ancient History has many sound one-liners, so time is better spent on the ones you know.

Where this appears

SSC CGL Tier-1	General Awareness section
SSC CHSL Tier-1	General Awareness section
SSC MTS	General Awareness section
RRB NTPC CBT-1	General Awareness section
RRB Group D CBT	General Awareness section

Ancient History

Practice Set

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The famous male torso from Harappa, remarkable for its naturalistic pose and chiselled in the round, is made of ___________. (RRB NTPC (UG) CBT-I (29/08/2025) Shift 2)

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