Static general knowledge is the larger part of every UPSC general studies paper. The notices name the same areas again and again: the history of India and the national movement, Indian and world geography, polity and the Constitution, the economy and social development, and general science with environment and ecology. The balance shifts from exam to exam. NDA puts about half of its General Knowledge part on Physics, Chemistry and General Science. CSE favours polity, modern history, environment and the economy. CAPF adds security and human rights, and CDS spreads its questions across polity, history, geography, the economy and school science.
GK24's GK notes are written topic by topic in English and Hindi, as short, fact-first chapters that are easy to revise. They cover Indian Polity, Indian History, Geography, Indian Economy, General Science, Environment and Ecology, Art and Culture, Computer, and the fact lists of awards, sports, books and days. A new chapter is added in each subject as the series grows. Each note carries practice questions, and those that have appeared in an exam say which exam and year. Start with Polity and modern history, then Geography, the Economy and Science. Read a note, take its topic quiz, and come back to it in your monthly revision.
Which Chauhan ruler founded Ajayameru, the city now known as Ajmer?
Ajayaraja founded Ajayameru early in the twelfth century and shifted the Chauhan centre there from Shakambhari, that is Sambhar; the name wore down into Ajmer, and the hill fort above the town is still called Taragarh.
Read the full explanation →In the First Battle of Tarain, fought in 1191, Prithviraj Chauhan III defeated which invader?
Prithviraj Chauhan III beat Muhammad Ghori at Tarain, near Thanesar in present day Haryana, in 1191, and the wounded invader escaped from the field.
Read the full explanation →The Atpur or Ahar inscription of 977 gives the genealogy of which ruling house?
The Atpur inscription, also called the Ahar inscription, is dated 977 and belongs to the reign of Shaktikumar; it lists the Guhil rulers from Guhadatta onwards and is the main inscriptional source for the early line of Mewar, with the Samoli inscription of 646 standing earlier and the Chirwa inscription…
Read the full explanation →The Bijoliya inscription of 1170 gives the genealogy of which dynasty and calls it Brahmin of the Vatsa gotra?
The Bijoliya rock inscription of Bhilwara district, dated 1170, sets out the Chauhan line from Vasudeva, the founder at Shakambhari or Sambhar, and describes the family as Brahmins of the Vatsa gotra, which is one of the strongest arguments against the Agnikula story of their birth from fire.
Read the full explanation →The Pratihara ruler Mihir Bhoja struck coins bearing which title?
Mihir Bhoja, also called Bhoja I, was the greatest of the Gurjara Pratiharas; he ruled from Kannauj in the ninth century, was a devotee of Vishnu and issued silver coins carrying the title Adivaraha, the primeval boar, one of Vishnu's forms.
Read the full explanation →Who was the founder of the Gurjara Pratihara dynasty, remembered for checking the Arab advance from Sindh?
He ruled in about the middle of the eighth century from Bhinmal in the Jalore region and is credited with stopping the Arab armies that had taken Sindh, a service which even the Rashtrakuta records acknowledge when they describe the Pratihara as the defender of the west.
Read the full explanation →Which of the following clans is NOT counted among the four Agnikula clans?
The four clans named in the Agnikula account are the Pratihara or Parihar, the Chauhan or Chahamana, the Solanki or Chaulukya and the Parmar or Paramara.
Read the full explanation →Which writer traced the Rajputs to the Scythians of Central Asia in his Annals and Antiquities of Rajasthan?
Tod, who served as the Political Agent of the East India Company in western Rajputana, wrote the Annals and Antiquities of Rajasthan and argued that the Rajputs were descended from the Scythians of Central Asia, pointing to shared habits of warfare, the place of the horse and certain funeral rites.
Read the full explanation →The Agnikula or fire born theory of Rajput origin is based mainly on which text?
Chand Bardai's Prithviraj Raso tells that four clans, the Pratihara, the Chauhan, the Solanki and the Parmar, rose from a fire pit at Mount Abu where the sage Vashishtha performed a sacrifice, and from this account the Agnikula or fire born theory takes its name.
Read the full explanation →The Battle of Buxar of 22 October 1764 was won by the East India Company under which commander?
At Buxar in Bihar on 22 October 1764 Munro defeated the combined armies of Mir Qasim, the deposed Nawab of Bengal, Shuja ud Daula, the Nawab of Awadh, and the Mughal emperor Shah Alam II.
Read the full explanation →Patna was renamed Azimabad in 1704 after which Mughal prince, who served as subahdar?
He was a son of Bahadur Shah I and a grandson of Aurangzeb, and he governed Bihar as subahdar from Patna.
Read the full explanation →Which general of the Sur dynasty was defeated and killed at the Second Battle of Panipat in 1556?
Hemu, also called Hem Chandra Vikramaditya, was the Hindu general and chief minister of the Sur ruler Muhammad Adil Shah.
Read the full explanation →Sher Shah Suri died in 1545 during the siege of which fort?
Sher Shah was besieging the Bundelkhand fort of Kalinjar when a gunpowder explosion on 22 May 1545 fatally injured him; the fort fell on the same day.
Read the full explanation →In Sher Shah's revenue system, which document was given to the cultivator stating his holding and the revenue due from it?
Sher Shah had the land measured, graded it as good, middling or bad, fixed the state's share at about one third of the average produce, and then issued every cultivator a patta, a title deed setting out his holding and what he owed, so that no intermediary could demand more.
Read the full explanation →The Sadak e Azam, the Grand Trunk Road rebuilt by Sher Shah, ran from Sonargaon in Bengal to which point?
The Sadak e Azam ran from Sonargaon in eastern Bengal through Bihar, Agra, Delhi and Lahore to the Indus in the northwest, and Sher Shah lined it with wells, shade trees and sarais.
Read the full explanation →Which silver coin introduced by Sher Shah Suri gave the Indian currency its present name?
Sher Shah withdrew the debased mixed coins in circulation and issued a silver rupiya of about one hundred and seventy eight grains of fixed purity, along with a copper dam, and set a rate between them.
Read the full explanation →Sher Shah's tomb, built on a platform in the middle of a tank, stands at which town of Bihar?
Sher Shah's tomb stands in the middle of a large tank at Sasaram in Rohtas district, the town whose jagir his father held, and it is the work of the architect Aliwal Khan; its octagonal plan, high plinth and great dome make it one of the finest Indo Islamic monuments…
Read the full explanation →In which battle of 1539, fought in present Buxar district of Bihar, did Sher Khan defeat Humayun?
It was fought on 26 June 1539 at Chausa on the Ganga, in present Buxar district of Bihar, and Sher Khan's victory broke Humayun's army; the emperor himself escaped across the river and the Mughal hold on the east collapsed.
Read the full explanation →What was the original name of Sher Shah Suri?
He was born Farid Khan, the son of Hasan Khan, an Afghan of the Sur clan who held the jagir of Sasaram in what is now Rohtas district of Bihar.
Read the full explanation →Chak hao, the aromatic black rice that carries a Geographical Indication, is grown in which state?
Chak hao is the scented black rice of Manipur, used for a dark kheer at feasts and registered as a Geographical Indication, as is the kachai lemon of the same state.
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