NDA (I) 2017 General Ability Test · Question 146 of 149

Correct — D, the claim that the capital moved to Delhi in 1585. The year is right and the destination is wrong: Fatehpur Sikri served as the capital from 1571 to 1585, and the city was soon abandoned and the capital was moved to LAHORE in 1585, as Akbar turned to the affairs of the north-west. Delhi did not become the Mughal capital until Shah Jahan built Shahjahanabad there in the 1640s. Everything else in the list is accurate, so the statement that is NOT correct is (d).

• (a)It was located on the direct road to Ajmer — This is correct. Sikri stands about 36 km west of Agra on the route running towards Ajmer, the road Akbar used for his pilgrimages to the shrine of Shaikh Muin al-Din Chishti — one reason the site was chosen.
• (b)Akbar commissioned the building of a marble tomb for Sheikh Salim Chisti next to the Friday mosque at Fatehpur Sikri — Also correct. The white marble tomb of the Sufi Shaikh Salim Chishti stands in the courtyard of the Jama Masjid at Fatehpur Sikri; the city itself grew around Akbar's association with the saint.
• (c)The arched gateway or Bulund Darwaza was meant to remind visitors of the Mughal victory in Gujarat — Correct as well. The Buland Darwaza, about 54 metres high, was added as a victory arch to commemorate Akbar's successful Gujarat campaign — the same victory that gave the city its name, Fatehpur, the city of victory.

Fatehpur Sikri is the clearest surviving statement of Akbar's idea of kingship: a planned capital in red sandstone built around a Sufi shrine, with the Jama Masjid, the Buland Darwaza, the Ibadat Khana where he held debates among scholars of different faiths, the Panch Mahal and the Diwan-i-Khas. It was a working capital for only about fourteen years and is a UNESCO World Heritage Site today.

The examiner has changed one word in an otherwise true sentence — Lahore to Delhi — which is the standard way of building a NOT-correct item on a monument. Keep the Mughal capital sequence straight: Agra and Fatehpur Sikri under Akbar, Lahore from 1585, Agra again under Jahangir and Shah Jahan, and Shahjahanabad in Delhi from the 1640s. Historians offer several reasons for the 1585 move, including an inadequate water supply and Akbar's campaigns in the north-west, and none of them involves Delhi.

• Fatehpur Sikri was founded by Akbar in 1571 and served as capital until 1585.
• In 1585 the capital moved to Lahore, not to Delhi.
• The site lies about 36 km from Agra, on the road running towards Ajmer.
• The Buland Darwaza, about 54 m high, commemorates Akbar's Gujarat campaign; the city's name means city of victory.
• The white marble tomb of Shaikh Salim Chishti stands in the Jama Masjid courtyard at Fatehpur Sikri.

• Assuming Delhi was the Mughal capital throughout, when it became so only under Shah Jahan.
• Attributing the Buland Darwaza to the birth of Salim rather than to the Gujarat victory.
• Describing the Buland Darwaza as white marble; it is red and buff sandstone, with marble used for the shaikh's tomb.

Fatehpur Sikri appears as a NOT-correct statement item, as a question on the Ibadat Khana, or in a materials-and-monuments pairing.

• practice — not a real PYQ

  In 1585 the Mughal capital was moved from Fatehpur Sikri to

  • (a)Delhi
  • (b)Lahore
  • (c)Ajmer
  • (d)Allahabad

  Answer(b) Lahore — Akbar shifted north-west, and Delhi became a Mughal capital only under Shah Jahan.

• practice — not a real PYQ

  The Buland Darwaza at Fatehpur Sikri commemorates Akbar's victory in

  • (a)Bengal
  • (b)Gujarat
  • (c)Malwa
  • (d)Kashmir

  Answer(b) Gujarat — the campaign that also gave the city the name Fatehpur, the city of victory.