Static GK Quiz: Indian Cities and Their Founders

The correct answer is B, Sawai Jai Singh II. The Kachhwaha ruler of Amber shifted his capital from the hills down to the plain in 1727 and had the new city laid out by Vidyadhar Bhattacharya on a grid of nine rectangular blocks with wide straight streets, which makes Jaipur the first planned city of modern India; the same king built the Jantar Mantar observatories at Jaipur, Delhi, Ujjain, Mathura and Varanasi. Option A is wrong because Maharana Udai Singh II of Mewar founded Udaipur in 1559 after Chittor fell to Akbar. Option C is wrong because Rao Jodha of the Rathores founded Jodhpur in 1459 and built the Mehrangarh fort. Option D is wrong because Rawal Jaisal of the Bhati Rajputs founded Jaisalmer in 1156. All four are Rajput founders, which is exactly why they are put together as options.

The correct answer is B, Muhammad Quli Qutb Shah. The fifth ruler of the Qutb Shahi dynasty of Golconda founded the new city on the Musi in 1591 because the fortress of Golconda had grown too crowded, and he built the Charminar at its centre; accounts of the founding also mention the name Bhagyanagar. Option A is wrong because Sultan Quli Qutb Shah, the founder of the dynasty, ruled from Golconda in the early sixteenth century and built no new city. Option C is wrong because Nizam-ul-Mulk Asaf Jah founded the Asaf Jahi line, the Nizams, in the eighteenth century and made Hyderabad his capital, but the city was already more than a century old. Option D is wrong because the Adil Shahis ruled from Bijapur, a separate Deccan sultanate.

The correct answer is C, Akbar. He began the city near Agra in 1571, named it the city of victory after his success in Gujarat, and filled it with the Buland Darwaza, the Panch Mahal, the Diwan-i-Khas and the tomb of Shaikh Salim Chishti; the court left it within about fifteen years, by tradition because its water supply failed. Option A is wrong because Babur built chiefly gardens and mosques and founded no city. Option B is wrong because Humayun began Dinpanah at Delhi, a city his reign was too short to complete. Option D is wrong because Shah Jahan built Shahjahanabad, the walled Old Delhi with the Red Fort and the Jama Masjid, from 1639, and candidates who confuse the two Mughal cities lose an easy mark.

The correct answer is A, Ahmad Shah I of Gujarat, who founded the city on the Sabarmati in 1411 and gave it his own name; the Jama Masjid, the Teen Darwaza and the Bhadra fort belong to his time. Option B is wrong because Mahmud Begada, a later and more famous sultan of the same Gujarat line, founded Champaner and shifted his capital there. Option C is wrong because Sikandar Lodi founded Agra in 1504, a city of the Delhi Sultanate and not of Gujarat. Option D is wrong because Alauddin Khalji built Siri in Delhi and sent his armies into the Deccan, but founded nothing in Gujarat. Learning each sultan with his own province keeps these options apart, since all four belong to roughly the same period.

The correct answer is B, Ghiyasuddin Tughlaq, the founder of the Tughlaq dynasty, who built the massive sloping walls of Tughlaqabad in the early fourteenth century and whose own tomb stands just outside it. Option A is wrong because his son Muhammad bin Tughlaq built Jahanpanah, the city of refuge, and is better remembered for shifting his capital to Daulatabad in the Deccan. Option C is wrong because Firoz Shah Tughlaq built Firozabad, with the fortress now called Firoz Shah Kotla, and brought an Ashokan pillar there. Option D is wrong because Iltutmish of the Slave dynasty worked in the Mehrauli area, completing the Qutb Minar that Qutbuddin Aibak had begun. The seven cities should be memorised with their builders in order. The safest way to hold the seven cities is as a chain: Mehrauli under Aibak and Iltutmish, Siri under Alauddin Khalji, Tughlaqabad under Ghiyasuddin, Jahanpanah under Muhammad bin Tughlaq, Firozabad under Firoz Shah, Dinpanah under Humayun and Shahjahanabad under Shah Jahan.

The correct answer is C, Guru Ram Das, the fourth Guru, who founded the city in 1577 around the sacred tank he had excavated; the settlement was first called Ramdaspur after him and later took the name Amritsar, meaning the pool of nectar. Option A is wrong because Guru Nanak Dev, the first Guru, founded Kartarpur on the Ravi. Option B is wrong because Guru Angad Dev, the second Guru, is remembered for the Gurmukhi script and for Khadur Sahib. Option D is wrong because Guru Arjan Dev, the fifth Guru and the son of Guru Ram Das, completed the Harmandir Sahib in the tank and compiled the Adi Granth; founding the city and completing the temple inside it are two different acts, and the question asks for the first.

