UPSC Prelims 2022 History and Culture questions: topic-wise weightage
UPSC Prelims 2022 asked 16 history questions in GS Paper I, spread over 6 topics. See the history weightage for 2022 below, then attempt each question with the official answer and an explanation.
History and Culture 2022: questions by topic
- Buddhism, Jainism and other sects2
- Mauryas to Guptas: Sangam age and early medieval kingdoms4
- Medieval India: Sultanate, Vijayanagara, Mughals, Marathas; Bhakti and Sufi5
- Reform movements, 1857, tribal and peasant revolts, early nationalism (to 1919)2
- Gandhian era to Independence; constitutional development2
- Architecture and sculpture1
Counted from the 16 questions on this page, tagged by topic in the Battle IAS PYQ bank.
Seeing 16 History and Culture questions spread over 6 topics can feel overwhelming. That's exactly why the Battle IAS PYQ Book maps every question topic by topic, so you know what to study first. Download free sample
Buddhism, Jainism and other sects 2
With reference to Indian history, consider the following texts :
- 1. Nettipakarana
- 2. Parishishtaparvan
- 3. Avadanashataka
- 4. Trishashtilakshana Mahapurana
Which of the above are Jaina texts ?
Answer (b) & explanation
Parishishtaparvan and the Trishashtilakshana Mahapurana are Jaina texts (b). Parishishtaparvan was written by Hemachandra (12th century), the Jain scholar of Gujarat; it tells how Chandragupta Maurya became a Jain and went south with Bhadrabahu. The Trishashtilakshana Mahapurana, by Jinasena and Gunabhadra (9th century), tells the lives of the 63 great men (shalakapurushas) of Jainism. Item 1 is wrong: the Nettipakarana is a Pali Buddhist guide to interpreting the scriptures. Item 3 is wrong: the Avadanashataka is a Sanskrit Buddhist collection of a hundred stories of good deeds. So options (a), (c) and (d) fall.
Notice the shortcut: words like avadana, jataka and nikaya point to Buddhism, while purana with 63 great men, anga or agama usually signal Jainism.
Answer as per the official UPSC answer key.
With reference to Indian history, consider the following pairs :
| Historical person | Known as
| 1. Aryadeva | Jaina scholar
| 2. Dignaga | Buddhist scholar
| 3. Nathamuni | Vaishnava scholar
How many pairs given above are correctly matched ?
Answer (c) & explanation
Two pairs are correct (c). Pair 1 is wrong: Aryadeva was a pupil of Nagarjuna and a leading Madhyamaka Buddhist philosopher, author of the Chatuhshataka, not a Jaina scholar. Pair 2 is right: Dignaga (5th–6th century) is called the founder of Buddhist logic, and his work shaped Dharmakirti after him. Pair 3 is right: Nathamuni (10th century) collected the Alvar hymns into the Nalayira Divya Prabandham and is counted the first Sri Vaishnava acharya, a line later led by Yamunacharya and Ramanuja.
Notice the pattern: UPSC keeps asking about thinkers of Buddhism (Nagarjuna, Asanga, Vasubandhu, Dignaga) and the Bhakti acharyas (Nathamuni, Ramanuja, Madhva). Group them by school, and such pair questions become easy marks.
Answer as per the official UPSC answer key.
Mauryas to Guptas: Sangam age and early medieval kingdoms 4
According to Kautilya’s Arthashastra, which of the following are correct ?
- 1. A person could be a slave as a result of a judicial punishment.
- 2. If a female slave bore her master a son, she was legally free.
- 3. If a son born to a female slave was fathered by her master, the son was entitled to the legal status of the master’s son.
Which of the statements given above are correct ?
Answer (b) & explanation
Statements 2 and 3 are correct (b). The Arthashastra has a detailed section on dasas (slaves). Statement 2 is right: a female slave who bore her master a son became legally free. Statement 3 is right: such a son was given the legal status of the master's son. Statement 1 is not accepted by the key: the text speaks of people bound because of a fine or debt who work it off and can be redeemed; it protects even them, and says an Arya cannot be made a slave forever.
Notice how unusual this is for an ancient text. Kautilya fined masters who sold an Arya child, abused a slave or kept a slave woman in sexual servitude. The text also says the mleccha may sell children, but never an Arya.
Many guides print (d) here. The official key is (b).
Answer as per the official UPSC answer key.
Consider the following pairs :
| Site of Ashoka’s major rock edicts | Location in the State of
| 1. Dhauli | Odisha
| 2. Erragudi | Andhra Pradesh
| 3. Jaugada | Madhya Pradesh
| 4. Kalsi | Karnataka
How many pairs given above are correctly matched ?
