Indian States & UTs Mixed Quiz: Set 5

The correct answer is B, Chandela. The Khajuraho group of monuments in Chhatarpur district was built by the Chandela rulers of Bundelkhand between the tenth and the twelfth century. The temples are built in the Nagara style, standing on a high platform with a curving tower over the sanctum, and the Kandariya Mahadeva is the largest of them. The group was placed on the UNESCO World Heritage list in 1986.

Option A, the Paramara dynasty, ruled Malwa from Dhar and is linked with king Bhoja and with the Bhojeshwar temple at Bhojpur. Option C, the Bundela rulers, came much later and built Orchha on the Betwa, with its palaces and cenotaphs. Option D, the Holkars, were the eighteenth century Maratha rulers of Indore, and Ahilyabai Holkar ruled from Maheshwar on the Narmada. Only the Chandelas match Khajuraho.

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 A, Hisar. Rakhigarhi lies in the Hisar district on the dry bed of an old river course, and its mounds spread over a larger area than any other Harappan site in India, which makes it the biggest in the country. Excavations there have brought out planned streets, drains, a granary, bead workshops and burials, and the skeletons found in its cemetery have been used for studies of the ancestry of the Harappan people.

Option B, Fatehabad, holds Banawali, another important Harappan site of the state, and is the usual trap. Option C, Bhiwani, is near Mitathal, a smaller site of the same civilisation. Option D, Rohtak, has no major Harappan site, although Khokhrakot there has yielded remains of later periods. Remember the pairing Rakhigarhi with Hisar and Banawali with Fatehabad.

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 A, Raisen. The rock shelters of Bhimbetka lie in Raisen district, in the foothills of the Vindhya range not far from Bhopal. They hold paintings that begin in the prehistoric period and continue over thousands of years, showing hunting scenes, animals, dancing figures and later horses and riders. The site was placed on the UNESCO World Heritage list in 2003, and it is one of the earliest traces of human life in the subcontinent.

Option B, Umaria, is the district of the Bandhavgarh National Park. Option C, Sheopur, is the district of the Kuno National Park, which received cheetahs in September 2022. Option D, Chhatarpur, is the district of the Khajuraho temples. A useful link is that the Buddhist monuments of Sanchi are also in Raisen district, so two of the three World Heritage Sites of the state share one district.

The correct answer is B, 1 November 1966. On that day the Hindi speaking districts of the former Punjab were separated to form Haryana, which became the seventeenth state of India, while Chandigarh was made a union territory serving as the capital of both states. The day is observed every year as Haryana Day, and 1966 is the single most asked fact about the state.

Option A, 1 November 1956, is the day the States Reorganisation Act came into force, which reshaped many states but not Haryana. Option C, 1 May 1960, is the day Bombay State was divided into Maharashtra and Gujarat. Option D is the date of independence itself. Candidates often confuse 1956 with 1966 because both fall on 1 November, so the decade must be remembered carefully.

The correct answer is C, Ahmad Shah Abdali of Afghanistan. The Third Battle of Panipat was fought in January 1761 between the Maratha army, led by Sadashivrao Bhau with Vishwasrao, and the Afghan ruler Ahmad Shah Abdali, who had the support of the Rohillas and the Nawab of Awadh. The Marathas were heavily defeated, a blow that checked their advance in the north and eased the way for other powers.

Option A, Babur, fought the First Battle of Panipat in 1526 against Ibrahim Lodi and founded the Mughal empire. Option B, Nadir Shah, invaded India in 1739 and sacked Delhi, but his battle was at Karnal, not Panipat. Option D, the English East India Company, was not a party to any battle of Panipat, although it gained from Maratha weakness afterwards. The Second Battle, in 1556, was between Akbar's forces under Bairam Khan and Hemu.

The correct answer is B, Bhopal. Bhopal is the capital of Madhya Pradesh and the seat of its Vidhan Sabha and secretariat. It is called the city of lakes because of the Upper and Lower Lakes at its centre, and it holds the Van Vihar National Park within the city limits. It is also remembered for the gas leak on the night of 2 and 3 December 1984, the worst industrial disaster in the country.

Option A, Indore, is the largest city of the state and its commercial centre, which is why many candidates mark it. Option C, Jabalpur, is the seat of the High Court of Madhya Pradesh and lies on the Narmada near the marble rocks of Bhedaghat. Option D, Gwalior, is known for its hill fort and for the tomb of Tansen. Only Bhopal is the capital, and the pair to remember is Bhopal for government and Jabalpur for the High Court.

