What Cato said

"XY" is a phrase sometimes used to describe a speaker's pet theme, after Cato's insistent use of it in all his speeches.

Identify "XY".

Getting closer to heaven

"You will be closer to heaven through ___________ than through the study of theGita."

What is missing from this statement by Swami Vivekananda?

Replacement for Trishul

Do you know of the ironically named new generation surface-to-air missile that is being developed by DRDO instead of the aborted Trishul?

The Curzon Line

What boundary does the Curzon Line demarcate?
(West Bengal - Bangladesh is not the answer, even though he did partition Bengal.)

A Sanskrit pun

The first literary reference to pāyāsam is in the Rāmāyana, the potion made of rice, sugar and milk given to Dasharatha. But it is a Sanskrit pun, a cryptic reference to what?

Little pen

An Italian word for 'little pen', it is a mechanism to concentrate pressure from the sole to into a point. The name comes from marks left on the ground. What word?

which avatār of Vishnū?

The Vishnū Purāna says He took which avatār to wean away the Asuras away from the Vēdas, because had mastered the world by their strict adherence to Vēdic dogma. Vaishnavites are required to repudiate the teachings of this avatār, which was meant for a purely disruptive purpose.

What word?

A Sanskrit word meaning 'deliverance from hell', Hindu scriptures (especially the manusmrti) recommend every Hindu to acquire one or more of these. What word?

Which boy?

In the Aitarēya Brāhmana, his father Ajigart sold him to Harishchandra; in the Rāmāyanā, his father was Rīchika, who sold him to Ambarīsh. In both narratives he is rescued and adopted by Vishwāmitra. Who is this?

Stirling Bridge

What military practice was introduced after the English lost to the Scots at the battle of Stirling Bridge?

Guess the regulatory body

If

Airlines : DGCA
Telecom : TRAI
Oil & Gas : ____

Threshold

The name of this city derives from an old Indian word for 'threshold', because it is the threshold to cross from one river basin to another, both ways.

Muhiyabad

From 1703 to 1707, it was named Muhiyabad, after a short-lived descendant of Aurangzeb. It reverted to its old name after the emperor died. Which city?

Which Chinese book?

Anxious to promote literacy, a Chinese emperor asked a sage to compile the thousand most common characters into a book. Legend has it that he finished it in a day and a night, his hair turning white under the stress. Which book, that has the characters compiled in such a way that provide many proverbs and moral maxims?

The Twelve

Nane, Pavan, Paud, Mutha, Mose, Kanad, Velvand, Hirdas, Rohid, Khedebare, Gunjan, Karyat.

To whose father were these twelve villages granted as his fief?