Answer (b) & explanation
Two pairs are correctly matched (b). Pair 1 is right: Dhauli, near Bhubaneswar, is in Odisha. Pair 2 is right: Erragudi (Yerragudi) is in Kurnool district, Andhra Pradesh. Pair 3 is wrong: Jaugada, in Ganjam district, is also in Odisha, not Madhya Pradesh. At both Dhauli and Jaugada, the separate Kalinga edicts replace Rock Edicts XI–XIII, which speak of the Kalinga war. Pair 4 is wrong: Kalsi is in Dehradun district, Uttarakhand, not Karnataka.
Notice the other major rock edict sites: Girnar (Gujarat), Shahbazgarhi and Mansehra (Pakistan), Sopara (Maharashtra), Kandahar (Afghanistan) and Sannati (Karnataka). The Shahbazgarhi and Mansehra edicts are in Kharoshthi script; most others are in Brahmi.
Answer as per the official UPSC answer key.
Consider the following pairs :
| King | Dynasty
| 1. Nannuka | Chandela
| 2. Jayashakti | Paramara
| 3. Nagabhata II | Gurjara-Pratihara
| 4. Bhoja | Rashtrakuta
How many pairs given above are correctly matched ?
Answer (b) & explanation
Two pairs are correctly matched (b). Pair 1 is right: Nannuka founded the Chandela dynasty of Bundelkhand in the 9th century. Pair 3 is right: Nagabhata II was the Gurjara-Pratihara king who captured Kanauj in about 816. Pair 2 is wrong: Jayashakti (Jeja) was a Chandela, not a Paramara; the region Jejakabhukti is named after him. Pair 4 is wrong: Bhoja points to Mihira Bhoja of the Pratiharas or Raja Bhoja of the Paramaras of Malwa, never a Rashtrakuta.
Notice the tripartite struggle for Kanauj among the Pratiharas, Palas and Rashtrakutas in the 8th–10th centuries. The Chandelas are best known for building Khajuraho.
Answer as per the official UPSC answer key.
Which one of the following statements about Sangam literature in ancient South India is correct ?
Answer (b) & explanation
Sangam poets knew the varna system (b). Option (b) is right: Sangam poems use terms for the varnas, such as arasar (rulers), anthanar (Brahmins) and vaishiyar (traders), though Tamil society was mostly arranged by tinai (landscape) and kudi (clan). Option (a) is wrong: the poems are full of material life: trade, Yavana ships, ports like Muziris and Puhar, food and crafts. Option (c) is wrong: the Puram poems praise the warrior ethic, and hero-stones (nadukal) honour dead warriors. Option (d) is wrong: the poems treat magic, omens and spirits as real, not irrational.
Notice the two themes: Akam (inner, love) and Puram (outer, war and kings). The Tolkappiyam is the oldest Tamil grammar.
Answer as per the official UPSC answer key.
Medieval India: Sultanate, Vijayanagara, Mughals, Marathas; Bhakti and Sufi 5
In medieval India, the term “Fanam” referred to:
Answer (b) & explanation
Fanam was a coin (b). The fanam (Tamil and Malayalam panam) was a small gold coin of South India. It was struck by Vijayanagara, the Malabar rulers and later by the European companies at Madras and Pondicherry. Foreign visitors such as Abdur Razzaq and the Portuguese described it as the common small unit; bigger values were the pagoda or varaha (hun). It was not a cloth (a), an ornament (c) or a weapon (d), though its tiny size sometimes made it look like a bead.
Notice that the word lives on: panam still means money in Tamil and Malayalam. UPSC likes such coin terms: the tanka and jital of the Delhi Sultanate, the dam and rupiya of Sher Shah, and the dinara of the Guptas.
Answer as per the official UPSC answer key.
With reference to Indian history, consider the following statements :
- 1. The first Mongol invasion of India happened during the reign of Jalal-ud-din Khalji.
- 2. During the reign of Ala-ud-din Khalji, one Mongol assault marched up to Delhi and besieged the city.
- 3. Muhammad-bin-Tughlaq temporarily lost portions of north-west of his kingdom to Mongols.
Which of the statements given above is/are correct ?
Answer (b) & explanation
Only statement 2 is correct (b). Statement 2 is right: under Alauddin Khalji, the Mongol leader Targhi camped outside Delhi and besieged it in 1303, while the Sultan's army was away; earlier, Qutlugh Khwaja had also reached Delhi in 1299. Statement 1 is wrong: the Mongols first reached India's frontier in 1221, under Iltutmish, when Chingiz Khan chased Jalal-ud-din Mangbarni to the Indus. Statement 3 is treated as wrong: Tarmashirin's raid in about 1327 reached near Delhi under Muhammad bin Tughlaq, but he went back without holding territory.
