Match List I with List II and select the correct answer using the code given below the Lists: List I (Literary Work) A. Duta Ghatotkacha B. Mrichchhakatikam C. Kiratarjuniyam D. Ravanavadha List II (Author) 1. Bhatti 2. Bhasa 3. Shudraka 4. Bharavi Code:
- (a)1, 3, 4, 2
- (b)1, 4, 3, 2
- (c)2, 3, 4, 1
- (d)2, 4, 3, 1
Correct — C, 2, 3, 4, 1. The pairings run: A Duta Ghatotkacha with Bhasa, B Mrichchhakatikam with Shudraka, C Kiratarjuniyam with Bharavi, and D Ravanavadha with Bhatti. Duta Ghatotkacha is one of the thirteen one-act and short plays attributed to Bhasa, drawn from the Mahabharata, in which Ghatotkacha comes as an envoy to the Kaurava court; the whole group was lost for centuries and recovered from Trivandrum manuscripts in 1910 by Ganapati Shastri. Mrichchhakatikam, the little clay cart, is the ten-act play of Shudraka about the merchant Charudatta and the courtesan Vasantasena. Kiratarjuniyam, on Arjuna's encounter with Shiva disguised as a hunter, is Bharavi's, and is one of the five great Sanskrit epic poems. Ravanavadha is the alternative title of Bhatti's Bhattikavya, composed about 600 CE, which retells the Ramayana while illustrating the rules of Panini's grammar.
- (a)1, 3, 4, 2 — Gives Duta Ghatotkacha to Bhatti and Ravanavadha to Bhasa — an exact swap of the two ends. Bhatti's work is the Ramayana retelling; Bhasa's is the Mahabharata play.
- (b)1, 4, 3, 2 — Keeps the wrong first and last pairs and additionally swaps the middle two, handing Mrichchhakatikam to Bharavi and Kiratarjuniyam to Shudraka. Every one of the four is misplaced.
- (d)2, 4, 3, 1 — Gets the outer pair right — Bhasa first, Bhatti last — but reverses the middle, giving Mrichchhakatikam to Bharavi and Kiratarjuniyam to Shudraka. Shudraka wrote a drama, Bharavi a mahakavya, and the little clay cart is the drama.
Classical Sanskrit literature divides broadly into drama and mahakavya, the courtly epic poem. Bhasa, probably of the first or second century CE, is the earliest dramatist whose plays survive; Shudraka's Mrichchhakatikam is unusual for taking its plot from city life rather than from myth; Bharavi and Magha are the great mahakavya poets after Kalidasa; and Bhatti's Bhattikavya is a hybrid — a poem that is simultaneously a grammar manual, illustrating Panini's rules in sequence as the Ramayana story advances.
Matching questions of this kind are won by fixing one or two pairs firmly and letting the code do the rest. The safest anchor here is Mrichchhakatikam with Shudraka, which UPSC itself has tested; that alone kills options (b) and (d), because both give the play to Bharavi. The second anchor is Ravanavadha, and the trap is that the title sounds like a Ramayana work and Bhasa did write Ramayana plays — but Ravanavadha is the alternative name of the Bhattikavya, so it belongs to Bhatti. With those two fixed, only option (c) survives. Notice also that the four names in List II are not contemporaries: Bhasa is the earliest by several centuries and Bhatti the latest, at about 600 CE.
- Duta Ghatotkacha is one of the thirteen plays attributed to Bhasa, rediscovered in Trivandrum manuscripts in 1910 by Ganapati Shastri.
- Mrichchhakatikam, the little clay cart, is by Shudraka.
- Kiratarjuniyam is by Bharavi and is counted among the five great Sanskrit mahakavyas.
- Ravanavadha is the alternative title of Bhatti's Bhattikavya, dated to about 600 CE.
- The Bhattikavya retells the Ramayana while systematically illustrating the grammar of Panini.
- Assigning Ravanavadha to a Ramayana dramatist because of the title; it is the Bhattikavya.
- Swapping Bharavi and Shudraka — one wrote an epic poem, the other a play.
- Assuming the four authors are contemporaries; they span roughly five centuries.
Almost always as a List I to List II match with a four-figure code, occasionally as a single pick-the-author or pick-the-work item.
Which of the following pairs are correctly matched? I. Mrichchhakatikam — Shudraka II. Buddhacharita — Vasuvandhu III. Mudrarakshasha — Vishakhadatta IV. Harshacharita — Banabhatta Select the correct answer using the codes given below:
- (a) I, II, III and IV
- (b) I, III and IV
- (c) I and IV
- (d) II and III
Answer(b) I, III and IV
The same pairing exercise in the older format, and it confirms the anchor that unlocks this question — Mrichchhakatikam belongs to Shudraka. The one wrong pair there is Buddhacharita, which is Ashvaghosha's rather than Vasubandhu's.
- practice — not a real PYQ
The Bhattikavya, which retells the Ramayana while illustrating the rules of Sanskrit grammar, is also known as
- (a)Raghuvamsha
- (b)Ravanavadha
- (c)Kumarasambhava
- (d)Shishupalavadha
Answer(b) Ravanavadha — the alternative title of Bhatti's poem, meaning the death of Ravana.
- practice — not a real PYQ
Which one of the following Sanskrit works is a drama rather than a mahakavya?
- (a)Kiratarjuniyam
- (b)Shishupalavadha
- (c)Mrichchhakatikam
- (d)Raghuvamsha
Answer(c) Mrichchhakatikam — Shudraka's ten-act play, while the other three are courtly epic poems.