UPSC Civil Services 2026 Previous Year GK Questions with Answers

The correct answer is A, 2 and 3 only. Statements 2 and 3 are correct; the taluqdars were disarmed and their forts destroyed, not left with them.

Dalhousie annexed Awadh in February 1856 on the ground of misgovernment. The Summary Settlement of 1856 treated the taluqdars as intruders or outsiders with no permanent stake in the land, and tried to settle revenue directly with the actual cultivators and village proprietors. Many taluqdars lost a large part of their villages. They were also disarmed: their armed retainers were disbanded and their forts were demolished. This loss of land, power and status is why the taluqdars of Awadh joined the Revolt of 1857 in large numbers, and why the British later restored their estates.

B is wrong: statement 1 is false, since the taluqdars lost both their arms and their forts.

C is wrong: statement 1 is false.

D is wrong: statement 3 is also correct.

Exam tip: Awadh annexed 1856 (misgovernment, Dalhousie); Summary Settlement hit the taluqdars, who then led the 1857 revolt in Awadh.

The correct answer is B, 2 only. Udiyanjeral was a Chera king, not a Chola, so pair 2 is the only wrong one.

Sangam poems name three crowned dynasties of Tamilakam: the Cheras on the western (Kerala) coast, the Cholas in the Kaveri delta and the Pandyas around Madurai. Udiyanjeral is remembered as one of the earliest Chera rulers praised in the Sangam anthologies. Senguttuvan, the most celebrated Chera, is linked to the Pattini (Kannagi) cult described in the Silappadikaram. Nedunjeliyan was a famous Pandya king, praised for his victory at Talaiyalanganam over a confederacy of the Cheras, the Cholas and chiefs.

A is wrong: pair 1 (Senguttuvan : Chera) is correctly matched, so it cannot be in the answer.

C is wrong: pairs 1 and 3 are both correct matches.

D is wrong: pair 3 (Nedunjeliyan : Pandya) is a correct match.

Exam tip: Chera = Udiyanjeral, Senguttuvan; Chola = Karikala; Pandya = Nedunjeliyan (Talaiyalanganam).

The correct answer is A, the meditation of the Buddha. In early Buddhist art the Buddha was not shown in human form, and an empty seat stood for him seated in meditation.

Sculptors at Bharhut, Sanchi and other early sites of roughly the 2nd and 1st centuries BCE used symbols in place of the Buddha's figure. An empty seat, often under the Bodhi tree, showed his meditation and enlightenment. The wheel (dharmachakra) stood for the first sermon at Sarnath, the stupa for the mahaparinibbana, and a riderless horse for his departure from home. Human images of the Buddha became common only later, in the Gandhara and Mathura schools.

B is wrong: the first sermon is shown by the wheel of law, often with deer.

C is wrong: the mahaparinibbana, his final passing away, is shown by the stupa.

D is wrong: the mahabhinishkramana, the great departure, is shown by a horse without a rider.

Exam tip: empty seat = meditation; wheel = first sermon; stupa = mahaparinibbana; horse = great departure; lotus or elephant = birth.

The correct answer is D, 1, 2 and 3. All three statements match what inscriptions tell us about how the decimal place-value system spread.

In the place-value system, the value of a digit depends on its position, so nine digits and a zero can write any number. Mathematicians such as Aryabhata already used place-value ideas around AD 499, but the oldest dated use on an Indian inscription is in the Mankani (Sankheda) copper plates of Gujarat, dated to AD 595-596. Older numerical notation, which had separate signs for tens and hundreds, gradually gave way, and by the ninth century place-value numerals were common in inscriptions across India; the Gwalior inscription of 876 shows a written zero. Inscriptions from Cambodia and Sumatra show place-value numerals in Sanskrit records by the late seventh century.

A is wrong: it leaves out statement 3, which is also correct.

B is wrong: it leaves out statement 2, which is also correct.

C is wrong: it leaves out statement 1, which is also correct.

Exam tip: place value in inscriptions = Mankani plates 595-596 (first), Southeast Asia 7th century, general in India by the 9th century, zero at Gwalior 876.

The correct answer is A, A joyous folk dance. Hallisaka was a circular group dance, and the Bagh painting shows women dancing in a ring around a central figure to the music of drums and cymbals.

The Bagh Caves are nine Buddhist rock-cut caves on the bank of the Baghani river in Dhar district, Madhya Pradesh, dating to about the late 5th and 6th centuries CE. Their wall paintings, close in style to Ajanta, are mostly secular in theme. The best-known panel, in Cave 4 (the Rang Mahal), shows a lively hallisaka dance: a troupe of women musicians forms a circle around a dancer, a scene of celebration rather than worship. Much of the original painting was later transferred to the Gujari Mahal museum in Gwalior for preservation.

B is wrong: the Hallisalasya panel shows dancers and musicians, not a seated Buddha.

C is wrong: Shiva and Parvati on Kailasha is a famous sculptural theme at Ellora, not this painting.

D is wrong: the churning of the ocean is a Puranic theme not shown in this Buddhist cave panel.

Exam tip: Bagh Caves, Dhar (MP) = secular Gupta-age murals, Cave 4 hallisaka dance; compare Ajanta for Jataka themes.

The correct answer is B, Yaksha (demi-gods). Jainism names four states of existence, called gatis, and Yaksha is not one of them.

According to Jain thought, a soul (jiva) bound by karma is reborn again and again in one of four gatis: deva (heavenly beings), manushya (humans), tiryancha (animals, birds, insects and plants) and naraki (beings of hell). Only from the human state can a soul reach moksha, which is why human birth is valued so highly. Yakshas and yakshinis do appear in Jain art as attendant deities of the Tirthankaras, but they are not counted as a separate state of existence.

A is wrong: deva, the heavenly beings, is one of the four gatis.

C is wrong: manushya, the human state, is a gati and the only one from which liberation is possible.

D is wrong: tiryancha, covering animals and plants, is also one of the four gatis.

Exam tip: the four Jain gatis are deva, manushya, tiryancha and naraki; the missing one in such questions is usually naraki (hell beings).

The correct answer is D, Dheera Shankarabharanam. Both ragas use all seven natural (shuddha) notes, the same scale as the Western major scale.

In Hindustani music, Bilawal is one of the ten thaats in Pandit V. N. Bhatkhande's system and is taken as the basic scale, with every note in its natural form. In Carnatic music, Dheera Shankarabharanam is the 29th melakarta raga of the 72-melakarta system and uses exactly the same set of notes. That is why musicians treat the two as counterparts across the two traditions.

A is wrong: Nat Bhairavi (20th melakarta) has a flat Ga, Dha and Ni, which matches Asavari thaat, not Bilawal.

B is wrong: Kamavardhini (51st melakarta) has a flat Re and Dha with a sharp Ma, close to Purvi thaat.

C is wrong: Hanumatodi (8th melakarta) has flat Re, Ga, Dha and Ni, which corresponds to Bhairavi thaat.

Exam tip: Bilawal = Shankarabharanam (all natural notes); Kalyan = Mechakalyani; Bhairavi thaat = Hanumatodi.