Karnataka GK: Formation, Geography and Culture

The correct answer is C, 1973. The state was created on 1 November 1956 under the States Reorganisation Act with the name Mysore State, and it was renamed Karnataka on 1 November 1973, a day now observed every year as Karnataka Rajyotsava. Option A is wrong because 1956 is the year of formation, not of the renaming, and the question asks only for the change of name; mixing the two is the standard trap in this topic. Option B is wrong because nothing happened to the name of the state in 1960; that year saw the division of Bombay State into Maharashtra and Gujarat. Option D is wrong because by 1980 the state had carried its present name for seven years, and no renaming took place in that year.

The correct answer is B, Sharavathi. The Sharavathi is a west-flowing river of Karnataka, and at Jog in Shivamogga district it drops in four separate cascades named Raja, Rani, Rocket and Roarer, making one of the highest waterfalls in India. The Linganamakki dam is built on the same river upstream. Option A is wrong because the Kaveri makes the Shivanasamudra falls, where the two streams are called Gaganachukki and Bharachukki. Option C is wrong because the Tungabhadra is a tributary of the Krishna and is remembered for the dam at Hosapete and for flowing past Hampi, not for a great waterfall. Option D is wrong because the Krishna enters Karnataka from Maharashtra and flows east across the plateau, carrying the Almatti dam but no famous falls in the state.

The correct answer is A, Mullayanagiri. Mullayanagiri, in Chikkamagaluru district in the Baba Budangiri range of the Western Ghats, rises to about one thousand nine hundred and thirty metres and is the highest point in Karnataka. Option B is wrong because Anamudi, at about two thousand six hundred and ninety-five metres, is in Kerala and is the highest peak in India south of the Himalaya, which is why it is offered here as a distractor. Option C is wrong because Kudremukh, also in Karnataka and also in the Western Ghats, is a lower peak better known for its iron ore and for the national park around it. Option D is wrong because Doddabetta is the highest peak of the Nilgiris and lies in Tamil Nadu, near Udhagamandalam.

The correct answer is B, Bengaluru. ISRO has its headquarters at Antariksh Bhavan in Bengaluru, which also holds the U R Rao Satellite Centre and the ISRO Telemetry, Tracking and Command Network. Bengaluru is in addition the seat of the Indian Institute of Science, founded in 1909, of Hindustan Aeronautics Limited and of Bharat Electronics Limited. Option A is wrong because Thiruvananthapuram holds the Vikram Sarabhai Space Centre, where launch vehicles are developed, and the Thumba equatorial rocket launching station. Option C is wrong because Hyderabad holds the National Remote Sensing Centre, which is an ISRO centre but not the headquarters. Option D is wrong because Ahmedabad holds the Space Applications Centre and the Physical Research Laboratory. The question asks for the headquarters and not for any centre, so each of the other three cities is a real ISRO location and still the wrong answer here.

The correct answer is A, Chavundaraya. The figure of Gommateshwara, also called Bahubali, stands about fifty-seven feet high on Vindhyagiri hill at Shravanabelagola in Hassan district and was raised by Chavundaraya, a minister and general of the Western Ganga kingdom, towards the end of the tenth century. It is anointed in the Mahamastakabhisheka ceremony once in twelve years. Option B is wrong because Krishnadevaraya was a Vijayanagara emperor of a much later age, associated with Hampi. Option C is wrong because Vishnuvardhana was the Hoysala king who built the Chennakeshava temple at Belur. Option D is wrong because Pulakeshin II was the Chalukya ruler of Badami who defeated Harshavardhana, and he built no monument at this Jain centre. Shravanabelagola is the chief Jain pilgrimage centre of the south, and the hill facing Vindhyagiri, called Chandragiri, carries still older Jain temples and inscriptions.