The correct answer is B, Francis Day and Andrew Cogan, officers of the English East India Company who in 1639 obtained a strip of coast from the local ruler and built Fort St George, around which the town of Madras grew. Option A is wrong because Job Charnock is the name traditionally attached to Calcutta, where he settled at Sutanuti in 1690. Option C is wrong because Gerald Aungier was the governor who developed Bombay after the Company took it on lease in 1668 and is called the father of that city. Option D is wrong because François Martin was the Frenchman who developed Puducherry. Keeping the three English settlements in order, Madras in 1639, Bombay from 1668 and Calcutta in 1690, answers most questions of this kind.

The correct answer is A, Jamsetji Nusserwanji Tata, the founder of the Tata group, after whom the steel town built by his company on the Subarnarekha in the first years of the twentieth century is named; it is also called Tatanagar, which remains the name of its railway station. Option B is wrong because no such person is connected with the city. Option C is wrong because Dorabji Tata, the son of Jamsetji, actually carried the steel plant through to completion after his father's death, but the city carries the father's name, not his. Option D is wrong because J. R. D. Tata belonged to a later generation and is remembered as the pioneer of Indian civil aviation and the first licensed pilot in the country.

The correct answer is B, Harihara and Bukka, the two brothers of the Sangama family who founded both the city and the empire of Vijayanagara on the Tungabhadra in 1336; its ruins at Hampi in Karnataka are a World Heritage Site. Option A is wrong because Krishnadeva Raya, the greatest of its rulers and the patron of Telugu literature, belonged to the later Tuluva line and ruled nearly two centuries after the founding. Option C is wrong because Deva Raya II of the Sangama line ruled in the fifteenth century, when the Italian traveller Nicolo Conti visited. Option D is wrong because Pulakeshin II was a Chalukya king of Badami in the seventh century, far earlier and from a different dynasty altogether. The rule of thumb is that the Sangama brothers founded the city in 1336, the Saluva and Tuluva lines ruled it later, and the empire broke after the battle of Talikota in 1565, so any founding question points to Harihara and Bukka alone.

The correct answer is B, Sikandar Lodi, the second ruler of the Lodi dynasty, who founded Agra on the Yamuna in 1504 and made it his capital so that he could keep a closer watch on the chiefs of the east and the Rajputs of the south. Option A is wrong because Bahlol Lodi, the founder of the dynasty, ruled from Delhi. Option C is wrong because Ibrahim Lodi, the last of the line, was defeated and killed by Babur at the first battle of Panipat in 1526. Option D is wrong because Babur captured Agra after that battle and used it as his seat, and the Mughals went on to build the Agra fort and the Taj Mahal there, but the city itself was already two decades old when he arrived.

The correct answer is B, 1639. Shah Jahan began his new capital on the Yamuna in that year, shifting the court from Agra, and it took shape as the walled city of Shahjahanabad with the Red Fort, the Jama Masjid and the avenue of Chandni Chowk. Option A is wrong, but 1571 is the year in which Akbar began Fatehpur Sikri, the other Mughal city question. Option C is wrong, but 1690 is the year in which Job Charnock settled at Sutanuti, the traditional date for Calcutta, and the same year is sometimes offered beside 1639 to confuse candidates, since 1639 is also the year Fort St George was begun at Madras. Option D is wrong because 1727 is the year Jaipur was founded by Sawai Jai Singh II.

The correct answer is B, Jodhpur with Rao Jodha. The Rathore chief founded Jodhpur in 1459 and raised the Mehrangarh fort above it, which is why the state of Marwar is also called the land of the Rathores. Option A is wrong because Rao Bika, a son of Rao Jodha, founded Bikaner in 1488, while Udaipur was founded by Maharana Udai Singh II of Mewar in 1559 after Chittor was lost to Akbar. Option C is wrong because Rawal Jaisal of the Bhati Rajputs founded Jaisalmer in 1156, not Bikaner. Option D is wrong for the same reason, since Udai Singh II belongs to Udaipur. Matching questions of this type are set precisely because all four founders are Rajputs of nearby states, so each pair must be learnt separately.