BharatNotes How to use this page
Every question here is built from the Major Dynasties chapter. No question invents a fact, and no question cites a PYQ that does not exist.
This unit fails in a way the three before it did not. The ancient chapters were lost on places; this one is lost on people, because the same names recur across houses and centuries. There are three Udai Singhs, two Hammirs, two Jai Singhs and three Mahmuds in a single chapter, and a question that supplies a numeral or a title is almost always testing exactly that. A large share of the questions below are built on it.
The second failure mode is legend read as record. Padmini, the Dewair casualty figures and the Prithviraj Raso's chronology are all traditional rather than documented, and questions here are written so that knowing the difference is worth a mark.
Every answer carries a "why not the others" line, because with negative marking the skill being tested is elimination, not recognition.
Work in this order: Sections A–F cold, then G and H, then the flashcards for anything you missed, then the one-liners as a final sweep.
Read the tag on each question
Each question is labelled with the kind of error it probes, using the taxonomy from section 8 of the chapter. Each history chapter classifies its own failures differently, so check the legend rather than assuming the labels carry over.
| Tag | What it tests | If you keep missing these |
|---|---|---|
| Type A · two rulers, one name | The same name across houses and centuries | The big one here. Learn the repeated-name table in section 8 as pairs and triples, never as a list |
| Type B · two events, one place | Tarain, Dewair, Chittor, Sambhar | Attach a year to every event before you attach a name |
| Type C · wrong dynasty | A ruler assigned to the wrong house | Learn the dynastic map first. The Hadas are Chauhans; the Sisodias are Guhilas |
| Type D · legend as record | Traditional material presented as documented | Know which famous stories are literature: Padmini, the battle numbers, the Raso's dates |
| Type E · wrong ruler | A real achievement credited to the wrong person | Usually a father's work given to a famous son, or a son's to a famous father |
| Recall / Concept / Attribution / Sequence | No trap — the fact, the idea, who did it, what order | Ordinary revision |
Section A — The Gurjara-Pratiharas (Q1–9)
1. Nagabhata I ruled from which seat? Recall
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(b) Mandore. c. 730 to 756 CE. The dynasty's later capitals came after him.
Why not the others: (a), (c) and (d) are all genuine Pratihara capitals, but later ones. The sequence runs Mandore and Bhinmal → Ujjain → Kannauj, and every wrong option here is a real step further along it.
2. Nagabhata I is remembered chiefly for checking the armies of — Recall
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(c) Junaid and Tamim. Arab commanders sent during the Caliphate campaigns, after the conquest of Sindh in 712. Stopping that eastward push is the basis of the dynasty's standing in Indian history, not only in a Rajasthan paper.
Why not the others: (a), (b) and (d) all invaded India but centuries later, and none of them faced a Pratihara. Sorting invaders by century is the quickest defence against this whole family of questions.
3. The Tripartite Struggle for Kannauj was contested between — Type C · wrong dynasty
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(d) Pratiharas, Palas and Rashtrakutas. Resolved in the Pratiharas' favour in 816. Note that only one of the three contestants is a Rajasthan power, and it won, which is the strongest single line available for a Mains answer on the region's centrality.
Why not the others: (a) is three Rajasthan houses, which is what a candidate reaches for when the question is misread as regional; (b) and (c) substitute the Cholas, who are a southern power with no stake in Kannauj.
4. The Tripartite Struggle was resolved in favour of the Pratiharas in — Recall
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(a) 816. Securing their claim to the Kannauj throne and the leading position in northern India for roughly a century.
Why not the others: (c) 836 and (d) 885 are the start and end of Mihira Bhoja's reign, so both are real Pratihara dates attached to the wrong event.
5. Which title did Mihira Bhoja adopt? Recall
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(b) Adivaraha. He was a Vaishnava, and the title reflects it.
Why not the others: Each wrong option is a real title from this chapter belonging elsewhere: (a) Sangeetraj is Rana Kumbha's, in music; (c) Maharana is associated with Hammir Singh of Mewar; (d) Mirza Raja is Jai Singh I of Amber.
6. The Arab writer who records the Pratihara kingdom as al-Juzr and its ruler as Baura is — Attribution
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(c) Al-Masudi. He was in Gujarat in 915 to 916. Baura is generally read as a rendering of Adivaraha, so a foreign notice independently corroborates a title known from an Indian inscription.
Why not the others: (a) Al-Biruni came with Mahmud of Ghazni a century later; (b) Ibn Battuta is fourteenth century; (d) Amir Khusrau is the chronicler of Alauddin Khalji's campaigns and belongs to the Chittor section of this chapter.
7. The Gwalior prashasti of Mihira Bhoja names which ruler as founder of the imperial line? Recall
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(d) Nagabhata. The inscribed stone was found in 1896 at Sagar Tal, about half a mile west of Gwalior town, and opens with a salutation to Vishnu. A dynasty's own account of its origin, carved by a later ruler, outranks any chronicle.
Why not the others: (a) and (c) are real Pratihara rulers; (b) is the ruler who commissioned the record, which is a different thing from the founder it names. Read whether a question asks who made the inscription or who it names.
8. Arrange the Pratihara capitals in the order they were held. Sequence
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(a) Mandore → Ujjain → Kannauj. With Bhinmal, taken from the Chavdas around 739, alongside Mandore in the earliest phase.
Why not the others: (b) reverses the dynasty's entire rise, and it is the error behind any statement that the Pratiharas were originally a Kannauj power who expanded into Rajasthan. They went the other way.
9. Which Pratihara capital also produced Brahmagupta and appears in Xuanzang's account? Recall
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(b) Bhinmal. Anciently Srimal, in Jalore, recorded by Xuanzang as Pi-lo-mo-lo, and where Brahmagupta composed the Brahmasphutasiddhanta in 628 CE.
Why not the others: The other three are real Pratihara capitals with no such literary association. This question exists because Bhinmal is examinable from two different chapters for two different reasons.
Section B — The Chahamanas (Q10–19)
10. Ajmer, anciently Ajayameru, was founded by — Recall
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(c) Ajayaraja II. c. 1110 to 1135 CE. The city eventually gave the dynasty its later name.
Why not the others: All three wrong options are Chahamanas of Ajmer in direct succession — Arnoraja is Ajayaraja II's successor, Vigraharaja IV his son, Prithviraja III later still. The question is about the founder, not the famous.
11. The Ana Sagar lake at Ajmer was commissioned by — Type E · wrong ruler
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(d) Arnoraja. Also called Anahilla or Analadeva, c. 1135 to 1150, and the lake still carries his name.
Why not the others: (b) Vigraharaja IV is his son and the more famous ruler, which is exactly why he is the tempting wrong answer. Attributing a father's work to a better-known son is one of the commonest errors in this chapter.
12. Vigraharaja IV is also known as — Type A · two rulers, one name
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(a) Bisaldev. Or Visaladeva. He took Delhi from the Tomaras and extended Chahamana authority across what is now Rajasthan, Haryana and Delhi.
Why not the others: (b) Mota Raja is Udai Singh of Marwar; (c) Rai Pithora is Prithviraja III, a different Chahamana and the one most likely to be confused with him; (d) Sangeetraj is Kumbha.
13. The Sanskrit drama Harakeli Nataka was written by — Attribution
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(b) Vigraharaja IV. The king himself, and it is inscribed on stones at the Adhai Din ka Jhonpra site in Ajmer. A ruler who annexes Delhi and writes a Sanskrit play is precisely what a "political and cultural achievements" syllabus line is asking for.
Why not the others: (a) Somadeva is his court poet and wrote the Lalita Vigraharaja Nataka in his honour, which is the near-miss: two plays, two authors, one king. (d) Chand Bardai is associated with the Prithviraj Raso.
14. Epigraphic evidence indicates the Adhai Din ka Jhonpra site originally held — Recall
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(c) A Sanskrit college commissioned by Vigraharaja IV. So one monument in Ajmer gives you the ruler, his own literary work carved on its stones, and the institution he founded. The building's popular name, "shed of two and a half days", is the least useful thing about it.
Why not the others: (b) is anachronistic by three centuries and misplaces Kumbha, who is a Mewar ruler. (a) and (d) attach the wrong faith and the wrong dynasty to a Chahamana site.
