Vijayanagara & Bahmani MCQs for UPSC Prelims

Correct answer: A - 1 only

Chingiz Khan did reach the Indus around 1221 chasing the Khwarezmian prince Jalaluddin Mangabarni while Iltutmish (1211-1236) ruled Delhi, so statement 1 is correct. Taimur's invasion of Multan and India occurred in 1398 during the reign of Nasiruddin Mahmud Shah Tughluq, not Muhammad bin Tughluq (died 1351), so statement 2 is wrong. Vasco da Gama landed near Calicut in 1498, well after Deva Raya II had died in 1446, so statement 3 is also wrong, leaving only statement 1 valid.

Correct answer: A - Krishnadevaraya

Krishnadevaraya of Vijayanagara, who maintained friendly relations with the Portuguese to secure the supply of war horses, permitted them to build a fort at Bhatkal on the Kanara coast in the early sixteenth century. Narasimha Saluva ruled before the Portuguese established themselves on the west coast in 1510, so the question of such permission did not arise in his time. Muhammad Shah III of the Bahmani kingdom had no control over Bhatkal in this period, and Yusuf Adil Shah of Bijapur was an adversary of the Portuguese, who seized Goa from him.

Correct answer: A - Devaraya I

Devaraya I (1406-1422) is credited by chroniclers, including the Persian envoy's accounts of irrigation works, with building a dam or barrage across the Tungabhadra and bringing water to Vijayanagara city through a long canal-cum-aqueduct, which boosted both urban water supply and agricultural revenue. Mallikarjuna and Virupaksha were later, weaker Sangama rulers under whom the empire declined rather than expanded its public works, and Vira Vijaya had a brief and unremarkable reign. The major hydraulic projects of the early empire are firmly associated with Devaraya I.

Correct answer: C - Harihara I

Harihara I, with his brother Bukka, founded the city of Vijayanagara in 1336 on the south bank of the Tungabhadra, a tributary of the Krishna, and the Sangama kings ruled as agents of the god Virupaksha (Shiva), in whose name the kingdom south of the Krishna was held; royal orders were even signed Shri Virupaksha. Amoghavarsha I was a ninth-century Rashtrakuta ruler whose capital was Manyakheta. Ballala II was a Hoysala king ruling from Dwarasamudra. Prataparudra II was the last Kakatiya ruler of Warangal, defeated by the Tughlaqs. None of these three founded a city on the Tungabhadra as a deity's agent.

Correct answer: D - 1, 2, 3 and 4

Fernao Nuniz, the Portuguese chronicler of the Vijayanagara court, recorded that women there were trained and employed in a remarkable range of vocations including wrestling, astrology, accounting, soothsaying, music, judging and clerkship. Because his account explicitly covers all four listed skills, the answer is 1, 2, 3 and 4. The three partial options are wrong precisely because each leaves out at least one activity that Nuniz attributes to the women, so they understate the breadth of roles he described.

Correct answer: C - Both 1 and 2

Under Krishna Deva Raya's Vijayanagara administration, land revenue was assessed according to the fertility and quality of the soil, with rates varying for wet, dry and garden lands, so statement 1 is correct. The state also levied taxes on professions and crafts, including an industries tax on private owners of workshops, so statement 2 is correct. Since both statements accurately describe the revenue system of the period, 'Both 1 and 2' is the answer.

Correct answer: A - Nayankara

Under the Nayankara system of Vijayanagara, military governors (nayakas) were granted territory (amaram) from which they paid the state, maintained troops and horses, and administered locally. The Iqta belonged to the Delhi Sultanate, the Jagir to the Mughals, and Ryotwari was a much later colonial revenue settlement. Hence Nayankara is correct.

Correct answer: A - Eight Telugu poets in the court of Krishnadevaraya of Vijayanagara

The Ashtadiggajas ('eight elephants of the directions') were the eight celebrated Telugu poets in the court of Krishnadevaraya, with Allasani Peddana ('Andhra Kavita Pitamaha') foremost among them. Shivaji's council of eight was the Ashtapradhan; the directional elephants of cosmology are a separate mythological concept.