Vijayanagara, Bahmani & regional kingdoms

Answer: (c) 3 only

The Moidams of Charaideo in Assam are the mound-burial system of the Tai-Ahom dynasty. They are burial mounds for Ahom kings, queens and nobles, so only the statement about burial grounds is correct.

• ✗ 1. The Moidams were not fortresses. They are burial mounds, and Charaideo served as the Ahom royal necropolis.
• ✗ 2. They were places of burial and ancestor reverence, not recreation centres. The name itself comes from a Tai phrase linked to burying the dead and the spirit of the deceased.
• ✓ 3. The Moidams are burial mounds constructed for Ahom kings, queens and nobles.
• ✗ 4. They served as tombs, not as places for battle drills or military training.

Remember · Moidams of Charaideo, Assam: burial mounds of Ahom kings, queens and nobles; mound-burial system of the Ahom dynasty, inscribed on the UNESCO World Heritage List in July 2024.

Question and answer: UPSC's provisional GS Paper I (2026, Series A) — paper ↗ · answer key ↗. Explanation: Minimalist IAS, checked 30 Sept 2026 (how we verify). Permalink · Report an error

Answer: (a) Krishnadevaraya

Krishnadevaraya of Vijayanagara allowed the Portuguese to build a fort at Bhatkal, a west-coast port of his empire, when the Portuguese governor Albuquerque asked for it. He kept friendly relations with the Portuguese, and Goa had been the entrepot (trade hub) of the Deccan states for horse trade.

• ✓ (a) Krishnadevaraya kept friendly relations with the Portuguese. On Albuquerque's request he permitted the construction of a fort at Bhatkal, and Portuguese soldiers helped him against Ismail Adil Khan of Bijapur.
• ✗ (b) Narasimha Saluva belonged to the Saluva line that came before Krishnadevaraya's Tuluva dynasty, so he ruled before the Portuguese emerged as a power around 1510.
• ✗ (c) Muhammad Shah III was a Bahmani sultan of the fifteenth century. The Bahmani kingdom had started breaking up around 1490, well before the Portuguese took Goa in 1510.
• ✗ (d) Yusuf Adil Khan founded the Bijapur sultanate around 1490. It was Vijayanagara, not Bijapur, that gave the Portuguese permission at Bhatkal, and the Portuguese later fought on Krishnadevaraya's side against Bijapur.

Remember · Krishnadevaraya (Vijayanagara) permitted the Portuguese to build a fort at Bhatkal at Albuquerque's request.

Question and answer: UPSC's official GS Paper I (2024, Series A) — paper ↗ · answer key ↗. Explanation: Minimalist IAS, checked 30 Sept 2026 (how we verify). Permalink · Report an error

Answer: (a) Devaraya I

Devaraya I of the Sangama dynasty built the great dam on the Tungabhadra and the long aqueduct that carried its water to Vijayanagara, according to the Portuguese chronicler Nuniz. NCERT confirms that the Hiriya canal drawing water from a dam across the river was built by Sangama kings.

• ✓ (a) Nuniz's account, as summarised by Robert Sewell, credits the ruler of this time, identified as Deva Raya I, with a huge dam on the Tungabhadra and an aqueduct fifteen miles long into the city.
• ✗ (b) Mallikarjuna was also a Sangama king, but Nuniz's account, as read by Sewell, names the ruler identified as Deva Raya I, not Mallikarjuna, as the builder.
• ✗ (c) Vira Vijaya is not the king named in Nuniz's account of the dam and aqueduct.
• ✗ (d) Virupaksha is likewise not named in that account; several of these kings were Sangamas, so the dynasty alone cannot pick the answer.

Remember · Devaraya I (Sangama): dam on the Tungabhadra and a long canal-aqueduct to Vijayanagara; the Hiriya canal is one of the surviving waterworks.

📘 Read it in NCERT: Class 12 Themes in Indian History, Part II, Ch 3 (practise this chapter)

Question and answer: UPSC's official GS Paper I (2023, Series A) — paper ↗ · answer key ↗. Explanation: Minimalist IAS, checked 1 Oct 2026 (how we verify). Permalink · Report an error

Answer: (c) Bahadur Shah

Bahadur Shah, Sultan of Gujarat, is the ruler who let the Portuguese into Diu. Squeezed between the Mughal emperor Humayun and the Portuguese, he signed a treaty with the Portuguese governor Nuno da Cunha on 25 October 1535 and allowed them to build a fortress at Diu.

