The notion of kinship projected by the Kushana rulers is best evidenced through which of the following?
- (a)Their identification with deities
- (b)Grants to religious institutions
- (c)Inscriptional panegyrics
- (d)Coins and sculpture
UPSC cancelled this question. The official key records no correct option for it, and no candidate's answer was marked. The reason is visible once you go to the passage the item was built from. NCERT's Class 12 'Themes in Indian History' Part I, in the section headed 'Divine kings', says: 'One means of claiming high status was to identify with a variety of deities. This strategy is best exemplified by the Kushanas ... The notions of kingship they wished to project are perhaps best evidenced in their coins and sculpture.' That single passage supports option (a) and option (d) with equal force — the identification with deities is named as the strategy, and coins and sculpture are named as the evidence for it. A stem asking which of the two is 'best' evidence has no defensible answer. There is a second defect on top of the first. The printed stem asks about the notion of kinship, where the source sentence is about kingship — kinship means descent and family relationship, kingship means the claim to rule. Read as printed, the question asks about something the Kushana evidence was never marshalled to show. An item that is ambiguous between two options and misprints its own key term cannot be marked, and UPSC dropped it. Treat this card as a lesson in how Kushana rulership was projected and in reading a stem's exact wording, not as a question with an answer.
- (a)Their identification with deities — Not a wrong option — one of the two defensible ones. Colossal statues of Kushana rulers stood in a shrine at Mat near Mathura and in a comparable shrine in Afghanistan, and many Kushana rulers took the title devaputra, 'son of god', which historians read as a claim to be godlike. Identification with deities is exactly the strategy the standard account names.
- (b)Grants to religious institutions — This one really is weak. Grants to religious institutions are the classic evidence for later dynasties — the Guptas, the Vakatakas and the early medieval kingdoms that recorded land grants on copper plates. Kushana rulership is reconstructed mainly from coins, sculpture and short inscriptions, not from a body of religious endowments.
- (c)Inscriptional panegyrics — Also weak, though for a subtler reason. Inscriptional panegyric — the prashasti composed in praise of a king — is the Gupta method, the Allahabad pillar prashasti of Samudragupta being the model. The Kushana inscriptions that survive are short dedicatory records, not extended eulogies.
- (d)Coins and sculpture — The other defensible option, and the one that matches the source sentence word for word. Kushana coins carry the ruler on one face and a deity on the other, and the Mat statues are the sculptural half of the same claim. Because both (a) and (d) answer the stem, the item cannot be keyed.
The Kushanas ruled a wide territory from Central Asia into north-western India across roughly the first century BCE to the first centuries CE. Their history is reconstructed from coins, sculpture, inscriptions and later textual traditions rather than from a continuous chronicle. Their distinctive contribution to Indian ideas of rulership was the projection of the king as more than human — colossal royal statues installed in shrines, the title devaputra, and coin types that put the ruler and a deity on the two faces of the same object.
Four items were dropped across the CDS papers of 2021 to 2024, and every one of them was dropped for the same reason: more than one option answered the stem. Here the ambiguity is baked into the source. Identification with deities and the coins and sculpture that carry that identification are not rival explanations; the second is the medium of the first, so a candidate can argue either way and be right. A student's useful takeaway is the substance rather than the answer. Coins are the densest evidence for the Kushanas because they survive in enormous numbers, they are dated by ruler, and they carry both an image and a legend; sculpture supplies the shrine at Mat; inscriptions supply the titles. Note also the printed slip in the stem — 'kinship' where the underlying passage says 'kingship'. The bank reproduces the paper exactly, typo included, because that is what candidates faced in the hall.
- Colossal statues of Kushana rulers have been found installed in a shrine at Mat near Mathura in Uttar Pradesh, and comparable statues in a shrine in Afghanistan.
- Many Kushana rulers adopted the title devaputra, 'son of god', which some historians connect with the Chinese imperial style 'son of heaven'.
- Kushana coins typically show the ruler on the obverse and a deity on the reverse; the Kushanas issued the largest gold coin hoards of ancient India.
- Extended praise inscriptions, the prashastis, are characteristic of the Guptas rather than the Kushanas — the Allahabad pillar inscription of Samudragupta is the standard example.
- UPSC's key for this paper records no correct option for this question and it was cancelled.
Two options answer the stem and the stem's key term is misprinted. UPSC's key records no correct option, and the question was dropped.
- Accepting a solution found elsewhere that names one answer to this item; UPSC recorded no correct option for it.
- Transferring Gupta habits — long praise inscriptions, recorded religious endowments — back onto the Kushanas.
- Reading 'kinship' and 'kingship' as interchangeable; they are different claims and the difference is what broke this question.
Asked as a which-source-best-shows-it item on Kushana rulership. The paper's own option set contained two defensible answers and the key term was misprinted, so UPSC dropped the question.
Many of the Greeks, Kushanas and Shakas embraced Buddhism rather than Hinduism because
- (a) Buddhism was in the ascendant at that time
- (b) They had renounced the policy of war and violence
- (c) Caste-ridden Hinduism did not attract them
- (d) Buddhism provided easier access to Indian society
Answer(d) Buddhism provided easier access to Indian society
The same rulers, examined on the other half of their self-presentation. Incoming dynasties had to make themselves legible to the society they ruled, and the Kushana answer combined religious affiliation with a visual claim to divinity on coins and in shrines.
What is the correct chronological order in which the following appeared in India? I. Gold coins II. Punch-marked silver coins III. Iron plough IV. Urban culture Select the correct answer using the codes given below:
- (a) III, IV, I, II
- (b) III, IV, II, I
- (c) IV, III, I, II
- (d) IV, III, II, I
Answer(d) IV, III, II, I
Coinage as a dated historical source rather than as a curiosity. Gold coins come last in that sequence, and it is the Indo-Greeks and then the Kushanas who bring them into India in quantity — which is why coins carry so much of the weight of Kushana history.
- practice — not a real PYQ
Colossal statues of Kushana rulers installed in a shrine have been found at which one of the following places?
- (a)Sarnath
- (b)Mat near Mathura
- (c)Bharhut
- (d)Amaravati
Answer(b) Mat near Mathura — the shrine there held life-size and larger royal statues, and a comparable shrine has been found in Afghanistan.
- practice — not a real PYQ
The title 'devaputra' was adopted by rulers of which one of the following dynasties?
- (a)Kushana
- (b)Chola
- (c)Rashtrakuta
- (d)Pala
Answer(a) Kushana — the title means 'son of god' and is read as part of their claim to a more than human kingship.