15. Which statement about the battles of Tarain is correct? Type B · two events, one place
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(d) Prithviraj won in 1191 and lost in 1192. One year apart, on the same ground, going opposite ways. The second battle ended Chahamana power at Ajmer and Delhi.
Why not the others: This is why a bare statement that "Prithviraj was defeated at Tarain" is neither true nor false until the year is supplied. Options (b) and (c) exist because candidates who remember only one battle pick a consistent story.
16. Which Hammir was killed by Alauddin Khalji in 1301? Type A · two rulers, one name
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(a) Hammira of Ranthambore. A Chahamana ruler of a separate branch. He granted asylum to Mongol rebels from Delhi in 1299 and refused to surrender them; in July 1301 he and his companions came out of the fort and fought to the death.
Why not the others: (b) Hammir Singh of Mewar is a Guhila, recovered Chittor in 1326 and founded the Sisodia line. Two Hammirs, two forts, twenty-five years apart, opposite outcomes, different dynasties. This is among the most reliably confused pairs in the unit.
17. Prithviraja III ruled the territory of — Recall
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(b) Sapadalaksha. From his capital at Ajmer.
Why not the others: Each wrong option is a real region of Rajasthan belonging to another house: (a) Medapata is Mewar, (c) Jangladesh is the Bikaner country, (d) Hadoti is the Hadas'.
18. Why should the Prithviraj Raso not be cited as a dating source? Type D · legend as record
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(c) Its authorship and date are long contested. It is the most famous source for the reign and the least usable. Read it as evidence of how the reign was remembered, which is a real historical question, not as evidence of what happened.
Why not the others: (a) it belongs to the Rajasthani/Dingal stream, not the Persian one. The examinable form of this error is a statement that the Raso establishes the date of Prithviraj's battles.
19. The earlier capital of the Chahamanas, before Ajmer, was — Type C · wrong dynasty
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(d) Shakambhari. Which is Sambhar in Jaipur district, the same salt-lake mound treated as an ancient site in chapter 1.2. Sambhar therefore appears twice in this syllabus, six centuries apart, for two entirely different reasons.
Why not the others: (a) Madhyamika is the Shivi capital at Nagari; (b) Mandore is Pratihara and later Rathore; (c) Nagda is Guhila. Four capitals, four different houses.
Section C — Mewar to 1468 (Q20–29)
20. The last ruler of the Rawal branch of the Guhilas was — Recall
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(a) Ratnasimha. He ruled from Chittorgarh in 1302 to 1303, and the branch ended with Alauddin Khalji's capture of the fort.
Why not the others: (b) Hammir Singh begins the Rana branch in 1326, so he is the near-miss: one branch ends, the other begins, twenty-three years apart. (c) and (d) are later Sisodias.
21. Alauddin Khalji entered Chittor on — Recall
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(b) 26 August 1303. After a siege of about eight months.
Why not the others: Every wrong option is a real, precisely dated event from this chapter: Khanwa, Haldighati and Dewair respectively. A question that supplies four exact dates is testing whether you have stored them with their events.
22. What is the status of the Padmini story in the contemporary record of the 1303 siege? Type D · legend as record
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(c) She is absent from Amir Khusrau, Barani and Isami. Her story comes from the Padmavat, Malik Muhammad Jayasi's poem, written more than two centuries after the event, and most modern historians reject its historicity. That makes her a literary and cultural fact rather than a documented one, which is the stronger thing to be able to say.
Why not the others: (a) is the sharpest distractor because Amir Khusrau was present on the campaign, so if anyone would have recorded her it is him, and he does not. (d) the Chirwa inscription is a Guhila record of 1273, three decades before the siege.
23. The Padmavat was written by — Attribution
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(d) Malik Muhammad Jayasi. More than two centuries after the siege it describes. If an option asks only who wrote the Padmavat, this is a clean factual question with a clean answer; the difficulty is elsewhere, in what the poem is evidence of.
Why not the others: (a) Khusrau chronicled the campaign itself and did not write the poem; (b) Chand Bardai belongs to the Prithviraj Raso tradition.
24. Rana Kumbha's reign ran from — Recall
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(a) 1433 to 1468. The clearest case in the syllabus of political and cultural achievement inside a single reign.
Why not the others: (c) 1509 to 1528 is Rana Sanga's, and it is the wrong option most likely to be picked, because both are the famous pre-Mughal Maharanas.
25. The chief architect of Kumbhalgarh was — Attribution
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(b) Mandan. He was himself the author of architectural treatises including the Rajvallabh. Mandan and Jaita together served as shilpacharyas at Chittor.
Why not the others: (c) Jaita is a genuine associate of Mandan's, which makes it the real near-miss; (a) Vidyadhar Bhattacharya planned Jaipur for Sawai Jai Singh II, three centuries later; (d) Karan Chand supervised Junagarh at Bikaner.
26. The Vijay Stambh at Chittorgarh commemorates a victory over — Recall
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(c) Mahmud Khilji, Sultan of Malwa, in 1440. Nine storeys, about 37 metres. A candidate who can say what it commemorates rather than only that Kumbha built it is answering a better question.
Why not the others: (a), (b) and (d) are all real battles in this chapter and all of them were Rajput defeats, so none could be commemorated by a tower of victory. That reasoning alone solves the question.
27. Which of these did Rana Kumbha write? Recall
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(d) Rasika Priya, a commentary on the Gita Govinda. He also wrote the Sangita Raja, the Sudaprabandha and the Kamaraja Ratisara, and he carries the title Sangeetraj in music. Kumbha was an author, not only a patron, which is where most preparation stops too early.
Why not the others: (a) Rajvallabh is by Mandan, his architect; (b) is Somadeva's, for Vigraharaja IV; (c) belongs to the Chauhan tradition. Every wrong option is a real text from this chapter with a different author.
28. Rana Kumbha died in 1468 — Recall
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(a) Assassinated by his son Uda at the Mamadev temple, Kumbhalgarh. Udai Singh I wanted the throne. A reign that produced the state's greatest fort, its most famous tower and four books ended in a temple murder by the heir.
Why not the others: (d) Khanwa is 1527 and belongs to Sanga, sixty years later. This is the detail most notes omit entirely, which is exactly why it is worth carrying.
29. The Trailokya Dipak Jain temple at Ranakpur was built during the reign of — Recall
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(b) Rana Kumbha. It is the standard example of Jain temple architecture in Mewar, and it sits alongside Kumbhalgarh and the Vijay Stambh in his building record.
Why not the others: (a), (c) and (d) are all Mewar rulers with no comparable temple attribution. Kumbha is the default answer for construction in Mewar, and here the default is right.
Section D — Sanga, Udai Singh II and Pratap (Q30–38)
30. Rana Sanga defeated Ibrahim Lodi at — Recall
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(c) Khatoli, 1517. Sanga should not be studied through Khanwa alone. He won two significant battles before it.
Why not the others: (a) Gagron, 1519, was against Mahmud Khilji II of Malwa; (b) Khanwa is the defeat; (d) Sammel is Marwar against the Suris, a different state and a different empire.
31. At Gagron in 1519, Rana Sanga defeated and captured — Type A · two rulers, one name
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(d) Mahmud Khilji II, Sultan of Malwa. And then restored him his kingdom, which is the detail worth carrying: it is the clearest evidence that Sanga was pursuing a balance of power rather than annexation. The fort is in present Jhalawar district.
Why not the others: (a) is the refuted claim, and it circulates widely. Mahmud Lodi is the Afghan who fought alongside Sanga at Khanwa in 1527. One was an enemy, the other an ally, eight years apart, and the two are confused routinely.
32. What provoked the Battle of Gagron? Concept
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(a) Medini Rai's revolt against Malwa and his appeal to Sanga. Medini Rai, a Rajput chief and former minister of the Malwa Sultanate, revolted against Mahmud Khilji II and sought Sanga's protection.
Why not the others: (b) Babur arrives eight years later; (c) Sher Shah is Marwar's problem in 1544. Note that Medini Rai then appears again at Khanwa, on Sanga's side, which is why his name is worth attaching to two separate events.
33. Medini Rai, Sanga's ally at Khanwa, ruled — Type C · wrong dynasty
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(b) Chanderi. Babur besieged and took Chanderi the following year.
Why not the others: (a) is a claim in circulation and it is wrong; (d) Mewat belongs to Hasan Khan Mewati, another of Sanga's allies at the same battle, which makes it a genuine near-miss rather than filler.
34. Rana Sanga died — Recall
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(c) At Kalpi, on 30 January 1528. Roughly ten months after Khanwa. Accounts differ on whether the cause was illness or poisoning by his own nobles, said to have feared a renewed war with Babur.
Why not the others: (a) is the error to watch, and it is common: sources that give March 1527 are collapsing his death into the battle. A reign quoted as "1509 to 1527" carries the same mistake.
35. Udaipur was founded — Sequence
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(d) In 1559, before the siege of Chittor. Udai Singh II founded it in 1559. When Akbar besieged Chittor in 1567 to 1568, Udai Singh was already at the new city, and after the fort fell in 1568 Udaipur became definitively the capital.
Why not the others: (a) is the standard inversion, and it gets the causation backwards: the 1568 fall confirmed a decision already taken, it did not prompt it.
36. During Akbar's siege of 1567-68, Chittor was held by — Recall
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(a) Jaimal Rathore. With about 8,000 cavalry and some musketeers, while Udai Singh was at Udaipur.
Why not the others: (b) is the ruler, who was not in the fort, which is the point of the question; (c) Pratap succeeds later; (d) Sanga had died forty years earlier.
37. The Mughal army at Haldighati in 1576 was commanded by — Concept
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(b) Raja Man Singh I of Amber. A Rajput commanding the Mughal force against another Rajput. That single fact is the entire argument of the resistance-and-collaboration chapter compressed into one line, and it makes the standard "Rajputs versus Mughals" framing unusable.
Why not the others: (c) Asaf Khan appears at the second battle of Dewair, in 1606, under Jahangir. (d) Salim is the future Jahangir, and placing him at Haldighati is a common slip.
38. The Battle of Dewair of 1582 and the second battle of Dewair differ in that — Type B · two events, one place
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(c) The first was under Pratap, the second under Amar Singh I in 1606. Twenty-four years apart, different Maharanas, different emperors: Akbar's outpost under Sultan Khan in 1582, and Prince Parviz with Asaf Khan under Jahangir in 1606. The 1582 battle was fought on 16 September, on Dashehra.
Why not the others: Very large casualty and surrender figures circulate for "Dewair", attach to 1582 in popular retellings, and are then applied to 1606 as well. Treat any specific number for either as unverified.
Section E — The Rathores and Bikaner (Q39–46)
39. Rao Jodha founded Jodhpur in — Recall
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(d) 1459. Moving the capital from Mandore about six miles south to an isolated rock cliff called Bhakurcheeria, the mountain of birds, and building Mehrangarh on it.
Why not the others: Each wrong option is another Rajasthan foundation date: (a) Bikaner 1488, (b) Bundi 1241, (c) Jaisalmer 1156. The foundation-date table is pure Prelims and has to be learned as a set.
40. Bikaner was founded in 1488 by — Type E · wrong ruler
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(a) Rao Bika. A son of Rao Jodha. The two great Rathore states are father and son, founded twenty-nine years apart.
Why not the others: (b) is the father and the founder of Jodhpur, and the attribution of Bikaner to him is one of the commonest errors in this chapter; (c) Chunda established the house at Mandore; (d) Maldeo is later.
41. The Battle of Sammel, 1544, was fought between — Type B · two events, one place
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(b) Rao Maldeo and Sher Shah Suri. Near the villages of Giri and Sumel, in the Jaitaran sub-division of Pali district, which is why it carries both names. Sher Shah won, and his general Khawas Khan took Jodhpur.
Why not the others: (a) is Khanwa, 1527, which is Mewar against the Mughals. Sammel is Marwar against the Suris: different state, different empire, seventeen years apart. Keeping those two apart is the single most useful discrimination in this section.
42. Sher Shah's remark after Sammel was that he had nearly lost the empire of Hindustan for — Recall
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(c) A handful of bajra. It refers to the stand of the Rathore commanders Jaita and Kumpa, who fought on with a fraction of the army after Maldeo withdrew.
Why not the others: The other options are plausible-sounding but invented. The value of the actual quotation is that it names the land: bajra is what the country grows, and the remark is about the cost of fighting in it.
43. Maldeo named which son his successor, setting aside two elder brothers? Type A · two rulers, one name
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(d) Chandrasen. Rao Chandrasen (30 July 1541 to 11 January 1581), chosen over Ram and Udai Singh. The decision produced a lasting rivalry, and it matters because the brothers then chose opposite strategies towards the Mughals.
Why not the others: (b) Udai Singh is the passed-over brother who later ruled as Mota Raja, so both (d) and (b) ruled Marwar. The question is about Maldeo's choice, not about who eventually held the throne.
44. Why is Marwar a better case study than Mewar for the resistance-and-collaboration question? Concept
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(a) Because Maldeo's sons took opposite sides within one generation. Chandrasen resisted; Mota Raja Udai Singh allied, ruled 1583 to 1595, and was the maternal grandfather of Shah Jahan. One house, one generation, both answers.
Why not the others: (b) and (d) are the opposite of the truth and are what makes the question worth asking. Treating resistance and collaboration as different families with different characters is the framing this fact destroys.
45. Mota Raja Udai Singh of Marwar was the maternal grandfather of — Recall
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(b) Shah Jahan. He ruled Marwar 1583 to 1595. The nickname means "the fat king".
Why not the others: (a) Jahangir's mother was Mariam-uz-Zamani, daughter of Bharmal of Amber, which is the near-miss and a genuinely useful pairing: two Rajasthan houses, two Mughal emperors, two generations.
46. Junagarh Fort at Bikaner was built under — Recall
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(c) Raja Rai Singh, between 1589 and 1594. Begun 17 February 1589, completed 17 January 1594, under the supervision of his prime minister Karan Chand. Rai Singh was the sixth ruler of Bikaner and reigned 1571 to 1611.
Why not the others: The examinable oddity is that Junagarh is one of the very few major forts in Rajasthan not built on a hilltop. It sits on the plain, which is the opposite of the Chittor, Kumbhalgarh and Mehrangarh pattern, and it is the reason the fort is asked about at all.
Section F — Kachhwahas, Bhatis and Hadas (Q47–54)
47. On 20 January 1562, Raja Bharmal sent which two into Akbar's service? Recall
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(d) Bhagwant Das and Man Singh. His son and his grandson. The marriage followed in March 1562, at Sambhar.
Why not the others: (a) and (c) drag in Jai Singh, who belongs to the following century. Note that the alliance began with hostages and service, not with the marriage: the personnel went first, by two months.
48. Akbar's marriage to Bharmal's daughter took place at — Recall
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(a) Sambhar. In March 1562. She is known to history by the title Mariam-uz-Zamani, and Jahangir was her son. Bharmal received a mansab of 5,000.
Why not the others: Sambhar is the answer for a third distinct reason in this syllabus, after the ancient mound of chapter 1.2 and the Chahamana capital Shakambhari in this one. Three questions, one place, three centuries apart.
49. The Treaty of Purandar of 1665 was signed between Shivaji and — Type A · two rulers, one name
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(b) Mirza Raja Jai Singh I of Amber. Sent by Aurangzeb. Shivaji surrendered 23 forts and retained 12, including Rajgarh, undertaking to supply 5,000 troops under his son Shambhaji.
Why not the others: (a) Sawai Jai Singh II is the Jaipur and Jantar Mantar ruler of the eighteenth century, sixty years later. Two Jai Singhs of the same house, and the distinguishing labels are Mirza Raja and Sawai.
50. Sawai Jai Singh II founded Jaipur in 1727, entrusting the city plan to — Recall
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(c) Vidyadhar Bhattacharya. It is the planned city any question on Rajasthan's urban history will reach for.
Why not the others: (a) Mandan built Kumbhalgarh for Kumbha, three centuries earlier; (b) Jagannatha Samrat is one of the court astronomers on the observatory work, which makes him the sharpest distractor here; (d) Karan Chand supervised Junagarh.
51. Sawai Jai Singh II built five observatories. Which was the first? Recall
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(d) Delhi. Built between roughly 1724 and 1737, at Delhi, Jaipur, Ujjain, Varanasi and Mathura. He also produced the astronomical tables known as the Zij-i Muhammad Shahi, named for the emperor Muhammad Shah.
Why not the others: (a) Jaipur is the largest and best preserved, which is why it is assumed to be the first and is not. Note also that the Mathura observatory no longer survives, which is why some lists give four rather than five.
52. Jaisalmer was founded in 1156 by — Recall
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(a) Rawal Jaisal. Of the Bhati clan, who ruled from 1156 to 1168. Jaisalmer's importance is commercial rather than imperial: it sits on the desert caravan route.
Why not the others: (b) Rao Deva took Bundi in 1241; (c) Rao Bika founded Bikaner in 1488. Three founders, three foundation dates, and the surnames Rawal and Rao are themselves a distinction worth noticing.
53. The Hada rulers of Bundi and Kota are a branch of which clan? Type C · wrong dynasty
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(b) Chauhan. Rao Deva took Bundi in 1241, and the surrounding region was named Haravati, from which Hadoti comes.
Why not the others: This is the relationship most often missed. A question treating the Hadas as an unrelated house is wrong, and the Chauhan link also explains why Hadoti appears in the same family tree as Ajmer.
54. Kota became a separate state in 1631 when — Recall
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(c) Shah Jahan partitioned Bundi's territory for Rao Madho Singh. Rao Madho Singh was the second son of Rao Ratan of Bundi, and the partition rewarded military service.
Why not the others: The relationship to carry is that Kota is a Mughal-created partition of Bundi, not an independent foundation. (a) Rao Deva founded Bundi, in 1241, which is the parent state and four centuries earlier.
Section G — Assertion and Reason (Q55–64)
Decide whether each statement is true on its own before asking whether the second explains the first. Several items below pair a false assertion with a true reason, which is the shape that catches candidates who check only whether the statements sound familiar.
55. A: The Tripartite Struggle supports an argument that early medieval Rajasthan was a centre rather than a margin. R: Only one of the three contesting powers was a Rajasthan house, and it won. Concept
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(a) R is the evidence for A. A dynasty that begins at Mandore and ends up contesting Kannauj with Bengal and the Deccan is not regional history.
56. A: The Ana Sagar lake at Ajmer was built by Vigraharaja IV. R: Vigraharaja IV wrote the Harakeli Nataka and took Delhi from the Tomaras. Type E · wrong ruler
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(d) R is true and A is false: the lake is Arnoraja's, his father's. Attributing a father's work to a better-known son is one of this chapter's commonest errors, and a true statement about the son does nothing to support it.
57. A: Padmini should be treated as a literary tradition rather than a documented figure. R: She is absent from the accounts of Amir Khusrau, who was present on the 1303 campaign, and from Barani and Isami. Type D · legend as record
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(a) R is precisely the ground for A. Note that this does not make the jauhar tradition unexaminable; it relocates it from the category of record to the category of memory.
58. A: A statement that Rana Sanga defeated Mahmud Lodi at Gagron is false. R: Mahmud Lodi fought as Sanga's ally at Khanwa in 1527. Type A · two rulers, one name
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(a) R is why A holds. Gagron, 1519, was against Mahmud Khilji II, Sultan of Malwa. One Mahmud was an enemy, the other an ally, eight years apart.
59. A: Udaipur was founded in response to the fall of Chittor. R: Chittor fell to Akbar in 1568. Sequence
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(d) R is true and A is false. Udaipur was founded in 1559, nine years before the siege, so the fall of Chittor confirmed a decision already taken rather than prompting it. This is the causation inversion the chapter warns about.
60. A: The framing of Haldighati as "Rajputs versus Mughals" is unusable. R: The Mughal army at Haldighati was commanded by Raja Man Singh I of Amber. Concept
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(a) R makes A unavoidable. Two Rajputs on opposite sides is not an exception to the period's politics, it is the period's politics.
61. A: Rana Kumbha belonged to the Muzaffarid dynasty. R: The Muzaffarids ruled the Gujarat Sultanate. Type C · wrong dynasty
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(d) R is true and is exactly what makes A false. Kumbha was a Sisodia of Mewar, and the Muzaffarids were among the powers he fought. The false assertion appears on at least one widely-used preparation site.
62. A: Marwar is a better case study than Mewar for the resistance-and-collaboration question. R: Maldeo set aside his elder sons Ram and Udai Singh in favour of Chandrasen. Concept
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(b) Both are true, but R is a succession fact and A rests on a different one: that Chandrasen resisted while Mota Raja Udai Singh allied, putting both strategies inside one generation of one family. A reason that is merely adjacent is not an explanation.
63. A: Junagarh Fort at Bikaner is unusual among Rajasthan's major forts. R: It was built between 1589 and 1594 under Raja Rai Singh. Recall
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(b) Both true. But the dates are not what makes it unusual: Junagarh is not built on a hilltop, unlike Chittor, Kumbhalgarh and Mehrangarh. R is a true fact that explains nothing about A.
64. A: The ruler who signed the Treaty of Purandar and the ruler who founded Jaipur were the same person. R: Both were rulers of Amber named Jai Singh. Type A · two rulers, one name
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(d) R is true and A is false. Mirza Raja Jai Singh I signed at Purandar in 1665; Sawai Jai Singh II founded Jaipur in 1727, sixty-two years later. The titles Mirza Raja and Sawai are how the sources keep them apart.
Section H — Match the following (Q65–72)
Lock the one pair you are certain of, then eliminate. Every wrong code is a real swap — Arnoraja for his son, Rao Jodha for Rao Bika, one Jai Singh for the other — not a random shuffle.
65. Ruler with foundation Type E · wrong ruler
List I — A. Rawal Jaisal · B. Rao Deva · C. Rao Bika · D. Udai Singh II
List II — 1. Bikaner, 1488 · 2. Udaipur, 1559 · 3. Jaisalmer, 1156 · 4. Bundi, 1241
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(a) The full foundation set also includes Jodhpur 1459 (Rao Jodha), Kota 1631 (Rao Madho Singh, by partition) and Jaipur 1727 (Sawai Jai Singh II). Learn all seven as one table.
66. Work with author Attribution
List I — A. Harakeli Nataka · B. Lalita Vigraharaja Nataka · C. Rajvallabh · D. Rasika Priya
List II — 1. Mandan · 2. Rana Kumbha · 3. Vigraharaja IV · 4. Somadeva
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(a) Two kings and two of their own men. Kumbha also wrote the Sangita Raja, Sudaprabandha and Kamaraja Ratisara; the Sangita Ratnakara is Sharngadeva's and is not his, though some lists merge them.
67. Battle with its pairing Type B · two events, one place
List I — A. Tarain, 1192 · B. Gagron, 1519 · C. Khanwa, 1527 · D. Sammel, 1544
List II — 1. Rana Sanga and Babur · 2. Prithviraja III and Muhammad of Ghor · 3. Rao Maldeo and Sher Shah Suri · 4. Rana Sanga and Mahmud Khilji II
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(a) Note the two Sanga entries: he won at Gagron and lost at Khanwa, eight years apart. And Sammel is Marwar against the Suris, not Mewar against the Mughals.
68. Name with the person meant Type A · two rulers, one name
List I — A. Hammira of Ranthambore · B. Hammir Singh · C. Udai Singh I of Mewar · D. Mota Raja Udai Singh
List II — 1. Killed Rana Kumbha in 1468 · 2. Ruled Marwar 1583-95, Shah Jahan's grandfather · 3. Killed by Alauddin Khalji in 1301 · 4. Founded the Sisodia line in 1326
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(a) Add Udai Singh II of Mewar, who founded Udaipur in 1559, and you have three Udai Singhs and two Hammirs in one chapter. This table is the highest-yield thing on the practice page.
69. Ruler with the fort or city built Attribution
List I — A. Rana Kumbha · B. Rao Jodha · C. Raja Rai Singh · D. Sawai Jai Singh II
List II — 1. Junagarh, Bikaner · 2. Jaipur · 3. Kumbhalgarh · 4. Mehrangarh
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(a) Three of the four sit on high ground; Junagarh does not, which is the fact that makes it examinable at all.
70. Title with the ruler who bore it Recall
List I — A. Adivaraha · B. Sangeetraj · C. Mirza Raja · D. Mota Raja
List II — 1. Jai Singh I of Amber · 2. Mihira Bhoja · 3. Udai Singh of Marwar · 4. Rana Kumbha
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(a) Four titles across nine centuries and four houses. Adivaraha is also the title Al-Masudi appears to have rendered as Baura.
71. Chronological order Sequence
List I — Arrange from earliest to latest:
A. The second battle of Tarain · B. Alauddin Khalji's capture of Chittor · C. The Tripartite Struggle's resolution · D. The Battle of Khanwa
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(a) 816, 1192, 1303, 1527. Roughly seven centuries in four items, and the pair most often inverted is the first two: the Pratihara settlement at Kannauj comes before Tarain by nearly four hundred years.
72. House with heartland Type C · wrong dynasty
List I — A. Chahamana · B. Guhila-Sisodia · C. Bhati · D. Hada
List II — 1. Hadoti · 2. Sapadalaksha · 3. Medapata · 4. Jaisalmer
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(a) Note that A and D are the same clan: the Hadas are Chauhans, so one dynasty holds two of the four rows. That is why the Hadoti link is worth learning as a family relationship rather than as a separate house.
Section I — Inscriptions, court poets and the forts' own records (Q73–Q100)
The evidence under this chapter is mostly stone: dated inscriptions, the heritage file for the forts, and one hostile memoir. These questions ask what each record actually says, which is regularly narrower than what is taught from it.
73. The Arab notice contemporary with the reign of Mihira Bhoja is that of — Attribution
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(d) Sulaiman, the merchant of Siraf. His account of India and China carries the date 237 AH, which is 851 CE, inside Bhoja's reign. Writing of the kings around the Balhara of the Deccan he says that the king of Jurz keeps numerous forces, that "no other Indian prince has so fine a cavalry", and that "among the princes of India there is no greater foe of the Muhammadan faith than he". A question that offers "the Arab traveller who described the Gurjara-Pratihara cavalry during Bhoja's reign" is asking for Sulaiman.
Why not the others: (a) Al-Masudi is the name most often supplied, and he is the weaker witness: he was in the Indus valley in 915 to 916, roughly thirty years after Bhoja died, and his own text treats Juzr as a kingdom separate from Kanauj. (b) Al-Biruni came with Mahmud of Ghazni a century later still; (c) Ibn Battuta is fourteenth century.
74. A: Al-Masudi's Bauura can be read as a personal title of Mihira Bhoja. R: Masudi records that the kings of Kanauj are all styled Budh, Budah or Bauura. Concept
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(d) R is true and is exactly what makes A false. Bauura is a style borne by a line of kings, not a personal name, in the same way that Balhara is a title carried by every king of that dynasty. Masudi also places the Bauura at Kanauj while treating Juzr as a separate kingdom, which is why Dowson's editors identify Juzr with Gujarat. Reading Bauura as an Arabic rendering of Adivaraha is a reasonable and widely-made inference about a dynastic style recorded a generation after Bhoja; it is not an eyewitness notice of Bhoja himself.
75. The inscriptions of Kakkuka at Ghatiyala are dated — Recall
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(a) Samvat 918, that is 861 CE. Cut on a column at Ghatiyala, a village twenty-two miles west-north-west of Jodhpur, by Kakkuka, son of Kakka, of the feudatory Pratihara branch that stayed at Mandore while the imperial line went to Ujjain and Kannauj. The stone gives the village's old name as Rohimsakupa, says it had emptied of settled people because of the Abhiras, and records that Kakkuka defeated them, laid out a market with "variegated streets", brought in Brahmanas, Kshatriyas and Vaishyas, and re-peopled the place. He set up two columns, one at Rohimsaka and one at Maddodara, which is Mandor, and the closing verse was composed by Kakkuka himself.
Why not the others: every wrong option is a real dated record used in this chapter, three to five centuries later: (b) the Rajor inscription of Mathanadeva, (c) Vigraharaja IV's inscriptions on the Ashokan pillar from Topra, (d) the Madanpur inscriptions of Prithviraja III.
76. The Jodhpur inscription of Bauka, found built into the city wall of Jodhpur, originally stood at — Attribution
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(b) Mandavyapura, the Sanskrit name of Mandor. Bhandarkar's argument stands on two legs: the verse itself uses asmin, "here", of Mandavyapura, and the stone for Jodhpur's fortifications was quarried from Mandor. The record also states that Pratihara brother princes built the ramparts of Mandavyapura fort, so Mandor was a Pratihara fort before it was a Rathore one, which is the background any account of Marwar's beginnings needs.
Why not the others: (a) Ghatiyala is where Kakkuka's column stands and carries the same genealogy, which makes it the real near-miss; the two were even cut by the same hand, the goldsmith Krishnesvara. (d) Bhinmal is a genuine Pratihara capital but not the find-spot of any of these stones.
77. The prashasti of the Kuvalayamala, the Prakrit romance completed by Uddyotanasuri, names Jabalipura, which is — Recall
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(c) Jalore. The work's date has been worked out from that colophon to 21 March 779 CE, and the rounder 778 that circulates in exam material is the same Saka year read the other way, so an option offering either is offering the same colophon. The work is conventionally placed in Vatsaraja's reign. This is the strongest cultural item the Pratihara section has: a dated eighth-century literary work composed in what is now Rajasthan, with a place name that still exists.
Why not the others: three other towns beginning with the same syllable, none with an association of this kind. Note that Bhinmal, the Pratihara capital that produced Brahmagupta, also sits in Jalore, so the district repays attention from two directions.
78. In all four of his surviving plays, Rajashekhara describes himself as the spiritual teacher of — Type E · wrong ruler
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(d) Mahendrapala, whose other name is Nirbhaya and whose epithet in the Viddhasalabhanjika is Raghukulatilaka. Kielhorn's reading of the Siyadoni inscription fixes the sequence: Bhoja (862, 876, 882), then Mahendrapala (903 and 907), "pupil of the poet Rajashekhara", then Mahipala (917), "patron of Rajashekhara", then Devapala (948). The poet therefore worked around 900 CE, and his Balabharata was performed at Mahodaya, that is Kanauj.
Why not the others: (a) Mahipala is the sharpest distractor, because he is the next ruler and the poet did serve him — as patron, not as pupil. Lists that give Mahendrapala's title as Raghukul Chudamani conflict with the verse in the poet's own play.
79. The Karpuramanjari is examinable chiefly because it is — Concept
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(a) The only surviving sattaka, composed entirely in Prakrit — a dramatic form with no Sanskrit in it at all. Its only dialects are Sauraseni and Maharashtri, with Sauraseni carrying the conversation, so "written in Prakrit" is the precise answer and "written in Maharashtri" the loose one.
Why not the others: (b) is the Kavyamimamsa and (c) the Balaramayana, both by the same poet, which is what makes them the right kind of wrong; (d) describes the Harakeli Nataka of Vigraharaja IV, a different dynasty two centuries later.
80. The compound "Gurjara-Pratihara" survives on stone in a single inscription, which is — Attribution
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(b) The Rajor inscription of Mathanadeva. Dated Vikrama Samvat 1016, which falls in 959 to 960 CE. Mathanadeva styles himself a Gurjara-Pratihara, names his father as the Maharajadhiraja Savata, and records a grant made from Rajyapura, the capital, identified by Kielhorn with the village of Rajor in what is now Alwar district. The name modern historians apply to the whole imperial house therefore survives on stone only from a feudatory in eastern Rajasthan, a century after the dynasty's peak.
Why not the others: all three are real Pratihara records doing other work: (a) names Nagabhata as founder of the imperial line, (c) and (d) carry the genealogy of the Mandore branch.
81. Inscription with what it records Attribution
List I — A. Ghatiyala, Samvat 918 · B. Rajor, V.S. 1016 · C. Delhi-Shivalik pillar, V.S. 1220 · D. Madanpur, V.S. 1239
List II — 1. Vigraharaja IV's conquests, cut on an Ashokan pillar · 2. Kakkuka's resettlement of a village west of Jodhpur · 3. Prithviraja III's laying waste of Jejakabhukti · 4. Mathanadeva's grant from Rajyapura, in what is now Alwar
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(a) In CE the four are 861, 959-60, 1163-64 and 1182-83, the Samvat year running about 57 years ahead of the Christian one, which is the arithmetic worth carrying into any epigraphy question. Three of the four record the acts of the ruler who set them up, which is their strength and also their limit.
82. Vigraharaja IV had his own inscriptions cut on — Recall
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(c) The Ashokan pillar from Topra, now at Firoz Shah Kotla in Delhi. Dated Vikrama Samvat 1220, which is 1163 to 1164 CE, in Nagari, below Ashoka's edict, and known as the Delhi-Shivalik pillar inscriptions of Visaladeva. Read the act, not only the address: a Chahamana king of Ajmer inscribing his conquests on a Mauryan pillar standing in territory he had taken from the Tomaras is a deliberate claim to succession, and unlike the Prithviraj Raso it is datable to the year.
Why not the others: (a) Bairat is Ashokan and in Rajasthan, which is what makes it tempting; (b) Mehrauli's iron pillar carries a much earlier record; (d) the Kirti Stambh at Chittor is a separate, earlier Jain tower.
83. The Madanpur inscriptions of Vikrama Samvat 1239 establish that Prithviraja III — Concept
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(d) Raided Jejakabhukti and laid it waste. Around 1182 to 1183, against the Chandela country now called Bundelkhand, ruled by Paramardi, with the sack of Mahoba. The inscriptions are his own words. A claim to have laid a country waste is not a claim to have kept it, and the wider record does not support the second: Paramardi recovered his kingdom soon after the Chauhan army left, and he was still ruling as a sovereign nearly a decade after Prithviraja's own death.
Why not the others: (a) and (b) extend a raid into a conquest, and the Chandela record refutes them. The lesson is the harder half of the chapter's method: an inscription is contemporary and dated, and it is still a ruler's own account of his own war. It settles that the raid happened. It does not settle what followed.
84. The reign treated as Ranthambore's building peak is that of — Type E · wrong ruler
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(a) Jaitra Singh, 1248-49 to 1283. Ranthambore was a Chahamana capital for a full century, not a single last stand. The fort long predates the line: its foundation is given as 944 CE under the Yadavas, and Prithviraja I, Govindaraja and Balhana of Shakambhari and Ajmer held it before it was lost to Muhammad of Ghor in 1192 and then recovered.
Why not the others: (c) Vagbhata built the temple of Bahar Deo, destroyed in the sack; (b) Hammira is the famous name and therefore the tempting one, and he does carry the Hammir Mahal, the Hammir Kachehri, the expansion of the Rani Mahal and the development of the Padmavati Talab, before the fort fell to Alauddin Khalji in 1301 after jauhar and saka.
85. A: The Battis Khamba Chhatri at Ranthambore can safely be described as Hammira's hall of justice. R: The state's own record for the fort dates the standing thirty-two-pillared structure to the eighteenth century, under Kachhwaha patrons of Jaipur. Type D · legend as record
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(d) R is true and A is unsupported. The same official record contradicts the popular attribution twice, and in two different directions: its historical table gives a thirty-two-pillared pavilion to Jaitra Singh, commemorating the completion of thirty-two years of his rule, while its site inventory dates the surviving structure to the eighteenth century, lists it as a pleasure pavilion and elsewhere names it the Chhatri of Jagrup. The two statements cannot both be right, and neither of them is Hammira. Carry the attribution as unverified rather than as either version.
86. The Vijay Stambh's own inscription records the tower as commemorating — Concept
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(b) A victory over the combined armies of the Sultans of Malwa and Gujarat, with no year named. The record sits on two slabs in the topmost storey, gives a genealogy of the Guhila family, was begun by Kumbha's pandit Atri and finished by his son Mahesa, and calls the tower Kirti-Stambha. Answer this by naming the enemy and the campaign rather than a year: Kumbha, against Malwa under Mahmud Khilji, with Gujarat also in the field.
Why not the others: (a) is the version in circulation, and the year is the weak part of it. 1437, 1439 and 1440 all appear in official and scholarly material. The state's heritage file gives construction as 1440 to 1448 and separately dates the commemorated victory to 1439, while the battle usually named is Sarangpur, 1437, where Kumbha defeated Mahmud Khilji I of Malwa and held him prisoner for months. 1440 is best read as the year construction began — the tower's date, not the war's. (d) Bahadur Shah took Chittor, in 1535, which is both the wrong direction and seventy years late.
87. The chief architect of the Vijay Stambh was — Attribution
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(c) Sutradhara Jaita, son of Lakha, assisted by his three sons Napa, Puja and Poma. The tower is nine storeys and 37.19 metres high on a base 14.32 metres square, with 127 stone steps winding to the eighth storey, and the word Allah is cut in Arabic in the third and eighth storeys.
Why not the others: (a) Mandan built Kumbhalgarh for the same king and served alongside Jaita as shilpacharya at Chittor, which makes him the real near-miss; (b) Depa designed Ranakpur; (d) Atri began the tower's inscription, which is a different job from building it.
88. The Trailokya Dipak Jain temple at Ranakpur was built by — Type E · wrong ruler
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(d) Dharna Sah, a Jain of the ruler's circle, with the support of Rana Kumbha and with the sculptor Depa as designer. It is dedicated to Adinath and famous for its 1,444 pillars, no two carved alike. The correct sentence is that Ranakpur is a merchant's foundation under a king's patronage, which is also the best illustration on this syllabus of how Jain temple building in Mewar was financed.
Why not the others: (a) is the standard wrong answer, and the standard phrasing produces it: the temple was raised in Kumbha's reign, which invites the inference that Kumbha raised it. (b) Depa is the architect, a different role. (c) Vimal Shah is the name preparation material attaches to the Vimal Vasahi at Delwara, where the official record for the site names no builder and no year for any of the five temples.
89. The association of Kumbhalgarh's site with the Maurya prince Samprati is — Type D · legend as record
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(a) Local legend for which there is no archaeological or historical evidence. The World Heritage nomination for the hill forts says so in as many words, in the same section that dates the fort's construction to 1443 to 1458, built to the planning principles of Mandana.
Why not the others: (c) is the sharpest distractor, because the Rajvallabh is a real architectural treatise by the fort's own architect and therefore sounds like exactly the document that would carry such a claim. It does not. Stories of this shape attach themselves to most old forts, and the discipline is the one the chapter applies to Padmini: say what the record supports, and say plainly what it does not.
90. Kumbhalgarh was first taken by a Mughal force in — Recall
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(b) 1578, and then only briefly, by one of Akbar's generals. The fort's record before that is a record of failures against it: Mahmud Khilji failed in 1442, 1458-59 and 1467, and Akbar failed in 1568.
Why not the others: (a) 1568 is the year Akbar failed here and the year Chittor fell, which is precisely why it attracts a wrong tick. The 1578 capture is also the measure of the pressure Maharana Pratap was under in those years, and Kumbhalgarh was among the places he recovered once that pressure relaxed after 1579.
91. Between 1439 and 1444 Rana Kumbha took — Recall
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(c) Gagron, Didwana, Ranthambore, Sirohi and Toda, dispossessing Mahmud Khilji of Malwa at Gagron in 1439. Kumbha's reach is usually taught as a fort count; as territory it is more useful. Sirohi and Ranthambore in the same list is the part to carry, because it shows Mewar operating against the Deoras in the west and into Hadoti and the Chambal in the east at the same time.
Why not the others: (a) is Malwa's own country and belongs to the generation of Sanga and Babur, eighty years later; (d) puts Jhalawar, a nineteenth-century creation out of Kota, into a fifteenth-century list.
92. Arrange four turning points at Gagron from earliest to latest. Sequence
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(d) 1423, 1439, 1519, 1561. The fort, also called Dodgarh, was built by the Dor or Doda Rajputs and passed to the Khinchi Chauhans in the twelfth century, and it went through fourteen battles and two jauhars and sakas: the first in 1423, when Achaldas Khinchi and his men died fighting Hoshang Shah of Malwa, and the second in 1444, when Palhan-Si, Achaldas's son, fought Mahmud Khilji alongside Mewar's warrior Dheera. It is the only saka on this syllabus that is not Chittor's, and the 1423 episode has a text of its own, the Achaldas Khinchi ri Vachanika.
Why not the others: (b) and (c) put Sanga at the start, which is how the fort is usually met. His 1519 victory sits at the end of the chain: Mewar then held Gagron until 1532, when Rana Vikramaditya surrendered it to Bahadur Shah of Gujarat, and it later became the fief of Prithviraj Rathore, "Peethal", brother of Bikaner's Raja Rai Singh, which is how Rajasthan's best-known Dingal poet comes to be attached to a fort in Hadoti.
93. In the weeks before Khanwa, the town Rana Sanga actually besieged and took was — Type B · two events, one place
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(a) Kandar. Babur's own memoir is the source, and it is the more useful one for being hostile. Bayana did not fall to Sanga: the fort was held for Babur, first by the Afghan Nizam Khan, who gave it up to Babur's men precisely because he heard of the Rana's rapid advance, then by Mahdi Khwaja, and Mewar's envoys were still asking Babur for it a year after the battle.
Why not the others: what did happen near Bayana was a real Mughal reverse of a different shape. The garrison "made a rather incautious sally too far out" and was routed, Sangur Khan Janjuha was killed and Kitta Beg wounded badly enough to miss the main battle, and Babur's own officers came back "praising and lauding the fierceness and valour of the pagan army". A stated Battle of Bayana on 16 February 1527 is therefore wrong twice over: that date is the day Babur marched out of Agra, and the reverse had already been reported into camp before he did. (c) Chanderi came to Sanga when Ibrahim Lodi's begs turned against him at Dholpur, and he granted it to Medini Rao; (d) Toda is where Hasan Khan Mewati joined him.
94. Babur dates Khanwa to "Saturday the 13th of the second Jumada" of 933 AH. That day is — Recall
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(b) 16 March 1527, Old Style, in the Julian calendar then in use; the same day is 26 March in the proleptic Gregorian calendar. Babur dates his advance four days earlier to "Tuesday, the 9th of the second Jumada", and the two day-names are internally consistent.
Why not the others: (a) 17 March 1527 was a Sunday and so cannot be the day Babur names, although it appears in several textbooks and in the bracketed conversions of the standard English translation. Where a source supplies both a weekday and a date, the weekday is the harder evidence. (c) is the day Babur left Agra; (d) is his assault on Chanderi, the following year.
95. Silhadi, who changed sides at Khanwa, held — Type C · wrong dynasty
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(c) Raisen and Sarangpur. He was a Rajput convert whose son had married a daughter of Sanga, which is what makes his change of side consequential rather than merely opportunistic: the coalition was held together by exactly this kind of tie.
Why not the others: every wrong option is another place in the same coalition or campaign. (a) Chanderi is Medini Rao's, held as Sanga's grantee; (b) Mewat is Hasan Khan Mewati's, who came out of Alwar to join Sanga at Toda; (d) Gagron had been Mewar's since 1519.
96. Chittor was stormed three times. The middle storm was by — Type B · two events, one place
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(d) Bahadur Shah of Gujarat, in 1535, with the Sisodias retaking the fort in 1536. Three storms, three different powers: the Delhi Sultanate in 1303, the Gujarat Sultanate in 1535, the Mughal empire in 1567-68. The Mahasati complex inside the fort is dated by three destruction layers on exactly those years.
Why not the others: (a) and (b) are the two everyone carries, which is the problem, because a candidate who knows only the first and the third will place the second one wrongly. The 1535 loss ends Chittor's run as the uninterrupted seat of Mewar, it is why the succession was in dispute when Udai Singh II came to the throne, and it is why a ruler of Mewar concluded in 1559 that his capital should be somewhere a siege train could not easily reach. (c) Sher Shah's Rajasthan campaign is Sammel, 1544, against Marwar.
97. Amber town was taken from the Mina community by — Type E · wrong ruler
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(a) Kakildev, a Kachhwaha and a descendant of Dulha Rai, the founder of the house of Dhundhar. He laid the foundations of the walls of what became the Kachhwaha capital. Amber town was founded by the Minas, and their displacement is the founding event of the Dhundhar state, which is why Jamwai Mata and the Amber shrines matter to Jaipur's rulers.
Why not the others: (b) Dulha Rai founds the house but is not the taker of Amber; (c) Rajdev, a descendant of Kakildev, made Amber the capital, which it remained for roughly seven centuries until Jai Singh II moved to Jaipur; (d) Bharmal is four centuries later. In this earliest phase the fort was only the small structure still called the Purana Mahal, below the main palace on the western side.
98. Man Singh installed the image in the Shila Mata temple at Amber, with the priests who serve it, after his — Recall
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(b) Bengal campaigns. The state's heritage record dates the installation to 1604. As ruler of Amber from 1589 to 1614 he also raised the Man Mandir, the oldest block of the Amber palace and the core around which everything later was arranged.
Why not the others: (a) Haldighati is 1576, thirteen years before he became ruler of Amber, and it is tempting because it is the only date most notes attach to him. The palace sequence is the better thing to hold: begun under Bharmal (r. 1547-74) in 1558, four years before the 1562 settlement, carried on by Bhagwant Das (1574-89), elaborated by Man Singh, and completed as it now stands by Mirza Raja Jai Singh I (1622-67). The building is the evidence for the argument about what the alliance bought.
99. The axes of Jaipur were laid with reference to — Sequence
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(c) The installation of an image of Govind Dev on the plain in 1715, twelve years before the city itself, so the religious foundation precedes the urban one. Construction began in 1727 and the major palaces, roads and squares took about four years; the plan divides the city into nine sectors, two for state buildings and palaces and seven for public use, with prescribed building heights and street widths, and about 400 temples within the walls.
Why not the others: (a) inverts the order, which is the whole point of the fact. Sawai Jai Singh II, who ruled 1699 to 1744, took a close personal interest in the plan and sought the advice of Vidyadhar Bhattacharya, described in the UNESCO evaluation as a Brahmin scholar from Bengal, working from Indian texts on astronomy and from Ptolemy and Euclid. The planner's own background is asked as often as his name.
100. The excavation begun in January 2026 at the mound called Reedh ka Teela, at Tyonda village in Khetri tehsil, is in which district? Recall
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(d) Jhunjhunu. The Rajasthan Department of Archaeology and Museums began the dig in January 2026 under excavation superintendent Dr Vineet Godhal. By February 2026 it had exposed a temple structure with fragments of Lakshmi and Ganesha images and stone flooring; departmental officers reviewed the site on 4 April 2026, and coins recovered from it went for laboratory analysis in April 2026. The department's placing of the structure in the 11th to 12th centuries CE is a field reading quoted in the press, not a published excavation report, so carry the site and the window rather than a certified date.
Why not the others: all three are neighbouring districts of the same belt, and Khetri is the tehsil that fixes the answer. Why the site is worth knowing at all: Shekhawati is documented mainly through its eighteenth and nineteenth century havelis, so early-medieval temple evidence there is new ground.
Flashcards — the facts most often missed
Tap to reveal. These are the ones that decide close questions.
The seven foundation dates
1156 Jaisalmer (Rawal Jaisal) · 1241 Bundi (Rao Deva) · 1459 Jodhpur (Rao Jodha) · 1488 Bikaner (Rao Bika) · 1559 Udaipur (Udai Singh II) · 1631 Kota (Rao Madho Singh, by partition) · 1727 Jaipur (Sawai Jai Singh II).
Pratihara capitals and rulers
Mandore / Bhinmal → Ujjain → Kannauj. Nagabhata I c. 730-756 (checked Junaid and Tamim) · Vatsaraja c. 780-800 · Nagabhata II c. 795-833 · Mihira Bhoja c. 836-885, title Adivaraha.
The Pratihara evidence
Gwalior / Sagar Tal prashasti of Mihira Bhoja, stone found 1896, opens with a salutation to Vishnu and names Nagabhata as founder. Al-Masudi, in Gujarat 915-16, records al-Juzr and Baura, apparently for Adivaraha.
