SSC CGL 2025 Tier-I · 17 September 2025, Shift 1 · General Awareness · Question 2 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 Mughal tombs deviates from the typical square 'hasht-bihisht' (eight-part) layout?

(a)Humayun’s Tomb
(b)Akbar’s Tomb (Sikandra)
(c)Itimad-ud-Daulah
(d)Safdarjung’s Tomb

Answer

Why

Correct — B. A hasht-bihisht ('eight paradises') plan sets a central chamber among eight rooms, four on the sides and four at the corners.

Akbar's tomb at Sikandra breaks from it. The main building rises as a stepped pyramid of five storeys, four of red sandstone and an open white-marble storey on top holding the cenotaph, with no central dome.

It was completed under Jahangir around 1613: option (b).

Why the others are wrong

(a)
Humayun’s Tomb — Humayun's Tomb is the model the question measures against. Its central chamber ringed by eight rooms is the classic hasht-bihisht plan.
(c)
Itimad-ud-Daulah — Itimad-ud-Daulah has no dome, but its plan keeps the grid: a central hall with four oblong side rooms and four square corner rooms.
(d)
Safdarjung’s Tomb — Safdarjung's Tomb (1754) follows the Humayun's Tomb model: eight rooms surround the square central chamber under its dome.

Concept

Hasht bihisht is Persian for 'eight paradises'. In a Mughal tomb it means a nine-part plan: a central chamber for the cenotaph, with eight rooms around it.

Humayun's Tomb in Delhi set the pattern, and Safdarjung's Tomb repeated it in the 1750s. Akbar's tomb went another way, with a terraced building that climbs in storeys.

The stem's 'eight-part' counts the rooms around the centre. The same plan is called nine-fold when the central chamber is counted too, so both names describe one layout.

Key facts

Hasht bihisht means 'eight paradises': eight rooms around a central chamber.
Akbar's tomb at Sikandra, near Agra, was completed under Jahangir around 1613.
Itimad-ud-Daulah's tomb in Agra (1622–28) was built by Nur Jahan for her father, Mirza Ghiyas Beg.
Safdarjung's Tomb in Delhi (1754) was built for Safdarjung, Nawab of Awadh.

Study next

Humayun's Tomb: charbagh garden and double domeItimad-ud-Daulah and white-marble inlay work in AgraFatehpur Sikri and Akbar's building programme

Common traps

Striking out Itimad-ud-Daulah because it has no dome: the hasht-bihisht test is the room plan, and its plan keeps the nine-part grid.
Assuming every imperial tomb copies Humayun's: Akbar's own tomb at Sikandra does not.

Here a plan type is tested by picking the odd tomb out. Humayun's Tomb is tested through an Assertion–Reason pair at 12 Sep 2025, 12:30, GA Q.1, and Mughal architecture through statements at 14 Sep 2025, 12:30, GA Q.3.

Related PYQs

No directly related past PYQ was found.

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