PSC Chronicles Team

Mitakshara is a legal treatise written by Vijnanesvara at the court of Chalukya king Vikramaditya VI. It is a commentary on the Yajnavalkya Smriti (law book of Yajnavalkya), and is one of the most important texts on Hindu law dealing with inheritance and property.

I-Tsing (Yijing) visited India during the reign of King Harsha, not Ashoka. Megasthenes visited during Chandragupta Maurya, Fa-Hsien during Chandragupta II, and Hsuan-Tsang during Harsha — all correctly matched.

The Virupaksha Temple is located in Pattadakal (Karnataka), not Thiruvananthapuram. The other pairs — Kandariya Mahadeva temple in Khajuraho, Lingaraja temple in Bhubaneswar, Mahabodhi temple in Bodh Gaya — are all correctly matched.

Sultan Alauddin Khalji (1296–1316) is known for his strict market control reforms (market regulation policy), prohibition of alcohol, and harsh punishments. He maintained four separate markets in Delhi.

Shaikh Gesudaraz (also known as Banda Nawaz) was a prominent Sufi saint belonging to the Chishti order. He was a disciple of Nasiruddin Chiragh-i-Delhi and settled in Gulbarga (Karnataka).

The First Round Table Conference (November 1930 – January 1931) was convened by the British Government to discuss the future constitution of India — the first such conference where Indian princes and political representatives participated.

In the Second Battle of Tarain (1192), Muhammad Ghori defeated Prithviraj Chauhan. The Turks’ superior war technology — particularly horse-archery, mobile cavalry tactics, and composite bows — gave them a decisive advantage.

The Third Battle of Panipat (14 January 1761) was fought between Ahmad Shah Abdali (Durrani) of Afghanistan and the Maratha Empire. The Marathas suffered a decisive defeat, ending their ambitions to dominate North India.

The Battle of Talikota (January 26, 1565) was fought between the Vijayanagara Empire (under Rama Raya) and a coalition of the four Deccan Sultanates (Bijapur, Ahmadnagar, Bidar, and Golconda). The defeat led to the fall of Vijayanagara.

Rana Pratap of Mewar employed Baksariya Muslims (a community of Muslims skilled in warfare) in his army. Despite fighting against the Mughals, he was pragmatic in his military alliances.

The Deshmukh was a hereditary village-level official in medieval Deccan (especially under the Bahmanids and later Deccan Sultanates) whose primary duty was to collect land revenue from peasants and deposit it in the State treasury.

India’s first passenger railway line was inaugurated on April 16, 1853, running from Bombay (Bori Bunder) to Thane, covering a distance of about 34 km. It was operated by the Great Indian Peninsula Railway.

The correct chronological order is: Warren Hastings (1773–1785) → Lord Cornwallis (1786–1793) → Lord Wellesley (1798–1805) → Lord William Bentinck (1828–1835). So the order is (iii), (iv), (i), (ii).

The correct chronological order of Gupta rulers is: Samudragupta (335–375 CE) → Chandragupta II (375–415 CE) → Kumaragupta I (415–455 CE) → Skandagupta (455–467 CE). So the order is (iii), (i), (iv), (ii).

Banabhatta (commonly known as Bana) was the court poet of Emperor Harsha (Harshavardhana) in the 7th century CE. He wrote the famous Harshacharita (biography of Harsha) and Kadambari (a romantic novel).

Vasco da Gama arrived at Calicut (Kozhikode) on the Malabar Coast of India on May 20, 1498, becoming the first European to reach India by sea. This opened a direct trade route between Europe and Asia.

The Montagu-Chelmsford Reforms were enacted in 1919 (not 1929). The other pairs — Pitt’s India Act 1784, Morley-Minto Reforms 1909, and Partition of Bengal annulled 1911 — are all correctly matched.

The French East India Company captured Pondicherry in 1673 and gained full control by 1697 after defeating the Dutch. Martin François founded the settlement and it became the main French colonial capital in India.

Iltutmish (1211–1236), the third Sultan of the Delhi Sultanate, introduced the silver tanka (weighing 175 grains) and the copper jital as the standard monetary units. This gave a systematic coinage system to the Sultanate.

Vallabhacharya (1479–1531) founded the Pushti Marg (path of grace/nourishment), a Vaishnava devotional movement. He propounded Shuddhadvaita (pure non-dualism) philosophy and emphasized devotion to Krishna.

Char Minar is in Hyderabad (III), Akbar’s Tomb is in Sikandara near Agra (IV), Humayun’s Tomb is in Delhi (I), and Taj Mahal is in Agra (II). So the correct match is: a-III, b-IV, c-I, d-II.

After the failure of the 1857 revolt, Bahadur Shah Zafar II was captured by British forces under Major William Hodson. He was tried and exiled to Rangoon (Yangon), Burma, where he died in 1862.

Tipu Sultan (1750–1799) was known for his progressive military and diplomatic initiatives. He sent embassies to France and Turkey to build alliances against the British. He also established a navy and introduced rocket technology.

Dr. B.R. Ambedkar strongly advocated for the annihilation of the caste system. He argued that caste is not merely a division of labour but a division of labourers, and that piecemeal reforms cannot solve caste discrimination.

Bhagat Singh wrote ‘Why I Am an Atheist’ in 1930 while in prison awaiting execution. In this essay he argued against belief in God using rationalist and humanist logic, and responded to critics who questioned his atheism.

Doddi Komaraiah was murdered because he tried to defend a poor washerwoman’s small piece of land that was being grabbed. This incident reflects the oppressive conditions under the Nizam’s rule and the Razakar movement in Hyderabad, which sparked the Telangana peasant uprising.

The ‘Drain of Wealth’ theory was formulated by Dadabhai Naoroji in his book ‘Poverty and Un-British Rule in India’ (1901). He argued that the British systematically drained India’s wealth to Britain, causing India’s poverty and preventing industrial development.

The famous INA trials (Red Fort Trials) of 1945 involved three INA officers: P.K. Sahgal, G.S. Dhillon, and Shah Nawaz Khan. Bhulabhai Desai was their defence counsel, not an INA officer himself.

John Ruskin’s book ‘Unto This Last’ (1860) profoundly influenced Mahatma Gandhi. Gandhi read it during his voyage to England in 1904 and translated it into Gujarati as ‘Sarvodaya’ (welfare of all), which became a key principle in his philosophy.

Satyashodhak Samaj (Maharashtra, founded by Jyotirao Phule) and the Self-Respect Movement (Tamil Nadu, led by Periyar E.V. Ramasamy) were explicitly caste-reform movements. The Ghadar movement was a revolutionary nationalist movement, and the Bijolia movement was a peasant agrarian movement — neither was primarily caste-based.