• ✓ (c) Bahadur Shah made the 1535 treaty with Nuno da Cunha, which gave the Portuguese permission to build a fort in Diu harbour. He later regretted it, but the Portuguese kept Diu and took full control in 1546.
• ✗ (b) Mahmud Begarha's long reign ended by the early 1510s, more than twenty years before the 1535 treaty. The Diu concession came in Bahadur Shah's reign.
• ✗ (a) The 1535 treaty was made by the reigning Sultan, Bahadur Shah, not by any ruler named Ahmad Shah.

Remember · Bahadur Shah of Gujarat, pressed by Humayun, gave the Portuguese a fort at Diu in 1535; Diu passed fully to them in 1546 and stayed Portuguese until 1961.

Question and answer: UPSC's official GS Paper I (2023, Series A) — paper ↗ · answer key ↗. Explanation: Minimalist IAS, checked 30 Sept 2026 (how we verify). Permalink · Report an error

Answer: (b) Coins

UPSC's key is coins. NCERT notes that variations of the word 'pana' (paṇaṁ in Tamil, Telugu and Malayalam) are still used for money.

• ✓ (b) UPSC's official key treats this option as correct; we could not confirm the meaning of the term from an official source, so we do not explain it here. The RBI Museum notes that the Vijayanagara kingdom's coinage, largely in gold and copper, was a standardised issue that later served as a model for the European trading companies.
• ✗ (a) UPSC's official key treats this option as incorrect; we could not confirm the detail from an official source, so we do not explain it here.
• ✗ (c) UPSC's official key treats this option as incorrect; we could not confirm the detail from an official source, so we do not explain it here.

Remember · Per UPSC's key, the answer is coins; NCERT notes the 'pana'/'panam' family of words is still used for money.

📘 Read it in NCERT: Class 7 Exploring Society: India and Beyond (Part 1), Ch 11 (practise this chapter)

Question and answer: UPSC's official GS Paper I (2022, Series A) — paper ↗ · answer key ↗. Explanation: Minimalist IAS, checked 1 Oct 2026 (how we verify). Permalink · Report an error

Answer: (d) 1, 2, 3 and 4

Fernao Nuniz, a Portuguese horse-trader who lived in Vijayanagara in the 1530s, described the thousands of women employed inside the king's palace. He wrote that some were wrestlers, some astrologers and soothsayers, and some kept the accounts of palace expenses and records of state affairs. All four skills appear in his chronicle.

• ✓ 1. Nuniz states that the king had 'women who wrestle' within his palace.
• ✓ 2. In the same sentence he names women who were astrologers.
• ✓ 3. Women wrote all the accounts of expenses incurred inside the palace gates and cross-checked the kingdom's records with the scribes outside.
• ✓ 4. He lists soothsayers alongside the astrologers among the palace women.

Remember · Nuniz (Portuguese, 16th century) on Vijayanagara palace women: wrestlers, astrologers, soothsayers, accountants, record-keepers and musicians. Other visitors: Paes, Barbosa, Nicolo de Conti, Abdur Razzaq, Nikitin.

📘 Read it in NCERT: Class 8 Exploring Society: India and Beyond (Part 2), Ch 8 (practise this chapter) · Class 12 Themes in Indian History, Part II, Ch 3 (practise this chapter)

Question and answer: UPSC's official GS Paper I (2021, Series A) — paper ↗ · answer key ↗. Explanation: Minimalist IAS, checked 1 Oct 2026 (how we verify). Permalink · Report an error

Answer: (a) 1 only

Only statement 1 is correct: Genghis (Chengiz) Khan chased the Khwarezm prince Jalal al-Din to the Indus during Iltutmish's rule (1211-36). Timur came in 1398, long after Muhammad bin Tughluq, and Vasco da Gama reached Calicut in 1498, about half a century after Deva Raya II.

