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GCE A/L History study materials
GCE A/L History study resources

GCE A/L History practice questions

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Question 1Historical method, source criticism and historiography

In source criticism, what is the standard meaning of the term 'provenance' when applied to a document used by a historian?

  1. The record of a source's origin, custody and transmission up to the present Correct answer.
  2. The degree to which a source's contents match other surviving accounts
  3. The date on which a source was first translated into a modern language
  4. The literary genre to which a source belongs

Explanation

Provenance concerns the chain of ownership and custody that a source has passed through, and it matters because it establishes whether a text is authentic, complete or interpolated. A historian who cannot trace provenance must treat the document's text with corresponding caution.

Question 2Historical method, source criticism and historiography

A historian treats a royal chronicle and a merchant's private ledger as 'primary sources' for a study of sixteenth-century taxation. Which statement best justifies calling both primary?

  1. Both were written by authors who held official positions in the government
  2. Both were produced within the period under study by people with direct involvement in its affairs Correct answer.
  3. Both have been endorsed by later historians as reliable accounts
  4. Both have survived in manuscript form rather than in printed editions

Explanation

Primary status depends on the source's relationship to the period and events studied, not on its physical form or the author's rank. A chronicle and a ledger are both primary if they were generated within, or by participants in, the period examined.

Question 3Historical method, source criticism and historiography

What distinguishes a secondary source from a primary source in historical practice?

  1. A secondary source is any source written after the author's own lifetime
  2. A secondary source is always less accurate than a primary source
  3. A secondary source is a source that has been published in book form
  4. A secondary source interprets or analyses evidence produced by others rather than originating in the period studied Correct answer.

Explanation

The distinction rests on function: secondary works comment on and synthesise primary evidence rather than emerging directly from the events examined. Accuracy is a separate question, and a secondary source may correct a misleading primary one.

Question 4Historical method, source criticism and historiography

A historian reads a nineteenth-century biography of a politician and uses it only as evidence of how Victorians imagined their political leaders. What is this technique called?

  1. Testing the source's factual claims against contemporary newspapers
  2. Establishing the source's provenance through archival catalogues
  3. Collating variant manuscripts to produce a critical edition
  4. Reading the source against its intended purpose to recover its assumptions Correct answer.

Explanation

Using a source as evidence of the mentalities or assumptions it embodies, rather than of the facts it asserts, is a recognised critical technique. It treats the text as a cultural artefact whose silences and framing are themselves evidence.

Question 5Historical method, source criticism and historiography

Which procedure is the clearest example of external criticism applied to a medieval charter?

  1. Examining the parchment, ink, script and seals to test whether the document is genuine Correct answer.
  2. Analysing the charter's vocabulary for signs of the author's bias
  3. Assessing whether the charter's narrative of events is internally coherent
  4. Comparing the charter's account with an independent annalistic chronicle

Explanation

External criticism establishes authenticity by examining the physical and formal characteristics of a document. Internal criticism, by contrast, evaluates the credibility and meaning of the content once authenticity is accepted.

Question 6Historical method, source criticism and historiography

A historian notes that two chronicles report the same battle but were probably copied from a single lost source. Why does this weaken the value of their agreement as corroboration?

  1. Agreement between sources that are not independent does not add confirming weight Correct answer.
  2. The lost source must have been written later than both chronicles
  3. Agreement between two sources proves that both are forgeries
  4. Chronicles are always unreliable when they describe battles

Explanation

Corroboration only strengthens a claim when the sources reached it independently, since shared dependence transmits a single error rather than confirming it. Identifying a common lost source therefore reduces two apparent witnesses to one.

Question 7Historical method, source criticism and historiography

What does 'anachronism' mean when a historian criticises a source or a later interpretation?

  1. The deliberate omission of inconvenient events from a narrative
  2. The attribution of ideas, practices or objects to a period in which they did not exist Correct answer.
  3. The translation of a source into a language other than its original
  4. The use of a single source to support an unusually broad conclusion

Explanation

Anachronism is the misplaced dating of a concept, institution or artefact, and it undermines both contemporary documents and modern readings of them. Historians guard against it by reconstructing a period's own vocabulary and assumptions.

Question 8Historical method, source criticism and historiography

A diarist writing during a famine records that 'no one in the town has eaten for a week'. Which criticism is most appropriate for a historian assessing this statement?

