Indian States & UTs Mixed Quiz: Set 15

The correct answer is C, Madhya Pradesh. Jharkhand is bounded by Bihar to the north, West Bengal to the east, Odisha to the south, Chhattisgarh to the west and Uttar Pradesh to the north-west, so it touches five states, and Madhya Pradesh is not among them. Option A is wrong as a choice because Chhattisgarh does border Jharkhand on the west. Option B is wrong because Odisha borders it on the south. Option D is wrong because West Bengal borders it on the east. The confusion arises because Madhya Pradesh was the parent state of Chhattisgarh, and candidates who remember that the two new states of 2000 came from Madhya Pradesh and Bihar sometimes assume a shared boundary. Count the five neighbours clockwise from Bihar to fix them.

The correct answer is B, Nepal, Bhutan and Bangladesh. West Bengal is the only Indian state that touches three foreign countries: Nepal lies to its north west, Bhutan to its north and Bangladesh to its east along a long eastern frontier. Option A is wrong because West Bengal does not reach the Chinese border; Sikkim and Arunachal Pradesh lie between. Option C is wrong because Myanmar borders Mizoram, Manipur, Nagaland and Arunachal Pradesh, none of which touches West Bengal. Option D is wrong for the same reason regarding China and because it leaves out Bangladesh, the longest of the state's three international borders. Connected to this is the Siliguri corridor in the north, the narrow strip between Nepal and Bangladesh called the chicken's neck, which is the only land link to the north eastern states.

The correct answer is A, 1948. The Corporation was created soon after independence to control the floods of the Damodar, a river so destructive that it was called the sorrow of Bengal, and it was modelled on the Tennessee Valley Authority of the United States, combining flood control, irrigation, power generation and navigation in one body. Option B is wrong because 1956 is the year of the States Reorganisation Act, a separate landmark. Option C is wrong because 1962 has no bearing on the Corporation; it is the year the Paradip port was inaugurated in Odisha. Option D is wrong because 1975 is the year the Farakka Barrage on the Ganga was commissioned, which is also in West Bengal but is a different project with a different purpose, namely diverting water into the Hooghly.

The correct answer is A, 1 April 1936. Orissa was separated from the Bihar and Orissa Province and made a province in its own right on 1 April 1936, and the day is kept every year as Utkal Divas. It is often described as the first province in British India carved out on a linguistic basis, and the campaign for it is linked above all with Madhusudan Das and Utkalmani Gopabandhu Das. Option B is wrong because 1 November 1956 is the day the States Reorganisation Act came into force and redrew many state boundaries, but Odisha was already a separate unit by then. Option C is wrong because 15 August 1947 is the date of independence, not of the formation of the province. Option D is wrong because 1 November 2000 is the day Chhattisgarh was created out of Madhya Pradesh. Keep the two first of November dates apart, since both appear as distractors in state papers.

The correct answer is C, Ashoka. The Mauryan emperor Ashoka invaded Kalinga in about the eighth year of his reign, around 261 BCE, and the slaughter it caused turned him to Buddhism and to the policy of dhamma. His own Rock Edict XIII records his remorse, and his edicts survive in Odisha at Dhauli near Bhubaneswar and at Jaugada, including the two Separate Kalinga Edicts addressed to his officers there. Option A is wrong because Chandragupta Maurya founded the dynasty and campaigned in the north west, not in Kalinga. Option B is wrong because Bindusara, Ashoka father, left Kalinga outside the empire, which is why Ashoka had to conquer it. Option D is wrong because Harshavardhana ruled from Kanauj in the seventh century CE, nearly nine hundred years later. A linked fact worth holding is the Shanti Stupa at Dhauli, built in the twentieth century with Japanese collaboration on the hill above the battlefield.

