Ancient India Trivia Questions

From the Great Bath of Mohenjo-daro to the Chinese monk who studied at Nalanda.

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In which present-day country are the ruins of Mohenjo-daro?

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Unofficial practice questions, not affiliated with any school, exam board or quiz show. Bank checked October 14, 2026.

All 66 questions with answers

The Indus Valley cities 15

  • Around 4,000 years ago the monsoons weakened and the Indus civilization declined. What became of the Ghaggar-Hakra river? Answer: It dried up into a small seasonal river. Source: Wikipedia: Ghaggar-Hakra River
  • Chanhudaro, south of Mohenjo-daro, is considered to have been a center for making what? Answer: Carnelian beads. Source: Wikipedia: Chanhudaro
  • The Dancing Girl of Mohenjo-daro is a statue 10.5 cm tall. What is it made of? Answer: Bronze. Source: Wikipedia: Dancing Girl (prehistoric sculpture)
  • The Great Bath of Mohenjo-daro has been called the earliest public what of the ancient world? Answer: Water tank. Source: Wikipedia: Great Bath
  • In which decade was the site of Mohenjo-daro rediscovered? Answer: The 1920s. Source: Wikipedia: Mohenjo-daro
  • In which present-day country are the ruins of Mohenjo-daro? Answer: Pakistan. Source: Wikipedia: Mohenjo-daro
  • The Indus civilization was one of four centers of the ancient world. Egypt and Mesopotamia were two. Which was the fourth? Answer: China. Source: Wikipedia: Indus Valley Civilisation
  • Kalibangan is noted for the world's earliest attested what? Answer: Plowed field. Source: Wikipedia: Kalibangan
  • Lothal, in Gujarat, may have had one of the world's earliest known what? Answer: Docks. Source: Wikipedia: Lothal
  • Mohenjo-daro is the modern name of the site. How has the name been interpreted? Answer: Mound of the Dead. Source: Wikipedia: Mohenjo-daro
  • Most Harappan sites are built almost wholly of brick. Of what are the buildings of Dholavira built? Answer: Stone. Source: Wikipedia: Dholavira
  • Shortugai, the northernmost settlement of the Indus civilization, was a trading colony set up near the mines of which blue gem? Answer: Lapis lazuli. Source: Wikipedia: Shortugai
  • The Sumerians traded with a land they called Meluhha. With what do most scholars associate it? Answer: The Indus Valley civilization. Source: Wikipedia: Meluhha
  • Under British rule, bricks from the ruins of Harappa were carted away. What were they used for? Answer: Ballast under a railway line. Source: Wikipedia: Harappa
  • Who oversaw the excavations of Harappa and Mohenjo-daro as Director-General of the Archaeological Survey of India from 1902 to 1928? Answer: John Marshall. Source: Wikipedia: John Marshall (archaeologist)

Vedic age, kingdoms and invaders 12

  • About when were the Vedas composed, in the north of the subcontinent? Answer: 1500 to 900 BCE. Source: Wikipedia: Vedic period
  • Alexander the Great's Indian campaign began in 327 BCE. At which river did his troops refuse to march any farther east? Answer: The Hyphasis. Source: Wikipedia: Indian campaign of Alexander the Great
  • Ancient sources credit the Nanda kings, who built on the work of the dynasties before them, with amassing what? Answer: Great wealth. Source: Wikipedia: Nanda Empire
  • The first punch-marked coins of the subcontinent may date from around the 6th century BCE. How were they made? Answer: Single punches were impressed one at a time. Source: Wikipedia: Punch-marked coins
  • How many Mahajanapadas, the kingdoms and republics of ancient India from the sixth to the fourth century BCE, were there? Answer: Sixteen. Source: Wikipedia: Mahajanapadas
  • Kanishka the Great ruled the Kushan Empire at its zenith. His main capital was Purushapura. What is the city called today? Answer: Peshawar. Source: Wikipedia: Kanishka
  • Panini's masterwork is the founding text of Sanskrit grammar. What is it called? Answer: The Ashtadhyayi. Source: Wikipedia: Pāṇini
  • Pataliputra, capital of several empires, stood beside which modern city? Answer: Patna. Source: Wikipedia: Pataliputra
  • The Rigveda is the oldest known text in which language? Answer: Vedic Sanskrit. Source: Wikipedia: Rigveda
  • Sangam literature is the earliest known literature of South India. In which language is it? Answer: Tamil. Source: Wikipedia: Sangam literature
  • Sanskrit belongs to which branch of the Indo-European languages? Answer: Indo-Aryan. Source: Wikipedia: Sanskrit
  • Which king of Magadha is considered the founder of the Haryanka dynasty? Answer: Bimbisara. Source: Wikipedia: Haryanka dynasty

