SSC CGL 2025 Tier-I · 16 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.

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Determine the correctly matched Gupta fiscal term with its meaning.

(a)Hiranya – compulsory labour service
(b)Dhanya – gold tax
(c)Bhoga – king’s share of produce
(d)Vaishthika – forced or corvée labour

Answer

Why

Correct — D. D.C. Sircar's Indian Epigraphical Glossary defines vishti as labour the villagers were obliged to provide to the king or landlord: unpaid, forced labour.

The option's Vaishthika is formed from vishti. Monier-Williams glosses vaishtika as one compelled to labour for a landlord, so forced or corvée labour is its meaning → option (d).

Why the others are wrong

(a)
Hiranya – compulsory labour service — Hiranya means gold, and as a revenue term it was the tax payable in cash. Compulsory labour had its own word, vishti.
(b)
Dhanya – gold tax — Dhanya is grain. Sircar notes that the cash tax, hiranya, could be levied in addition to the tax in grain or in lieu of it, so a gold tax is hiranya, not dhanya.
(c)
Bhoga – king’s share of produce — Bhoga was the periodical supplies tenants made to the king. The king's share of the produce was bhaga, one letter away, and that near-miss is the trap.

Concept

Early Indian land grants list the royal dues a village owed, because the grant transferred them to the donee. Sircar's glossary explains the common ones: bhaga, the king's share of the produce, bhoga, periodical supplies made by tenants to the king, and hiranya, tax payable in cash.

Alongside these dues stood vishti, labour the villagers had to provide to the king or landlord on occasion, unpaid.

Key facts

Bhaga: the king's share of the produce.
Bhoga: periodical supplies made by tenants to the king.
Hiranya: tax payable to the king in cash.
Vishti: labour the villagers were obliged to give the king or landlord, that is, unpaid forced labour.

Study next

Gupta administrative units: bhukti, vishaya and the officers over themLand grants and agraharas in the Gupta period

Common traps

Swapping bhaga and bhoga. Bhaga is the share of the produce, bhoga the periodical supplies.
Rejecting (d) because the familiar word is vishti. Vaishthika, as printed, is formed from it.

Gupta revenue terms are also keyed at 17 Sep 2025, 12:30, GA Q.3 (Bhaga – king's share of produce), 19 Sep 2025, 16:00, GA Q.3 (Adeya – dues) and 23 Sep 2025, 09:00, GA Q.5, which keys Vaishthika – forced labour.

Related PYQs

No directly related past PYQ was found.

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