The correct answer is D, Blackbuck. The blackbuck, called Krishna Jinka in Telugu, is the state animal of Andhra Pradesh. It is an antelope of open grassland and scrub; the male turns dark brown to black with age and carries long spiral horns, while the female stays fawn coloured and usually hornless. It is among the fastest Indian animals and is protected under Schedule I of the Wild Life Protection Act of 1972. Punjab and Haryana also carry the blackbuck as their state animal. A is wrong because the mithun, a domesticated bovine of the hills, is the state animal of Arunachal Pradesh and of Nagaland. B is wrong because the ox is a domestic draught animal and is not named as any state animal. C is wrong because the one-horned rhinoceros is the state animal of Assam, where Kaziranga protects most of its population. Exam tip: blackbuck for Andhra Pradesh, Punjab and Haryana; rhinoceros for Assam; mithun for Arunachal Pradesh and Nagaland.

The correct answer is B, Gitanjali. The collection of devotional poems, which Tagore himself rendered into English, won him the Nobel Prize in Literature in 1913, making him the first Indian and the first non European to receive the award. He also wrote the national anthems of India and of Bangladesh. Option A is wrong because Anandamath is the novel of Bankim Chandra Chattopadhyay, the work in which the song Vande Mataram appears. Option C is wrong because Gora is indeed a novel by Tagore but is not the work for which the prize was given. Option D is wrong for the same reason: Chokher Bali is another of his novels, not the Nobel work. Remember three names together: Gitanjali for Tagore, Anandamath for Bankim Chandra and Jana Gana Mana for the anthem.

The correct answer is B, Kerala. Kolathunadu, Valluvanad and Thekkumkoor were small medieval kingdoms, or swaroopams, of Kerala. Kolathunadu, ruled by the Kolathiri rajas, lay in north Malabar around present-day Kannur; Valluvanad spread over the Palakkad and Malappuram area and is remembered for the Mamankam festival at Tirunavaya; Thekkumkoor lay in the Kottayam region and was absorbed by Travancore under Marthanda Varma in the eighteenth century. Before unification, Kerala was split among such chiefdoms along with Travancore, Cochin and Calicut, and the present state was formed on 1 November 1956 from Travancore-Cochin and the Malabar district of Madras. Option A is wrong because Karnataka's old kingdoms were the Kadambas, Hoysalas and Vijayanagara. Option C is wrong because ancient Bihar was home to Magadha, Anga and Videha. Option D is wrong because Gujarat was ruled by the Solankis of Anhilwada and the Chaulukyas. Exam tip: names ending in nadu or koor in this list point to the medieval chiefdoms of Kerala.

The correct answer is A, Kharavela. The Hathigumpha or elephant cave inscription, cut into the Udayagiri hill near Bhubaneswar, is the record of Kharavela, the Jain king of the Mahameghavahana line of Kalinga. It is written in the Prakrit language and the Brahmi script, and it lists his conquests, his public works and his patronage of Jainism year by year, which makes it the single most important source for early Odishan history. Option B is wrong because Anantavarman Chodaganga Deva of the Eastern Ganga dynasty began the Jagannath temple at Puri in the twelfth century. Option C is wrong because Narasimhadeva I, of the same dynasty, built the Sun Temple at Konark in the thirteenth century. Option D is wrong because Mahendravarman I was a Pallava ruler of Kanchi in the south. The twin hills of Udayagiri and Khandagiri, with their rock cut Jain cells, go with this question.

The correct answer is D, Tripura. The Manikya dynasty ruled Tripura for centuries, and its kings all took the title Manikya. Their history is recorded in the Rajmala, a chronicle in Bengali verse first compiled in the fifteenth century under Dharma Manikya. The Ujjayanta Palace at Agartala, built by Radha Kishore Manikya at the beginning of the twentieth century, was their seat and now houses a state museum, and the lake palace Neermahal was raised by Bir Bikram Kishore Manikya, the last ruling king, after whom Agartala's airport is named. The princely state signed the merger agreement and joined the Indian Union in October 1949. Option A is wrong because Gujarat was ruled by the Solanki or Chaulukya line. Option B is wrong because Rajasthan had the Sisodia, Kachwaha and Rathore houses. Option C is wrong because Manipur was ruled by the Ningthouja or Meitei dynasty. Exam tip: Manikya means Tripura, its chronicle is the Rajmala, and it merged with India in 1949.

