Ans: A

Exp:

• Statement 1 is correct: The cult of Soma, called Haoma in the Avestan language, was confined to only the Iranian and Vedic peoples. The search for conclusive evidence for the identification of the soma plant is still ongoing.
• Statement 2 is correct: Animal sacrifice may have prevailed among many tribal peoples, but horse sacrifice was typical of the Indo-Europeans, particularly the Vedic people. The French Vedic scholar Louis Renou considers it to be an Indo-European ritual. Much archaeological evidence about the prevalence of horse sacrifice is found in eastern, central, western, and northern Europe, as well as in the Caucasus and Central Asia.
• Statement 3 is incorrect: The fire cult is considered a special trait of both Indo-Aryans and Indo- Iranians. The fire altar, or vedi, is mentioned in the Rig Veda, and fire worship is very important in the Avesta. The fire altars are also found in Lothal, Gujarat, and Kalibangan. The fire altars discovered in the Harappan context match neither the textual prescriptions nor the age-old traditional practices. 
• Reference: Chapter 11, Identity of Aryan Culture, R.S. Sharma.

Ans: D

Exp:

• Statement 1 is correct: There are so many references to the cow and the bull in the Rig Veda that the Rig Vedic people can be called predominantly pastoral people. Most of their wars were fought over cows. The term for war in the Rig Veda is gavishthi, or search for cows, and cows seem to have been the most important form of wealth.  The Rig Vedic people may have occasionally occupied pieces of land for grazing, cultivation, and settlement, but the land did not form a well-established type of private property.
• Statement 2 is correct: The king did not maintain any standing army, but in times of war he mustered a militia whose military functions were performed by various tribal groups called vrata, gana, grama, sardha. By and large, it was a tribal system of government in which the military element was strong. There was no civil system or territorial administration because people were in the throes of perpetual expansion and migrated from one area to another.
• Statement 3 is correct: Several tribal or kin-based assemblies, such as the sabha, samiti, vidatha, and gana are mentioned in the Rig Veda. They exercised deliberative, military, and religious functions. Even women attended the sabha and vidatha in Rig Vedic times. The sabha and the samiti mattered a great deal in early Vedic times, so much so that the chiefs or the kings showed an eagerness to win their support.
• Reference: Chapter 12, Age of Rig Veda, R.S.Sharma.

Ans: D

Exp:

Pairs 1, 2, and 3 are incorrect.

In the Rig Vedic period some officers appear to have been attached to the territories, and they enjoyed positions of authority in the pasture grounds and settled villages. The officer who enjoyed authority over a large stretch of land or pasture was called a Vrajapati. He led to battle the heads of the families, called Kulapas, or the heads of the fighting hordes, called Gramanis. Initially, the gramani was just the head of a small tribal kin-based fighting unit called the grama, but when the unit settled, the gramani became the head of the village. The Senani was the head of the army. 

Ans: C

Exp:

• Statement 1 is correct: Although very few agricultural tools made of iron have been found, agriculture was undoubtedly the chief means of subsistence for the later Vedic people. The Shatapatha Brahmana speaks at length about the ploughing rituals. The Shatapatha Brahmana is a commentary on the Śukla (white) Yajurveda. It is attributed to the Vedic sage Yajnavalkya. Described as the most complete, systematic, and important of the Brahmanas (commentaries on the Vedas), it contains detailed explanations of Vedic sacrificial rituals, symbolism, and mythology.
• Statement 2 is incorrect: During the later Vedic period, rice and wheat became their chief crops. Vedic rituals typically call for the use of rice, but they also occasionally call for the use of wheat. The later Vedic people also produced a variety of lentil varieties.
• Statement 3 is correct: During the Vedic period, Agriculture was primitive, but there is no doubt about its wide prevalence. Ploughing was done with a wooden ploughshare, which could function in the light soil of the upper Gangetic plains. Sufficient bullocks could not have been available because of cattle slaughter in sacrifices. In those days, even kings and princes did not hesitate to take on manual labour. Eventually, ploughing was assigned to the lower orders and prohibited for the upper varnas.
• Reference: Chapter 13, The Later Vedic Phase: Transition to the State and Social Orders,R. S. Sharma

Ans: A

Exp:

• Statement 1 is correct: The Vedic period is the period in the late Bronze Age and early Iron Age of the history of India when the Vedic literature was composed in the northern Indian subcontinent. The later Vedic period saw the rise of diverse arts and crafts.  Leather work, pottery, and carpentry made great progress. Weaving was confined to women but practiced on a wide scale. 
• Statement 2 is incorrect:The later Vedic people were acquainted with four types of pottery — black and red ware, black-slipped ware, Painted Grey Ware, and red-ware. The last type of pottery was the most popular, and is found almost all over western Uttar Pradesh. However, the most distinctive pottery of the period is known as painted grey ware. It consisted of bowls and dishes, that were used either for rituals or for eating or for both, probably by the emerging upper orders
• Reference: Chapter 13, The Later Vedic Phase: Transition to the State and Social Orders ,R. S. Sharma