With reference to the history of Orissa, consider the following statements: 1. Anantavarman Chodaganga consolidated Orissa into a powerful kingdom and was patron of Sanskrit and Telugu literature. 2. Anantavarman Chodaganga built the great temple of the Sun God at Konark in Puri district. 3. Narasimha I effectively checked the external invasion and maintained prosperity in the kingdom. How many statements given above are correct?

Correct — B, 2. Statement 1 holds: Anantavarman Chodaganga, who ruled from 1078 for over seventy years, welded the Kalinga country from the Ganga to the Godavari into a single Eastern Ganga kingdom, and his court patronised Sanskrit and Telugu alike — his own Ganga descent was as much Telugu-speaking Vengi as Odia. Statement 3 also holds: Narasimhadeva I, who ruled in the middle of the thirteenth century, threw back the Muslim pressure from Bengal and even carried the war into it, keeping the kingdom intact and prosperous. Statement 2 is where the item turns. The great temple Chodaganga built is the Jagannatha at Puri; the Sun temple at Konark was raised about 1250 by Narasimhadeva I. Two statements stand, so the answer is two.

• (a)1 — Undercounts. It would mean rejecting Narasimhadeva I's record against invasion from Bengal, which is exactly the achievement he is remembered for besides Konark.
• (c)3 — Requires Chodaganga to have built Konark. He founded the Jagannatha temple at Puri; Konark came about a century later under Narasimhadeva I, the very king named in statement 3.
• (d)None — Both the consolidation of Odisha under Chodaganga and Narasimhadeva I's defence of the kingdom are standard, well-attested history.

The Eastern Gangas ruled Kalinga from the late eleventh to the fifteenth century and left the two temples that define Odia architecture. Anantavarman Chodaganga began the Jagannatha temple at Puri and unified the coastal belt; Narasimhadeva I built the Sun temple at Konark, conceived as the chariot of Surya with twelve pairs of carved wheels and seven horses. Both belong to the mature Kalinga style, with its deul tower and jagamohana hall.

The examiner puts two kings and two temples in front of you and swaps them. The fix is a single line of chronology: Chodaganga from 1078 built at Puri, Narasimhadeva I around 1250 built at Konark, and roughly 170 years separate them. A second signal sits inside statement 2 itself — it places Konark 'in Puri district', which is geographically true and rhetorically designed to blur the Puri temple into the Konark one.

• Anantavarman Chodaganga, Eastern Ganga, ruled from 1078 for more than seventy years and unified the Kalinga country.
• The Jagannatha temple at Puri was begun in his reign; the Sun temple at Konark was built by Narasimhadeva I around 1250.
• Narasimhadeva I checked and counter-attacked the Muslim power in Bengal, and his campaigns are commemorated in Odia tradition.
• Konark stands in Puri district of Odisha and was designed as Surya's chariot, with carved wheels and a team of horses.
• Konark was inscribed as a UNESCO World Heritage Site in 1984.

• Swapping the builders of Puri and Konark.
• Reading 'Konark in Puri district' as evidence that the two temples are the same foundation.
• Assuming Chodaganga's Telugu patronage is an error; his line came from the Telugu-speaking Vengi country.

A how-many-statements item in which one builder attribution is quietly moved from one king to another.

• practice — not a real PYQ

  The Sun temple at Konark was built by which ruler?

  • (a)Anantavarman Chodaganga
  • (b)Narasimhadeva I
  • (c)Kapilendra Deva
  • (d)Yayati II

  Answer(b) Narasimhadeva I — the Eastern Ganga king, around 1250.

• practice — not a real PYQ

  The Jagannatha temple at Puri was begun under which dynasty?

  • (a)Somavamshi
  • (b)Eastern Ganga
  • (c)Gajapati
  • (d)Bhauma-Kara

  Answer(b) Eastern Ganga — Anantavarman Chodaganga began it in the early twelfth century.