Indus Valley Civilisation and the Vedic Age MCQ - Practice Questions with Answers

Early Vedic society contrasts with Harappan urban life. Early Vedic life is described as more pastoral and lineage-based, with cattle wealth, chiefs, priests, assemblies and river hymns being central. The rajan is also described as closer to a tribal chief than to a later territorial monarch. These two points belong to the same early Vedic frame, so both statements are correct.

By around the sixth century BCE, the sixteen Mahajanapadas marked the political outcome of the later Vedic transition. For Rajasthan's wider regional connection, Matsya and Surasena are the important names. Matsya is linked in later tradition with the Jaipur-Alwar-Bairat region, while Surasena around Mathura connected eastern Rajasthan with routes towards the Yamuna and Ganga plains. Vajji and Malla are remembered for gana-sangha forms, and Dholavira or Kalibangan features belong to Harappan archaeology, not this Mahajanapada link.

The later Vedic phase is described as a period of stronger agriculture, larger rituals, increased priestly authority, janapada formation, iron use and settlement growth. That makes the assertion sound. Painted Grey Ware is also mentioned, especially in the upper Ganga-Yamuna doab, but it should not be treated as direct proof of a Vedic tribe or a specific text. It helps connect archaeology with a broad social world, not with a named textual identity.

The later Vedic period saw stronger agriculture, larger rituals, growing kingship and early iron-age settlement patterns. Iron use, wider cultivation and settlement growth helped the shift from jana to janapada, meaning from people-based identity to territory-based polity. Thus the assertion about the move towards janapada is true, and the reason gives the process that explains that move.

The Rigveda is regarded as the earliest Vedic Samhita and a main textual source for early Vedic society. The Shaakala recension is remembered with 10 mandalas, 1028 suktas and 10552 mantras. Mandalas II-VII are often called the family books because they are connected with priestly lineages. Since all three statements state these accepted points without adding an unsupported claim, the complete set is correct.