SSC CGL 2024 Tier-I · 17 September 2024, Shift 3 · General Awareness · Question 23 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.

Under which of the following Pala king's patronage the Vikramshila university in 8 th century India was founded?

(a)Dharmapala
(b)Gopala
(c)Devapala
(d)Mahipala I

Answer

Why

Correct — A. Vikramshila was founded under the patronage of the Pala king Dharmapala, who ruled in the late eighth and early ninth centuries.

Dharmapala is the Pala remembered as a patron of Buddhist learning. Vikramshila stood on the Ganga in what is now Bhagalpur district of Bihar, a monastic university set up alongside the older Nalanda, and the great vihara at Somapura is credited to him as well.

The stem's own clue is the century: an eighth-century foundation puts you on Dharmapala, option (a).

Why the others are wrong

(b)
Gopala — Gopala founded the Pala dynasty itself, and the monastery credited to him is Odantapuri. Vikramshila belongs to his successor.
(c)
Devapala — Devapala was Dharmapala's son and took the Pala empire to its widest extent, but he inherited Vikramshila rather than founding it.
(d)
Mahipala I — Mahipala I ruled in the eleventh century, more than two hundred years after an eighth-century foundation. He is associated with reviving Pala power, not with starting Vikramshila.

Concept

The Palas ruled Bengal and Bihar from the middle of the eighth century, and they were the last great royal patrons of Buddhism in India.

Gopala founded the line. Dharmapala and his son Devapala carried it to its height, contesting Kannauj with the Gurjara-Pratiharas and the Rashtrakutas in the Tripartite Struggle.

The monastic universities are the durable legacy — Nalanda sustained, Vikramshila and Somapura founded, Odantapuri before them. Vikramshila's most famous head was Atisha Dipankara Srijnana, who left for Tibet and shaped Buddhism there.

All four options are Pala kings, so the question turns entirely on order: Gopala, then Dharmapala, then Devapala, with Mahipala I much later. Learn the sequence and this whole family of questions collapses into one fact.

Key facts

Vikramshila was founded under the Pala king Dharmapala.
It stood on the Ganga in what is now Bhagalpur district, Bihar.
Gopala founded the Pala dynasty and is credited with the monastery at Odantapuri.
Atisha Dipankara Srijnana, an abbot of Vikramshila, went to Tibet and became a central figure in Tibetan Buddhism.

Study next

The Pala dynasty from Gopala to Mahipala IMonastic universities of early medieval India: Nalanda, Vikramshila, Odantapuri and SomapuraThe Tripartite Struggle and the Pala role in it

Common traps

Choosing Gopala because he founded the dynasty, when the question asks who founded the university.
Mixing Vikramshila up with Odantapuri, the monastery credited to Gopala.

SSC works down the Pala list one king at a time: the founder of the dynasty is asked at 23 Sep 2024, 4:00 pm, GA Q.19, and the hero of Sandhyakar Nandi's 'Ramacharita' at 13 Sep 2024, 9:00 am, GA Q.24.

Related PYQs

No directly related past PYQ was found.