UPSC GK Questions 2026

Kalbelia is the dance and song tradition of the Kalbelia community of snake charmers of Rajasthan. The women dance in black swirling skirts with movements that recall a serpent, to the be en and the khanjari played by the men, and the songs are composed on the spot.

The Battle of Haldighati was fought in June 1576 in the hills near Gogunda in Mewar between Maharana Pratap of Mewar and the Mughal army sent by Akbar under Man Singh of Amber.

Kalibangan, in Hanumangarh district, stands on the dry bed of the Ghaggar, the river many identify with the Saraswati of the texts.

Acting on the report of the Balwant Rai Mehta Committee, Rajasthan became the first state to introduce Panchayati Raj, and Prime Minister Jawaharlal Nehru inaugurated it at Nagaur on 2 October 1959, Gandhi Jayanti.

Sambhar Lake lies west of Jaipur, spread over parts of Jaipur, Nagaur and Ajmer districts. It is the largest inland saline lake in the country, a major source of common salt, a Ramsar site, and a winter feeding ground for flamingos and other migratory birds.

The Luni rises in the Aravallis near Ajmer, flows south west across the desert districts of Marwar, grows saline as it picks up salts from the soil, and ends in the marshes of the Rann of Kutch in Gujarat without reaching open sea.

The Chambal enters Rajasthan from Madhya Pradesh and flows north and then east through deep ravines, carrying water through the year, which makes it the only perennial river of the state and also its longest.

Guru Shikhar, about 1,722 metres high, stands on Mount Abu in Sirohi district and is the highest point both of the Aravallis and of Rajasthan.

Rajasthan covers about 342,239 square kilometres, roughly a tenth of the area of India, and has been the largest state since Madhya Pradesh was divided in 2000.

The Hoysalas ruled southern Karnataka from Belur and Dwarasamudra, today's Halebidu, and their temples are unmistakable: a raised star shaped platform called the jagati, shrines on a stellate plan, soft chloritic schist or soapstone that allowed jewellery and hair to be carved in minute detail, lathe turned pillars, and bands…

The Konark Sun Temple in Odisha was raised in the thirteenth century by Narasimhadeva I. The plan is the chariot of Surya: a high platform carrying twelve pairs of carved stone wheels drawn by seven horses.

Pattadakal on the Malaprabha was a coronation city of the Chalukyas of Badami, and its temples stand side by side in both idioms: the Papanatha and Galaganatha temples carry curving Nagara towers, while the Virupaksha temple, built by queen Lokamahadevi to mark Vikramaditya II's victory over the Pallavas, and the…

Cave 16 at Ellora, the Kailasa temple, was cut for the Rashtrakuta king Krishna I in the eighth century.

In the Nagara style of north India the tower over the garbhagriha is the shikhara.

The Brihadeshwara or Rajarajeshwara temple at Thanjavur was completed about 1010 CE by Raja Raja I. Its vimana rises in shrinking storeys to over sixty metres and is crowned by a single huge capstone, the whole structure is of granite, and the courtyard holds one of the largest monolithic Nandi…

The Kanheri caves are cut into a basalt hill inside the Sanjay Gandhi National Park in Mumbai.

The twin hills of Udayagiri and Khandagiri stand near Bhubaneswar and hold Jain rock-cut cells cut for monks in the first century BCE.

Elephanta, on Gharapuri island near Mumbai, is a Shaivite rock-cut group whose panels tell Shiva stories: the Trimurti Sadashiva, Ardhanarishvara, Gangadhara, the marriage of Shiva and Parvati and Shiva as Nataraja.

Hampi on the Tungabhadra in Karnataka was the capital of the Vijayanagara empire, and its Virupaksha, Vittala and Hazara Rama temples are Dravidian work of the most elaborate kind: walled enclosures, towering gopurams, pillared kalyana mandapas, the famous stone chariot and the musical pillars.

The garbhagriha, the womb house, is the small square windowless cell that holds the image of the presiding deity. Every other part of a temple is added around it: the tower rises over it, the hall stands in front of it and the circumambulatory passage runs around it.