With reference to the cultural history of India, the memorising of chronicles, dynastic histories and epic tales was the profession of who among the following?

The correct answer is D) Maagadha. Magadhas were a hereditary class of bards and genealogists who memorised and recited royal chronicles, dynastic histories and epic tales. They performed at royal courts and public gatherings, and early texts list them with the Sutas and Charanas as keepers of oral memory. Their role was oral transmission, which is why they matter as a source before written historiography took shape.

• Shramana: ascetic renunciants such as Buddhist bhikkhus and Jain monks. Their identity rests on renunciation, not on reciting royal genealogies.
• Parivraajaka: wandering mendicants who moved from place to place seeking knowledge or salvation. This is a religious role, not a bardic one.
• Agrahaarika: linked to the agrahara system of tax-free land grants and its administration. It has no connection to memorising chronicles.

Concept: oral tradition and the bardic class as a living archive of early Indian history. For Mains, this supports a source-criticism point on how the past was preserved through bards, Puranas and inscriptions, and where each source is reliable.

Trap: candidates pick Shramana or Parivraajaka because they associate them with learning and texts, but the question asks about a bardic profession.