Telangana GK: Formation, Rivers, Culture and Exam Facts

The correct answer is C, Hyderabad. When Telangana was created on 2 June 2014 under the Andhra Pradesh Reorganisation Act, 2014, Hyderabad became its capital, and the Act further provided that the city would serve as the common capital of Telangana and Andhra Pradesh for a period of not more than ten years. The city stands on the banks of the Musi, was founded in 1591 by Muhammad Quli Qutb Shah, and is the seat of the state legislature and of the High Court for the State of Telangana.

Option A, Kavaratti, is the capital of the union territory of Lakshadweep, far away in the Arabian Sea. Option B, Amaravati, is the capital being developed by Andhra Pradesh after the bifurcation, which makes it the most tempting distractor in the set. Option D, Dispur, is the capital of Assam in the north-east. Only one of the four lies in Telangana.

The correct answer is C, Andhra Pradesh. Telangana was separated from Andhra Pradesh and came into existence on 2 June 2014 as the twenty-ninth state of India. The region had been merged with Andhra State in 1956 under the States Reorganisation Act to form Andhra Pradesh, and the long demand for a separate state, carried by the 1969 agitation and later by the Telangana Rashtra Samithi formed in 2001, ended with the Andhra Pradesh Reorganisation Act, 2014.

Option A, Maharashtra, is the state to the north of Telangana and the Godavari enters Telangana from it, but no part of Telangana was taken from Maharashtra. Option B, Karnataka, borders Telangana on the west and shares the Deccan plateau, which makes it a plausible wrong choice. Option D, Madhya Pradesh, does not touch Telangana at all; the state formed by division of Madhya Pradesh in 2000 was Chhattisgarh.

The correct answer is B, 2014. Parliament passed the Andhra Pradesh Reorganisation Act in 2014, and the appointed day fixed under the Act was 2 June 2014, the date on which Telangana came into being as the twenty-ninth state. The Act also settled how the assets, the services and the river waters of the two states would be divided and allowed Hyderabad to serve as the common capital for not more than ten years.

Option A, 2015, is a year after the Act and is the year often confused with it because the new state completed its first year then. Option C, 2012, falls in the period when the demand was still being examined; the Srikrishna Committee had reported in 2010 and no Act had yet been passed. Option D, 2016, is later still. Hold the chain in mind: agitation in 1969, party formed in 2001, committee in 2010, Act and statehood in 2014.

The correct answer is C, Palapitta, the Indian roller. Telangana adopted the Indian roller, known in Telugu as palapitta, as its state bird soon after the state was formed in 2014. The bird is a brilliant blue flier of open country and is traditionally regarded as auspicious at Dasara in the Telugu speaking region. The other symbols chosen along with it are the spotted deer or jinka as state animal, the jammi tree as state tree, the tangedu flower as state flower and Bathukamma as the state festival.

Option A, the great Indian bustard, is the state bird of Rajasthan and a critically endangered species of the dry grasslands. Option B, the Asian paradise flycatcher, is the state bird of Madhya Pradesh. Option D, the hill myna, is the state bird of Chhattisgarh. All three belong to other states, so the question rewards a candidate who has learnt the symbols state by state.

The correct answer is A, Urdu. Telugu is the first official language of Telangana and Urdu is the second. The place of Urdu goes back to the Hyderabad state of the Nizams, where it was the language of administration and education, and a large Urdu speaking population still lives in Hyderabad and the surrounding districts. State government notifications and many public signs in the capital therefore appear in Telugu and Urdu together.

Option B, Tulu, is spoken in coastal Karnataka and northern Kerala and has no official standing in Telangana. Option C, Hindi, is an official language of the Union and of several northern states, and candidates often pick it by habit, but Telangana has not given it that place. Option D, English, is used for official work across India as an associate language of the Union, yet the second official language named by the state is Urdu.

The correct answer is B, Goddess Mahakali. Bonalu is celebrated in the month of Ashada, roughly July and August, when women carry cooked rice with milk and jaggery in decorated pots on their heads as an offering to the goddess Mahakali. The best known centres are the Ujjaini Mahankali temple at Secunderabad, the Jagadamba temple inside Golconda fort and the Lal Darwaza temple in the old city of Hyderabad, and the word bonam itself means a meal offered to the deity.

Option A, Durga, is worshipped across India during Navaratri, and because Mahakali is a fierce form of the mother goddess the two are easily mixed up, but Bonalu names Mahakali. Option C, Shiva, is honoured in Telangana by the Perini dance and by the Srisailam and Ramappa temples, not by Bonalu. Option D, Vishnu, is worshipped at Bhadrachalam and Yadadri, which are separate traditions.

