Samadhis and Tombs of Famous Personalities in India

The correct answer is B, Jawaharlal Nehru. Shanti Van, which means the garden of peace, stands on the bank of the Yamuna in Delhi a little to the north of Raj Ghat and is the samadhi of Jawaharlal Nehru, the first Prime Minister of India, who was cremated there in 1964. Option A is wrong because the memorial of Mahatma Gandhi is Raj Ghat, the plain black stone platform bearing the words Hey Ram and an eternal flame. Option C is wrong because Lal Bahadur Shastri's samadhi is Vijay Ghat, named for the victory of 1965. Option D is wrong because Indira Gandhi's samadhi is Shakti Sthal, which is often confused with Vir Bhumi, the memorial of her son Rajiv Gandhi. The whole group of memorials stands in a line along the river, so a candidate who remembers their order northward from Raj Ghat rarely loses this mark.

The correct answer is B, Indira Gandhi. Shakti Sthal, the place of strength, is the samadhi of Indira Gandhi, who was Prime Minister of India and was cremated there in 1984, and a large uncut rock from Haryana marks the spot. Option A is wrong because the memorial of Rajiv Gandhi is Vir Bhumi, and the pairing of these two names is the commonest confusion in this question. Option C is wrong because Ekta Sthal, the place of unity, is the memorial of Giani Zail Singh, who had been President of India. Option D is wrong because Kisan Ghat belongs to Chaudhary Charan Singh, the Prime Minister known as a leader of the farmers, which is why his memorial carries the name of the farmer.

The correct answer is C, Lal Bahadur Shastri. Vijay Ghat in Delhi is the samadhi of Lal Bahadur Shastri, the second Prime Minister of India, who died at Tashkent in January 1966, and the name recalls the victory of India in the war of 1965 fought during his term. Option A is wrong because Morarji Desai was cremated at Abhay Ghat in Ahmedabad, the only memorial of a Prime Minister in that city. Option B is wrong because Narayan Ghat is the memorial of Gulzarilal Nanda, who served twice as acting Prime Minister. Option D is wrong because Atal Bihari Vajpayee's memorial, built near Raj Ghat and opened in 2018, is called Sadaiv Atal. A simple way to fix these names is to tie each to one word, vijay for the war of 1965, shanti for the garden of peace and abhay for the memorial at Ahmedabad.

The correct answer is B, Chaudhary Charan Singh. Kisan Ghat on the Yamuna bank in Delhi is the samadhi of Chaudhary Charan Singh, who was Prime Minister of India and is remembered above all as a leader of the farmers, which is why his memorial is named after the kisan. Option A is wrong because the memorial of Babu Jagjivan Ram is Samata Sthal, the place of equality, named for his lifelong work against untouchability. Option C is wrong because Karma Bhumi is the memorial of Shankar Dayal Sharma, who had been President of India. Option D is wrong because Jayaprakash Narayan was cremated at Patna in Bihar and has no memorial in the Raj Ghat group. Candidates should note that all four names offered in such a question are genuine memorials of real leaders, so only the pairing decides the answer.

The correct answer is A, Dr B. R. Ambedkar. Chaitya Bhoomi, on the sea front at Dadar in Mumbai, is the place where Dr Bhimrao Ramji Ambedkar, the chairman of the drafting committee of the Constitution, was cremated in December 1956, and lakhs of followers gather there on 6 December each year. Option B is wrong because Bal Gangadhar Tilak was cremated at Chowpatty in Mumbai, where a memorial stands, but it is not called Chaitya Bhoomi. Option C is wrong because Sardar Vallabhbhai Patel was cremated at Sonapur in Mumbai in 1950. Option D is wrong because Jyotiba Phule belongs to an earlier century and is commemorated at Pune, not at Dadar. The name comes from the Buddhist chaitya, because Dr Ambedkar had embraced Buddhism at Nagpur only a few weeks before his death.

