HISTORY (027) 

CLASS-XII 
Time Allowed:3hrs 
Max. Marks: 80  

General Instructions: 
(i) Question paper comprises five Sections – A, B, C, D and E. There are 34 questions
in the question paper. All questions are compulsory. 
(ii)Section A – Question 1 to 21 are MCQs of 1 mark each. 
(iii) Section B – Question no. 22 to 27 are Short Answer Type Questions, carrying 3
marks each. Answer to each question should not exceed 60-80 words. 
(iv) Section C - Question no 28 to 30 are Long Answer Type Questions, carrying 8
marks each. Answer to each question should not exceed 300-350 words 
(v) Section D – Question no.31 to 33 are Source based questions with three sub
questions and are of 4 marks each 
(vi) Section-E - Question no. 34 is Map based, carrying 5 marks that includes the
identification and location of significant test items. Attach the map with the answer
book. 
(vi) There is no overall choice in the question paper. However, an internal choice has
been provided in few questions. Only one of the choices in such questions have to
be attempted. 
(viii) In addition to this, separate instructions are given with each section and
question, wherever necessary. 

Section A (1x21=21)
1. Which of these is the feature of Harappan Civilisation?
(a) Urban planning
(b) Drainage system
(c) Citadel and Lower town
(d) All of these
2. From where did Harappans get gold?
(a) South India
(b) Central India
(c) Himalayan Region
(d) Chotta Nagpur region
3. Which of these was the source of copper for Harappans?
(a) Karnataka
(b) Rajasthan
(c) Andhra Pradesh
(d) Gujarat
4. Which of these was the cause of decline of Harappan civilisation?
(a) Climatic Change
(b) Floods
(c) Deforestation
(d) All of these
5. Which of these was not worshipped by the Harappan?
(a) Nature
(b) Goddess
(c) Indra
(d) Pashupatinath
6.  In The Indus Valley Civilization, The Mud Plows Are Found In Which Sites ?
(a)Lothal
(b) Kalibangan
(c) Harappa
(d) Rakhigarhi
7. Which of the following Indus Valley sites is presently in Pakistan ?
(a)Kalibangan
(b)Harappa
(c)Rakhigarhi
(d) Lothal
8. Who deciphered Brahmi and Kharoshtl scripts?
(a) James Princep
(b) Cunningham
(c) Wheelar
(d) John Marshall
9. Who appointed Dhamma Mahamatras?
(a) Bimbisara
(b) Samudraupta
(c) Ashoka
(d) Pandya
10. Who founded the Mauryan Empire?
(a) Ashoka
(b) Chandragupta Maurys
(c) Bindusara
(d) Ajatashatru
11. Harishena was the court poet of ________
(a) Samudragupta
(b) Chandragupta II
(c) Ashoka
(d) Chandragupta Maurya
12. _refers to a form of government where power is  exercised by a group of men.
(a)Plutocracy
(b) .Autocracy
(C).Monarchy
(d).Oligarchy
13. Xuan Zang visited Patliputra in __ century CE .
(a) 6th
(b) 4th
(c) 8th
(d )7th
14. audheyas belong to which state ?
(a)Bengal
(b)Punjab
(c)Haryana
(d)Both A and C
15. Special officers who were appointed for spreading the message of Dhamma were known as?
(a)Dhamma Mahamatta
(b)Dhamma Guru
(c)None of these
(d)Dhamma Matta
16. Which one is not a Mahajanpad ?
(a)Awadh
(b)Vatsa
(c)Panchala
(d)Koashala
17. Who won the battle of Mahabharata?
(a) Pandavas
(b) Kaurvas
(c) Mauryans
(d) Salvahanas
18. According to Shastras, only ______ could rule the country.
(a) Brahmins
(b) Kshatriyas
(e) Vaishyas
(d) Shudras
19. Which of these rulers followed endogamy?
(a) Satvahanas
(b) Pandavas
(e) Mauryas
(d) None of these
20.  V.S. Sukthankar  is ___?
(a)A Novelist
(b)An Achaeologiest
(c) A Sanskritist
(d)None of these
21.  Nishada belongs to which community ?
(a)All of the above
(b).Slave community
(c)Sailing community
(d)Hunting community