The Maurya Empire 14

  • According to the play Mudrarakshasa, Chanakya was Chandragupta's mentor. What did he later become? Answer: His minister. Source: Wikipedia: Chandragupta Maurya
  • Ashoka's inscriptions give him the title Devanampiya. What does it mean? Answer: Beloved of the Gods. Source: Wikipedia: Ashoka
  • The Barabar Hill Caves in Bihar date from the Maurya Empire. Which record do they hold in India? Answer: The oldest surviving rock-cut caves. Source: Wikipedia: Barabar Caves
  • By which name did Greek and Roman writers know Bindusara, the second Mauryan emperor? Answer: Amitrochates. Source: Wikipedia: Bindusara
  • How many of the pillars that Ashoka put up still survive? Answer: Twenty. Source: Wikipedia: Pillars of Ashoka
  • How was Ashoka related to Chandragupta, the founder of the Maurya Empire? Answer: He was his grandson. Source: Wikipedia: Ashoka
  • In his settlement with Seleucus, how many war elephants did Chandragupta hand over? Answer: 500. Source: Wikipedia: Seleucid–Mauryan War
  • In the north-west, Ashoka's edicts were written in Prakrit in the Kharoshthi script and in which two other languages? Answer: Greek and Aramaic. Source: Wikipedia: Edicts of Ashoka
  • Kalinga, which Ashoka conquered, lay on the east coast in which present-day Indian state? Answer: Odisha. Source: Wikipedia: Kalinga War
  • The Maurya Empire was founded around 320 BCE. Until which year did it last? Answer: 185 BCE. Source: Wikipedia: Maurya Empire
  • The Mauryas built a road, used chiefly in winter, from eastern Afghanistan to their capital. What was it called? Answer: The Uttarapath. Source: Wikipedia: Maurya Empire
  • Megasthenes, a Greek ambassador at the court of Chandragupta Maurya, described India in a book that is now lost. What was it called? Answer: Indica. Source: Wikipedia: Megasthenes
  • Who deciphered the Brahmi script, and with it the edicts of Ashoka, in the 1830s? Answer: James Prinsep. Source: Wikipedia: Brahmi script
  • Who took the throne of Magadha from the Mauryas and founded the Shunga dynasty? Answer: Pushyamitra. Source: Wikipedia: Shunga Empire

The Gupta age, scholars and pilgrims 11

  • The Ajanta Caves, 30 monuments cut into rock, were hidden by jungle until 1819. What was the British officer doing who came upon them? Answer: Hunting a tiger. Source: Wikipedia: Ajanta Caves
  • The Allahabad Pillar inscription, a eulogy composed by the courtier Harisena, credits which Gupta emperor with wide conquests? Answer: Samudragupta. Source: Wikipedia: Samudragupta
  • The astronomer Varahamihira, born about 505, lived in which city? Answer: Ujjain. Source: Wikipedia: Varāhamihira
  • By which title was the Gupta emperor Chandragupta II also known? Answer: Vikramaditya. Source: Wikipedia: Chandragupta II
  • The Chinese monk Xuanzang studied at Nalanda and went home with many Sanskrit texts. How were they carried? Answer: On twenty packhorses. Source: Wikipedia: Xuanzang
  • The Chinese pilgrim Faxian left home in 399 and was back in 412. How many of those years did he spend in India? Answer: Ten. Source: Wikipedia: Faxian
  • Kalidasa's lyric poem Meghaduta has a title that means what? Answer: Cloud Messenger. Source: Wikipedia: Meghadūta
  • Nalanda, often called the world's first residential university, opened in 427 CE. For about how long did it run? Answer: Almost a thousand years. Source: Wikipedia: Nalanda mahavihara
  • Some historians have called the Gupta period India's what? Answer: Golden Age. Source: Wikipedia: Gupta Empire
  • Which emperor, who drove back an invasion, is generally considered the last of the great Gupta emperors? Answer: Skandagupta. Source: Wikipedia: Skandagupta
  • Which peoples from Central Asia invaded the Gupta Empire in its last years? Answer: The Hunas. Source: Wikipedia: Gupta Empire

