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.
In the battle of Chandawar in 1194, Muhammad Ghori defeated which ruler?
Chandawar lies on the Yamuna near present day Firozabad, and the battle fought there in 1194 ended the power of the Gahadavala ruler Jaichand, who was killed.
Read the full explanation →The Palaeolithic site of Singi Talav, which has yielded hand axes and cleavers, lies near which place in Rajasthan?
The deposits around Didwana in Nagaur district, especially at Singi Talav, have produced a long sequence of Palaeolithic tools including hand axes and cleavers, and the area is one of the key localities for the study of the Stone Age in western India.
Read the full explanation →The circular Buddhist shrine on Bijak ki Pahadi is located at which site of Rajasthan?
On the hill called Bijak ki Pahadi at Bairath in Jaipur district, excavations begun by Daya Ram Sahni brought to light a round shrine built of brick and timber with a small stupa at its centre and a circular passage for circumambulation, counted among the earliest circular Buddhist structures known…
Read the full explanation →The Chalcolithic sites of Balathal and Gilund in Rajasthan belong to which culture?
Balathal in Udaipur district and Gilund in Rajsamand district stand in the Banas basin of southern Rajasthan and share the Black and Red Ware, the copper working and the stone and mud brick houses of the Ahar culture, named after its type site at Ahar in Udaipur.
Read the full explanation →Rairh in Tonk district is chiefly famous for which kind of find?
Rairh produced one of the largest hoards of punch marked silver coins reported from Rajasthan, along with Malava coins and great heaps of iron slag that show smelting was carried on there over a long period.
Read the full explanation →Ganeshwar, the site known as the cradle of copper, lies in which district?
Ganeshwar lies on the Kantli river in Sikar district in the Shekhawati region, close to the copper bearing rocks of the Khetri belt.
Read the full explanation →An edict of Ashoka has been found in Rajasthan at which place?
Bairath, also called Viratnagar, in Jaipur district is the chief Mauryan site of Rajasthan.
Read the full explanation →Bagor, one of the largest Mesolithic sites of India, is located in which district of Rajasthan?
Bagor stands on the Kothari river in Bhilwara district and was excavated by V. N. Misra. The site produced thousands of tiny stone tools called microliths, along with human burials and large numbers of animal bones, among them sheep and goat, which are read as evidence for early herding.
Read the full explanation →Which ancient site of Rajasthan was known as Tambavati?
Ahar lies on the Ayad river within present day Udaipur and was called Tambavati, which means the place of copper, because so much copper was smelted and worked there.
Read the full explanation →The earliest known ploughed field in the world has been reported from which site?
In the pre Harappan level at Kalibangan the excavators found a field with furrows running in two directions and crossing at right angles, exactly the pattern of mixed cropping still used in the region, where one crop is sown in the wider spaced furrows and another in the closer ones.
Read the full explanation →Kalibangan, the Harappan site of Rajasthan, is situated on the bank of which river?
Kalibangan lies in Hanumangarh district on the left bank of the now dry bed of the Ghaggar, the river that many scholars identify with the Saraswati of the Vedic texts.
Read the full explanation →In which year was the archaeological site of Nalanda Mahavihara inscribed on the UNESCO World Heritage List?
The archaeological site of Nalanda Mahavihara in Bihar was added to the World Heritage List in 2016, in recognition of a monastic and scholastic institution that functioned without a break from the third century before the Common Era to the thirteenth century.
Read the full explanation →Who destroyed the monastic universities of Nalanda and Vikramshila at the end of the twelfth century?
Ikhtiyaruddin Muhammad bin Bakhtiyar Khalji, a commander in the service of the Ghurids, overran the middle Ganga plain at the end of the twelfth century, sacking Odantapuri and Vikramshila and laying Nalanda waste soon after.
Read the full explanation →The library of Nalanda was known by which name?
The library complex of Nalanda was called Dharmaganja, the treasury of truth, and later accounts say it stood in three buildings, Ratnasagara, Ratnodadhi and Ratnaranjaka, of which Ratnodadhi is described as nine storeys high.
Read the full explanation →The monastery of Odantapuri, from which the name Bihar is usually traced, was founded by whom?
Gopala, the first king of the Pala dynasty, founded Odantapuri at the place now called Biharsharif in Nalanda district. The word vihara, meaning a Buddhist monastery, gave the region and then the state its name, and Odantapuri is the monastery most often named in that explanation.
Read the full explanation →Which scholar of Vikramshila went to Tibet and reformed Buddhism there?
Atisha was the most famous head of Vikramshila and left for Tibet in the eleventh century at the invitation of its western kings.
Read the full explanation →The remains of Vikramshila are located in which district of Bihar?
Vikramshila stood at Antichak village in Bhagalpur district, on raised ground overlooking the Ganga, and excavation has revealed a great cruciform stupa at the centre with monastic cells arranged in a square around it, a plan very different from the rows of monasteries at Nalanda.
Read the full explanation →Vikramshila university was founded by which ruler?
The Pala king Dharmapala founded Vikramshila in the late eighth century at Antichak in what is now Bhagalpur district, on a height above the Ganga, as a rival and a complement to Nalanda.
Read the full explanation →Under which teacher did the Chinese pilgrim Hiuen Tsang study at Nalanda?
Hiuen Tsang reached Nalanda in the seventh century during the reign of Harshavardhana and spent several years there studying the Yogachara philosophy under Shilabhadra, who was then the abbot.
Read the full explanation →The Nalanda Mahavihara was founded by which ruler?
The Gupta emperor Kumaragupta the first, who appears in the records with the title Shakraditya, founded the monastic university at Nalanda in the fifth century.
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