ANCIENT INDIA

Historical Sources

Archaeological Literary sources

Inscription Coins Monuments Indigenous Foreign

s

Religious Secular
Texts Texts

 Brahamanic (Hindu)  Historical

 Buddhist  Semi historical
 Jain  Biographical etc.

Literary Sources :
Brahamanics (Hindu) texts:

1. What are the Brahmanic (Hindu) texts of ancient India?

2. What are the different Vedas of the Hindu texts ?
3. What is the composing timeline of different Shruti and Smriti texts?
4. In which location different Veda’s were composed in ancient India ?
5. Who was the author of Ramayana ?
6. Who was the author of Mahabharata?

Buddhist Texts :

1. What are the three types of Buddhism ?

2. What is the traditional language of Theravada Buddhism ?
Buddhist texts are divided into how many parts ?
Tripitaka texts comes under which Buddhism ?

3. What was the lifespan of Buddha ?

Where was Buddha born and Died?
Who was the wife and son of Buddha ?

4. Where was the first Buddhist Council held ?

Under the reign of which king and Dynasty was the first Buddhist council held ?
 Who led the first Buddhist council ?
Who recited “Sutta pitaka” and “Vinaya pitaka”

5. Where was the second Buddhist council held and When ?

Under the reign of which king and dynasty the second Buddhist council was held ?
Who was the Presiding priest in the second Buddhist council ?
Who led the second Buddhist council ?
Who noticed the breach of ‘vinayas ‘ by the monks of vaishali ?

6. What were the name of two Buddhist schools that were divided because of the schism in second
Buddhist council according to modern scholars?

7. When and where was the Third Buddhist council held ?

Under the reign of which King and dynasty the third Buddhist council was held?
Who presided the third Buddhist council ?
The council was presided between which two schools of ‘Stharivada’ ?

8. Where was the Fourth Buddhist council of ‘Vibhajyavada’ held ?

Where was the fourth Buddhist council of ‘Sarvastivada’ held ?
Under the reign of which king and Kingdom was the fourth Buddhist council of ‘Vibhajyavada’ held ?
Under the reign of which king and Dynasty was the fourth Buddhist council of ‘Sarvastivada’ held ?
Who presided the ‘Sarvastivada’ fourth Buddhist council ?
The ‘Abhidharma’ texts of Sarvastivada texts was composed into what texts ?
The ‘Abhidharma’ texts were translated into Sanskrit from which language ?
The ‘Mahavibhasa’ was further translated into Chinese by ?
Fourth buddhist council was divided into which two sects ?

9. When were the ‘Deep vansha and Mahavansha texts composed and at which location?
Who was the first King of ‘Sri Lanka’ according to ‘Maha vansha’ texts ?

Jain texts :

1. What is Jainism ?
Who started Jainism ?
How many ‘Tirthankaras’ were there ?
Who was the last ‘Tirthankara’
What are the three jewels of Jainism ?

2. What are the five main Vows of Jainism ?

3. What are the two major sects of Jainism ?

Who are known as ‘White clads’ and who are known as ‘Sky clad’ ?

4. When and where was the first Jain council held ?

It was held during the reign of which empire ?
 Who presided the first Jain council ?
When and where was the second Jain council held ?
It was held during the reign of which dynasty ?
Who presided the second Jain council ?

Foreign Texts :
Foreign texts are divided into four types :
 Greek(Roman) texts
 Chinese texts
 Tibetan texts
 Arabian texts

Greek :

1. Who was the first Persian(Iranian) emperor to Invade India at about 535 B.C ?
He was the founder of which empire ?
Which Persian invader further annexed the region of ‘Punjab’ and ‘Sindh’ ?
Who was the first Greek explorer to write about India ?

2. Who was the Greek diplomat sent to India by ‘Seleucus 1 Nicator’ at between 302 to 388 B.C ?
He was sent to the court of which emperor ?

3. Who was the Greek diplomat sent to India by ’Antiochus-1 Soter’ during 3 rd century B.C ?
He was sent to the court of which emperor ?

Chinese:
1. What is the name of the first Chinese traveller who came to India in search of Buddhist texts at
about 399 A.D ?
He came during the reign of which emperor ?

2. Who was the second Chinese man who came to India in search of Buddhist texts on 5 th century ?
He was sent to India by which empress and dynasty ?
What did he bring in return ?

Arabian:
1. Who was the first Arab merchant who came to India and wrote about India ?
What is the name of the book in which he wrote about India at 850 A.D ?

Archaeological Sources :