• ✓ 1. NCERT records that Genghis Khan's forces followed the Khwarezm prince Jalaluddin to the banks of the Indus, where Genghis Khan turned back. Iltutmish was then ruling Delhi (1211-1236).
• ✗ 2. Timur crossed the Indus in 1398, when the Delhi sultan was Mahmud Tughluq. Muhammad bin Tughluq had died in 1351.
• ✗ 3. Vasco da Gama arrived at Calicut (Kozhikode) in 1498. Deva Raya II belonged to the Sangama dynasty, whose control ended in 1485, and the Saluvas ruled at the time of the visit.

Remember · Iltutmish (1211-36): Mongols at the Indus. Timur's invasion: 1398, under Mahmud Tughluq. Vasco da Gama at Calicut: 1498, Saluva rule in Vijayanagara.

📘 Read it in NCERT: Class 11 Themes in World History, Ch 2 (practise this chapter) · Class 8 Exploring Society: India and Beyond (Part 1), Ch 2 (practise this chapter) · Class 12 Themes in Indian History, Part II, Ch 3 (practise this chapter) · Class 8 Exploring Society: India and Beyond (Part 1), Ch 4 (practise this chapter)

Question and answer: UPSC's official GS Paper I (2021, Series A) — paper ↗ · answer key ↗. Explanation: Minimalist IAS, checked 30 Sept 2026 (how we verify). Permalink · Report an error

Answer: (b) 2 only

Only statement 2 is correct: the Wodeyar (Yadu) rulers of Mysore began as feudatories of the Vijayanagara kings and later ruled on their own. The Carnatic of the Arcot nawabs was a Mughal-era province, not a piece cut out of Hyderabad, and Rohilkhand grew out of Mughal decline, not out of land held by Ahmad Shah Durrani.

• ✗ 1. A Government of Tamil Nadu district page says the Nizam of Hyderabad, as Mughal representative in the south, entrusted the Carnatic to the Nawab of Arcot. The Arcot nawabs were thus Mughal-appointed governors under the Nizam, not a state that 'emerged out of' Hyderabad State.
• ✓ 2. The Mysuru Yadu dynasty rose to power in 1399 as feudatories of the Vijayanagara kings. NCERT adds that many Vijayanagara nayakas set up independent kingdoms in the seventeenth century, and lists Mysore among the nayaka centres.
• ✗ 3. Rohilkhand took shape in the early 18th century, when Mughal rule was fading and Rohilla Afghan settlers built their own power there. It was not carved from territory that Ahmad Shah Durrani, the Afghan invader, had occupied.

Remember · Mysore's Wodeyars were Vijayanagara feudatories; the Carnatic was a dependency of Hyderabad, not carved from it; Rohilkhand arose from Mughal decline.

📘 Read it in NCERT: Class 12 Themes in Indian History, Part II, Ch 3 (practise this chapter)

Question and answer: UPSC's official GS Paper I (2021, Series A) — paper ↗ · answer key ↗. Explanation: Minimalist IAS, checked 30 Sept 2026 (how we verify). Permalink · Report an error

Answer: (d) Vijayanagara

Vijayanagara temple complexes (14th–16th centuries) added new elements: towering raya gopurams, pillared corridors and mandapas, including the kalyana mandapa, a pavilion built to celebrate the ritual marriage of the deities.

• ✓ (d) NCERT's study of Hampi lists mandapas and pillared corridors among the distinctive features of Vijayanagara temples and illustrates a kalyana mandapa meant for divine weddings.
• ✗ (a) The early western Chalukyas built their Deccan temples before about 750 CE, when the Rashtrakutas took over; the kalyana mandapa is not their hallmark.
• ✗ (c) The Rashtrakutas' greatest architectural achievement is the rock-cut Kailashnath temple at Ellora, not kalyana mandapas.

Remember · Vijayanagara temple hallmarks: raya gopurams, pillared mandapas and corridors, kalyana mandapas (divine weddings), chariot streets — e.g. Virupaksha and Vitthala temples, Hampi.

