MPSC 2025 Prelims Paper-I · Question 7 of 100

Correct — option (2): A – I, B – II, C – III, D – IV. Read the four Roman entries carefully before matching anything, because II and III are deliberately close to each other and that closeness is the whole point of the question. Aparajita was the last ruling king of the Pallava dynasty of Kanchi, defeated and killed around 897 CE by the Chola forces — so A pairs with I, Pallava. Vijayalaya Chola seized Tanjore in the mid-ninth century and is credited as the founder of the Imperial (Medieval) Chola line, so C pairs specifically with III, 'Founder of Chola dynasty' — a label the question has deliberately separated from the generic 'Chola' label at II. Aditya I, Vijayalaya's son, consolidated and expanded that new kingdom, defeating Aparajita and annexing Pallava territory, and he is correctly described simply as a Chola ruler rather than as the dynasty's founder — so B pairs with II, not III. Bhoja I, the greatest ruler of the Gurjara-Pratihara line, pairs with D and IV, Gurjara. The item is really testing whether a candidate notices that 'Chola' and 'Founder of Chola dynasty' are two different labels applied to two different generations of the same family — Vijayalaya founded it, his son Aditya I merely ruled it.

• (1)A – II, B – III, C – I, D – IV — Swaps Aparajita and Vijayalaya's labels entirely: it makes Aparajita a Chola ruler (he was Pallava, and in fact the Pallava king the Cholas defeated) and makes Vijayalaya, the Chola dynasty's actual founder, a Pallava (label I). Both of these are reversed from the historical record — Aparajita belongs to the dynasty that was ending, Vijayalaya to the one that was beginning — and the option has simply crossed the two founding-generation figures with each other.
• (3)A – IV, B – III, C – II, D – I — Runs the whole sequence backwards against the historical roles: it sends Aparajita, the Pallava king, to Gurjara (IV); Bhoja I, the Gurjara-Pratihara king, to Pallava (I); and swaps Aditya I and Vijayalaya's labels between II and III just as option (1) does. Every one of its four pairs is wrong, which is the shape a distractor takes when it is built by shuffling the same four labels into a different, equally plausible-looking order rather than by tracking any one dynasty correctly.
• (4)A – I, B – II, C – IV, D – III — Gets Aparajita and Aditya I right — A to Pallava, B to Chola — which is exactly what makes it dangerous: two correct pairs create false confidence. It then sends Vijayalaya, the dynasty's actual founder, to Gurjara (IV), and Bhoja I, the Gurjara-Pratihara ruler, to 'Founder of Chola dynasty' (III) — an internal contradiction, since Bhoja I never founded any Chola line. Once a candidate checks the last two pairs against what each king is actually known for, this option collapses.

This question sits at the handover point between two of early medieval South India's major dynasties. The Pallavas of Kanchi, who had dominated Tondaimandalam for centuries, were ended as a ruling power when Aparajita, their last king, was defeated by the rising Chola line under Aditya I around 897 CE. That Chola line had itself begun only a generation earlier, when Vijayalaya took Tanjore from the Muttaraiyar chiefs in the mid-ninth century and planted the dynasty that his son and grandson — Aditya I and the celebrated Rajaraja I — would expand into an empire. The Gurjara-Pratiharas, under rulers like Bhoja I (Mihira Bhoja), were a contemporary but geographically separate power in north India, controlling much of the Gangetic plain and repeatedly resisting Arab incursions from the west.

MPSC's matching questions on early medieval dynasties often hide their real difficulty in a label, not a name — here, the difference between 'Chola' and 'Founder of Chola dynasty' is exactly the fact the item is testing, since a candidate who knows only that 'Vijayalaya and Aditya I were both early Cholas' has no way to place them correctly without also knowing which one specifically founded the line. The general habit worth building is to read every label in the right-hand column as its own precise claim, not as a loose category.

• Aparajita was the last Pallava king of Kanchi, defeated by Chola forces around 897 CE, ending Pallava rule over Tondaimandalam.
• Vijayalaya Chola took Tanjore from the Muttaraiyar in the mid-ninth century and founded the Imperial (Medieval) Chola dynasty.
• Aditya I, Vijayalaya's son, expanded the new kingdom, defeated Aparajita, and annexed Pallava and Western Ganga territory — a Chola ruler, but not the dynasty's founder.
• Bhoja I (Mihira Bhoja), the greatest ruler of the Gurjara-Pratihara dynasty, reigned over much of north India in the ninth century and resisted Arab incursions from the west.
• The Medieval Chola dynasty reached its peak power two generations after Aditya I, under Rajaraja I and Rajendra I.

• Treating 'founder of the dynasty' and a later ruler of the same dynasty as interchangeable labels in a matching question
• Assuming the two founding-generation figures on opposing sides of a dynastic transition (here, the last Pallava and the first Chola) must belong to the same dynasty because they are historically linked
• Overlooking that Bhoja I and the Gurjara-Pratiharas belong to a wholly separate north Indian political theatre from the Pallava-Chola transition in the south

MPSC's medieval dynasty questions frequently test the moment of transition between two ruling houses, since that is where a precise reading of 'who founded what' and 'who merely ruled what' separates a well-prepared candidate from one relying on general familiarity with dynasty names. The safeguard is a short founder-to-dynasty table for each major early medieval house, kept distinct from a list of that dynasty's other notable rulers.

No directly related past PYQ was found.

• practice — not a real PYQ

  Which Chola king is credited with founding the Imperial (Medieval) Chola dynasty by taking Tanjore in the mid-ninth century?

  • (a)Aditya I
  • (b)Vijayalaya
  • (c)Rajaraja I
  • (d)Rajendra I

  Answer(b) Vijayalaya — he took Tanjore from the Muttaraiyar chiefs and founded the Medieval Chola line; his son Aditya I expanded it by defeating the last Pallava king, Aparajita, and Rajaraja I and Rajendra I brought the dynasty to its imperial peak two generations later.

• practice — not a real PYQ

  Bhoja I (Mihira Bhoja), one of the most powerful rulers to resist early Arab incursions into north India, belonged to which dynasty?

  • (a)Pallava
  • (b)Chola
  • (c)Gurjara-Pratihara
  • (d)Rashtrakuta

  Answer(c) Gurjara-Pratihara — Bhoja I ruled much of the Gangetic plain in the ninth century. The Pallavas and Cholas were contemporary but separate south Indian powers, and the Rashtrakutas were the Pratiharas' rivals in the Tripartite Struggle for Kanauj.