SSC CGL 2025 Tier-I · 15 September 2025, Shift 1 · General Awareness · Question 3 of 100

We transcribed this text from the pictures on a candidate's response sheet for this shift; the answer is the key SSC colour-marked on that sheet. Solution last reviewed 13 September 2026.

Where this paper and its answers come from

SSC does not publish CGL question papers or a public answer key. From 2025 the candidate response sheet prints every question and option as a picture, so the text here is transcribed from those pictures for this shift and checked against them independently; where the layout carries meaning, the picture is shown as well. Each answer is the key SSC colour-marked on that sheet. SSC released a tentative key for challenge and later its final one, both only to candidates behind a login, and the sheet does not say which of the two it carries. The solutions are written by UnlockIAS.

Which of the following correctly describes the Sarthavaha in Gupta dynasty's administration?

(a)Chief artisan overseeing temples and sculpture guilds.
(b)Officer-in-charge of military recruitment.
(c)Head of the trading guilds representing various trading communities.
(d)Official supervising irrigation and waterworks.

Answer

Why

Correct — C. Sartha means a caravan of traders, and the sarthavaha was the leader of merchant caravans, the chief merchant.

Gupta-era copper plates from Damodarpur in Bengal place him on the board advising the district officer, beside the chief banker and the chief artisan. A merchants' representative → option (c).

Why the others are wrong

(a)
Chief artisan overseeing temples and sculpture guilds. — Chief artisan is the prathama-kulika, a separate member of the same Gupta district board. The sarthavaha sat beside him as the voice of merchants, not craftsmen.
(b)
Officer-in-charge of military recruitment. — Military recruitment has nothing to do with the title. Sartha is a caravan of traders, and the sarthavaha appears on a civil advisory board as the merchants' representative.
(d)
Official supervising irrigation and waterworks. — Irrigation and waterworks are not what the title names. Its root, sartha, is a trading caravan, so the office belongs to commerce.

Concept

Gupta provinces (bhukti) were divided into districts (vishaya), each under a vishayapati. The Damodarpur copper plates show the vishayapati of Kotivarsha, in Pundravardhana bhukti, advised by a board of four:

nagarashreshthi: chief banker or merchant of the city
sarthavaha: chief merchant
prathama-kulika: chief artisan
prathama-kayastha: chief scribe

Merchants and craftsmen thus had a voice in local administration.

NCERT's Class 6 history glosses the sarthavaha as the leader of the merchant caravans. The option's wording, head of the trading guilds, is broader, but it is the reading that keeps the title in trade, where its root puts it.

Key facts

Sarthavaha: leader of merchant caravans. Sartha means a caravan of traders.
Nagarashreshthi: chief banker or merchant of the city.
Prathama-kulika: chief artisan.
The Damodarpur copper plates show a Gupta vishayapati advised by the nagarashreshthi, sarthavaha, prathama-kulika and prathama-kayastha.

Study next

Gupta provincial units: bhukti under an uparika, vishaya under a vishayapatiGupta village officials such as the gramikaGuilds (shrenis) in early Indian trade and crafts

Common traps

Picking chief artisan because it sounds like a senior guild post. That office is the prathama-kulika, a separate member of the same board.
Assuming every Gupta title on an exam list is a royal officer. The sarthavaha was a merchant leader on a district advisory board.

Gupta official titles are also set as pairs at 17 Sep 2025, 4:00 PM, GA Q.3 (keyed Talavataka – Village Accountant) and 18 Sep 2025, 12:30 PM, GA Q.3 (keyed Gramika – Village Headman).

Related PYQs

No directly related past PYQ was found.

Topic: History — all 218 SSC CGL questions on it, every solved shift.