  1. The statement must be rejected entirely because diarists are unreliable witnesses
  2. The statement can be accepted once the diarist's handwriting is authenticated
  3. The statement is reliable because it was written at the time by a resident
  4. The statement is rhetorical hyperbole and should be read as evidence of distress rather than literal fact Correct answer.

Explanation

Internal criticism distinguishes between a source's literal claims and the rhetorical conventions within which it writes. Exaggerated language in a contemporary diary is itself evidence of the severity of the crisis even where the literal claim is impossible.

Question 9Historical method, source criticism and historiography

Which statement best describes the historiographical position known as 'Whig history'?

  1. The view that historical interpretation is entirely determined by the historian's class position
  2. The tendency to read the past as an inevitable progression towards present institutions and values Correct answer.
  3. The insistence that economic forces determine all historical change
  4. The claim that history can be written only from original archival documents

Explanation

Whig history, so named after historians who traced a progressive constitutional story, judges the past by its contribution to an admired present. Critics such as Butterfield attacked its teleology and its selective reading of evidence.

Question 10Historical method, source criticism and historiography

The historian E. H. Carr argued that history is 'a continuous process of interaction between the historian and his facts'. What does this claim imply about the status of historical facts?

  1. Facts speak for themselves once documents have been authenticated
  2. Facts become historically significant only when selected and interpreted by a historian Correct answer.
  3. Facts are entirely invented by historians and have no independent existence
  4. Facts are significant only when they concern political events

Explanation

Carr's formulation rejects both the notion of bare facts speaking for themselves and the view that historians simply fabricate the past. Facts exist, but their historical meaning emerges through the historian's selection and questioning.

Question 11Historical method, source criticism and historiography

What is the principal purpose of a footnote or endnote in a scholarly historical monograph?

  1. To translate foreign-language quotations for a general audience
  2. To display the author's familiarity with a large body of secondary literature
  3. To summarise the argument of each chapter for skimming readers
  4. To allow readers to verify claims by identifying the evidence and locating it precisely Correct answer.

Explanation

Referencing exists so that a claim can be checked against its evidence, which is a condition of scholarly accountability. Display of learning or reader convenience may incidentally result, but verifiability is the governing purpose.

Question 12Historical method, source criticism and historiography

A historian discovers that a widely cited eyewitness memoir was in fact composed decades later with the help of published histories. How should this finding affect the memoir's use?

  1. The memoir becomes a primary source for the events it describes
  2. The memoir becomes worthless and should be excluded from all discussion
  3. Its value as testimony about the events is reduced, though it remains evidence of later memory and self-presentation Correct answer.
  4. The memoir's reliability is unaffected because the author was present at the events

Explanation

If a memoir was shaped by published histories, its content may reflect those works rather than direct recollection, so its evidential weight for the events diminishes. It can still be read as evidence of how the past was remembered and presented later.

Question 13Historical method, source criticism and historiography

Which of the following best illustrates 'oral history' as a source for historians?

  1. A recorded interview in which a retired worker recalls conditions in a factory closed fifty years ago Correct answer.
  2. A collection of letters written by soldiers during a war and preserved in a national archive
  3. A statistical series compiled by a government department from tax returns
  4. A museum catalogue describing artefacts recovered from a shipwreck

Explanation

Oral history consists of testimony elicited through interview, often capturing experiences absent from written records. Its strengths include personal detail and the recovery of marginalised voices; its weaknesses include the fallibility of memory and the influence of the interviewer.

Question 14Historical method, source criticism and historiography

A historian uses a set of parish registers to establish long-term changes in the age at which people married. Which methodological strength does this approach chiefly offer?

  1. It records the attitudes of the clergy towards marriage
  2. It provides serial, quantifiable evidence across many cases rather than isolated impressions Correct answer.
  3. It preserves the exact words of the parties to each marriage
  4. It captures the emotional experience of marriage for individual couples

Explanation

Aggregate records such as parish registers permit quantification over long periods and large populations, which supports demographic generalisation. They are weak precisely where individual feeling and opinion are concerned.

Question 15Historical method, source criticism and historiography

What does a historian mean by 'periodisation'?