The correct answer is A, Atal Bihari Vajpayee. Sadaiv Atal is the memorial of Atal Bihari Vajpayee, who was Prime Minister of India three times and died in August 2018; it stands near Raj Ghat and its name plays on his own name, meaning forever unmoved. Option B is wrong because P. V. Narasimha Rao was cremated at Hyderabad, and a memorial for him was later made within the group of memorials in Delhi. Option C is wrong because Pranab Mukherjee, a former President, was cremated at the common Rashtriya Smriti Sthal. Option D is wrong because Giani Zail Singh's memorial is Ekta Sthal, built well before this one and named for unity. A later government decision stopped the practice of setting aside fresh land for each dignitary and made a common Rashtriya Smriti Sthal in the same area, so this memorial is one of the few exceptions.

The correct answer is C, Khuldabad in Maharashtra. Aurangzeb died in 1707 in the Deccan and was buried at Khuldabad, a small town near Aurangabad, beside the shrine of his spiritual guide Sheikh Zainuddin. He had directed that no costly monument be raised over him, so his grave is a plain open enclosure. Option A is wrong because Agra holds the Taj Mahal, where his father Shah Jahan and mother Mumtaz Mahal lie, and Sikandra, where Akbar lies. Option B is wrong because Delhi has the tombs of Humayun and of the Sultanate rulers but not of Aurangzeb. Option D is wrong because Lahore holds the tomb of Jahangir at Shahdara, in present-day Pakistan. The plainness of the grave is itself the point examiners test, since it stands in contrast with every other Mughal tomb in the syllabus.

The correct answer is B, Bega Begum, his widow. Humayun's Tomb was raised in Delhi by his widow Bega Begum, also known as Haji Begum, with Mirak Mirza Ghiyas as the architect, and it is the first garden tomb of the subcontinent, placed at the centre of a walled char bagh crossed by water channels. It was inscribed as a World Heritage Site in 1993 and became the model for the Taj Mahal. Option A is wrong because Akbar was a child at the time and his own tomb stands at Sikandra. Option C is wrong because Nur Jahan built the tomb of her father, Itmad-ud-Daulah, at Agra. Option D is wrong because Sher Shah Suri, Humayun's rival, has his own tomb at Sasaram. The building is also remembered as the place where the last Mughal emperor Bahadur Shah Zafar was taken prisoner in 1857.

The correct answer is A, Bijapur, Karnataka. Gol Gumbaz at Bijapur, now also called Vijayapura, is the tomb of Muhammad Adil Shah of the Adil Shahi dynasty and carries one of the largest masonry domes in the world, raised over a square hall without any pillar inside. The gallery at the base of the dome repeats a sound several times, which is why it is called the whispering gallery. Option B is wrong because Golconda in Telangana has the Qutb Shahi tombs and the fort. Option C is wrong because Bidar has the Bahmani tombs at Ashtur and the Mahmud Gawan madrasa. Option D is wrong because Ahmednagar was the seat of the Nizam Shahi rulers and has no monument of this name. Bijapur also holds the Ibrahim Rauza, a second Adil Shahi tomb praised for the fineness of its carving.

The correct answer is B, Sasaram, Bihar. Sher Shah Suri, who defeated Humayun and ruled from 1540 to 1545, was buried at his home town Sasaram in Bihar, and his tomb stands on a stone platform in the middle of a large artificial tank, an octagonal building counted among the finest works of the period between the Sultanate and the Mughals. Option A is wrong because Delhi holds his Purana Qila and the Qila-i-Kuhna mosque but not his grave. Option C is wrong because Chunar in Uttar Pradesh has the fort he held early in his career. Option D is wrong because Patna, which he developed and fortified, is not where he was buried. The tomb was begun in Sher Shah's own lifetime and completed after his death by his son Islam Shah, which is why the work is so complete.

The correct answer is C, Dilras Banu Begum, wife of Aurangzeb. Bibi Ka Maqbara at Aurangabad in Maharashtra was built by prince Azam Shah in memory of his mother Dilras Banu Begum, who bore the title Rabia-ud-Daurani and was the wife of Aurangzeb. It follows the plan of the Taj Mahal on a smaller scale and with less marble, and so is called the Mini Taj or the Taj of the Deccan. Option A is wrong because Mumtaz Mahal lies in the Taj Mahal at Agra. Option B is wrong because Nur Jahan is buried at Lahore, near the tomb of Jahangir. Option D is wrong because Jahanara Begum, daughter of Shah Jahan, is buried in the dargah of Nizamuddin Auliya in Delhi. It is thus the one major Mughal tomb of a queen built outside north India, and the Deccan location is the key to the whole question.