State Exams GK Questions 2026

Jaisalmer was both the largest district of Rajasthan by area and the smallest by population in 2011, so its density was the lowest in the state, a figure in the teens against the state average of 201.

The sex ratio is the number of females per thousand males, and Rajasthan recorded 928 in 2011, below the national figure of that census.

Rajasthan returned 6,85,48,437 people at the 2011 census, which placed it eighth among the states, behind Uttar Pradesh, Maharashtra, Bihar, West Bengal, Andhra Pradesh as it then was, Madhya Pradesh and Tamil Nadu.

The Mahabodhi Temple Complex at Bodh Gaya was inscribed on the UNESCO World Heritage List in 2002, recognised as the place of the Buddha's enlightenment, with the Bodhi tree, the Vajrasana set by Ashoka and the brick temple of the Gupta centuries standing together at one site.

The Barabar group, which includes the Lomas Rishi and Sudama caves, was cut in granite in the Mauryan age for the monks of the Ajivika sect founded by Makkhali Gosala, and the inscriptions of Ashoka's grandson Dasharatha in the nearby Nagarjuni caves record further gifts to them.

Vikramashila was founded by Dharmapala, the second and most powerful king of the Pala dynasty, in the Bhagalpur region on the Ganga, and it became second only to Nalanda as a seat of Buddhist learning, with Atisha Dipankara among its heads.

Nalanda was founded by Kumaragupta I of the Gupta dynasty in the fifth century and grew into the most famous monastic university in Asia, with students from China, Tibet, Korea and South East Asia.

The second council met at Vaishali about a century after the Buddha's death, under king Kalashoka of the Shishunaga dynasty, with Sabakami presiding.

The third council met at Pataliputra in the reign of Ashoka, with Moggaliputta Tissa presiding.

Mahavira attained nirvana at Pavapuri in the present Nalanda district of Bihar at the age of seventy two, traditionally in 527 BCE, and the Jal Mandir, a marble temple standing in the middle of a tank, marks the place of his cremation.

The first Buddhist council met at Rajgriha, the Rajgir of today, in the Saptaparni cave soon after the Buddha's death, under the patronage of king Ajatashatru and the presidency of Mahakassapa.

Tripitaka is a Pali and Sanskrit word in which pitaka means a basket, so the whole means three baskets, a name that came from the practice of keeping the palm leaf manuscripts of each collection in a separate basket.

Gautama attained enlightenment at Uruvela, the Bodh Gaya of today, under a peepal tree on the bank of the Niranjana river, which is called the Phalgu now.

Sopana sangeetam takes its name from sopanam, the flight of steps leading to the sanctum of a Kerala temple, where the singer stands and sings slow devotional verse, keeping time on the edakka, an hourglass drum played with a stick.

The Nayanars were the Shaiva saint-poets of the Tamil country, and the hymns of Appar, Sundarar and Sambandar make up the Thevaram, the first seven books of the Shaiva canon called the Tirumurai.

Vallabhacharya founded the Pushtimarg, the path of grace, whose worship of Krishna as Shrinathji is centred at Nathdwara in Rajasthan.

Purandara Dasa belonged to the Haridasa movement of Karnataka and composed devaranamas, devotional songs in Kannada, and he is credited with organising the graded exercises with which Carnatic music is still taught.

The qawwali repertoire follows a fixed order of forms, and the naat is the song in praise of the Prophet Muhammad, usually sung early in a performance after the opening praise of God.

The Sankirtana of Manipur is the Vaishnava ritual music of the Meitei people, in which singers and drummers perform in the temple courtyard, the mandap, with the barrel drum called pung and with cymbals; the drum dance is the Pung Cholom.

Sant Tukaram was a Varkari poet of the seventeenth century who composed abhangs for Vithoba of Pandharpur and lived in Dehu near Pune, in the years when Shivaji was building the Maratha state.