Rajasthan GK: Geography, History, Culture and Economy

The correct answer is B, Rajasthan. Rajasthan covers about 342,239 square kilometres, roughly a tenth of the area of India, and has been the largest state since Madhya Pradesh was divided in 2000. It is bounded by Punjab, Haryana, Uttar Pradesh, Madhya Pradesh and Gujarat, and it has the longest stretch of India's international border with Pakistan.

Option A, Madhya Pradesh, is the second largest state and was the largest before Chhattisgarh was carved out of it. Option C, Maharashtra, is third by area but first among these in population. Option D, Uttar Pradesh, is the most populous state of India but stands fourth in area. Candidates who remember the population order rather than the area order pick Uttar Pradesh, which is the trap the question is built on.

The correct answer is A, Sirohi. Guru Shikhar, about 1,722 metres high, stands on Mount Abu in Sirohi district and is the highest point both of the Aravallis and of Rajasthan. Mount Abu is the only hill station in the state and also holds the Dilwara Jain temples, famous for their marble carving, and the Nakki Lake.

Option B, Udaipur, has the Aravalli hills around it and the Zawar zinc mines, but not the highest peak. Option C, Ajmer, has Taragarh hill and the source region of the Luni, and is well below Guru Shikhar. Option D, Rajsamand, contains Kumbhalgarh and the Khamnor hills where the Banas rises, and lies close to Haldighati. Remember the chain: Guru Shikhar on Mount Abu in Sirohi district. Sirohi also borders Gujarat, and the Aravallis reach their broadest spread in this southern part of the state.

The correct answer is C, Chambal. The Chambal enters Rajasthan from Madhya Pradesh and flows north and then east through deep ravines, carrying water through the year, which makes it the only perennial river of the state and also its longest. The Rana Pratap Sagar and Jawahar Sagar dams stand on it, and the Chambal ravines are a protected area for the gharial.

Option A, the Luni, dries in stretches and is saline in its lower course. Option B, the Banas, flows entirely within Rajasthan but is seasonal, filling after the monsoon and thinning in summer. Option D, the Ghaggar, is a lost river whose dry bed passes Kalibangan and disappears in the sands of Hanumangarh and Sriganganagar. Rajasthan's dependence on the Chambal and on canal water follows directly from this.

The correct answer is B, the Rann of Kutch. The Luni rises in the Aravallis near Ajmer, flows south west across the desert districts of Marwar, grows saline as it picks up salts from the soil, and ends in the marshes of the Rann of Kutch in Gujarat without reaching open sea. Its name comes from lavanavari, meaning salt water, and it is the main river of western Rajasthan.

Option A is wrong because the Luni is a river of inland drainage and has no mouth on the Arabian Sea. Option C is wrong because the Luni never meets the Chambal, which flows on the other side of the Aravallis; the Banas is the river that joins the Chambal. Option D is wrong because no Rajasthan river drains east to the Bay of Bengal. Sabarmati, Mahi and Luni are the western rivers, and only the Mahi and the Sabarmati reach the Gulf of Khambhat.

The correct answer is A, Rajasthan. Sambhar Lake lies west of Jaipur, spread over parts of Jaipur, Nagaur and Ajmer districts. It is the largest inland saline lake in the country, a major source of common salt, a Ramsar site, and a winter feeding ground for flamingos and other migratory birds.

Option B, Gujarat, has Nal Sarovar and the salt flats of the Rann, but these are not the same as Sambhar. Option C, Odisha, has Chilika, which is the largest brackish water lagoon in India, joined to the sea, and therefore not an inland saline lake. Option D, Andhra Pradesh, has Kolleru and Pulicat, both of them freshwater or brackish coastal lakes. The pair to fix is Sambhar as the largest inland saline lake and Chilika as the largest brackish lagoon.

The correct answer is A, Nagaur in Rajasthan. Acting on the report of the Balwant Rai Mehta Committee, Rajasthan became the first state to introduce Panchayati Raj, and Prime Minister Jawaharlal Nehru inaugurated it at Nagaur on 2 October 1959, Gandhi Jayanti. Andhra Pradesh followed later the same year, which is why it is the usual second answer.

