The Mahabodhi Temple complex at Bodh Gaya marks which event in the life of the Buddha?

The correct answer is A, Odisha. The Jagannath Temple stands at Puri on the Odisha coast and was built in the twelfth century by Anantavarman Chodaganga Deva of the Eastern Ganga dynasty. Its Rath Yatra takes out three chariots, Nandighosa for Jagannath, Taladhwaja for Balabhadra and Darpadalana for Subhadra, and Puri is also one of the four Char Dham attributed to Adi Shankaracharya. Option B, West Bengal, is wrong; its best known shrines are Kalighat and the Dakshineswar temple at Kolkata, not a Jagannath temple of this standing. Option C, Bihar, is wrong because its great pilgrimage centre is Bodh Gaya, where the Buddha attained enlightenment. Option D, Jharkhand, is wrong although it does hold the Baidyanath Jyotirlinga at Deoghar; candidates who remember only that the temple lies in eastern India often pick one of these three neighbours.

The correct answer is B, Rajaraja I. The Brihadisvara or Rajarajesvaram temple at Thanjavur was completed about 1010 CE by the Chola king Rajaraja I, and it is the oldest of the three shrines inscribed by UNESCO as the Great Living Chola Temples. Its towering vimana makes it the classic example of mature Dravida architecture. Option A, Rajendra I, is the most tempting distractor because he was Rajaraja's son and did build a comparable temple, but his was the Brihadisvara at Gangaikonda Cholapuram, the third site in the same World Heritage group. Option C, Narasimhavarman II or Rajasimha, is wrong; he was a Pallava and is remembered for the Shore Temple at Mahabalipuram and the Kailasanatha temple at Kanchipuram. Option D, Krishna I, is wrong because this Rashtrakuta king had the rock-cut Kailasa temple carved at Ellora.

The correct answer is D, Kedarnath. The four Char Dham placed in the four directions are Badrinath in the north, Dwarka in the west, Puri in the east and Rameswaram in the south, so Kedarnath does not belong to this set. Kedarnath is instead one of the twelve Jyotirlingas and one of the four shrines of the Chota Char Dham of Uttarakhand, along with Yamunotri, Gangotri and Badrinath, which is where the confusion arises. Options A, B and C are all genuine members of the pan-India circuit: Badrinath on the Alaknanda in Uttarakhand, Dwarka on the Gujarat coast and the Jagannath temple at Puri in Odisha. The trap in this question is the overlap of the two circuits, because Badrinath appears in both, so learn the southern member Rameswaram as the marker of the national Char Dham.

The correct answer is A, Nilachal hill. The Kamakhya Temple rises on the Nilachal or Nilachala hill in Guwahati, Assam, overlooking the Brahmaputra, and its annual Ambubachi Mela draws pilgrims from across eastern India. Option B, the Trikuta hills, is wrong because they hold the cave shrine of Vaishno Devi near Katra in Jammu and Kashmir, which is also a goddess shrine and therefore the likeliest wrong choice. Option C, Girnar, is wrong; this hill near Junagadh in Gujarat is known for its Jain temples and for the rock on which Ashoka's edicts were engraved. Option D, Shatrunjaya, is wrong because that hill at Palitana in Gujarat carries hundreds of Jain temples. Remember Nilachal with Kamakhya and Trikuta with Vaishno Devi as a pair of contrasts.

The correct answer is B, Narasimhadeva I. The Konark Sun Temple in Odisha, conceived as the chariot of the sun god with carved wheels and horses, was raised in the thirteenth century by Narasimhadeva I of the Eastern Ganga dynasty, and it was inscribed as a World Heritage Site in 1984. Option A, Anantavarman Chodaganga Deva, is wrong but is the hardest distractor because he belonged to the same dynasty and built the Jagannath temple at Puri a century earlier. Option C, Kapilendra Deva, is wrong; he founded the later Gajapati dynasty of Odisha and is not credited with Konark. Option D, Bhima I, is wrong because this Solanki king of Gujarat is associated with the Sun Temple at Modhera, another sun shrine, which makes him a plausible but incorrect answer for anyone who matches only the deity rather than the region.