Meera, a history student, is preparing a project on everyday life in early India. Her teacher gives her a colossal Sanskrit epic whose central story is about two sets of warring cousins, and asks her to use it as a source. Meera first reads it as a story. She then wants to find out what it can tell her about the attitudes and practices of the people among whom it was composed and heard.
Besides its central story, the epic Meera is studying also contains sections that:
Answer & explanation
Correct answer: option 3
The correct answer is Option (3) → lay down norms of behaviour for various social groups
Option (1) narrate the previous births of the Buddha — Incorrect. Stories of the previous births of the Buddha are the Jatakas, a Buddhist tradition in Pali. They belong to a separate body of Buddhist stories.
Option (2) record the genealogies of the Satavahana kings — Incorrect. Satavahana family details are known from their inscriptions. The epic does not record the line of any historical dynasty like this.
Option (3) lay down norms of behaviour for various social groups — Correct. Besides the story of two sets of warring cousins, the Mahabharata has sections laying down norms of behaviour for various social groups. This is why historians use it to study social rules.
Option (4) describe the conquests of the Mauryan ruler Ashoka — Incorrect. Ashoka's conquests are known from his own inscriptions. The epic's central story is a war between two sets of cousins.
NCERT (2026-27): “Early Societies THREE (C. 600 BCE- … |