Vijayanagara, Bahmani & regional kingdoms

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