  1. The arrangement of a bibliography in chronological order
  2. The dating of undated documents by examining their handwriting
  3. The measurement of dates using a single calendar system
  4. The analytical division of the past into named periods for purposes of study and comparison Correct answer.

Explanation

Periodisation is a deliberate analytical choice, and its boundaries are conventions that reflect particular questions and perspectives. Labels such as 'the Renaissance' or 'the Middle Ages' carry assumptions that historians frequently contest.

Question 16Historical method, source criticism and historiography

A historian of empire argues that the absence of colonial subjects' voices in an official archive is itself a finding. Which concept best names this analytical move?

  1. Compiling a critical edition of the archive's texts
  2. Corroborating the archive against another archive
  3. Reading the archive's silences as evidence of power relations Correct answer.
  4. Establishing the authenticity of the archive's documents

Explanation

Archives are shaped by the institutions that created them, and their omissions can reveal whose testimony was considered worth recording. Historians such as Trouillot have argued that such silences are produced and must be explained rather than merely lamented.

Question 17Historical method, source criticism and historiography

Which question is an example of 'internal criticism' rather than 'external criticism'?

  1. Is the seal attached to this charter contemporary with the parchment?
  2. Was this document listed in the abbey's medieval inventory?
  3. Was the author of this chronicle in a position to know the events he describes? Correct answer.
  4. Does the ink of this manuscript match other manuscripts from the same scriptorium?

Explanation

Internal criticism asks whether the author was competent and well placed to report, and whether the account is credible. The other questions test the physical and archival genuineness of the object, which is external criticism.

Question 18Historical method, source criticism and historiography

What is the principal objection to the doctrine of 'historicism' in the sense used by Karl Popper?

  1. It claims that the course of history follows laws permitting large-scale prediction of future societies Correct answer.
  2. It denies that documents can ever be authenticated
  3. It insists on the study of the past for its own sake
  4. It relies excessively on quantitative methods

Explanation

Popper attacked the claim that history obeys laws enabling prophecy about future social development, arguing that such prediction is incompatible with the growth of knowledge. Historians also use 'historicism' in other senses, so the term must be read in context.

Question 19Historical method, source criticism and historiography

A historian comparing two accounts of the same treaty finds that one omits a clause unfavourable to its patron. What is the most appropriate response?

  1. Assume the clause was never in the treaty and discard the second account
  2. Accept the fuller account entirely because it contains more detail
  3. Conclude that both accounts are deliberate propaganda and use neither
  4. Note the omission as evidence of the source's partiality while seeking other witnesses to the clause Correct answer.

Explanation

Selective omission indicates the interests of the source's author or patron and should be recorded as part of the source's character. The historian then seeks independent evidence rather than either accepting or rejecting the accounts wholesale.

Question 20Historical method, source criticism and historiography

Which statement best captures the difference between 'source' and 'evidence' in historical method?

  1. A source belongs to the past, while evidence belongs to the present
  2. A source is reliable, while evidence is unreliable
  3. A source is a surviving trace of the past, while evidence is a source used to answer a particular question Correct answer.
  4. A source is always written, while evidence may be material or oral

Explanation

Anything surviving from the past can be a source, but it becomes evidence only when a historian deploys it to answer a question. The same object may be evidence for one inquiry and irrelevant to another.

Question 21Prehistory and early historic Sri Lanka

Which site in Sri Lanka has yielded the earliest securely dated evidence of human occupation, associated with a Mesolithic microlithic industry?

  1. Sigiriya
  2. Batadombalena Correct answer.
  3. Polonnaruwa
  4. Anuradhapura

Explanation

Batadombalena, a cave site in the Wet Zone, has produced radiocarbon dates of about 28,000–30,000 BP together with microlithic tools, making it one of the earliest securely dated occupation sites on the island. Anuradhapura, Polonnaruwa and Sigiriya are historic urban or monastic centres of much later periods.

Question 22Prehistory and early historic Sri Lanka

The term 'Balangoda culture' is used by Sri Lankan archaeologists to refer to which phenomenon?

  1. The earliest iron-using settlements of the Dry Zone
  2. The Buddhist monastic culture of the Anuradhapura period
  3. The megalithic burial tradition of the early historic period
  4. The Mesolithic microlithic assemblage and associated human remains dated to the Late Pleistocene and early Holocene Correct answer.

