SSC CGL 2025 Tier-I · 17 September 2025, Shift 3 · 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 11 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 one of the following pairs is correctly matched in accordance with Gupta's administration (Officer-Stated Role)?

(a)Dhruvadhikaranika -Treasurer
(b)Bhandagaradhikrita-Chief of Police
(c)Talavataka-Village Accountant
(d)Utkhetayita-Land-Survey Officer

Answer

Why

Correct — C. Talavataka is an official title in the inscriptions of the Gupta kings and their successors. D.C. Sircar's Indian Epigraphical Glossary notes that some scholars equate it with the Talati, a petty revenue officer.

In Marathi- and Kannada-speaking areas the Talati is the village accountant, so the pair holds: option (c).

Why the others are wrong

(a)
Dhruvadhikaranika -Treasurer — Dhruvadhikaranika collected the king's fixed share of grain from farmers. The treasury belonged to the Bhandagaradhikrita.
(b)
Bhandagaradhikrita-Chief of Police — Bhandagaradhikrita was the officer of the treasury or store-house. Police duties fell to officers such as the Dandapashika.
(d)
Utkhetayita-Land-Survey Officer — Utkhetayita is explained as a tax-collector, the officer in charge of the levy called utkhetana, not a surveyor of land.

Concept

Gupta officers are known from the titles that appear in copper-plate grants and stone inscriptions, and epigraphists reconstruct each title's role from context.

D.C. Sircar's Indian Epigraphical Glossary (1966) gives the readings used here: Bhandagaradhikrita for the treasury or store-house, Dhruvadhikaranika for the king's grain share, Utkhetayita for tax collection, and Talavataka as, on one reading, the Talati, a petty revenue officer.

Two cautions. Sircar lists Dhruvadhikaranika from Maitraka records and Utkhetayita from Assam records, so not every title here comes from the Gupta court itself.

He also records a second reading of Talavataka, superintendent of temple property. The key follows the Talati reading.

Key facts

Bhandagaradhikrita: officer of the treasury or store-house.
Dhruvadhikaranika: collector of the king's fixed share of grain, known from Maitraka records.
Utkhetayita: explained as a tax-collector, known from Assam records.
Dandapashika: a police officer.

Study next

Gupta provincial units: bhukti and vishayaGramika, the Gupta village headmanLand-grant inscriptions as a source for early Indian administration

Common traps

Matching Bhandagaradhikrita to police because it sounds like a senior officer: bhandagara means treasury or store-house.
Reading Utkhetayita as a land surveyor: Sircar explains the title as a tax-collector.

Here Gupta officers are tested as title-and-role pairs. The same format appears at 18 Sep 2025, 12:30, GA Q.3, where Talavataka is paired with Military Paymaster and the key takes Gramika (Gramadhyaksha) – Village Headman.

Related PYQs

No directly related past PYQ was found.

Topic: History — all 154 SSC CGL questions on it, every solved shift.