MPSC 2022 Prelims Paper-I · Question 79 of 100

Correct — option (4), none of the above. This is a negative question and the paper marks it: the word incorrect in the English stem and अयोग्य in the Marathi stem are both printed in bold italic. Read the stem carefully, because the combination of a negative stem with a none of the above option is the hardest reading task the paper sets. The question asks which of the three statements is incorrect, and the keyed answer says none of them is — which means all three statements are accepted as correct. Statement (a) is correct and is easily checked against the district's own presentation of itself: the official portal of Pulwama district carries the description Rice Bowl of Kashmir, and the district administration's account of the local economy records that it depends mainly on agriculture and that the district is famous for rice production. Pulwama also carries a second nickname, the Anand of Kashmir, for having the largest milk production in the Union territory, and its Pampore belt is the source of the saffron for which Kashmir is known worldwide. Statement (b) is correct on the same reading. The Jhelum, the master river of the Kashmir valley, flows through Pulwama district on its way north-westward from Anantnag towards Srinagar, so the district is squarely in the Jhelum's course. The Veshaw, also written Vishav or Veshu, is one of the Jhelum's south Kashmir tributaries: it descends through the Pir Panjal, drops in the celebrated fall at Aharbal, and joins the Jhelum in the same south Kashmir tract in which Pulwama sits. The statement takes the two together as the rivers of the Pulwama country, and the key accepts that reading. Statement (c) is correct, and the word that carries it is near. The Avantiswami and Avantishvara temples stand at Awantipora, which is one of the eight tehsils of Pulwama district; they were built in the reign of Avantivarman, who founded the Utpala dynasty and ruled Kashmir from 855 to 883, and the ruins of their sculpture and masonry are among the best-known antiquities of the valley. Aharbal, often called the Niagara of Kashmir, lies in the Noorabad area of the adjoining Kulgam district, where the Veshaw drops about twenty-five metres and then a further seven through a narrow granite gorge; it is about seventy-five kilometres from Srinagar by the road that runs through Pulwama and Shopian. A famous place in the next district, reached by the road through this one, is fairly described as near Pulwama, which is what the statement claims. Since no statement in the list is incorrect, the answer is option (4).

• (1)Only (a) — This option asserts that statement (a) is the incorrect one — that Pulwama is not known as the Rice Bowl of Kashmir. It is. The district's own official portal carries that description, and the administration's account of the local economy notes that it rests mainly on agriculture and that the district is famous for rice production; the fertile karewa and floodplain land along the Jhelum in this part of the valley is the reason. The likeliest source of a candidate's doubt is that Pulwama has more than one nickname, and the district is also called the Anand of Kashmir on account of having the largest milk production in the Union territory, while it is best known outside the valley for the saffron of Pampore. A place can carry several descriptions at once, and the presence of a second nickname does not falsify the first. It is also worth registering, since geography questions often turn on it, that rice bowl is a description applied to many regions in India — the Krishna-Godavari delta, the Thanjavur delta, Chhattisgarh — so the phrase alone does not identify a place, and the question must be answered on the specific claim about Pulwama.
• (2)Only (b) — This option asserts that statement (b) is the incorrect one — that the Veshaw and the Jhelum are not rivers of Pulwama. The Jhelum's course through the district is not in doubt: it is the master stream of the Kashmir valley, rising in the south of it and flowing north-westward past Anantnag and through Pulwama towards Srinagar and the Wular lake, and the district's agricultural land lies along it. The Veshaw, also spelt Vishav or Veshu, is one of its south Kashmir tributaries, descending from the Pir Panjal through the gorge at Aharbal and joining the Jhelum in the same tract of the valley; the road to Aharbal from Srinagar runs through Pulwama and Shopian, which is a fair indication of how close this drainage lies to the district. The general point for a candidate is that the small tributaries of the Kashmir valley — the Veshaw, the Rambiara, the Romshi, the Sandran, the Lidder — all run into the Jhelum across districts whose present boundaries are recent, several of them having been carved out of older and larger districts within the last two decades, so a river is often shared between neighbours.
• (3)Only (c) — This option asserts that statement (c) is the incorrect one — that Aharbal Falls and the Avantishwar temple are not famous places near Pulwama. Both are. The Avantiswami and Avantishvara temples stand at Awantipora, a tehsil of Pulwama district itself, and were built in the reign of Avantivarman, the founder of the Utpala dynasty, who ruled Kashmir from 855 to 883; the ruins are among the most visited antiquities in the valley and are the reason the town carries his name. Aharbal is in the Noorabad area of the adjoining district of Kulgam, where the Veshaw river falls about twenty-five metres and then a further seven through a narrow granite gorge in a valley of pine and fir in the Pir Panjal; it is called the Niagara of Kashmir and is roughly seventy-five kilometres from Srinagar along the road through Pulwama and Shopian. The statement does not say that both places lie inside the district; it says they are famous tourist places near Pulwama, and a site in an adjacent district reached by the road through this one answers that description.