Explanation

The Balangoda culture is the name given to the microlithic stone-tool tradition and skeletal remains (including the 'Balangoda Man') found in caves such as Batadombalena and Fa Hien Lena, dated to the Late Pleistocene and early Holocene. It predates iron use, megalithic burials and Buddhist monasticism.

Question 23Prehistory and early historic Sri Lanka

Which of the following best describes the characteristic stone tool industry of Sri Lanka's Mesolithic cave dwellers?

  1. Small geometric microliths, including backed blades and lunates Correct answer.
  2. Ground and polished stone axes with shouldered adzes
  3. Large Acheulian handaxes and cleavers
  4. Iron spearheads and arrowheads

Explanation

Mesolithic assemblages in Sri Lankan caves are dominated by small geometric microliths such as backed blades, lunates and triangles, often made on quartz. Handaxes belong to the Lower Palaeolithic, ground stone axes to the Neolithic, and iron to later periods.

Question 24Prehistory and early historic Sri Lanka

The earliest evidence for the domestication of plants and animals in Sri Lanka is associated with which site?

  1. Anuradhapura
  2. Tissamaharama
  3. Ibbankatuwa Correct answer.
  4. Horton Plains

Explanation

Ibbankatuwa, near Dambulla, has produced evidence of early agriculture, including domesticated rice and the rearing of cattle, in contexts dated to the late prehistoric period. The other sites are better known for later historic or megalithic remains.

Question 25Prehistory and early historic Sri Lanka

The megalithic burial sites of Sri Lanka, such as those at Ibbankatuwa and Pomparippu, are best dated to which period?

  1. The protohistoric Iron Age, roughly the first millennium BCE Correct answer.
  2. The medieval Polonnaruwa period
  3. The Mesolithic, before 10,000 BP
  4. The early historic period, after the introduction of Buddhism

Explanation

Megalithic burials with cist graves and grave goods are characteristic of the protohistoric Iron Age in Sri Lanka, generally dated within the first millennium BCE. They precede the mature early historic urbanism of Anuradhapura and are not Mesolithic or medieval.

Question 26Prehistory and early historic Sri Lanka

Which statement best explains why Sri Lanka's Wet Zone caves have preserved important evidence of Late Pleistocene human occupation?

  1. They are limestone caves that accumulated sediments and preserved organic remains Correct answer.
  2. They were continuously occupied by iron-using farmers
  3. They were royal shelters during the Anuradhapura period
  4. They were formed by volcanic activity and contain no organic material

Explanation

The Wet Zone caves are predominantly limestone karst caves in which sediments, hearths, shells and bone have accumulated and been preserved, allowing radiocarbon dating and palaeoenvironmental reconstruction. They were not iron-age farms, royal shelters, or volcanic features.

Question 27Prehistory and early historic Sri Lanka

The 'Balangoda Man' skeletal remains are significant primarily because they

  1. provide the earliest known human skeletal evidence from Sri Lanka Correct answer.
  2. demonstrate the presence of Buddhist monks in the Stone Age
  3. prove that Sri Lanka was settled by iron-using migrants
  4. show that the island was uninhabited until the historic period

Explanation

The Balangoda Man remains, recovered from caves such as Batadombalena and Fa Hien Lena, are the earliest human skeletal evidence yet found in Sri Lanka and are associated with Mesolithic tool assemblages. They do not relate to iron migration, Buddhist monasticism, or an empty island.

Question 28Prehistory and early historic Sri Lanka

Which of the following sites is a cave in the Wet Zone that has yielded both microlithic tools and human skeletal remains?

  1. Jaffna
  2. Kelaniya
  3. Mihintale
  4. Fa Hien Lena Correct answer.

Explanation

Fa Hien Lena, near Bulathsinhala, is a Wet Zone cave that has produced microlithic assemblages and human skeletal remains dated to the Late Pleistocene. Mihintale, Kelaniya and Jaffna are historic or religious sites without comparable Mesolithic cave deposits.

Question 29Prehistory and early historic Sri Lanka

Which environmental change at the end of the Pleistocene is thought to have influenced the transition from Mesolithic foraging to early agriculture in Sri Lanka?

