SSC CGL 2024 Tier-I · 12 September 2024, Shift 1 · General Awareness · Question 11 of 99

Text as printed on a candidate's response sheet for this shift; answer per SSC's tentative key as marked on that sheet. Solution last reviewed 6 September 2026.

Where this paper and its answers come from

SSC does not publish CGL question papers or a public answer key. The questions and options here are reproduced as printed on a candidate's own response sheet for this shift — the Commission's text, unchanged. Each answer is SSC's tentative key as marked on that sheet; SSC allowed challenges to it and never publishes a final key. The solutions are written by UnlockIAS.

The magnificent Kailasa temple at Ellora was built during the reign of which Rashtrakuta king?

(a)Indra III
(b)Govinda III
(c)Krishna I
(d)Amoghavarsha

Answer

Why

Correct — C. The Kailasa temple at Ellora, Cave 16, was commissioned by the Rashtrakuta king Krishna I in the eighth century CE.

It is not built but carved. The rock was cut away downward from the top of a single basalt outcrop, so the tower, the pillared hall, the Nandi shrine and the courtyard walls are all one piece of living rock.

The temple is dedicated to Shiva and follows the Dravidian idiom → option (c).

Why the others are wrong

(a)
Indra III — Indra III is a later Rashtrakuta ruler, remembered for a raid on Kannauj in the tenth century. He reigned well after the Kailasa temple had been cut.
(b)
Govinda III — Govinda III is remembered for military campaigns that carried Rashtrakuta arms across the Deccan and into the far south, not for building. The temple predates his reign.
(d)
Amoghavarsha — Amoghavarsha is the Rashtrakuta name attached to Kannada letters — the Kavirajamarga is credited to his court — and to the capital at Manyakheta. Literature and a capital, not Ellora.

Concept

The Rashtrakutas ruled the Deccan from the middle of the eighth century, with their capital at Manyakheta, and their most durable monument stands at Ellora in present-day Maharashtra.

Kailasa, Cave 16, is a monolithic temple: the surrounding rock was quarried away until a complete Dravidian-style temple stood free inside the pit that had been dug around it.

Ellora as a site holds Buddhist, Hindu and Jain caves side by side, and was inscribed as a UNESCO World Heritage Site in 1983.

The stem says 'built', but Kailasa was excavated rather than assembled. The distinction is worth carrying, because SSC also sets this fact with the phrase 'monolithic rock-cut temple' in the stem.

Key facts

The Kailasa temple at Ellora is Cave 16 and is dedicated to Shiva.
It was commissioned by the Rashtrakuta king Krishna I in the eighth century CE.
It is monolithic — carved downward out of a single rock rather than assembled from blocks.
The Ellora caves were inscribed as a UNESCO World Heritage Site in 1983.

Study next

Rashtrakuta rulers — Dantidurga, Krishna I, Govinda III, Amoghavarsha IRock-cut architecture — Ajanta, Ellora, Elephanta, MahabalipuramNagara, Dravidian and Vesara temple styles and where each is found

Common traps

Attaching Ellora's Kailasa to Amoghavarsha because his is the best-known Rashtrakuta name.
Confusing Ellora's Kailasa temple with the Kailasanathar temple at Kanchipuram, which is Pallava.

SSC comes at the Rashtrakutas from the dynastic side as well — their part in the Tripartite Struggle for Kannauj, against the Pratiharas and the Palas, is asked at 25 Sep 2024, 16:00, GA Q.24.

Hold each early medieval dynasty as ruler plus monument plus conflict.

Related PYQs

No directly related past PYQ was found.