Pulwama is a district of the Kashmir valley lying south of Srinagar, its headquarters about thirty-one kilometres from the city. It was carved out of Anantnag district in 1979 and now covers about one thousand and ninety square kilometres in eight tehsils — Pulwama, Awantipora, Tral, Pampore, Kakapora, Aripal, Rajpora and Litter — and Shopian district was in turn carved out of it in 2007, which is why the district boundaries of this part of the valley are recent and the drainage crosses them freely. Its economy rests on agriculture: it is the leading rice-producing district of the valley, which is why its own administration presents it as the Rice Bowl of Kashmir, and the Pampore belt produces the saffron for which Kashmir is known worldwide; the district also has the largest milk production in the Union territory, giving it the second name Anand of Kashmir. Physically it lies along the Jhelum, the river that drains the whole valley, flowing north-westward from the south of Kashmir past Anantnag and Pulwama to Srinagar and the Wular lake; the small streams of south Kashmir — the Veshaw, the Rambiara, the Romshi, the Sandran and the Lidder among them — descend from the Pir Panjal and the eastern mountains to feed it. Historically the district's chief monuments are at Awantipora, where the Avantiswami and Avantishvara temples were built in the reign of Avantivarman, founder of the Utpala dynasty and king of Kashmir from 855 to 883, whose reign is remembered in Kalhana's Rajatarangini for the engineering works of his minister Suyya on the Jhelum. Just across the district line, in Kulgam, the Veshaw falls at Aharbal, called the Niagara of Kashmir. In wider public memory the name Pulwama is attached to the attack on a paramilitary convoy in February 2019.

Regional geography questions are a standing feature of MPSC papers, and they are drawn from all over India rather than from Maharashtra alone. The shape used here is a demanding one: a negative stem combined with a none of the above option, so that the correct answer is a double negative — no statement is incorrect, therefore every statement is correct. That combination is worth practising deliberately, because it is where candidates who understand every fact still lose the mark. The safest procedure is mechanical. First name the task in one word: falsifier. Second, mark each statement true or false on its own merits, without looking at the options. Third, count the false ones. If the count is zero and none of the above is offered, that is the answer; if the count is one, the option naming that statement is the answer. Working in that order prevents the mind from being pulled by the options into re-reading a statement it has already settled. The second thing this question rewards is careful reading of the qualifying words in a statement. Statement (c) says near Pulwama, not in Pulwama, and one of the two places it names is in the neighbouring district; had the statement said in, it would have been a different claim. Examiners choose such words deliberately, and a candidate who reads near as in will manufacture a falsehood that the paper never printed.

• Pulwama district's official portal describes it as the Rice Bowl of Kashmir; its economy rests mainly on agriculture, it is famous for rice production, and the Pampore belt is the source of Kashmir's saffron.
• The district is also called the Anand of Kashmir for having the largest milk production in the Union territory; it covers about 1,090 square kilometres in eight tehsils and was carved out of Anantnag district in 1979, with Shopian district carved out of it in 2007.
• The Jhelum, the master river of the Kashmir valley, flows through Pulwama on its way from Anantnag towards Srinagar; the Veshaw, also written Vishav or Veshu, is one of its south Kashmir tributaries, descending from the Pir Panjal and joining it in the same tract.
• The Avantiswami and Avantishvara temples stand at Awantipora, a tehsil of Pulwama district, and were built in the reign of Avantivarman, founder of the Utpala dynasty and king of Kashmir from 855 to 883.
• Aharbal Falls, called the Niagara of Kashmir, lies in the Noorabad area of the adjoining Kulgam district, where the Veshaw drops about twenty-five metres and then a further seven through a narrow granite gorge; it is about seventy-five kilometres from Srinagar by the road through Pulwama and Shopian.

• Reading near as in; statement (c) claims only that the places are near Pulwama, and one of the two is in the adjoining district of Kulgam
• Mishandling a negative stem combined with a none of the above option, where the correct answer is that no statement is false; mark each statement independently and count the false ones before looking at the options
• Assuming a place can carry only one nickname; Pulwama is both the Rice Bowl of Kashmir and the Anand of Kashmir, and the second does not falsify the first
• Assuming that a river belongs to a single district; the district boundaries of south Kashmir are recent, several having been redrawn within the last two decades, and the Jhelum's tributaries cross them freely

Regional geography in an MPSC paper is asked in four regular shapes: which river flows through a named place; which district or State a named site lies in; what a named place is known for or nicknamed; and a statement list of the kind used here in which several such claims are put together. The material is unbounded in principle, so the practical preparation is to take the places that appear in the news and to learn four things about each — the State and district, the river or physical feature associated with it, what it produces or is famous for, and any monument or event attached to its name. Pulwama earns that treatment several times over. The harder skill this question tests is not geographical at all but procedural, and it transfers to every part of the paper: handling a negative stem whose option set includes none of the above. Practise it on purpose, because a candidate meeting the combination for the first time in an examination hall will usually get it wrong even while knowing every fact in the question.

No directly related past PYQ was found.

• practice — not a real PYQ

  Aharbal Falls, known as the Niagara of Kashmir, lies on which river and in which district ?

  • (a)On the Lidder, in Anantnag district
  • (b)On the Veshaw, in Kulgam district
  • (c)On the Jhelum, in Pulwama district
  • (d)On the Sindh, in Ganderbal district

  Answer(b) On the Veshaw, in Kulgam district. The Veshaw, also written Vishav or Veshu, is a tributary of the Jhelum that descends from the Pir Panjal, and at Aharbal in the Noorabad area of Kulgam it falls about twenty-five metres and then a further seven through a narrow granite gorge in a valley of pine and fir. It is roughly seventy-five kilometres from Srinagar, reached by the road running through Pulwama and Shopian.

• practice — not a real PYQ

  The Avantiswami and Avantishvara temples at Awantipora were built during the reign of which king of Kashmir ?

  • (a)Lalitaditya Muktapida
  • (b)Avantivarman
  • (c)Zain-ul-Abidin
  • (d)Harsha

  Answer(b) Avantivarman, the founder of the Utpala dynasty, who ruled Kashmir from 855 to 883 and after whom the town of Awantipora, in Pulwama district, is named. His reign is remembered in Kalhana's Rajatarangini chiefly for the works of his minister Suyya, who cleared the obstructions in the Jhelum and reclaimed extensive land for cultivation. Lalitaditya Muktapida of the earlier Karkota dynasty is associated with the Martand sun temple.