Prelims 2025 · Q19
MediumAshokan inscriptions suggest that the 'Pradeshika', 'Rajuka' and 'Yukta' were important officers at the
Answer & explanation
Answer: (b) district-level administration
In Rock Edict III Ashoka orders his officers, the Rajjukas and Pradeshikas in Sircar's translation (the Yuktas being the 'officers' of the Girnar text, as his note explains), to go on circuit every five years, which marks them as the officers running the districts. NCERT calls the pradeshikas district governors, and Sircar's glossary says the Rajjukas were probably governors of districts.
- ✓ (b) All three were district-level officers: NCERT calls the pradeshikas district governors with judicial and administrative functions, Sircar's glossary says the Rajjukas were probably governors of districts, and the Yuktas are a class of officers who toured with them.
- ✗ (c) NCERT describes provinces as the level above divisions and districts; the officers named in the edict work at the district level beneath the provinces.
- ✗ (a) Villages were led by a headman called the gramika (NCERT); the three officers worked above the village, at the district level.
Remember · Rock Edict III: Rajjukas, Pradeshikas (and Yuktas, 'officers') to tour every five years for dhamma; district-level officers; villages under the gramika.
📘 Read it in NCERT: Class 9 Understanding Society: India and Beyond, Ch 5 (practise this chapter) · Class 7 Exploring Society: India and Beyond (Part 1), Ch 5 (practise this chapter)
Sources
- NCERT Class 9 · Understanding Society: India and Beyond, Chapter 5 “District governors or pradeshikas were responsible for judicial and administrative functions.”
- NCERT Class 7 · Exploring Society: India and Beyond (Part 1), Chapter 5 “And for this purpose, I shall send out on tour every five years, an officer who is not severe or harsh;”
- D.C. Sircar, Inscriptions of Asoka (Publications Division, Ministry of Information and Broadcasting, Government of India, 1957; Internet Archive scan): Rock Edict III (Girnar text) ↗ · reference work “shall set out every five years on a circuit for inspection throughout their charges, as much for their other duties as for the special purpose of preaching Dharma … The Rajjukas were probably the governors of districts. … The word Yukta, taken here in the sense of ‘an officer’, is generally believed to be the designation of a class of officers.”
Question and answer: UPSC's official GS Paper I (2025, Series A) — paper ↗ · answer key ↗. Explanation: Minimalist IAS, checked 1 Oct 2026 (how we verify). Permalink ·