  1. A rise in sea level that submerged all coastal plains
  2. A shift to a warmer, wetter climate with the expansion of forests and grasslands Correct answer.
  3. The onset of glacial conditions across the island
  4. The complete drying of the island's rivers

Explanation

The end of the Pleistocene brought warmer and wetter conditions, forest expansion and more stable resource zones, which created conditions favourable to the management of plants and animals. Glaciation, total river drying and complete submergence of the coastal plains are not supported for this period.

Question 30Prehistory and early historic Sri Lanka

The earliest iron objects in Sri Lanka are generally found in contexts associated with which development?

  1. Mesolithic cave occupation
  2. The protohistoric Iron Age, linked to the emergence of megalithic burials Correct answer.
  3. The colonial period
  4. The medieval Polonnaruwa kingdom

Explanation

Iron appears in Sri Lanka during the protohistoric Iron Age, in association with megalithic cist burials and early settlements, well before the medieval and colonial periods. It is not part of the Mesolithic cave assemblages.

Question 31Prehistory and early historic Sri Lanka

Which of the following is the most reliable method for dating a Mesolithic cave deposit containing charcoal and bone?

  1. Radiocarbon dating of charcoal and bone Correct answer.
  2. Dendrochronology of tropical hardwood
  3. Thermoluminescence of the cave walls
  4. Potassium-argon dating of volcanic ash

Explanation

Radiocarbon dating of organic materials such as charcoal and bone is the standard method for Late Pleistocene and Holocene cave deposits in Sri Lanka. Dendrochronology is rarely applicable in tropical contexts without long master sequences, potassium-argon requires volcanic materials, and thermoluminescence of cave walls does not date occupation.

Question 32Prehistory and early historic Sri Lanka

The transition from the Mesolithic to the Neolithic in Sri Lanka is best characterised as

  1. a sudden replacement of foraging by iron-using farmers
  2. a return to Lower Palaeolithic handaxe technology
  3. a period in which stone tools were abandoned entirely
  4. a gradual shift involving the adoption of agriculture and domestic animals alongside continued foraging Correct answer.

Explanation

Archaeological evidence points to a gradual transition in which domesticated plants and animals were adopted while foraging continued, rather than a sudden replacement. Stone tools were not abandoned entirely, and there was no return to Lower Palaeolithic technology.

Question 33Prehistory and early historic Sri Lanka

Which of the following best explains the importance of the Horton Plains for Sri Lankan prehistory?

  1. It contains the earliest Buddhist monastery on the island
  2. It contains the largest megalithic burial ground
  3. It is the site of the earliest iron smelting furnace
  4. It preserves a long environmental and possible early human record in a highland setting Correct answer.

Explanation

Horton Plains is significant for its long palaeoenvironmental record and possible evidence of early human activity in the highlands. It is not associated with the earliest Buddhist monastery, the earliest iron smelting, or the largest megalithic burial ground.

Question 34Prehistory and early historic Sri Lanka

Which of the following statements about the Mesolithic inhabitants of Sri Lanka is best supported by the archaeological evidence?

  1. They practised settled rice agriculture from the outset
  2. They manufactured iron weapons
  3. They hunted and gathered and used microlithic tools Correct answer.
  4. They built large irrigation tanks

Explanation

The Mesolithic inhabitants were hunter-gatherers who used microlithic stone tools, as shown by cave assemblages. Settled rice agriculture, large irrigation tanks and iron weapons belong to later periods.

Question 35Prehistory and early historic Sri Lanka

The presence of marine shells in some Wet Zone cave deposits is significant because it suggests

  1. the caves were once under the sea
  2. the inhabitants exploited coastal resources or obtained them through exchange Correct answer.
  3. the caves were used as Buddhist monasteries
  4. the inhabitants were iron smelters

Explanation

Marine shells in inland cave deposits indicate that the inhabitants either travelled to the coast to exploit marine resources or obtained shells through exchange networks. They do not show that the caves were submerged, monastic, or associated with iron smelting.

Question 36Prehistory and early historic Sri Lanka

Which of the following sites is associated with early historic urbanism and provides evidence of long-distance trade in Sri Lanka?

  1. Fa Hien Lena
  2. Batadombalena
  3. Horton Plains
  4. Anuradhapura Correct answer.

Explanation

Anuradhapura is the classic early historic urban centre of Sri Lanka and has produced evidence of trade goods and craft production. The other sites are prehistoric cave or highland locations.