The correct answer is B, to divert water into the Hooghly and flush silt from the approach to Kolkata port. The Ganga splits in West Bengal, with the main stream going into Bangladesh as the Padma and the Bhagirathi and Hooghly running south past Kolkata. The Hooghly was silting up and the port becoming hard to reach, so the barrage at Farakka was built to send a guaranteed flow down that channel. Option A is wrong because the barrage is not a hydroelectric project. Option C is wrong because the Dooars tea gardens lie far to the north and are not served by it. Option D is wrong because flood control on the Damodar is the work of the Damodar Valley Corporation set up in 1948, a different project that candidates often confuse with this one.

The correct answer is C, Lakshadweep. With an area of only about 32 square kilometres, Lakshadweep is the smallest Union Territory of India. It is a group of 36 coral islands in the Arabian Sea, of which only ten are inhabited, and its capital is Kavaratti. Being coral atolls, the islands are tiny and low lying, which is why the total land area stays so small even though the lagoons and waters around them stretch very wide. Option A is wrong because Daman and Diu covers about 112 square kilometres, more than three times Lakshadweep, and since 2020 it is part of the Union Territory of Dadra and Nagar Haveli and Daman and Diu. Option B is wrong because Ladakh is the largest Union Territory by area. Option D is wrong because Jammu and Kashmir is also far larger and is the Union Territory with the biggest population. Exam tip: Lakshadweep is the smallest by area, Ladakh the largest.

The correct answer is B, the Eastern Ganga dynasty. The Sun Temple at Konark was raised in the thirteenth century by Narasimhadeva I of the Eastern Ganga dynasty, conceived as the chariot of the sun god with twenty four carved wheels drawn by seven horses. It is the only UNESCO World Heritage Site in Odisha, inscribed in 1984, and European sailors called it the Black Pagoda. Option A is wrong because the Somavamshi rulers belong to an earlier phase and are remembered for the Lingaraja temple at Bhubaneswar. Option C is wrong because the Gajapatis came later, in the fifteenth century, after the Eastern Gangas. Option D is wrong because the Chalukyas ruled in the Deccan from Badami and Kalyani and built nothing in Odisha. Remember the pair that papers set together: Chodaganga Deva and the Jagannath temple at Puri, Narasimhadeva I and the Sun Temple at Konark.

The correct answer is B, Bilaspur. When the state was formed in 2000 the High Court was established at Bilaspur, so the capital and the seat of the High Court are in different cities, a split the examiner likes. Option A is wrong because Raipur is the capital of the state and the seat of the government and the Legislative Assembly, with Nava Raipur Atal Nagar built beside it as the planned new capital city, but it does not house the High Court. Option C is wrong because Jagdalpur is the principal town of the Bastar region, known for Bastar Dussehra and as the base for Chitrakote Falls, not for the judiciary. Option D is wrong because Durg is an industrial district and the location of the Bhilai Steel Plant. Remember the pairing: Raipur governs, Bilaspur judges.

The correct answer is C, the Royal Bengal tiger. The Sundarbans, shared between India and Bangladesh, is the one place where tigers have adapted to a tidal mangrove habitat and are known to swim between islands. Sundarbans National Park was inscribed as a UNESCO World Heritage Site in 1987 and the wetland was designated a Ramsar site in 2019. Option A is wrong because the Asiatic lion survives only in the Gir forest of Gujarat. Option B is wrong because the one horned rhinoceros is associated with Kaziranga in Assam and with Jaldapara in northern West Bengal, not with the Sundarbans. Option D is wrong because the snow leopard lives in the high Himalaya, in Ladakh, Himachal Pradesh, Uttarakhand, Sikkim and Arunachal Pradesh. Pair each animal with its one famous habitat.

