UGC NET History Practice Question

In ancient Indian numismatics, the term Dinara was adopted from which foreign monetary system?

Greek Drachma

Persian Siglos

Roman Denarius ✓

Kushana Attic standard

The Gupta gold coins called Dinara derive their name from the Roman denarius (aureus), reflecting the influence of Roman trade coinage on Indian monetary vocabulary and weight standards during the early centuries CE.

The Sangam literary anthology Purananuru belongs to which broad thematic category of Sangam poetry?

Akam (Interior / Love)

Puram (Exterior / War and Kingship) ✓

Kilkanakku (Didactic ethical literature)

Epics (Kavyas)

Sangam poetry is divided into Akam (interior, love/personal themes) and Puram (exterior, public themes like war, kingship, and heroism). Purananuru, a collection of 400 poems, is the principal Puram anthology and a key source for Sangam-age political history.

Which of the following sites has yielded the earliest unambiguous evidence of iron technology in Northern India, dating back to c. 1200-1000 BCE?

Hastinapur

Atranjikhera ✓

Kaushambi

Taxila

Atranjikhera in Uttar Pradesh has provided some of the earliest well-stratified evidence of iron use in the Ganga-Yamuna doab, associated with the Painted Grey Ware culture, supporting the case for an early, independent iron age in North India.

The decipherment of the Brahmi script by James Prinsep in 1837 was achieved primarily through the analysis of coins from which dynasty?

Mauryan Empire

Indo-Greek and Western Kshatrapa dynasties ✓

Gupta Empire

Kushana Empire

Prinsep used bilingual Indo-Greek coins (Greek and Kharosthi/Brahmi legends) and Western Kshatrapa coins to cross-match letterforms, which gave him the key to deciphering Ashokan Brahmi inscriptions.

Which text provides the detailed rules for measuring sacrificial altars (Vedis) and constructing geometric brick structures in the Vedic period?

Sulba Sutras ✓

Grihya Sutras

Srauta Sutras

Dharma Sutras

The Sulba Sutras (part of the Kalpa Vedanga) contain precise geometric rules for constructing fire altars of specified shapes and areas — they are also historically important as early Indian mathematical/geometric texts.

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This question is part of our free Unit-Wise mock test series, drawn from the same real question bank used across every UGC NET History mock test on this site. For structured, chapter-by-chapter notes covering everything these questions test, see our UGC NET History Notes, or try the History Glossary Flashcard Quiz for daily term-by-term practice.