Forts and Palaces of India: Builders, Sites and Features

The correct answer is C, Shah Jahan, who built the Red Fort of red sandstone as the citadel of his new capital Shahjahanabad, completing it in 1648; the Diwan-i-Aam, the Diwan-i-Khas, the Rang Mahal and the Moti Masjid stand inside, and it was inscribed as a World Heritage Site in 2007. Option A is wrong because Akbar built the Agra Fort and the city of Fatehpur Sikri, both also in red sandstone, which is why he is the strongest distractor here. Option B is wrong because Jahangir built no fort of this scale; the Jahangiri Mahal that carries his name stands inside Agra Fort and was built in Akbar's reign. Option D is wrong because Aurangzeb added the Moti Masjid within the Red Fort but did not build the fort itself. The Prime Minister of India hoists the national flag at this fort on Independence Day.

The correct answer is A, Chittorgarh Fort, which spreads over the largest area of any fort in the country and holds within it palaces, tanks and temples as well as the Vijay Stambha and the Kirti Stambha. Option B is wrong on the measure being asked: Kumbhalgarh is famous for the length of its wall, held to be among the longest in the world, which is a different superlative and the commonest confusion in this question. Option C is wrong because Gwalior Fort, though called a pearl among the forts of Hind by Babur, is smaller, and is remembered for the Man Mandir palace of Raja Man Singh Tomar. Option D is wrong because Mehrangarh at Jodhpur, founded by Rao Jodha in 1459, is remembered for its cliff-top position above the blue city. Both Chittorgarh and Kumbhalgarh are part of the Hill Forts of Rajasthan inscribed in 2013.

The correct answer is B, Chittorgarh Fort. The Vijay Stambha was raised by Rana Kumbha of Mewar to mark a victory, and the Kirti Stambha, the tower of fame, stands in the same fort, so a question may ask for either. Option A is wrong because the feature named in questions on Amber, near Jaipur, is the Sheesh Mahal or hall of mirrors, the fort itself having been built up by Raja Man Singh I. Option C is wrong because Ranthambore is remembered for its isolated hill and for lying inside a tiger reserve rather than for a tower. Option D is wrong because Junagarh at Bikaner, built by Raja Rai Singh, is a fort of the plains with no such monument. All of these except Junagarh and Mehrangarh belong to the group of six inscribed as the Hill Forts of Rajasthan.

The correct answer is B, Sawai Pratap Singh, who had the Hawa Mahal built in 1799 as a screen of small windows and jharokhas through which the women of the household could watch the processions in the street below without being seen. Option A is wrong because Sawai Jai Singh II founded Jaipur itself and began the City Palace and the observatory, the Jantar Mantar, several decades earlier; he is the natural wrong answer because his name is attached to the city. Option C is wrong because Raja Man Singh I belongs to Amber, the older seat of the house. Option D is wrong because Maharaja Umaid Singh built the Umaid Bhawan palace at Jodhpur in the twentieth century, as relief work during a famine. The Hawa Mahal is built of pink and red sandstone, in keeping with the rest of the old city.

The correct answer is C, Telangana. Golconda, on the edge of Hyderabad, was the capital of the Qutb Shahi rulers before they moved down to the new city; it was the market through which the diamonds of the region were traded, and its acoustics are famous, a clap at the Fateh Darwaza being heard at the top of the hill. Option A is wrong because the Deccan forts of Karnataka are Bidar, Gulbarga and Chitradurga, the last known as the fort of seven circles of wall. Option B is wrong because Maharashtra holds Daulatabad, Raigad and the Maratha forts. Option D is wrong although it is the closest answer historically, since Hyderabad lay in Andhra Pradesh until the state of Telangana was formed; a question set today expects Telangana. The Qutb Shahi tombs stand near the fort.

