SSC CGL 2024 Tier-I · 18 September 2024, Shift 1 · General Awareness · Question 1 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.

According to the Varna system that was prevalent in the Vedic period, which of the following was NOT a Varna?

(a)Kshatriyas
(b)Vaishyas
(c)Brahmanas
(d)Samiti

Answer

Why

Correct — D. The Vedic varna order names four groups: Brahmana, Kshatriya, Vaishya and Shudra. Three of the four choices sit on that list.

Samiti does not. It was an assembly of Vedic political life — a gathering of the people that discussed the affairs of the tribe and, in the early period, had a voice in who ruled.

Social order and political body are two separate lists, and the stem plants a term from the second among terms from the first.

Why the others are wrong

(a)
Kshatriyas — Kshatriya is the second varna, the warrior and ruling group from which the rajan was drawn. It belongs squarely on the varna list, so it cannot be the exception the stem asks for.
(b)
Vaishyas — Vaishya is the third varna — cultivators, herders and traders, the producers who paid the tribute. Being a varna, it fails the 'NOT a Varna' test.
(c)
Brahmanas — Brahmana is the first varna, the priestly group that performed the sacrifice and preserved the hymns. It is a varna, so it is not the odd one out.

Concept

Two Vedic vocabularies are set against each other here: the social one and the political one.

The social one is varna — the fourfold order of Brahmana, Kshatriya, Vaishya and Shudra, given its classic statement in the Purusha Sukta of the Rigveda's tenth mandala.

The political one is the set of tribal bodies: Sabha, the smaller assembly of elders, and Samiti, the larger assembly of the people. Vidatha also appears in the hymns.

A stem that drops an assembly into a list of varnas is testing whether you keep the two apart.

Varna as the texts describe it is a scheme of four. The many jatis, the birth-groups that later organised actual society, are a separate development and are not what this stem is about.

Key facts

The four varnas are Brahmana, Kshatriya, Vaishya and Shudra.
The fourfold varna order is set out in the Purusha Sukta hymn of the tenth mandala of the Rigveda.
Sabha and Samiti were assemblies of the Vedic polity, not social classes.

Study next

Sabha, Samiti and Vidatha as bodies of the Vedic polityThe Purusha Sukta and how later texts hardened the varna orderThe four ashramas: brahmacharya, grihastha, vanaprastha, sannyasa

Common traps

Samiti sounds like a social grouping in translation, which is exactly why it sits here among three genuine varnas.
Shudra, the fourth varna, is absent from the options, so a candidate looking for the missing name finds nothing to hold on to.

The Vedic period is asked through its named schemes — place one term on the right scheme, or count the members of one.

The ashrama stages are asked on 11 Sep 2024, 12:30, GA Q.22, the three sections of the Rigvedic tribe on 23 Sep 2024, 09:00, GA Q.21, and the number of Vedangas on 12 Sep 2024, 12:30, GA Q.22.

Related PYQs

No directly related past PYQ was found.