Question

Read the following passage carefully and answer the questions that follow:

The old Turkish and the other races, who inhabited Afghanistan and parts of Central Asia before the advent of Islam, were largely Buddhists and earlier still, during the period of the Epics, Hindus. The frontier area was one of the principal centres of old Indian culture and it abounds still with ruins of monuments and monasteries and, specially, of the great University of Taxila, which was at the height of its fame two thousand years ago, attracting students from all over India as well as different parts of Asia. Changes of religion made a difference but could not change entirely the mental backgrounds which the people of those areas had developed.

(b) What is meant by the phrase 'the period of the Epics'?

Answer 1

Step 1: Historical sense of the phrase:
It is a way of dating events not by a calendar year but by referring to the age in which India's great epics were composed and set.

Step 2: Final Answer:
It refers to India's ancient epic age, the time associated with the Ramayana and Mahabharata, long before the spread of Buddhism and Islam into the region.