Inventions, numbers and trade routes 14

  • A work that Brahmagupta wrote about 628 holds the first good understanding of the role of which number? Answer: Zero. Source: Wikipedia: Brāhmasphuṭasiddhānta
  • Along the rivers Penner, Krishna and Godavari, which gemstone is thought to have been first recognized and mined? Answer: Diamond. Source: Wikipedia: Diamond
  • The Bakhshali manuscript, an ancient Indian mathematical text found in 1881, is written on what? Answer: Birch bark. Source: Wikipedia: Bakhshali manuscript
  • Chaturanga, held to be the ancestor of chess, has a Sanskrit name. What does the word mean? Answer: Having four limbs or parts. Source: Wikipedia: Chaturanga
  • Digs at Arikamedu, in Puducherry, found amphorae, lamps and glassware. With which empire did Mortimer Wheeler conclude the port had traded? Answer: Rome. Source: Wikipedia: Arikamedu
  • How is the water in a stepwell reached? Answer: Down a long corridor of steps. Source: Wikipedia: Stepwell
  • Indian mathematicians invented the Hindu–Arabic numeral system between the 1st and 4th centuries. In which base does it count? Answer: Ten. Source: Wikipedia: Hindu–Arabic numeral system
  • Indus seals of 2500 to 1750 BCE show ships. What did the sailors carry to find land when it lay beyond the horizon? Answer: Birds. Source: Wikipedia: Indo-Mesopotamia relations
  • Kallanai, an ancient dam in Tamil Nadu, was built across which river? Answer: The Kaveri. Source: Wikipedia: Kallanai Dam
  • Pachisi, a board game that began in ancient India, is played on a board of which shape? Answer: A symmetrical cross. Source: Wikipedia: Pachisi
  • The Periplus of the Erythraean Sea, a first-century guide to sailing and trading ports, was written in which language? Answer: Koine Greek. Source: Wikipedia: Periplus of the Erythraean Sea
  • Scraps of cotton cloth of the 3rd millennium BCE have been found at Mohenjo-daro. Which spinning tools were found there too? Answer: Spindle whorls. Source: Wikipedia: Cotton
  • The southern sea route to India by way of the Red Sea opened around the start of the first century CE, after Augustus conquered which country in 30 BCE? Answer: Egypt. Source: Wikipedia: Indo-Roman trade relations
  • Wootz, a crucible steel made in southern India, was traded westward. With the later making of which steel did it become associated? Answer: Damascus steel. Source: Wikipedia: Wootz steel

How it works

What was the Great Bath, and how many elephants did Chandragupta give Seleucus? These ancient India trivia questions run from the Indus cities to the Gupta age as dated history.

Read the full guide

The Indus Valley and the first kingdoms

The Indus Valley cities asks about the Great Bath, the dock at Lothal and the bricks that ended up under a railway. Vedic age, kingdoms and invaders covers the sixteen Mahajanapadas, Pataliputra and the river where Alexander's army turned back.

The Maurya and Gupta empires

The Maurya Empire has Megasthenes, Ashoka's pillars and the man who read the Brahmi script. The Gupta age, scholars and pilgrims takes in Kalidasa, Nalanda and the Ajanta Caves. Inventions, numbers and trade routes ends with zero, wootz steel and the sea route by the Red Sea.

  • For a world history class, play The Indus Valley cities on its own before the unit on river civilizations.

Questions and answers

What are some easy ancient India trivia questions?

In which present-day country are the ruins of Mohenjo-daro? What have some historians called the Gupta period? What did Chanakya become to Chandragupta, according to an old play? The answers are Pakistan, India's Golden Age and his minister.

What was the first civilization in ancient India?

The first cities belonged to the Indus Valley civilization, a Bronze Age culture that lasted from 3300 to 1300 BCE and was at its height from 2600 to 1900 BCE. It spread over much of Pakistan, northwestern India and northeast Afghanistan.

Who was Ashoka?

A Mauryan emperor, grandson of the founder Chandragupta, who ruled most of the subcontinent from 268 to 232 BCE. After conquering Kalinga he turned to spreading dhamma, or righteous conduct, and his edicts were cut on pillars, boulders and cave walls.

How were the answers checked?

Each was read on October 14, 2026 in the English Wikipedia article linked beside it, 61 articles in all. Texts are asked as texts and rulers as rulers; no belief or sacred story is a question, and the modern country has its own pack.