Option B, Shadnagar in Andhra Pradesh, is where that state launched its own Panchayati Raj in November 1959, after Rajasthan. Option C, Jaipur, is the capital and a natural guess, but the inauguration was deliberately held in a rural district. Option D, Gandhinagar, did not exist as a city in 1959 and Gujarat itself was formed only in 1960. Note also that Rajasthan and Andhra Pradesh worked with three tiers before the 73rd Amendment made them uniform in 1992.

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. The Battle of Haldighati was fought in June 1576 in the hills near Gogunda in Mewar between Maharana Pratap of Mewar and the Mughal army sent by Akbar under Man Singh of Amber. Neither side destroyed the other; Pratap withdrew into the hills and carried on a long resistance from there, and his horse Chetak is part of the story every paper repeats.

Option A describes the Battle of Khanwa of 1527, where Babur defeated Rana Sanga after the first battle of Panipat. Option C refers to the earlier Mewar and Malwa conflicts in which Rana Kumbha took part, commemorated by the Vijay Stambha at Chittorgarh. Option D refers to the Rathore rulers of Marwar and the later conflict with Aurangzeb, including the war of succession after Jaswant Singh's death. Fixing 1576 to Haldighati and 1527 to Khanwa settles the commonest confusion.

The correct answer is B, Kalbelia. Kalbelia is the dance and song tradition of the Kalbelia community of snake charmers of Rajasthan. The women dance in black swirling skirts with movements that recall a serpent, to the be en and the khanjari played by the men, and the songs are composed on the spot. UNESCO inscribed the Kalbelia folk songs and dances of Rajasthan on its representative list of intangible cultural heritage.

Option A, Ghoomar, is the most widely known Rajasthani dance and is performed in a circle with the veil held low, but it does not carry this inscription. Option C, Bhavai, is the balancing dance in which the performer dances with several pots on the head. Option D, Gair, is the men's dance of the Bhils performed at Holi. All four are Rajasthani, so only the UNESCO listing separates them.

The correct answer is A, Nagaur. The Makrana quarries in Nagaur district have produced white marble for centuries, and it is the marble used in the Taj Mahal at Agra and in the Victoria Memorial at Kolkata. Nagaur is also where Panchayati Raj was inaugurated in 1959 and is known for its cattle fair.

Option B, Jhunjhunu, holds the Khetri copper mines, historically important enough that Swami Vivekananda's patron ruled from there. Option C, Udaipur, holds the Zawar mines, the oldest known zinc smelting site in India. Option D, Bhilwara, is a textile centre and has mica and other minerals. The mineral to district pairs asked most often are marble with Makrana in Nagaur, copper with Khetri in Jhunjhunu and zinc with Zawar in Udaipur.

The correct answer is B, Sawai Jai Singh II. Sawai Jai Singh II of the Kachhwaha house moved his seat from the hill fort of Amber to the plain and founded Jaipur in 1727. The city was laid out on a grid of nine blocks by Vidyadhar Bhattacharya, and Jai Singh, an astronomer as well as a ruler, built the Jantar Mantar observatories at Jaipur, Delhi, Ujjain, Varanasi and Mathura. The walled city and the Jantar Mantar are both UNESCO World Heritage Sites.

Option A, Rana Kumbha, was a fifteenth century ruler of Mewar who built Kumbhalgarh. Option C, Maharaja Man Singh of Amber, was Akbar's general who led the Mughal force at Haldighati, more than a century before Jaipur was built. Option D, Maharana Pratap, ruled Mewar and is connected with Haldighati and Chittorgarh, not with Jaipur. The pink wash that gave Jaipur its nickname came much later, in 1876.

The correct answer is B, Jaisalmer. Pokhran lies in Jaisalmer district in the Thar desert and was the site of the underground nuclear test of 1974, code named Smiling Buddha, and of the series of tests in May 1998 carried out as Operation Shakti, after which India declared itself a nuclear weapon state. The remoteness and the dry rock of the region were the reasons for the choice.

Option A, Barmer, is an oil and gas district and holds part of the Desert National Park, but not the test site. Option C, Bikaner, is known for its fort, its camel breeding farm and the Karni Mata temple at Deshnoke. Option D, Churu, has the Tal Chhapar blackbuck sanctuary. All four are western desert districts, so the question is answered only by knowing that Pokhran belongs to Jaisalmer.