Static general knowledge is six of the seven lines of the General Studies Paper-I syllabus in the UPSC CSE notice: History of India and the Indian National Movement; Indian and World Geography; Indian Polity and Governance; Economic and Social Development; Environmental Ecology, Bio-diversity and Climate Change; and General Science. The Commission tests understanding rather than recall, through statements to be judged correct or incorrect, pairs to be matched and assertion-reason items, and it likes the edges of a topic: a lesser-known provision of the Constitution, a river's tributary, a species' conservation status, the mandate of a statutory body. This page holds GK24's topic-wise GK notes for UPSC, written as short facts and tables, in English and Hindi, with each note linked to the current affairs and previous-year questions on the same topic. Start with Polity and Modern History, which carry the most questions, then Geography, the Economy, Environment, Ancient and Medieval culture and Science. Read a note, solve its PYQs, take its quiz, and come back to it in your monthly revision. A candidate who knows these notes and reads the daily current affairs has covered the syllabus the notice prescribes for Paper-I.
Dhar was the capital of which dynasty of Malwa?
The Paramaras ruled Malwa from Dhar from about the ninth century until Alauddin Khalji's army took the country in 1305.
Read the full explanation →The famous rock-cut panel of Varaha lifting the earth, together with an inscription of the reign of Chandragupta II, is found at:
The Udayagiri caves near Vidisha are Gupta rock-cut shrines of the late fourth and early fifth centuries, and the largest panel there shows Varaha, the boar incarnation of Vishnu, raising the earth goddess on his tusk.
Read the full explanation →The Heliodorus pillar, the earliest inscriptional evidence of the Bhagavata faith, stands near which town of Madhya Pradesh?
The pillar stands at Besnagar beside Vidisha. It was set up in the second century before Christ by Heliodorus, a Greek ambassador sent by Antialcidas, the Indo-Greek king of Taxila, to the court of king Bhagabhadra.
Read the full explanation →Mahakaleshwar, one of the twelve jyotirlingas, is situated in which city?
The Mahakaleshwar temple at Ujjain is one of the twelve jyotirlingas, and it is singled out in every list because its lingam faces south, the only one of the twelve to do so; the bhasma aarti performed there before dawn is equally famous.
Read the full explanation →Ujjain was the capital of which mahajanapada?
Avanti was one of the sixteen mahajanapadas of the sixth century before Christ, and it was divided into two parts: the north, ruled from Ujjayini or Ujjain, and the south, ruled from Mahishmati, which is identified with Maheshwar on the Narmada.
Read the full explanation →Ujjain is situated on the bank of which river?
Ujjain stands on the Shipra, also written Kshipra, a tributary of the Chambal, and it is on the ghats of this river that the Simhastha, the Kumbh of Ujjain, is held every twelve years.
Read the full explanation →Relics of Sariputta and Mahamoggallana, two chief disciples of the Buddha, were recovered from which structure at Sanchi?
The relic caskets of Sariputta and Mahamoggallana, the two chief disciples of the Buddha, were found in Stupa 3 at Sanchi, which stands a short distance north-east of the Great Stupa and has a single gateway.
Read the full explanation →The four carved gateways or toranas of the Great Stupa at Sanchi were added under which dynasty?
The four toranas that stand at the cardinal points of the Great Stupa were carved in the first century before Christ in the Satavahana period, and an inscription on one of them records the gift of ivory carvers of Vidisha.
Read the full explanation →The Great Stupa at Sanchi was originally built during the reign of which ruler?
The Great Stupa, Stupa 1 at Sanchi, was raised in brick in the third century before Christ in the reign of Ashoka, who also set up a pillar at the site bearing the schism edict and crowned by a lion capital.
Read the full explanation →Who brought the Bhimbetka rock shelters to the notice of scholars in 1957?
Vishnu Shridhar Wakankar, an archaeologist from Ujjain, noticed the rocky outcrops from a train in 1957 and went on to explore and record the shelters and their paintings.
Read the full explanation →The rock shelters of Bhimbetka are located in which district of Madhya Pradesh?
The Bhimbetka rock shelters lie in Raisen district, in the foothills of the Vindhyan range south of Bhopal, within the forest now protected as Ratapani.
Read the full explanation →Thanesar in Haryana was the capital of which dynasty?
Thanesar, the ancient Sthanvishvara in Kurukshetra district, was the capital of the Pushyabhuti dynasty, also called the Vardhana dynasty from the ending of its kings' names.
Read the full explanation →The Ashokan pillar now standing at Firoz Shah Kotla in Delhi was brought by Firoz Shah Tughlaq from which place in Haryana?
The pillar was brought from Topra in Yamunanagar district to Delhi by Firoz Shah Tughlaq in the fourteenth century and set up at his new city of Firozabad, where it still stands at Firoz Shah Kotla.
Read the full explanation →Jyotisar in Kurukshetra is traditionally associated with which event?
Jyotisar, a short distance from the town of Kurukshetra, is held by tradition to be the spot where Krishna spoke the Gita to Arjuna before the Mahabharata war, and an old banyan tree there is shown as a witness to it.
Read the full explanation →According to the Manusmriti, Brahmavarta was the land lying between which two rivers?
The Manusmriti describes Brahmavarta as the holy land created by the gods between the Saraswati and the Drishadvati, and that strip of country is the plain of present-day Haryana.
Read the full explanation →A terracotta model of a plough was found at which Harappan site of Haryana?
Banawali in Fatehabad district, excavated by R. S. Bisht, gave a terracotta model of a plough, which is one of the clearest pieces of evidence for ploughed fields in the Harappan world; the other famous evidence is the ploughed field surface found at Kalibangan in Rajasthan.
Read the full explanation →The Harappan site of Rakhigarhi is located in which district of Haryana?
Rakhigarhi lies in Hisar district and covers the land of two villages, Rakhi Khas and Rakhi Shahpur, on a dried channel of the Drishadvati, today called the Chautang.
Read the full explanation →Which of the three Gods were especially important in the Rigvedic period?
These three receive the largest number of hymns in the Rigveda. Indra, the war god and breaker of forts, has the greatest number; Agni, the fire that carries the offering to the gods, comes next; and Soma, both a plant and a god, has the whole of the ninth mandala…
Read the full explanation →Satapatha Brahmana and Taittiriya Brahmana are the Brahmana texts of ______
The Shatapatha Brahmana belongs to the Shukla or White Yajurveda and the Taittiriya Brahmana to the Krishna or Black Yajurveda, so both are Brahmana texts of the Yajurveda.
Read the full explanation →The earliest occurrence of the mantra famous as Gayatri Mantra is found in which of the following texts?
The Gayatri Mantra first appears in the third mandala of the Rigveda and is ascribed to the sage Vishvamitra. It is addressed to Savitr, the sun, and it is composed in the Gayatri metre, from which it takes its popular name.
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