UPSC CAPF AC 2026 Ancient History Previous Year Questions

The first printed Tamil book was Thambiran Vanakkam (also called Doctrina Christam in Tamil), printed in 1578 by Portuguese missionaries.
It is regarded as the first book printed in the Tamil script.

Bhimji Parikh, a prominent Gujarati merchant, played a key role in bringing the first printing press to Bombay from England in 1674, with the assistance of the printer Henry Hills.

Kashf-ul Mahjub is a treatise on Sufi doctrine and practice (2); Fawa'id-al Fu'ad records the conversations of Shaikh Nizamuddin Auliya (4); Siyar-ul Auliya gives biographical accounts of Sufi saints (1); Maktubat-i Imam Rabbani is the collected letters of Shaikh Ahmad Sirhindi (3).

The Amara-Nayaka territories were not hereditary — they were periodically reassigned/transferable at the discretion of the Vijayanagara ruler, which was central to how the Raya kept the Nayakas under control.

The Zawar mines in Rajasthan are known for zinc ore mixed with copper, lead and silver; zinc distillation there dates to around the 14th century, one of the earliest such processes in the world; and Abul Fazl, in the Ain-i-Akbari, noted zinc (jasad) as a metal not known to earlier (ancient) writers.

Ancient Indian astronomers (e.g. Aryabhata, Varahamihira) described the five visible planets known since antiquity — Mercury, Venus, Mars, Jupiter, Saturn — along with the Sun and Moon. Uranus is not visible to the naked eye and was discovered only in 1781, so it finds no mention in ancient Indian astronomical texts.

Kodumanal, also known as Kodumanam in Sangam literature, is a village in Erode district, Tamil Nadu, on the banks of the Noyyal River. It is a well-known archaeological site with evidence of Iron Age/Megalithic and Early Historic occupation, bead-making and iron/steel working, trade links, and burial sites.

The Hathigumpha inscription of Kharavela mentions "Tramira desa yojanasataka samghatam," referring to the confederacy (sangha) of Tamil states that he broke up, showing his military campaigns extended into the Tamil region.

Aryaman is a Vedic Aditya (solar deity) associated with contracts, hospitality, and marriage. He is invoked in marriage hymns as the guardian who oversees compacts between families and safeguards the marital bond, unlike Varuna (cosmic order/law) or Agni (sacrificial fire).

While 'Gotra' in the Rigveda originally meant a cow-pen/cattle enclosure, it first appears in the Atharvaveda with the sense of a clan or lineage group.

"Descent of the Ganga" (also called Arjuna's Penance) is a massive open-air rock relief carved at Mamallapuram under the Pallavas, depicting the mythological descent of the river Ganga to earth.