The correct answer is B, Ashoka. The Great Stupa at Sanchi in Raisen district was first raised in brick by the Mauryan emperor Ashoka in the third century before the common era, to hold relics of the Buddha. It was later enlarged in stone by the Shungas, and the four carved gateways, called toranas, were added by the Satavahanas. Ashoka also set up one of his polished sandstone pillars at the site. The monuments were placed on the UNESCO World Heritage list in 1989.

Option A, Chandragupta Maurya, was the grandfather of Ashoka and the founder of the Mauryan empire, but no stupa at Sanchi is credited to him. Option C, Kanishka, was a Kushana ruler linked with the fourth Buddhist council and with the Gandhara and Mathura schools of art. Option D, Harshavardhana, ruled in the seventh century from Kanauj, far later than the building of the stupa.

The correct answer is C, Telangana. It was formed on 2 June 2014 under the Andhra Pradesh Reorganisation Act, 2014, out of the north-western districts of Andhra Pradesh, and Hyderabad was made the common capital of both states for a transitional period. It is counted as the twenty-ninth state.

Options A, B and D are the three states created in the year 2000, which take the numbers twenty-six to twenty-eight in the same count: Chhattisgarh from Madhya Pradesh on 1 November, Uttarakhand from Uttar Pradesh on 9 November, and Jharkhand from Bihar on 15 November. Because they were created within a fortnight of one another, examiners often ask for their order, so tie each to its parent state and its date. The reorganisation of Jammu and Kashmir in 2019 created Union Territories, not a thirtieth state.

The correct answer is A, Karoh Peak. Karoh stands in the Morni hills of Panchkula district, in the Shivalik range along the northern edge of the state, and is the highest point in Haryana. The Morni hills are the only real hill area of the state and are visited as a small hill station near Chandigarh, with the Tikkar Tal lakes close by.

Option B, Dhosi Hill, is an extinct volcanic hill in the Aravalli range on the border of Mahendragarh district, associated with the sage Chyavana, but much lower than Karoh. Option C, Tosham Hill in Bhiwani district, is a rocky Aravalli outcrop known for inscriptions and quarries. Option D is not a recognised name at all. The north of the state is Shivalik and the south is Aravalli, and the highest ground is in the north.

The correct answer is B, Shri Krishna Sinha. Known to the state as Shri Babu, he became the first Chief Minister of Bihar and held the office for many years after independence. His government is remembered for the abolition of the zamindari system and for opening temples to all castes. Jairamdas Daulatram was the first Governor of the state.

Option A, Dr Rajendra Prasad, was born at Ziradei in Siwan district and became the first President of India, not the Chief Minister of the state. Option C, Jayaprakash Narayan, never held office; he led the movement of 1974 that he called Sampoorna Kranti. Option D, Karpoori Thakur, was a later Chief Minister remembered for reservation policy and for abolishing the English requirement in matriculation, but he was not the first.

The correct answer is B, Mahakaleshwar and Omkareshwar. Mahakaleshwar stands at Ujjain on the bank of the Shipra, the city where the Simhastha fair is held, and Omkareshwar stands on an island in the Narmada in Khandwa district. These are the only two of the twelve jyotirlingas that lie in Madhya Pradesh, which is a fact asked in both state and national papers.

Option A, Somnath and Nageshwar, are both in Gujarat, on the coast of Saurashtra. Option C, Bhimashankar and Trimbakeshwar, are both in Maharashtra, which holds more jyotirlingas than any other state. Option D pairs Kedarnath in Uttarakhand with Vishwanath at Varanasi in Uttar Pradesh, so the two lie in different states. Learning the jyotirlingas state by state is the quickest way to answer this family of questions.

The correct answer is B, the Ghaggar. Kalibangan, in Hanumangarh district, stands on the dry bed of the Ghaggar, the river many identify with the Saraswati of the texts. Excavation there produced the earliest ploughed field found anywhere in the subcontinent, rows of fire altars, a fortified citadel and lower town, and cylindrical seals.

Option A, the Luni, flows through Marwar far to the south west and has no Harappan town of this importance on it. Option C, the Banas, gives its name to the Banas or Ahar culture of Chalcolithic Rajasthan, with sites such as Ahar and Balathal near Udaipur, which is a different culture. Option D, the Sabarmati, belongs mostly to Gujarat. Remember Kalibangan with the Ghaggar and Hanumangarh, and Lothal and Dholavira with Gujarat.