Notice that the Mongol threat shaped Alauddin's reforms: a large standing army, market control to pay it cheaply, and the branding of horses (dagh) and descriptive rolls of soldiers (huliya).
The name Jalal-ud-din is a double trap. It points to the Khalji sultan, but the Jalal-ud-din in the 1221 story is the prince Chingiz was chasing.
Answer as per the official UPSC answer key.
With reference to Indian history, who of the following were known as “Kulah-Daran” ?
Answer (d) & explanation
The Sayyids were the Kulah-Daran (d). In the Delhi Sultanate, the Sayyids, who claimed descent from the Prophet through his daughter Fatima, were called kulah-daran, or "cap-wearers", after the pointed cap they wore as a mark of their status. They got respect, land grants and stipends at court. Option (b) is wrong: Qalandars were wandering dervishes who shaved their heads and rejected such marks of rank. Arab merchants (a) and Persian calligraphists (c) had no such title.
Notice how social rank worked in the Sultanate. Nobles were the ashraf, the commoners ajlaf, and religious men the ulama. Do not confuse these Sayyids with the Sayyid dynasty (1414–1451) of Khizr Khan, which ruled Delhi after Timur's invasion.
Answer as per the official UPSC answer key.
“Yogavasistha” was translated into Persian by Nizamuddin Panipati during the reign of :
Answer (a) & explanation
It was translated under Akbar (a). Nizamuddin Panipati made a Persian version of the Yogavasishtha in 1597, during Akbar's reign, for Prince Salim. Akbar's translation bureau (Maktab Khana) at Fatehpur Sikri put many Sanskrit works into Persian: the Mahabharata as the Razmnama, the Ramayana, the Atharvaveda and the mathematics text Lilavati. Humayun (b) ruled before this work. Shahjahan (c) is wrong, though his son Dara Shukoh translated the Upanishads as Sirr-i-Akbar. Aurangzeb (d) did not sponsor such translations.
Notice the idea behind it: Akbar's sulh-i-kul (peace with all) pushed dialogue between faiths. The Yogavasishtha itself teaches, through a talk between sage Vasishtha and Rama, that the world is like a dream.
Dara Shukoh's translation work tempts you towards Shahjahan. The Yogavasishtha is an Akbar-period work.
Answer as per the official UPSC answer key.
The world’s second tallest statue in sitting pose of Ramanuja was inaugurated by the Prime Minister of India at Hyderabad recently. Which one of the following statements correctly represents the teachings of Ramanuja ?
Answer (a) & explanation
Ramanuja taught that devotion is the best way to salvation (a). Ramanuja (11th–12th century) taught Vishishtadvaita, or qualified non-dualism: the soul is real but depends on a personal God, Vishnu. The way to moksha is bhakti and prapatti, complete surrender to God. Option (b) is the Mimamsa view of the Vedas as eternal and self-existent. Option (c) fits the Nyaya school, which stressed logic. Option (d) fits Yoga, or Shankara's path of knowledge and meditation.
Notice the Statue of Equality, a 216-foot seated statue at Muchintal near Hyderabad, unveiled in 2022. It marks his 1000th birth anniversary and his teaching that all people, of any caste, can reach God through devotion.
Answer as per the official UPSC answer key.
Reform movements, 1857, tribal and peasant revolts, early nationalism (to 1919) 2
Consider the following freedom fighters :
- 1. Barindra Kumar Ghosh
- 2. Jogesh Chandra Chatterjee
- 3. Rash Behari Bose
Who of the above was/were actively associated with the Ghadar Party ?
Answer (d) & explanation
Only Rash Behari Bose was a Ghadarite (d). Item 3 is right: Rash Behari Bose led the Ghadar plan for an army rising across north India in February 1915; it was betrayed, leading to the Lahore Conspiracy Case, and he escaped to Japan, where he later helped form the Indian National Army. Item 1 is wrong: Barindra Kumar Ghosh, brother of Aurobindo, led the Jugantar group of the Alipore bomb case (1908) in Bengal. Item 2 is wrong: Jogesh Chandra Chatterjee came from the Anushilan Samiti and was a founder of the Hindustan Republican Association (1924).
Notice that the Ghadar Party was founded in 1913 at San Francisco, led by Lala Har Dayal and Sohan Singh Bhakna, mainly among Punjabi migrants in North America.
Answer as per the official UPSC answer key.
With reference to Indian history, consider the following statements :
- 1. The Dutch established their factories/warehouses on the east coast on lands granted to them by Gajapati rulers.