The correct answer is B, Raigad, which Shivaji made his capital and where his coronation took place in 1674, the ceremony at which he took the title Chhatrapati. Option A is wrong because Pratapgad is remembered for his meeting with Afzal Khan, the encounter in which the Bijapur commander was killed. Option C is wrong because Sinhagad is remembered for its capture under Tanaji Malusare, who died in the assault. Option D is wrong because Shivneri is the fort where Shivaji was born, which makes it the most tempting answer of the four; birthplace and capital are deliberately offered together in this question. His sea forts, Sindhudurg among them, and the island fort of Murud-Janjira held by the Siddis, which was never taken, are asked in the same group.

The correct answer is B, Tamil Nadu. The palace stands in Kanyakumari district of Tamil Nadu, although it was the seat of the rulers of Travancore and is to this day maintained by the Government of Kerala, a division that followed the reorganisation of states. Option A is wrong for the location, and it is the answer most candidates give, because the palace belongs to Kerala's history and administration; the question is set precisely to catch that. Option C is wrong because the wooden palaces and the Indo-Saracenic Amba Vilas palace of Karnataka belong to Mysuru and the Wadiyar rulers. Option D is wrong because Andhra Pradesh has no palace of this kind in the standard lists. Padmanabhapuram is described as the largest wooden palace complex in Asia, and its teak and rosewood work is the feature named in questions.

The correct answer is B, Murshidabad, West Bengal. The palace was built in the nineteenth century for the Nawab Nazim of Bengal on the bank of the Bhagirathi, and takes its name from its very large number of doorways, many of them false, which is the detail questions turn on. Option A is wrong because the palaces and monuments of the nawabs at Lucknow are the Bara Imambara, the Chota Imambara and the Rumi Darwaza. Option C is wrong because Patna's historic buildings are of another kind and Murshidabad, not Patna, was the seat of the Bengal nawabs. Option D is wrong because Bhopal is associated with the Taj-ul-Masajid and the palaces of its Begums. Murshidabad is also where the battle of Plassey was fought nearby in 1757, which is why the place name is familiar from history as well.

The correct answer is C, Chennai. Fort St George was built by the East India Company at Madras in the 1640s and was the first English fort in India; the settlement that grew around it became the Madras presidency. Option A is wrong because the English fort of Bengal is Fort William at Calcutta, which came later and gave its name to that presidency, making it the commonest wrong answer. Option B is wrong because Bombay came to the Company from the Portuguese by way of the English crown and was fortified afterwards; it had no fort of this precedence. Option D is wrong because Surat held the Company's earliest factory in India, from 1613, but a factory is a trading post and not a fort; a question that asks for the first factory expects Surat, and one that asks for the first fort expects Madras.

The correct answer is A, The birthplace of Maharana Pratap. Kumbhalgarh, built by Rana Kumbha in the Aravalli hills, is remembered both as Maharana Pratap's birthplace and for its very long encircling wall, held to be among the longest in the world. Option B is wrong because Rana Sanga, who fought Babur at Khanua, is not associated with this fort as a birthplace. Option C is wrong because the Vijay Stambha stands at Chittorgarh, the other great fort of Mewar, and the two forts are regularly swapped in options. Option D is wrong because the water fort of Rajasthan is Gagron at Jhalawar, surrounded on three sides by rivers and therefore called a jal durg; Kumbhalgarh is a hill fort. Both Kumbhalgarh and Gagron are among the six inscribed together as the Hill Forts of Rajasthan in 2013.

The correct answer is B, Agra Fort. The Jahangiri Mahal is the large red sandstone palace within Agra Fort, built in Akbar's reign for the women of the household and later named after Jahangir; the Khas Mahal, the Sheesh Mahal and the Musamman Burj, where Shah Jahan passed his last years, stand in the same fort. Option A is wrong because the palaces of the Red Fort at Delhi are the Rang Mahal, the Mumtaz Mahal and the halls of audience. Option C is wrong because Fatehpur Sikri is known for the Buland Darwaza, the Panch Mahal and the Diwan-i-Khas with its central pillar. Option D is wrong because the palace within Gwalior Fort is the Man Mandir of Raja Man Singh Tomar, with the Gujari Mahal below it. Naming the structure with its fort is the surest way through these questions, since the names are easily transferred.