The correct answer is B, Kakatiya. The temple at Palampet in Mulugu district was built in 1213 during the reign of the Kakatiya ruler Ganapati Deva, by his general Recherla Rudra, and it is dedicated to Shiva as Rudreswara. It is unusual in being named after Ramappa, the sculptor who worked on it. Its floating bricks, its polished black basalt pillars and its bracket figures made it the choice for inscription on the World Heritage List in 2021.

Option A, the Satavahanas, ruled the Deccan in the early centuries of the common era, a thousand years before this temple. Option C, the Qutb Shahis, came to Golconda in 1518 and built the Charminar and the Golconda tombs, which are Indo-Islamic rather than temple architecture. Option D, the Chalukyas, built at Badami, Pattadakal and Aihole in Karnataka, and their style is often confused with Kakatiya work.

The correct answer is B, 2 June. The Andhra Pradesh Reorganisation Act, 2014 fixed 2 June 2014 as the appointed day, and from that date Telangana existed as the twenty-ninth state of India. The day is marked across the state with official functions and cultural programmes, and it is the single date most often asked from this topic.

Option A, 1 November, is the day on which Andhra Pradesh was created in 1956 and is also the formation day of Karnataka, Kerala, Madhya Pradesh, Haryana and Chhattisgarh, which is exactly why it is placed here. Option C, 15 August, is Independence Day. Option D, 1 May, is the formation day of Maharashtra and Gujarat, both created in 1960 from the old Bombay State. Learning the state formation dates together is the way to avoid this trap.

The correct answer is B, Bathukamma. Bathukamma is celebrated for nine days during Navaratri, when women arrange seasonal flowers, chiefly the yellow tangedu, in the shape of a cone on a brass plate, sing and move around it in the evening, and finally float it in a tank or a stream. The festival closes with Saddula Bathukamma, and the Telangana government has recognised it as the state festival. The tangedu flower used in it is also the state flower.

Option A, Pongal, is the harvest festival of Tamil Nadu in the month of January. Option C, Ugadi, is the new year of the Telugu and Kannada regions and is widely celebrated in Telangana, but it is not the designated state festival. Option D, Bihu, belongs to Assam. A question of this kind is simply asking whether the candidate can attach the festival to the right state.

The correct answer is B, Muhammad Quli Qutb Shah. He was the fifth ruler of the Qutb Shahi dynasty of Golconda, and he founded the city of Hyderabad and raised the Charminar there in 1591. The building takes its name from its four minarets, carries a mosque on its upper floor and stands at the crossing of two roads in the old city, the plan on which the new capital was laid out.

Option A, Ibrahim Qutb Shah, was his father and is remembered for the Hussain Sagar lake, built during his reign. Option C, Nizam-ul-Mulk Asaf Jah, founded the Asaf Jahi line in 1724, more than a century after the Charminar was built. Option D, Aurangzeb, captured Golconda in 1687 and so arrived even later; he built nothing of this kind at Hyderabad. The pair to memorise is Charminar with 1591 and Muhammad Quli Qutb Shah.

The correct answer is A, Mulugu. The Sammakka Saralamma Jatara, also called the Medaram Jatara, is held once in two years at Medaram in Mulugu district, in the forest tract of the former Warangal region. It honours Sammakka and her daughter Saralamma, Koya tribal women remembered for resisting the rulers of their time, and it draws enormous crowds of pilgrims who offer jaggery equal to their own weight.

Option B, Nizamabad, lies in the north-west of the state and is known for turmeric and for the Sriram Sagar project, not for this fair. Option C, Adilabad, is the home of the Gond people and of the Nagoba Jatara, another tribal fair, which is the closest trap in the set. Option D, Nalgonda, lies in the Krishna basin in the south of the state. Medaram, Mulugu and the two year cycle are the three points to remember.

The correct answer is B, Godavari. The Kaleshwaram project lifts water from the Godavari in the north of Telangana and carries it in stages through pump houses, tunnels and reservoirs to the drier districts of the plateau, which lie at a higher level than the river. It is described as a multi stage lift scheme of very large size and was opened in 2019. The Sriram Sagar project at Pochampad stands on the same river.

Option A, the Krishna, is the other great river of the state and carries the Nagarjuna Sagar and Srisailam dams, both shared with Andhra Pradesh, so it is the natural wrong answer. Option C, the Tungabhadra, is a tributary of the Krishna flowing mainly through Karnataka and Andhra Pradesh. Option D, the Penna, flows through Andhra Pradesh and does not serve Telangana.