In the Rig Veda Samhita, use of the terms ishukrit and isukara referred to the maker of:

Correct — A, Arrows. Both words are built on the same root, and the compound gives the answer away once you see it. Ishu is the ordinary Sanskrit word for an arrow. Ishu-krit is 'arrow-maker', from kri, to make; ishu-kara is the same thing formed with the agent suffix -kara, which turns up all over Sanskrit occupational names in exactly this sense. So the terms name the fletcher — the craftsman who made arrows — and their presence in the Rig Veda is evidence for specialised craft occupations in the early Vedic period. That is the wider point the question is testing. Alongside the arrow-maker the hymns name the carpenter or chariot-maker, the smith and the weaver, which shows a society already divided by craft rather than one in which every household made everything it used. None of the other three options can be reached from the word: a sword-maker, a mace-maker and the vajra all have their own vocabulary, and the vajra in any case is Indra's weapon rather than an article of manufacture.

• (b)Swords — Nothing in ishukrit or ishukara points to a sword. The element ishu specifically means arrow, not a blade or weapon in general.
• (c)Vajra (Thunderbolt) — The vajra is Indra's thunderbolt weapon. In the hymns it is fashioned by Tvashtri, the divine craftsman — mythological, not the work of a named human occupation.
• (d)Maces — A mace-maker would be built on a different word altogether. The trap here is simply picking any weapon once you spot that the term names a weapon-maker.

The Rig Veda is a collection of hymns, not a description of society, but the occupations it names in passing are among the best evidence for how early Vedic life was organised. Terms for the arrow-maker, the chariot-maker or carpenter, the smith, the weaver and the physician appear scattered through the hymns. Taken together they indicate specialised crafts existing well before the elaborate occupational hierarchy of later texts, while stopping well short of it — these are trades, not yet castes.

This is a vocabulary question dressed as a history question, and it is answerable without having read the Rig Veda, provided you can take the compound apart. That skill is worth practising, because the papers use it repeatedly: ishu-krit and ishu-kara, like go-pa (cow-protector, hence herdsman) or ratha-kara (chariot-maker), wear their meaning on the surface. When a Sanskrit or Prakrit term appears in an option set, try splitting it before reaching for memory. The second-order point is what the existence of a word for 'arrow-maker' implies. Archery is central to Vedic warfare — the hymns describe the bow, the bowstring and the quiver, and a whole hymn praises the weapons of war — so a dedicated craftsman for arrows is exactly what one would expect, and its appearance in the text is a small piece of evidence about the division of labour.

• Ishu is the Sanskrit word for arrow; ishukrit and ishukara both mean 'arrow-maker'.
• The suffix -kara forms agent nouns in Sanskrit and appears in many occupational terms, such as rathakara, the chariot-maker.
• The Rig Veda names craft occupations including the arrow-maker, chariot-maker or carpenter, smith, weaver and physician.
• The vajra, Indra's thunderbolt, is described as fashioned by Tvashtri, the craftsman of the gods.
• Archery is central to warfare in the hymns, which describe the bow, bowstring and quiver in some detail.

• Reaching for the most striking weapon on the list — the vajra — when the word itself points elsewhere.
• Treating occupational terms in the Rig Veda as evidence for fully formed castes; they indicate trades.
• Overlooking that two different-looking terms here are two formations of the same compound, not two occupations.

As a term-to-meaning item on Vedic vocabulary, or folded into a statements question on crafts and occupations in the Rig Veda.

No directly related past PYQ was found.

• practice — not a real PYQ

  The Sanskrit term rathakara, found in Vedic literature, refers to a

  • (a)charioteer in battle
  • (b)chariot-maker
  • (c)keeper of the royal stables
  • (d)maker of bowstrings

  Answer(b) chariot-maker — ratha is chariot and -kara is the agent suffix, the same formation as in ishukara, the arrow-maker.

• practice — not a real PYQ

  In the Rig Veda, the vajra is described as having been fashioned by

  • (a)Tvashtri
  • (b)Varuna
  • (c)Agni
  • (d)Pushan

  Answer(a) Tvashtri — the craftsman of the gods, who makes Indra's thunderbolt weapon.