State Exams GK Questions 2026

Mudrarakshasa, meaning the signet ring of Rakshasa, is a political drama in which Chanakya outwits the minister Rakshasa and secures the throne for Chandragupta Maurya.

The Ramayana is accordingly called the Adi Kavya, the first poem.

The Ashtadhyayi, meaning the work in eight chapters, fixed the rules of Sanskrit in a set of short formulas and is admired as the earliest scientific grammar of any language, since it describes the whole language through a compact system of rules.

He wrote the Rajatarangini, whose name means the river of kings, in Kashmir in the twelfth century. Because he arranged rulers in order of time and used inscriptions, coins and earlier records, the work is treated as the earliest piece of history writing in India in the modern sense.

The Harshacharita is a biography of his patron and one of the earliest historical biographies written in Sanskrit, while Kadambari is a romance in ornate prose and is often described as one of the first novels in any Indian language.

That play, whose title means the little clay cart, was written by Shudraka, and it is unusual among Sanskrit dramas because its hero is an impoverished merchant and its plot turns on ordinary city life rather than on gods and kings.

The Arthashastra sets out the duties of a king, the working of ministers and spies, taxation, law, trade, agriculture and warfare, and it is one of the main sources for Mauryan administration.

A recipient of the Bharat Ratna is given a Sanad, which is a certificate signed by the President, together with the medallion, and the award is conferred at Rashtrapati Bhavan, usually a few weeks after the names are announced on the eve of Republic Day.

He became eligible because the scope of the award had been widened in December 2011 from art, literature, science and public service to any field of human endeavour, and he is also the youngest person to receive the Bharat Ratna.

The Bharat Ratna medallion is made in toned bronze in the shape of a peepal leaf, with a platinum sun and the words Bharat Ratna in Devanagari on the front, and the State Emblem of India with the motto Satyameva Jayate on the back.

The rules provide that not more than 120 Padma awards may be conferred in a year, and awards made posthumously and those given to foreigners and non-resident Indians are counted outside that ceiling.

The Padma Awards Committee is constituted afresh by the Prime Minister each year and is headed by the Cabinet Secretary, with the Home Secretary, the Secretary to the President and a number of eminent persons as members.

Because of it, the Bharat Ratna and the Padma awards may not be used as a prefix or suffix to a recipient's name, and the awards were challenged on this ground before the Supreme Court upheld them in the Balaji Raghavan case.

Known as the Frontier Gandhi, he led the non-violent Khudai Khidmatgar movement in the North-West Frontier Province and remained a citizen of Pakistan after partition, which makes him the first recipient who was not an Indian national.

She was Prime Minister at the time, and the award followed the events of that year.

Until then the honour had been given only to living persons.

All three were honoured in 1954, the first year of the award. Rajagopalachari was the last Governor-General of India, Radhakrishnan was a philosopher who later became President, and Raman was the physicist who discovered the effect that carries his name.

The order of precedence of the civilian honours runs Bharat Ratna, Padma Vibhushan, Padma Bhushan and Padma Shri, and the Padma Vibhushan is given for exceptional and distinguished service.

Both honours were instituted on 2 January 1954 by President Dr. Rajendra Prasad, and the first Bharat Ratna was conferred in the same year on C. Rajagopalachari, Dr. Sarvepalli Radhakrishnan and C. V. Raman.

The words, meaning truth alone triumphs, were adopted as the national motto and are inscribed below the state emblem of India in Devanagari script.