Which of the following clans are included in the Agnikula Rajputs ? 1. Pratiharas 2. Chaulukyas 3. Paramaras 4. Chahamanas Select the correct answer from the code given below :
- (a)1 and 3 only
- (b)1, 3 and 4 only
- (c)1, 2, 3 and 4
- (d)2 and 4 only
Correct — C, 1, 2, 3 and 4. The Agnikula, or fire-born, group of Rajput clans is a set of exactly four, and all four appear in this list — the Pratiharas or Parihars, the Chaulukyas or Solankis, the Paramaras or Pawars, and the Chahamanas or Chauhans. The legend has warriors rising out of a sacrificial fire to defend a rite from demons; in the version in the Prithviraj Raso the sage Vashistha performs the homa on Mount Abu and the Pratihara, the Chalukka, the Paramara and finally the Chahavana emerge from it. Because the item asks which clans are included and names all four of them, every entry qualifies and the full-list option is the answer.
- (a)1 and 3 only — The Pratiharas and Paramaras are indeed Agnikula clans, but so are the other two. Leaving out the Chaulukyas and Chahamanas breaks up a group that the tradition always gives as four.
- (b)1, 3 and 4 only — This drops the Chaulukyas alone. They are in every version of the list, appearing as Chalukka or Solanki, so there is no ground for excluding them.
- (d)2 and 4 only — The Chaulukyas and Chahamanas belong, but so do the Pratiharas and Paramaras. Indeed the earliest surviving account of a fire-birth attaches specifically to the Paramaras, which makes their exclusion the weakest part of this option.
Rajput clans were classified by medieval bards into three descent groups — Suryavanshi from the sun, Chandravanshi from the moon, and Agnivanshi or Agnikula from fire. The Agnikula group has four members, and each has an alternative vernacular name that examiners like to use: Pratihara or Parihar, Chaulukya or Solanki, Paramara or Pawar, Chahamana or Chauhan. These were among the leading powers of northern and western India between roughly the eighth and the twelfth centuries — the Gurjara-Pratiharas at Kannauj, the Paramaras in Malwa, the Chaulukyas in Gujarat and the Chahamanas at Ajmer and Delhi.
The legend's own history is worth knowing because it explains why the list is a fixed four. The earliest surviving fire-birth account is in Padmagupta's Nava-sahasanka-charita of the late tenth century, and there it belongs to the Paramaras alone. Scholars generally hold that sixteenth-century poets extended it to the other three clans through works such as the Prithviraj Raso, to knit the Rajput houses together against Mughal power. So the group is a later literary construction rather than a genealogical fact, but it is a fixed and well-attested construction, which is what the examiner is testing. As with Q134 in this paper, the item is an all-of-the-above and the instinct to strike out one entry has to be resisted. Note also that the printed instruction reads 'from the code given below' where most items in this paper read 'using the code' — a house-style slip that changes nothing.
- The Agnikula group has four clans: Pratiharas, Chaulukyas, Paramaras and Chahamanas.
- Their common vernacular names are Parihar, Solanki, Pawar and Chauhan respectively.
- The legend describes warriors born from a sacrificial fire; the Prithviraj Raso sets the rite on Mount Abu under the sage Vashistha.
- The earliest surviving fire-birth account, in Padmagupta's Nava-sahasanka-charita of the late tenth century, concerns the Paramaras only.
- The other two Rajput descent groups are the Suryavanshi, from the sun, and the Chandravanshi, from the moon.
- Rejecting an all-four option because it feels too easy.
- Not recognising a clan under its alternative name — Solanki for Chaulukya, Pawar for Paramara, Parihar for Pratihara.
- Confusing the Chalukyas of Badami and Kalyana in the Deccan with the Chaulukyas or Solankis of Gujarat.
NDA asks for the membership of a named clan group, or matches dynasties against capitals, kings or regions.
Consider the following pairs: King — Dynasty 1. Nannuka — Chandela 2. Jayashakti — Paramara 3. Nagabhata II — Gurjara-Pratihara 4. Bhoja — Rashtrakuta How many pairs given above are correctly matched?
- (a) Only one pair
- (b) Only two pairs
- (c) Only three pairs
- (d) All four pairs
Answer(b) Only two pairs
The same clan names tested one level down, at the level of individual kings — and it shows how easily Paramara and Pratihara get switched when the ruler rather than the group is the subject.
From the decline of the Gupta Empire until the rise of Harshavardhana, which of the following dynasties ruled over North India? 1. The Guptas of Magadha 2. The Paramaras of Malwa 3. The Pushyabhutis of Thanesar 4. The Maukharies of Kanauj 5. The Yadavas of Devagiri 6. The Gurjara-Pratiharas of Jodhpur Select the correct answer using the code given below:
- (a) 1, 2 and 5
- (b) 1, 3, 4 and 6
- (c) 2, 3 and 4
- (d) 5 and 6
Answer(b) 1, 3, 4 and 6
Useful for dating the group: the Paramaras of Malwa are excluded there because they belong to a later period than Harsha, which is a good check on when these four clans actually rose.
- practice — not a real PYQ
The Paramara dynasty ruled in which region?
- (a)Malwa
- (b)Gujarat
- (c)Bundelkhand
- (d)Marwar
Answer(a) Malwa — with its capital at Dhar; its best-known ruler was Bhoja.
- practice — not a real PYQ
'Solanki' is the vernacular name of which Rajput clan?
- (a)Pratihara
- (b)Chaulukya
- (c)Paramara
- (d)Chahamana
Answer(b) Chaulukya — the Gujarat house of the Agnikula group.