holy texts

Question 1

Acheulian tools

Answer 1

an assemblage of stone tools marked by advanced and increasingly symmetrical handaxes and cleavers; primarily associated with the lower palaeolithic, they continue into later parts of the stone age as well

Question 2

Agrahara

Answer 2

land or village gifted by a king

Question 3

Ahimsa

Answer 3

non-injury, non-violence

Question 4

Ajivikas

Answer 4

An ancient religious sect, associated with Makkhali Gosala

Question 5

Akam

Answer 5

Sangam love poems

Question 6

Alvars

Answer 6

the Vaishnava saint-poet of early medieval South India

Question 7

Amphorae

Answer 7

a type of Roman pottery—jars with a large oval body, narrow cylindrical neck, and two handles

Question 8

Anekantavada

Answer 8

the Jaina doctrine of the manifold nature of reality

Question 9

Animal domestication

Answer 9

the process of selective breeding of animals, which involves removing them from their natural habitat and rearing them under artificial conditions under human control for purposes of human gain

Question 10

Antarala

Answer 10

the vestibule or antechamber of a temple

Question 11

Anvikshiki

Answer 11

literally, ‘looking at’; logical reasoning

Question 12

Apabhramsha

Answer 12

a stage of the later development of the Prakrit language up to the end of the 1st millennium CE

Question 13

Araghatta

Answer 13

the Persian wheel, or a similar contrivance

Question 14

Aramaic

Answer 14

a language and script. The Aramaic or North Semitic script was the official script of the Assyrian, Babylonian, and Achaemenid empires; Ashokan inscriptions indicate the use of the language and script in the north-western part of the Indian subcontinent

Question 15

Aranyakas

Answer 15

literally ‘forest books’; part of the Vedic corpus

Question 16

Archaeo-botany

Answer 16

the study of ancient plant remains

Question 17

Archaeological sources

Answer 17

all tangible, material remains

Question 18

Archaeology

Answer 18

the study of the human past through material remains

Question 19

Archaeometry

Answer 19

techniques that use measurement in order to analyse ancient objects or materials

Question 20

Ardha-Magadhi

Answer 20

an eastern dialect of Prakrit; the earliest Jaina texts are written in this dialect

Question 21

Ardhamandapa

Answer 21

the hall preceding the sanctum in a temple

Question 22

Arhat

Answer 22

a person who has attained enlightenment

Question 23

Ariya-sachchani

Answer 23

the Four Noble Truths related to suffering; an important part of the Buddha’s teaching

Question 24

Artefact

Answer 24

a portable object made or altered by human hands

Question 25

Ashrama(s)

Answer 25

the four stages of life—brahmacharya (celibate studenthood), grihastha (the householder stage), vanaprastha (partial renunciation), and sannyasa (complete renunciation); can also mean a hermitage

Question 26

Assemblage

Answer 26

in archaeology, refers collectively to all the industries found at a site

Question 27

Astika schools

Answer 27

philosophical schools that accepted the authority of the Vedas, comprising those that later came to be described as the six classical systems of Hindu philosophy

Question 28

Atman

Answer 28

the imperishable ultimate reality within the self, according to the Upanishads

Question 29

Australopithecus

Answer 29

a hominid genus

Question 30

Avatara

Answer 30

an incarnation of the god Vishnu

Question 31

Ayyavole

Answer 31

a powerful merchant guild of early medieval South India

Question 32

Bands

Answer 32

small and usually nomadic communities, usually related to each other through kinship

Question 33

Bhagavata

Answer 33

a worshipper of Vasudeva Krishna

Question 34

Bhikkhu

Answer 34

Pali (Sanskrit bhikshu), literally ‘one who lives by begging alms’; a Buddhist monk