- 2. Alfonso de Albuquerque captured Goa from the Bijapur Sultanate.
- 3. The English East India Company established a factory at Madras on a plot of land leased from a representative of the Vijayanagara empire.
Which of the statements given above are correct ?
Answer (b) & explanation
Statements 2 and 3 are correct (b). Statement 2 is right: Afonso de Albuquerque captured Goa from the Bijapur Sultanate in 1510, and it became the capital of Portuguese India. Statement 3 is right: Francis Day got the site of Madras in 1639 from Damarla Venkatadri Nayaka, a nayaka under the Vijayanagara (Chandragiri) ruler; Fort St George came up there. Statement 1 is wrong: the Dutch got Masulipatnam (1605) from Golconda and Pulicat from the Vijayanagara side. The Gajapati kingdom of Odisha had already fallen by then.
Notice the order of arrival: Portuguese (1498), English EIC (1600), Dutch VOC (1602), Danes (1616) and French (1664). The Dutch made Pulicat and later Nagapatnam their Coromandel headquarters.
Answer as per the official UPSC answer key.
Gandhian era to Independence; constitutional development 2
In the Government of India Act 1919, the functions of Provincial Government were divided into “Reserved” and “Transferred” subjects. Which of the following were treated as “Reserved” subjects ?
- 1. Administration of Justice
- 2. Local Self-Government
- 3. Land Revenue
- 4. Police
Select the correct answer using the code given below :
Answer (c) & explanation
Justice, land revenue and police were "Reserved" (c). The Government of India Act 1919 (Montagu–Chelmsford reforms) brought dyarchy to the provinces. The Governor and his executive council kept the reserved subjects, the ones that held real power: police, law and order, administration of justice, land revenue, irrigation and finance. Indian ministers answerable to the legislature got the transferred subjects. Item 2 is wrong: local self-government was transferred, along with education, public health and agriculture. So any option with item 2, that is (a), (b) and (d), falls.
Notice the trick: the British gave Indians the departments that needed money but kept the purse and the police. Dyarchy at the provinces was later ended by the 1935 Act, which moved it to the Centre.
Answer as per the official UPSC answer key.
With reference to the proposals of Cripps Mission, consider the following statements :
- 1. The Constituent Assembly would have members nominated by the Provincial Assemblies as well as the Princely States.
- 2. Any Province, which is not prepared to accept the new Constitution would have the right to sign a separate agreement with Britain regarding its future status.
Which of the statements given above is/are correct ?
Answer (b) & explanation
Only statement 2 is correct (b). Statement 2 is right: under the Cripps proposals (March 1942), any province unwilling to accept the new constitution could stay out and sign a separate agreement with Britain, with the same status as the Indian Union. Statement 1 is wrong because of one word: the constitution-making body would be elected by the provincial assemblies through proportional representation, while only the princely states would nominate their members.
Notice why both sides rejected it. Congress objected to the provincial opt-out, which looked like a seed of Partition, and to nominated princes; Gandhi reportedly called the offer a "post-dated cheque". The League wanted Pakistan clearly accepted. The failure of Cripps led straight to the Quit India call in August 1942.
Elected versus nominated: only the princely states nominated.
Answer as per the official UPSC answer key.
Architecture and sculpture 1
The Prime Minister recently inaugurated the new Circuit House near Somnath Temple at Veraval. Which of the following statements are correct regarding Somnath Temple ?
- 1. Somnath Temple is one of the Jyotirlinga shrines.
- 2. A description of Somnath Temple was given by Al-Biruni.
- 3. Pran Pratishtha of Somnath Temple (installation of the present day temple) was done by President S. Radhakrishnan.
Select the correct answer using the code given below :
Answer (a) & explanation
Statements 1 and 2 are correct (a). Statement 1 is right: Somnath at Prabhas Patan in Gujarat is the first of the twelve Jyotirlingas of Shiva. Statement 2 is right: Al-Biruni, who came with Mahmud of Ghazni, described the temple and its linga after Mahmud's 1025 raid. Statement 3 is wrong: the rebuilt temple, pushed by Sardar Patel and K.M. Munshi, was consecrated in May 1951 by President Rajendra Prasad, not S. Radhakrishnan.
Notice the debate around the event: Nehru advised against the President attending, but Prasad went anyway. That is a well-known episode on the line between state and religion. Al-Biruni's Kitab-ul-Hind is a major source on 11th-century Indian society, science and beliefs.
Answer as per the official UPSC answer key.
All years by topic
Every question from 2011 to 2026, grouped by syllabus topic, with year-wise trends.