SSC CGL 2024 Tier-I · 13 September 2024, Shift 3 · General Awareness · Question 25 of 98

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.

Who among the following was the Vakil under the reign of Mughal Emperor, Akbar, who received the title of Khan-i-Khanan?

(a)Bairam Khan
(b)Mulla do-Piyaza
(c)Birbal
(d)Raja Todar Mal

Answer

Why

Correct — A. Bairam Khan was guardian and regent to the boy Akbar after Humayun's death, and he held the office of vakil, the highest post in the early Mughal administration.

Akbar conferred on him the title Khan-i-Khanan, khan of khans, the ranking title of the nobility.

He commanded the Mughal army at the Second Battle of Panipat in 1556 against Hemu, and was dismissed in 1560 when Akbar took power into his own hands. The man the stem describes is option (a).

Why the others are wrong

(b)
Mulla do-Piyaza — Mulla Do-Piyaza belongs to the folklore that grew around Akbar's court, the foil in the Birbal stories, rather than to the administrative record. No office or title of the empire attaches to him.
(c)
Birbal — Birbal, born Mahesh Das, was one of Akbar's navratnas, a courtier known for wit and verse who was given the title Raja. Neither the vakalat nor the Khan-i-Khanan title was his.
(d)
Raja Todar Mal — Raja Todar Mal was Akbar's revenue minister and the architect of the zabti land-revenue settlement. His office was finance, and his title was Raja.

Concept

In Akbar's central administration the vakil stood at the top as the emperor's chief deputy, with the wazir or diwan below him handling revenue.

Bairam Khan held the vakalat as regent and ran the empire in Akbar's name from 1556 until 1560, the years in which Mughal rule was re-established in north India.

Khan-i-Khanan was the highest noble title of the court. It was later borne by Bairam Khan's son Abdur Rahim, the poet whose Hindi dohas are still quoted.

The trap is the title rather than the man. Most students file Khan-i-Khanan under Abdur Rahim, who also held it under Akbar. The stem's second clue, the office of vakil, settles which of the two it means.

Key facts

Bairam Khan was regent for the young Akbar from 1556 to 1560.
He held the office of vakil and the title Khan-i-Khanan.
He commanded the Mughal army at the Second Battle of Panipat in 1556 against Hemu.
The title Khan-i-Khanan was later held by his son Abdur Rahim.

Study next

Akbar's central administration: vakil, wazir, mir bakhshi, sadr-us-sudurThe Second Battle of Panipat and the defeat of HemuAkbar's navratnas and the office each held

Common traps

Answering Todar Mal because he is the Akbar-era official most candidates can name.
Attaching Khan-i-Khanan to Abdur Rahim and forgetting that his father held it before him.

Akbar's court is quarried from several directions across this corpus: the revenue minister on 9 Sep 2024, 16:00, GA Q.17, a navratna on 11 Sep 2024, 09:00, GA Q.10, and the site of his coronation on 10 Sep 2024, 09:00, GA Q.4.

Store each name with its office attached, not as a bare list of names.

Related PYQs

No directly related past PYQ was found.