Question 37Prehistory and early historic Sri Lanka

The megalithic cist graves at Ibbankatuwa are typically associated with which set of grave goods?

  1. Iron implements, pottery and beads Correct answer.
  2. Microlithic stone tools only
  3. European glass and coins
  4. Buddhist relics and manuscripts

Explanation

Ibbankatuwa cist graves have yielded iron implements, pottery and beads, consistent with a protohistoric Iron Age burial tradition. Microliths alone characterise the Mesolithic, while Buddhist relics and European goods belong to later periods.

Question 38Prehistory and early historic Sri Lanka

Which of the following best explains why the earliest evidence for rice cultivation in Sri Lanka is difficult to date precisely?

  1. Rice was introduced only in the medieval period
  2. Rice remains are rarely preserved and are often found in disturbed or mixed deposits Correct answer.
  3. Rice cultivation was practised only by hunter-gatherers
  4. Rice remains are always found in volcanic ash layers

Explanation

Rice and other plant remains are fragile and are often recovered from disturbed or mixed deposits, which complicates precise dating. Rice was not introduced only in the medieval period, was not a hunter-gatherer practice, and is not preserved in volcanic ash layers in Sri Lanka.

Question 39Prehistory and early historic Sri Lanka

A student argues that the Balangoda culture should be dated to the first millennium BCE because it is found in the same caves as later historic remains. Which criticism of this argument is most valid?

  1. The caves were formed only in the historic period
  2. The Balangoda culture is actually medieval
  3. Radiocarbon dating cannot be applied to cave deposits
  4. Cave deposits are often stratified, so later historic remains can overlie much earlier Mesolithic layers Correct answer.

Explanation

Cave sediments are stratified, and later historic use can overlie Mesolithic deposits without dating them; the Balangoda culture is dated by radiocarbon to the Late Pleistocene and early Holocene. It is not medieval, the caves are far older, and radiocarbon dating is routinely applied to cave deposits.

Question 40Prehistory and early historic Sri Lanka

Which of the following best explains the significance of the transition from microlithic to ground stone tool technology in Sri Lanka?

  1. It marks the adoption of iron smelting
  2. It indicates a return to Lower Palaeolithic handaxes
  3. It shows the arrival of Buddhist monks
  4. It is associated with the Neolithic and the beginnings of agriculture Correct answer.

Explanation

Ground and polished stone tools are characteristic of the Neolithic and are associated with early agriculture and settled life. They do not mark iron smelting, a return to handaxes, or the arrival of Buddhist monks.

Question 41Ancient and medieval Sri Lankan kingdoms and society

Which ancient Sri Lankan kingdom is traditionally regarded as the first great hydraulic civilisation of the island, with its capital at Anuradhapura and its irrigation works begun under King Pandukabhaya?

  1. The Polonnaruwa Kingdom
  2. The Anuradhapura Kingdom Correct answer.
  3. The Jaffna Kingdom
  4. The Kotte Kingdom

Explanation

Anuradhapura was the island's capital from around the 4th century BCE until the 11th century CE and is conventionally treated as the first major Sinhalese kingdom, with Pandukabhaya credited with early tank construction. Polonnaruwa and Kotte came later, and Jaffna was a northern Tamil kingdom.

Question 42Ancient and medieval Sri Lankan kingdoms and society

King Devanampiya Tissa is remembered in Sri Lankan history chiefly because of which event?

  1. His defeat of the Chola invader Rajaraja I
  2. His founding of the city of Kandy
  3. His reception of Mahinda and the introduction of Buddhism to the island Correct answer.
  4. His construction of the Jaya Ganga canal near Polonnaruwa

Explanation

Devanampiya Tissa, ruling at Anuradhapura in the 3rd century BCE, received the missionary Mahinda, according to tradition the son of Emperor Asoka, and accepted Buddhism. This event marks the beginning of the island's Buddhist civilisation.

Question 43Ancient and medieval Sri Lankan kingdoms and society

The sacred bo sapling brought to Anuradhapura by Sanghamitta was planted at which site?

  1. Ruwanwelisaya
  2. Abhayagiri
  3. Jaya Sri Maha Bodhi Correct answer.
  4. Mihintale

Explanation

The Jaya Sri Maha Bodhi was planted at Anuradhapura from a sapling of the Bodhi tree at Bodh Gaya, brought by Sanghamitta, and is venerated as one of the oldest historically documented trees. The other sites are a stupa, a monastery, and the hill of Mahinda's first meeting with the king.