📘 Read it in NCERT: Class 12 Themes in Indian History, Part II, Ch 3 (practise this chapter) · Class 12 Themes in Indian History, Part II, Ch 3 (practise this chapter) · Class 11 An Introduction to Indian Art, Part I, Ch 6 (practise this chapter)

Question and answer: UPSC's official GS Paper I (2019, Series A) — paper ↗ · answer key ↗. Explanation: Minimalist IAS, checked 30 Sept 2026 (how we verify). Permalink · Report an error

Answer: (a) 1 and 2 only

Pandharpur stands on the Chandrabhaga, the local name of the Bhima, and Tiruchirappalli on the Cauvery (Kaveri). Hampi, the ruins of Vijayanagara, lies on the Tungabhadra, not the Malaprabha, so pair 3 is wrong.

• ✓ 1. The Solapur district administration notes that the Chandrabhaga (Bhima) flows through Pandharpur, home of the Vitthal (Vithoba) temple and the annual wari pilgrimage.
• ✓ 2. Tiruchirappalli, the old Chola stronghold with the Srirangam temple on a river island, lies on the banks of the Kaveri.
• ✗ 3. Vijayanagara (Hampi) was built in the natural basin of the Tungabhadra; the Malaprabha flows past Aihole, Pattadakal and Badami's region further north-west.

Remember · Pandharpur — Bhima (Chandrabhaga); Tiruchirappalli/Srirangam — Kaveri; Hampi — Tungabhadra; Aihole–Pattadakal — Malaprabha.

📘 Read it in NCERT: Class 12 Themes in Indian History, Part II, Ch 3 (practise this chapter)

Question and answer: UPSC's official GS Paper I (2019, Series A) — paper ↗ · answer key ↗. Explanation: Minimalist IAS, checked 30 Sept 2026 (how we verify). Permalink · Report an error

Answer: (b) Motupalli

Motupalli, on the Andhra coast near Chirala, was the chief port of the Kakatiya kingdom. The Kakatiya king Ganapatideva issued an edict of safety there in 1244-45 promising overseas merchants protection and fixed duties.

• ✓ (b) Ganapatideva's Abhaya Sasana, carved on a pillar at Motupalli, guaranteed traders safety and the payment of only the usual duties, which shows it was the kingdom's main port for overseas trade.
• ✗ (c) Machilipatnam (Masulipatnam) is another Andhra coastal town, but it is not the port linked with the Kakatiya kingdom.
• ✗ (a) Kakinada is also on the Andhra coast, but it was not the Kakatiya kingdom's chief port.

Remember · Kakatiya port: Motupalli. Ganapatideva's Abhaya Sasana (1244-45) there protected overseas merchants and fixed duties.

📘 Read it in NCERT: Class 7 Exploring Society: India and Beyond (Part 2), Ch 4 (practise this chapter)

Question and answer: UPSC's official GS Paper I (2017, Series A) — paper ↗ · answer key ↗. Explanation: Minimalist IAS, checked 30 Sept 2026 (how we verify). Permalink · Report an error

Answer: (c) Both 1 and 2

Under Krishnadeva Raya (ruled 1509-29) land revenue was the main source of income, and it was not one flat rate: assessment took account of the type of land, the crop grown and the soil, and the demand varied from a sixth of the produce to a third or more. The state also taxed manufacturers and professions, so craft producers paid a levy linked to their trade.

• ✓ 1. Land was divided into wet and dry land, and the assessment considered the region, the crop and the soil pattern, so the rate differed from plot to plot rather than being one flat share; two assessments, old and new (from AD 1513), were in use in Krishnadeva Raya's reign.
• ✓ 2. Separate taxes were levied on professions and manufacturing units; for example, Saliya weavers in the Vijayanagara period paid 9 peranams per loom each year. The amara-nayakas collected taxes and dues from peasants, craftspersons and traders.

Remember · Krishnadeva Raya (Tuluva dynasty, 1509-29): land revenue graded by land quality; taxes also on crafts, trade and workshops, collected in many areas by amara-nayakas.

📘 Read it in NCERT: Class 12 Themes in Indian History, Part II, Ch 3 (practise this chapter) · Class 12 Themes in Indian History, Part II, Ch 3 (practise this chapter)

Question and answer: UPSC's official GS Paper I (2016, Series A) — paper ↗ · answer key ↗. Explanation: Minimalist IAS, checked 30 Sept 2026 (how we verify). Permalink · Report an error