The correct answer is B, Vijayanagara. Hampi in Vijayanagara district, on the south bank of the Tungabhadra, was the capital of the Vijayanagara empire founded in 1336, and its ruins, including the Virupaksha temple and the stone chariot of the Vittala temple, are a UNESCO World Heritage Site. Option A is wrong because the Hoysala capital was Dwarasamudra, the modern Halebidu, where the Hoysaleswara temple stands. Option C is wrong because the Chalukyas of Badami ruled from Badami and built the monuments at Aihole and Pattadakal. Option D is wrong because the Rashtrakutas ruled from Manyakheta, the modern Malkhed in Kalaburagi district, and are remembered in Karnataka for the Kailasa temple they cut at Ellora in present Maharashtra. Hampi lies in Vijayanagara district, which takes its name from the empire, and the Tungabhadra guarded the capital along its northern side.

The correct answer is B, Chalukyas of Badami. Pattadakal on the Malaprabha river was a ceremonial centre of the Chalukyas of Badami, who built there a group in which the northern nagara style and the southern dravida style stand side by side, the Virupaksha temple being the largest. It is a UNESCO World Heritage Site, and the same dynasty built the cave temples at Badami and the experimental temples at Aihole. Option A is wrong because the Hoysalas built at Belur, Halebidu and Somanathapura, whose ensembles were inscribed separately in 2023. Option C is wrong because the Kadambas ruled from Banavasi and are the earliest dynasty native to Karnataka, but Pattadakal is not theirs. Option D is wrong because the Western Gangas held Talakad and are linked with Shravanabelagola.

The correct answer is B, Shivanasamudra. The hydroelectric station built at Shivanasamudra on the Kaveri in 1902 was the first of its kind in Asia, and its power was carried to the Kolar Gold Fields, then one of the deepest mining operations in the world, over what was at the time the longest transmission line in the country. Option A is wrong because Jog on the Sharavathi is famous for its waterfall and has later generating capacity, but it was not the first. Option C is wrong because Linganamakki is the reservoir built much later on the Sharavathi to regulate water for the Sharavathi generating stations. Option D is wrong because Hosapete is the site of the Tungabhadra dam, an irrigation and power project of the years after independence.

The correct answer is B, Kaveri. The Krishna Raja Sagara dam, usually shortened to KRS, stands across the Kaveri near Mysuru and was built under the direction of Sir M. Visvesvaraya during the reign of Krishnaraja Wadiyar IV, after whom it is named; the Brindavan Gardens lie below it. Option A is wrong, and is the trap in this question, because the dam is named after a king called Krishnaraja and not after the Krishna river; the Krishna carries the Almatti dam in the north of the state. Option C is wrong because the Sharavathi carries the Linganamakki dam and makes the Jog Falls. Option D is wrong because the Malaprabha is a tributary of the Krishna, with its own dam at Navilutheertha, and it flows past Pattadakal.

The correct answer is A, Kodagu. The Kaveri rises at Talakaveri on the Brahmagiri hills in Kodagu district, the old Coorg, and flows east and then south-east across Karnataka into Tamil Nadu before reaching the Bay of Bengal. Kodagu is also the chief coffee growing district of the state. Option B is wrong because Chikkamagaluru holds Mullayanagiri, the highest peak in the state, and is the other great coffee district, but no major river rises there. Option C is wrong because Hassan district holds Halebidu, Belur and Shravanabelagola and is a centre of Hoysala and Jain monuments rather than a river source. Option D is wrong because Shivamogga district holds the Jog Falls on the Sharavathi, a different river that flows west. All four districts named here lie in the Western Ghats belt, so the safe marker is Talakaveri on the Brahmagiri hills, which belongs to Kodagu alone.

The correct answer is B, Kuvempu. Kuppali Venkatappa Puttappa, known by his pen name Kuvempu, received the Jnanpith Award for his epic Sri Ramayana Darshanam and was the first writer in Kannada to be so honoured. He also wrote Jaya Bharata Jananiya Tanujate, which is the state song of Karnataka. Option A is wrong because Shivaram Karanth received the award later, for the novel Mookajjiya Kanasugalu. Option C is wrong because Girish Karnad, the playwright of Tughlaq and Hayavadana, received it in a later decade still. Option D is wrong because U. R. Ananthamurthy, the author of Samskara, also came after Kuvempu. Kannada has a long list of Jnanpith winners, so the question is almost always about who came first. Kuvempu also carried the title Rashtrakavi, the national poet of the state, which is another detail papers use to point at him.