Question 44Ancient and medieval Sri Lankan kingdoms and society

Which king is credited in the Mahavamsa with building the Ruwanwelisaya and with unifying the island after defeating the Chola ruler Elara?

  1. Mahasena
  2. Vasabha
  3. Dutugemunu Correct answer.
  4. Parakramabahu I

Explanation

Dutugemunu (2nd century BCE) campaigned against Elara, who held Anuradhapura, and reunified the island; the Mahavamsa credits him with the Ruwanwelisaya and other great works. Parakramabahu I belongs to the Polonnaruwa period and the others to different reigns.

Question 45Ancient and medieval Sri Lankan kingdoms and society

The large reservoir known as Minneriya tank is traditionally attributed to which ruler?

  1. King Pandukabhaya
  2. King Nissanka Malla
  3. King Mahasena Correct answer.
  4. King Kassapa I

Explanation

Minneriya is generally credited to King Mahasena (3rd–4th century CE), whose reign saw major irrigation expansion in the dry zone. Pandukabhaya predates it, Kassapa I is linked to Sigiriya, and Nissanka Malla to Polonnaruwa.

Question 46Ancient and medieval Sri Lankan kingdoms and society

Sigiriya, the rock fortress with its famous frescoes and mirror wall, was developed as a royal centre by which king?

  1. Dhatusena
  2. Kassapa I Correct answer.
  3. Aggabodhi
  4. Moggallana

Explanation

Kassapa I (5th century CE) is credited with transforming Sigiriya into a fortified royal capital after seizing the throne from his father Dhatusena. Moggallana was his brother and rival, and Aggabodhi belongs to a different line.

Question 47Ancient and medieval Sri Lankan kingdoms and society

In the traditional Sri Lankan chronicle chronology, which kingdom succeeded Anuradhapura as the principal capital of the island?

  1. Kotte
  2. Sitawaka
  3. Polonnaruwa Correct answer.
  4. Kandy

Explanation

After the Chola occupation and the abandonment of Anuradhapura in the 11th century, Polonnaruwa became the island's principal capital under Vijayabahu I and his successors. Kotte, Sitawaka and Kandy all belong to later medieval periods.

Question 48Ancient and medieval Sri Lankan kingdoms and society

Which three great tanks near Anuradhapura are traditionally grouped together as the work of the early Sinhalese kings and are still central to the dry-zone irrigation system?

  1. Giant's Tank, Iranamadu and Vavunikulam
  2. Minneriya, Kantale and Parakrama Samudra
  3. Abhaya Wewa, Nuwarawewa and Tissa Wewa Correct answer.
  4. Kalawewa, Balaluwewa and Kaudulla

Explanation

Abhaya Wewa, Nuwarawewa and Tissa Wewa are the historic tanks of the Anuradhapura region, attributed to early rulers such as Pandukabhaya and Devanampiya Tissa. The other sets belong to the Polonnaruwa region or to the northern dry zone.

Question 49Ancient and medieval Sri Lankan kingdoms and society

The Mahavamsa, the island's great chronicle, was composed in which language and by whom, according to tradition?

  1. Sinhala, by King Dhatusena
  2. Sanskrit, by a Brahmin named Vasubandhu
  3. Pali, by the monk Mahanama Correct answer.
  4. Tamil, by a Chola court poet

Explanation

The Mahavamsa is a Pali-language chronicle traditionally attributed to the monk Mahanama, drawing on earlier material including the Dipavamsa. It is a key source for the island's dynastic and religious history.

Question 50Ancient and medieval Sri Lankan kingdoms and society

Under which Polonnaruwa ruler did the island's irrigation network reach its greatest extent, prompting the saying that not a drop of rainwater should reach the sea without first serving the fields?

  1. Parakramabahu I Correct answer.
  2. Vijayabahu I
  3. Vijayabahu III
  4. Nissanka Malla

Explanation

Parakramabahu I (12th century CE) is credited with large-scale tank and canal construction, including Parakrama Samudra, and the famous maxim about water is attributed to him. Vijayabahu I liberated the island from Chola rule but is not linked to that saying.