With reference to the scholars/litterateurs of ancient India, consider the following statements: 1) Panini is associated with Pushyamitra Shunga. 2) Amarasimha is associated with Harshavardhana. 3) Kalidasa is associated with Chandra Gupta- II. Which of the statements given above is/are correct?

The correct answer is C, since only statement 3 is right. The core concept here is the Gupta court's patronage of letters and the later tradition of the 'Navaratnas' (nine gems).

• Statement 1 is wrong. Panini, the grammarian of the Ashtadhyayi, belongs to roughly the 5th-4th century BCE, well before the Shunga dynasty (c. 185 BCE). No credible link to Pushyamitra Shunga exists.
• Statement 2 is wrong. Amarasimha, author of the Amarakosha, is traditionally placed in the court of Chandragupta II (Vikramaditya). Harshavardhana (606-647 CE) was a patron of Banabhatta, not Amarasimha.
• Statement 3 is correct. Kalidasa, author of Abhijnanashakuntalam, Meghaduta and Raghuvamsha, is traditionally linked with Chandragupta II's court, which is why the Gupta age is called the Golden Age of Sanskrit literature.

A Mains angle: the link between royal patronage and cultural flowering is a standard GS-1 theme. Historians note that the Navaratna lists are late, and Kalidasa's date is still debated, so these associations are traditional rather than firmly documented. That is a useful nuance to carry into answers.

Trap: Aspirants often assume every famous ancient scholar belongs to a well-known dynasty, or swap Harsha and Chandragupta II because both are 'classical' rulers.