The correct answer is C, Dumka. Ranchi is the capital of Jharkhand and the seat of its High Court, while Dumka, the headquarters of the Santhal Pargana division in the east of the state, was named the sub-capital so that administration would not be concentrated entirely in one city. Option A is wrong because Jamshedpur is the largest city and the industrial centre of the state, built around the Tata iron and steel works, but it holds no capital status. Option B is wrong because Dhanbad is the coal city, sitting on the Jharia coalfield, again without capital status. Option D is wrong because Hazaribagh is known for its wildlife sanctuary and for Sohrai and Khovar painting. The pairing to carry is Ranchi as capital, Dumka as sub-capital and Jamshedpur as the largest city.

The correct answer is C, the Mahanadi. Hirakud was built across the Mahanadi above Sambalpur, work beginning in 1947 and the project being dedicated in 1957, and it stands as independent India first major multipurpose river valley project. Counting its long earthen dykes it stretches about twenty six kilometres, which makes it one of the longest earthen dams in the world, and it serves irrigation, flood control in the Mahanadi delta and hydroelectricity together. Option A is wrong because the Brahmani, formed where the Sankh and the South Koel meet, carries the Rengali project, not Hirakud. Option B is wrong because the Baitarani is a smaller river of northern Odisha. Option D is wrong because the Subarnarekha rises in Jharkhand and only clips the north eastern corner of the state. The Mahanadi is the longest river of Odisha and the one on which the Satkosia gorge and its tiger reserve also lie.

The correct answer is A, 1757. The battle was fought on 23 June 1757 at Palashi in the Nadia region, where Robert Clive defeated Siraj ud Daulah, the Nawab of Bengal, largely through the defection of Mir Jafar, and the victory made the Company the real power in Bengal. Option B is wrong because 1764 is the year of the Battle of Buxar, fought in Bihar against the combined forces of Mir Qasim, Shuja ud Daulah and Shah Alam the Second, which led to the grant of the Diwani in 1765. Option C is wrong because 1772 is when Warren Hastings became Governor of Bengal. Option D is wrong because 1793 is the year of the Permanent Settlement introduced by Lord Cornwallis. Keep the sequence Plassey, Buxar, Diwani, Permanent Settlement in order.

The correct answer is B, Deomali. Deomali, in the Koraput district of southern Odisha, rises to about one thousand six hundred and seventy two metres and is the highest point in the state. It stands in the Chandragiri and Pottangi stretch of the Eastern Ghats, where the hills are at their broadest and highest in Odisha. Option A is wrong because Mahendragiri, in the Gajapati district, is a well known and sacred peak of the Eastern Ghats but lower than Deomali. Option C is wrong because Malayagiri, in the Angul district, is another notable hill of the state and again lower. Option D is wrong because the Gandhamardan hills, on the Bargarh and Balangir border, are famous for their medicinal plants and their Buddhist associations, not for their height. The Eastern Ghats in Odisha are broken by the gorges of the Mahanadi and the Brahmani, which is why no single long range runs through the state.

The correct answer is B, Rabindranath Tagore. Santiniketan in Birbhum district grew around the school and later the university Visva Bharati that Tagore founded there, teaching in the open air and joining Indian and world traditions, and it was inscribed as a World Heritage Site in 2023. Option A is wrong because Swami Vivekananda founded the Ramakrishna Mission in 1897, with its headquarters at Belur Math on the Hooghly, a different site. Option C is wrong because Raja Ram Mohan Roy founded the Brahmo Samaj in 1828 and is remembered as the father of the Indian Renaissance, but he is not connected with Santiniketan. Option D is wrong because Ishwar Chandra Vidyasagar is remembered for the campaign for widow remarriage and for reform of Bengali education.