Indian History Questions and Answers

Answer: A

The thirty-six karkhanas are credited to Maharaja Sawai Jai Singh.

In the standard account of Jaipur's administration, Sawai Jai Singh II, the founder of Jaipur, organised the state's workshops and departments into thirty-six karkhanas, covering arms, textiles, jewellery, stores and the like, under the chief officers of the court.

Sawai Madho Singh, Mangal Singh and Balwant Singh are later or other rulers, not credited with setting up this system.

Answer: C

The key gives Maru.

Maru, the desert land, is the old name of the region of present-day Jodhpur; Marwar ('land of Maru') descends from it. In the standard Rajasthan history syllabus Maru is given as the earliest name found for this tract.

The other names belong to other regions: Jangal (Jangaldesh) is the Bikaner area, Shursena covered Bharatpur, Dholpur and Karauli, and Matsya the region of Jaipur, Alwar and Bharatpur.

Answer: A

The site is Bagor.

Bagor, on the Kothari river in Bhilwara district, is the largest Mesolithic site in India. Excavated by V. N. Misra, it has yielded abundant microliths and some of the earliest evidence in India of animal domestication.

Tilwara is a Mesolithic site in Barmer district, not Bhilwara. The Berach is the river associated with the Ahar culture, and the Luni flows through western Rajasthan; neither names the Bhilwara site.

Answer: B

'Vishamghati Panchanan' was Rana Hammir.

Rana Hammir (fourteenth century), who recovered Chittor for the Sisodias after its loss to the Delhi Sultanate and founded the Sisodia line of Mewar, is called Vishamghati Panchanan, 'a lion in difficult passes', in the Kumbhalgarh inscription.

Rawal Ratan Singh ruled Chittor and Lakshman Singh fought in its defence during Alauddin Khalji's siege of 1303, and Maharana Lakha ruled after Hammir. None of them bears this title.

Answer: D

Akbar gave the title of 'Farzand' to Man Singh.

Man Singh I of Amber was one of Akbar's most trusted commanders and a leading noble of his court. Akbar called him farzand, son, a mark of special favour, and gave him the high mansab of 7000.

Bhagwan Das was Man Singh's father. Jahangir was Akbar's actual son, so the honorific would make no sense for him, and Maharana Pratap fought the Mughals rather than serving at Akbar's court.

Answer: D

The fort originally named Chitrakot is the Chittor Fort.

Tradition attributes the fort to the Mori (Maurya) ruler Chitrangad, after whom it was called Chitrakot or Chitrakut; the name later became Chittor, and the fort Chittorgarh.

Jalore Fort was anciently called Suvarnagiri (Sonalgarh), and neither Siwana Fort nor Churu Fort is associated with the name Chitrakot.

Answer: D

The first revolt of 1857 in Rajasthan broke out at Nasirabad.

On 28 May 1857 the sepoys of the 15th Bengal Native Infantry at the Nasirabad cantonment near Ajmer rose in revolt, the first outbreak of the uprising in Rajasthan. Neemuch and other cantonments followed in June.

Beawar was an Ajmer-Merwara station, Jalipa is a present-day army area near Barmer, and Longewala is known for the 1971 India-Pakistan battle, not for 1857.

Answer: B

The Kangad incident took place in the Bikaner Praja Mandal movement.

In 1946 peasants of Kangad village in Bikaner state, protesting against heavy land revenue and other exactions, were brutally repressed by the state's officials. The episode became a rallying point for the Bikaner Praja Parishad (the Praja Mandal organisation of Bikaner) in its struggle for responsible government.

The Jaipur, Kota and Jhalawar Praja Mandals had their own campaigns, but the Kangad incident belongs to Bikaner.

Answer: D

The Matsya Union was formed from Alwar, Bharatpur, Dholpur, Karauli.

The Matsya Union, the first stage of the integration of Rajasthan, was inaugurated on 18 March 1948 by joining the four princely states of Alwar, Bharatpur, Dholpur and Karauli (with the Neemrana thikana). It took its name from the ancient Matsya kingdom of the same region.

Kota, Dungarpur and Banswara joined the later Rajasthan Union, Abu was not part of Matsya, and Jaipur, Jodhpur, Bikaner and Jaisalmer joined in 1949 to form Greater Rajasthan.

Answer: A

The town is Bhangarh.

Bhangarh, in present-day Alwar district, was built in 1573 by Raja Bhagwant Das of Amer for his younger son Madho Singh, brother of Man Singh I, as his seat. The deserted town and fort are now known mostly for their ruins.

Ajmer was founded by the Chauhan ruler Ajayaraja centuries earlier, Chittorgarh is the ancient Guhila and Sisodia fortress of Mewar, and Baran lies in the Hadoti region. None was built by Madho Singh.