Topic 3- Powerful Empires Emerge in India

Question 1

Where did Chandragupta first gain power?

Answer 1

In the Ganges valley, then conquered northern India.

Question 2

Where did Chandragupta’s son and grandson push their power to?

Answer 2

South, adding much of the Deccan to their empire.

Question 3

How did Chandragupta maintain order of the empire?

Answer 3

Through a well-organized bureaucracy.

Question 4

How would you describe Chandragupta’s rule?

Answer 4

Effective but harsh.

Question 5

What does dissent mean?

Answer 5

Ideas that oppose those of the government.

Question 6

Who did Chandragupta have trained in fear of his many enemies?

Answer 6

Women warriors to guard his palace.

Question 7

Servants would taste Chandragupta’s food to protect him from poisoning. True or false?

Answer 7

True.

Question 8

What did Chandragupta have in his palace to help him move about, unseen?

Answer 8

Secret passages.

Question 9

Who was the most honored Maurya emperor?

Answer 9

Chandragupta’s grandson, Asoka.

Question 10

Who was Chandragupta?

Answer 10

A Maurya emperor.

Question 11

After a few years of becoming emperor, Asoka fought a long, bloody war to conquer which region?

Answer 11

The Deccan region of Kalinga.

Question 12

When did Asoka become emperor?

Answer 12

268 B.C.

Question 13

Why did Asoka become Buddhist?

Answer 13

After the war he led in which he conquered the Deccan region of Kalinga, he was horrified at the amount of people that died. He converted to Buddhism, rejected violence and resolved to rule by moral example.

Question 14

What are missionaries?

Answer 14

People sent on a religious mission, normally to spread the word of a religion.

Question 15

What did Asoka’s rule bring to the empire?

Answer 15

Peace and prosperity and helped unite the diverse peoples within his empire.

Question 16

Where did most Indian goods shipped overseas come from?

Answer 16

Cities in the Deccan.

Question 17

The Deccan was divided into many kingdoms. True or false?

Answer 17

True.

Question 18

The peoples of the Deccan were Dravidians. What does that mean?

Answer 18

They had very different languages and traditions.

Question 19

Which kingdoms were sometimes ruled by queens?

Answer 19

The Tamil Kingdoms.

Question 20

Deccan rulers generally did NOT tolerate all religions as well as foreigners who settled in their busy ports. True or false?

Answer 20

False, they did tolerate them.

Question 21

What did Tamil merchants send westward to eager buyers throughout the Roman empire for trade?

Answer 21

Spices, fine textiles, and other luxuries.

Question 22

What era did India enjoy during Gupta rule?

Answer 22

The golden age.

Question 23

What was the golden age?

Answer 23

A period of great cultural achievement.

Question 24

When did the Gupta dynasty rule India?

Answer 24

From A.D. 320 to about 540.

Question 25

Gupta emperors organized a strong central government. What did they promote?

Answer 25

Peace and prosperity.

Question 26

Much of Gupta dynasty’s power was left to who?

Answer 26

The hands of individual villages and city governments.

Question 27

Trade and farming flourished across the Gupta empire. Which crops did farmers grow?

Answer 27

Wheat, rice and sugar cane.

Question 28

Where were students educated?

Answer 28

Religious schools.

Question 29

What subject were taught in the large Buddhist monastery-university at Nalanda?

Answer 29

Mathematics, medicine, physics, languages, literature and other subjects.

Question 30

Gupta mathematicians devised a simple system of writing numbers that we used today. What are they called?

Answer 30

“Arabic” numerals because Arabs carried them from India to the Middle East and Europe.

Question 31

What did Indian mathematicians originate that we still use today?

Answer 31

The concept of zero and the decimal system of numbers based on the number 10.

Question 32

What medical practices came out of Gupta times?

Answer 32

The use of herbs and other remedies to that illness. Surgeons were skilled in setting bones and simple surgery to repair facial injuries as well as vaccinating against smallpox.

Question 33

Within villages, what did the basic unit consist of?

Answer 33

the joint family, in which several generations of parents and children shared a common dwelling.

Question 34

The joint family was achieved by who?

Answer 34

The wealthy since people in poor families often died young.

Question 35

Were Indian families patriarchal or matriarchal?

Answer 35

Patriarchal. The father or the oldest male headed the household.

Question 36

Why were males the head of Indian households?

Answer 36

They were thought to have wisdom and experience.

Question 37

Property belonged to the whole family. True or false?

Answer 37

True.

Question 38

As young daughters, what did young girls learn?

Answer 38

That as a wife she would be expected to serve and obey her husband and his family.

Question 39

What did sons learn at an early age?

Answer 39

The rituals to honor the family’s ancestors.

Question 40

What was an important duty for parents?

Answer 40

To arrange good marriages for their children based on caste and family interests.

Question 41

In northern India, what did a bride’s family commonly provide?

Answer 41

A dowry, or a payment to the bridgegroom and financed the costly wedding festivities.

Question 42

What was the daughters role in northern Indian families?

Answer 42

To serve her husband and produce children.

Question 43

What is shakti and why was it important?

Answer 43

A creative energy that men lacked. In marriage, a woman’s shakti helped to make the husband complete.