SECTION - B (3x6=18)
SHORT ANSWER TYPE QUESTIONS
22. Who was John Marshall? How did he mark a change in the Indian archaeology?
23. What are the evidences found by the archaeologists which show that the
Harappans had contacts with distant lands? Does it show that the contact proved to
have good trade relations with each other
24. Who was Prabhavati Gupta? Tell a rare example found about her.
25. Why is James Princep’s contribution considered as the historic development? in
the Indian epigraphy?
26. “The Mahabharata is a story of Kinship, marriages, and patriline.” Examine the
statement.
27. Describe the position of the untouchables in ancient society.
SECTION - C (8x3=24)
Long Answer Type Questions
28. Describe any five pieces of evidence which reflect the decline and abandonment
of mature Harappan sites by 1800 BCE.
OR
Discuss in detail about the town planning of Indus Valley Civilisation.
29. “Historians have used a variety of sources to reconstruct the history of the
Mauryan Empire.” Explain.
OR
State the factors that helped Magadha emerge as the most powerful Mahajanapada
in the 6th century B.C.E.
30. What is Mahabharata? How its critical edition was prepared?
SECTION -D
Source Based Questions
31. Read the following source carefully and answer the questions that follow:
Read the following passage and answer the questions that follow.
The frontiers of the Harappan Civilisation have little or no connection with present-
day national boundaries.
However, with the partition of the sub-continent and the creation of Pakistan, the
major sites are now in Pakistan territory. This has spurred Indian archaeologists to
try and locate sites in India. An extensive survey in Kutch has revealed a number of
Harappan settlements and explorations in Punjab and Harappan settlements have
added to the list of Harappan sites. While Kalibangan, Lothal, Rakhi Garhi and most
recently Dholavira have been discovered, explored and excavated as part of these
efforts, fresh explorations continue.
31.1 What problem has occurred in the frontiers of the Harappan Civilisation?
(2)
31.2 What has spurred Indian archaeologists to do? Which settements have
been found recently? (2)

32. Read the following source carefully and answer the questions that follow:
Capturing Elephants for the Army

The Arthashastra lays down minute details of administrative and military

organisation. This is what it says about how to capture elephants: Guards of
elephant forests, assisted by those who rear elephants, those who enchain the legs
of elephants, those who guard the boundaries, those who live in forests, as well as
by those who nurse elephants, shall with the help of five or seven female elephants
to help in tethering wild ones, trace the whereabouts of herds of elephants by
following the course of urine and dung left by elephants.

According to Greek sources, the Mauryan ruler had a standing army of 600,000 foot-
soldiers, 30,000 cavalry and 9,000 elephants. Some historians consider these
accounts to be exaggerated.

32.1 Whose creation is the Arthashastra? (1)

33.2 Why were the elephants captured? (1)
33.3 How were the elephants captured? (2)
33. Read the following source carefully and answer the questions that follow:
The Bodhisatta as a Chandala

Did chandalas resist the attempts to push them to the bottom of the social order?
Read this story, which is part of the Matanga Jataka, a Pali text, where the
Bodhisatta (the Buddha in a previous birth) is identified as a chandala. Once, the
Bodhisatta was born outside the city of Banaras as a chandala’s son and named
Matanga. One day, when he had gone to the city on some work, he encountered
Dittha Mangalika, the daughter of a merchant. When she saw him, she exclaimed “I
have seen something inauspicious” and washed her eyes.

The angry hangers-on then beat him up. In protest, he went and lay down at the door
of her father’s house. On the seventh day, they brought out the girl and gave her to
him. She carried the starving Matanga back to the chandala settlement. Once he
returned home, he decided to renounce the world. After attaining spiritual powers, he
returned to Benaras and married her. A son named Mandavya Kumara was born to
them.

He learned the three Vedas as he grew up and began to provide food to 16,000
Brahmanas every day. One day, Matanga, dressed in rags, with a clay alms bowl in
his hand, arrived at his son’s doorstep and begged for food. Mandavya replied that
he looked like an outcast and was unworthy of alms; the food was meant for the
Brahmanas. Matanga said: “Those who are proud of their birth and are ignorant do
not deserve gifts.

On the contrary, those who are free from vices are worthy of offerings.” Mandavya
lost his temper and asked his servants to throw the man out. Matanga rose in the air
and disappeared. When Ditta Mangalika learned about the incident, she followed
Matanga and begged his forgiveness. He asked her to take a bit of the leftover from
his bowl and give it to Mandavya and the Brahmanas.

33.1 From where has this story been taken? To whom is it related? (2)
33.2 How did Matanga marry Dittha? (2)
SECTION - E
Map Based Question (5)
34. (34.1) On the given political map of India, locate and label the following with
appropriate symbols:
Points 5 sites of Indus Valley Civilisation