The Gupta Age and the Southern Dynasties — Who Ruled, Who Built What, and Who Visited Whose Court

Between roughly 320 and 550 CE the Guptas held northern India, and for the five centuries after them the interesting history moved south — to Kanchipuram, Badami, Ellora and Thanjavur. General studies papers treat the whole span as one matching block, and they almost never ask you to explain anything. They ask who, where and which.

That makes it a scoring block, but only if you store it the right way. Storing it as a story does not help, because a story cannot be searched under exam pressure. Storing each ruler as a card with three fixed slots does: one identifying event, one monument or text, and one visitor or opponent.

Work through this set that way. By the end you should be able to hear the word 'Aihole' and produce Ravikirti and Pulakeshin II without touching anything else in memory.

1. The Allahabad Pillar Inscription (Prayag Prashasti), the main source for the conquests of Samudragupta, was composed by:

2. The Chinese pilgrim Fa-Hien visited India during the reign of:

3. The Kailasa temple at Ellora, carved downwards out of a single rock face, was built under the patronage of:

4. The Uttaramerur inscription, the key evidence for village self-government under the Cholas, belongs to the reign of:

5. Pulakeshin II, who checked Harshavardhana's advance towards the Deccan, belonged to which dynasty?

6. The Brihadeshwara (Rajarajeshwara) temple at Thanjavur was built by:

7. Nalanda Mahavihara is generally held to have been founded by the Gupta ruler:

8. Aryabhata, who held that the Earth rotates on its own axis, completed the Aryabhatiya in: