Minimalist IAS
Ancient India

Prelims · Ancient India · 9 questions

Sangam age & early South India

Every UPSC Prelims question on this topic, 2016–2026, newest first. Tap an option to check yourself; the answer and explanation open below it.

Sangam age & early South India questions per year: 2016: 1, 2017: 0, 2018: 0, 2019: 0, 2020: 0, 2021: 0, 2022: 1, 2023: 2, 2024: 0, 2025: 1, 2026: 1 Asked in 5 of 11 years · most in 2023 (2)

Practising Ancient India? Take it as timed sets of 25 →

UPSC syllabus: “History of India and Indian National Movement.” Sub-topics in the detailed syllabus →

Prelims 2026 · Q15

Hard Provisional key

प्रारंभिक ऐतिहासिक तमिलकम में राजा और उसकी वंशावली के निम्नलिखित में से कौन-सा/कौन-से युग्म सही सुमेलित नहीं है/हैं ?

  1. 1.सेनगुट्टुवन : चेर
  2. 2.उदियनजेरल : चोल
  3. 3.नेदुन्जेलियन : पांड्य

नीचे दिए गए कूट का प्रयोग कर उत्तर चुनिए :

Read this question in English

Which of the following pairs of the king and his dynasty in early historical Tamilakam is/are not correctly matched?

1. Senguttuvan: Chera

2. Udiyanjeral: Chola

3. Nedunjeliyan: Pandya

Select the answer using the code given below:

(a) 1 and 2 · (b) 2 only · (c) 1 and 3 · (d) 3 only

उत्तर और व्याख्या · explanation in English

Answer: (b) केवल 2

Udiyanjeral (Udiyan Cheralanathan) was one of the earliest and better known Chera rulers, not a Chola. Senguttuvan, whose younger brother Ilango Adigal wrote the Silappadikaram, was a Chera, and Nedunjeliyan, celebrated by the Sangam poets for his victories over the Cheras and Cholas, was a Pandya. So only pair 2 is wrongly matched.

  • ✓ 1. Senguttuvan was a Chera king of the Sangam age; Britannica names him as the son of the Chera king Nedunjeral Adan.
  • ✗ 2. Udiyanjeral (Udiyan Cheralanathan) is named as one of the earliest and better known Chera rulers, so he was not a Chola.
  • ✓ 3. Britannica lists Nedunjeliyan as a Pandya ruler, celebrated by the Sangam poets as the victor in campaigns against the Cheras and the Cholas.

Remember · Sangam kings: Chera - Udiyanjeral, Nedunjeral Adan, Senguttuvan; Pandya - Nedunjeliyan.

📘 Read it in NCERT: Class 9 Understanding Society: India and Beyond, Ch 5 (practise this chapter) · Class 12 Themes in Indian History, Part I, Ch 2 (practise this chapter)

Sources

Question and answer: UPSC's provisional GS Paper I (2026, Series A) — paper ↗ · answer key ↗. Explanation: Minimalist IAS, checked 1 Oct 2026 (how we verify). Permalink ·

The Syllabus X-Ray of this topic

1 of its 4 sub-topics is High

0 Core · 1 High · 3 Steady · 0 Rare

  • HighSangam age: poems, kings & society · 3 questions

The X-Ray ranks all 928 sub-topics of the UPSC syllabus by what UPSC has asked since 2016. The 60 Prelims Core sub-topics are behind 51% of Prelims questions.

See the whole X-Ray →

The same topic in Mains