The correct answer is B, black francolin, known locally as the kala teetar. It is a ground bird of the fields and scrub of the plains, recognised by its dark plumage with white spots and its loud call from the edge of a crop field. Along with it, the blackbuck is the state animal of Haryana, the peepal the state tree and the lotus the state flower.

Option A, the Indian peacock, is the national bird of India and also the state bird of some other states, which makes it the commonest wrong answer here. Option C, the great Indian bustard, is the state bird of Rajasthan and is now very rare. Option D, the sarus crane, is the state bird of Uttar Pradesh. State symbol questions are answered by learning the whole set of four for the state, since papers ask them in rotation.

The correct answer is A, Asaf-ud-Daula. The Nawab of Awadh had the Bara Imambara built at Lucknow in 1784 as a famine relief project, so that people could earn wages through a hard year, and the Rumi Darwaza was raised at the same time. Its central hall is one of the largest vaulted chambers built without pillars, and the maze of passages above it is known as the Bhulbhulaiya.

Option B, Wajid Ali Shah, was the last Nawab of Awadh and was deposed by the British in 1856, an act that fed the revolt of the following year. Option C, Shuja-ud-Daula, fought at Buxar in 1764 and was the father of Asaf-ud-Daula. Option D, Saadat Ali Khan, ruled after him and built other monuments in the city. All four belong to the same line, so the date of 1784 is the surest way to fix the right name.

The correct answer is C, Jabalpur. The High Court of Madhya Pradesh has its principal seat at Jabalpur, with benches at Indore and at Gwalior. Madhya Pradesh is one of the states where the capital and the seat of the High Court are different cities, a pattern it shares with Uttar Pradesh, where the capital is Lucknow and the High Court sits at Prayagraj, and with Kerala, Gujarat and Rajasthan among others.

Option A, Bhopal, is the capital and holds the Vidhan Sabha and the secretariat, but not the High Court. Option B, Indore, holds only a bench, and it is the largest city and the commercial centre of the state. Option D, Gwalior, also holds a bench. Questions on this topic usually test whether a candidate assumes that the High Court must sit in the capital, so the exception is worth marking.

The correct answer is C, Gurugram. Sultanpur National Park lies at Sultanpur village in Gurugram district on the road to Jhajjar and is a shallow wetland where large numbers of birds gather in winter, among them flamingos, pelicans, storks and many kinds of duck. It was first notified as a sanctuary and later upgraded to a national park, and in 2021 it was also declared a Ramsar site of international importance.

Option A, Jhajjar, holds the Bhindawas wildlife sanctuary, the other Haryana wetland declared a Ramsar site in the same year, so it is the closest trap. Option B, Yamunanagar, holds Kalesar National Park in the Shivalik foothills, known for sal forests and leopards. Option D, Karnal, has no national park but is known for the National Dairy Research Institute.

The correct answer is B, 29. Madhya Pradesh sends twenty nine members to the Lok Sabha and elects eleven members to the Rajya Sabha, while its own Vidhan Sabha has two hundred and thirty seats. The number of Lok Sabha seats of a state has been frozen on the basis of the census of 1971 until the first census taken after the year 2026, so these figures have stayed unchanged for decades.

Option A, twenty five, is the strength of Rajasthan in the Lok Sabha. Option C, forty, is the strength of Bihar. Option D, forty eight, is the strength of Maharashtra, the second largest after Uttar Pradesh, which sends eighty. A quick way to hold the Madhya Pradesh figures together is the set twenty nine, eleven and two hundred and thirty for the Lok Sabha, the Rajya Sabha and the Vidhan Sabha.

The correct answer is A, Faridabad. The fair is held each February at Surajkund near Faridabad, beside the old stepped reservoir ascribed to the Tomar ruler Surajpal, from which the place takes its name. It brings together craftspeople, weavers and folk performers from across India and from partner countries, with one Indian state and one country featured as themes each year, and it has grown into the best known cultural event of the state.

Option B, Panchkula, is known instead for the Yadavindra or Pinjore Gardens, a Mughal garden of the time of Aurangzeb. Option C, Kurukshetra, holds the Gita Jayanti Mahotsav at the Brahma Sarovar, a religious and cultural festival of a different kind. Option D, Rewari, is known for brass work and for its railway heritage steam locomotive shed, not for this fair.