Ajmer's three builders
Ajayaraja II founds Ajmer / Ajayameru (c. 1110-1135) · Arnoraja builds the Ana Sagar (c. 1135-1150) · Vigraharaja IV / Bisaldev takes Delhi from the Tomaras, writes the Harakeli Nataka, and founds the Sanskrit college at the Adhai Din ka Jhonpra site.
Tarain
1191 Prithviraja III wins. 1192 Muhammad of Ghor wins. Same ground, one year apart, opposite ways. "Prithviraj was defeated at Tarain" is neither true nor false until the year is given.
The two Hammirs
Hammira of Ranthambore — Chahamana, gave asylum to Mongol rebels 1299, killed by Alauddin Khalji, July 1301. Hammir Singh of Mewar — Guhila, recovers Chittor 1326, founds the Sisodia line and the title Maharana.
The Mewar branches
Rawal branch ends with Ratnasimha, 1303. Rana / Sisodia branch begins with Hammir Singh, 1326. The Sisodias are a branch of the Guhilas, not their replacement.
Kumbha the builder
Kumbhalgarh (architect Mandan, author of Rajvallabh; Mandan and Jaita were shilpacharyas of Chittor) · 32 of 84 Mewar forts · Vijay Stambh, 9 storeys, ~37 m, for the 1440 win over Mahmud Khilji of Malwa · the Ranakpur Jain temple.
Kumbha the author
Sangita Raja, Rasika Priya (on the Gita Govinda), Sudaprabandha, Kamaraja Ratisara. Title Sangeetraj. Assassinated 1468 at the Mamadev temple, Kumbhalgarh, by his son Uda (Udai Singh I). The Sangita Ratnakara is Sharngadeva's, not his.
Sanga's three battles
Khatoli 1517 beat Ibrahim Lodi · Gagron 1519 beat and captured Mahmud Khilji II of Malwa, then restored his kingdom · Khanwa 16 March 1527 lost to Babur. Born 12 April 1484, died Kalpi, 30 January 1528.
The Khanwa coalition
Hasan Khan Mewati (Mewat) · Mahmud Lodi (Afghan) · Medini Rai (Chanderi, not Alwar). Silhadi defected during the battle.
The two Mahmuds and the two Jai Singhs
Mahmud Khilji of Malwa, beaten by Kumbha 1440. Mahmud Khilji II of Malwa, beaten by Sanga at Gagron 1519. Mahmud Lodi, Afghan, Sanga's ally at Khanwa 1527. · Mirza Raja Jai Singh I — Purandar 1665. Sawai Jai Singh II — Jaipur 1727.
Mewar after Sanga
Udai Singh II founds Udaipur 1559, before the siege · Akbar besieges Chittor 1567-68, held by Jaimal Rathore; it falls 1568 · Pratap at Haldighati 18 June 1576 against Man Singh I, capital Chavand, Dewair 16 September 1582. The 1606 Dewair is Amar Singh's, against Parviz and Asaf Khan.
Marwar's split generation
Maldeo chose Chandrasen (1541-1581) over elder brothers Ram and Udai Singh. Chandrasen resisted; Mota Raja Udai Singh (r. 1583-95) allied and was Shah Jahan's maternal grandfather. One house, one generation, both strategies.
Amber's three moments
1562 — Bharmal sends Bhagwant Das and Man Singh (20 Jan), marriage at Sambhar (March), Mariam-uz-Zamani, mansab 5,000. 1576 — Man Singh I commands the Mughal army at Haldighati. 1665 — Mirza Raja Jai Singh I signs the Treaty of Purandar with Shivaji: 23 forts surrendered, 12 retained.
Sawai Jai Singh II
Jaipur, 1727, planned by Vidyadhar Bhattacharya. Five observatories c. 1724-1737: Delhi (first), Jaipur (largest and best preserved), Ujjain, Varanasi, Mathura (no longer survives). Tables: Zij-i Muhammad Shahi, for Muhammad Shah. Astronomer Jagannatha Samrat.
Rapid one-liners
Which Rajasthan house became an imperial north-Indian power?
The Gurjara-Pratiharas, and they did it by leaving Rajasthan for Kannauj.
Who checked the Arab advance from Sindh?
Nagabhata I, against the armies of Junaid and Tamim.
Which king wrote a Sanskrit play and took Delhi from the Tomaras?
Vigraharaja IV (Bisaldev) — the Harakeli Nataka.
Who wrote the *Padmavat*, and when?
Malik Muhammad Jayasi, more than two centuries after the 1303 siege.
Which contemporary chronicler was present at the 1303 siege and does not mention Padmini?
Amir Khusrau — and neither do Barani or Isami.
How many of Mewar's 84 forts are credited to Rana Kumbha?
Thirty-two, including Kumbhalgarh.
What does the Vijay Stambh commemorate?
Kumbha's 1440 victory over Mahmud Khilji, Sultan of Malwa. Nine storeys, about 37 m.
How did Rana Kumbha die?
Assassinated in 1468 at the Mamadev temple, Kumbhalgarh, by his own son Uda (Udai Singh I).
Which Sultan did Rana Sanga capture and then release?
Mahmud Khilji II of Malwa, at Gagron, 1519.
Where and when did Rana Sanga die?
Kalpi, 30 January 1528 — about ten months after Khanwa, not at it.
Which came first, Udaipur's founding or Chittor's fall?
Udaipur, 1559. Chittor fell in 1568.
Who commanded the Mughal army at Haldighati?
Raja Man Singh I of Amber — a Rajput, for Akbar.
What did Sher Shah say after Sammel?
That for a handful of bajra he had nearly lost the empire of Hindustan.
Which major Rajasthan fort is not on a hilltop?
Junagarh, Bikaner — built 1589 to 1594 under Raja Rai Singh.
Which Rajasthan ruler negotiated with Shivaji, and for whom?
Mirza Raja Jai Singh I of Amber, for Aurangzeb, at Purandar, 11 June 1665.
Where was Sawai Jai Singh's first observatory?
Delhi. Jaipur's is the largest and best preserved, but it was not the first.
What to do with your mistakes
- Mixed up two rulers with the same name? That is this chapter's signature failure. Write out the three Udai Singhs, two Hammirs, two Jai Singhs and three Mahmuds with one distinguishing fact each, and revise them as groups rather than individually.
- Put a ruler in the wrong house? Go back to the dynastic map in section 1 before doing anything else. The two relationships that carry the most marks are that the Hadas are Chauhans and the Sisodias are Guhilas.
- Ticked a legend? Padmini, the Dewair surrender figures, the Sammel army sizes and the Prithviraj Raso's chronology are all traditional. Learn the short list of things this chapter marks as not documented, and why each is on it.
- Missed a foundation date? There are only seven, and they are pure Prelims: 1156, 1241, 1459, 1488, 1559, 1631, 1727. Learn them as one table with the founder attached.
- Credited the wrong person? Check whether you gave a father's work to a famous son (the Ana Sagar is Arnoraja's, not Vigraharaja IV's) or a son's to a famous father (Bikaner is Rao Bika's, not Rao Jodha's).
More in This Series
- Major Dynasties of Rajasthan — the chapter these questions come from
- Practice: Sources of the History of Rajasthan — 68 questions
- Unit Revision Test: Ancient Rajasthan — 60 mixed questions across the three ancient chapters
- Caution for Readers — the claims that are genuinely unsettled
Sources & Verification
Every question is derived from the parent chapter, whose Sources & Verification section lists what was checked and what was deliberately not asserted.
No PYQ is cited anywhere on this page. Question numbers are our own, not RPSC's.
Four questions are built on claims this site refuted during the chapter's own research, and they are here so that an aspirant meets the error before a paper does: Q31 on Sanga’s opponent at Gagron (Mahmud Khilji II, not Mahmud Lodi), Q33 on Medini Rai's territory (Chanderi, not Alwar), Q34 on Sanga’s death (Kalpi, 30 January 1528, not March 1527), and Q61 on Rana Kumbha's dynasty (Sisodia, not Muzaffarid). All four wrong versions appear on preparation or reference sites in current use.
No question is set on a figure the chapter declines to verify. Army sizes, casualty totals, the Dewair surrender numbers, the Vijay Stambh's construction span, Bappa Rawal's dates and the Jaimal-and-Patta pairing are all absent from the questions for that reason. Where a contested item is unavoidable, the question is written so the defensible answer is the key.
