SSC CGL 2025 Tier-I · 18 September 2025, Shift 1 · General Awareness · Question 1 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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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 animals were NOT found on Mauryan stone pillars?

(a)Lions
(b)Bulls
(c)Elephants
(d)Eagle

Answer

Why

Correct — D. Mauryan pillar capitals carry lions, a bull and an elephant. An eagle is not among them.

Lions crown the pillars at Sarnath (four, back to back), Vaishali, Lauriya-Nandangarh and Rampurva. Rampurva also has a bull capital, and Sankissa a damaged elephant capital.

The Sarnath abacus adds an elephant, a bull, a lion and a horse between Dharma wheels. So the answer is Eagle.

Why the others are wrong

(a)
Lions — Lions were found: four back to back at Sarnath, and single lions crowning the pillars at Vaishali, Lauriya-Nandangarh and Rampurva.
(b)
Bulls — The Rampurva bull capital is Mauryan, and a bull is also carved on the Sarnath abacus, so bulls were found.
(c)
Elephants — Sankissa's pillar keeps a damaged elephant capital, and an elephant also appears on the Sarnath abacus, so elephants were found.

Concept

A Mauryan pillar is a tall polished stone shaft crowned by a capital of animal figures standing on an abacus.

The animals are lions (Sarnath, Vaishali, Lauriya-Nandangarh, Rampurva), a bull (Rampurva) and an elephant (Sankissa). The Sarnath abacus adds a horse beside the elephant, bull and lion.

The Sarnath Lion Capital became India's State Emblem, adopted on 26 January 1950.

Do not confuse the eagle-like Garuda with Mauryan work. The Heliodorus pillar at Besnagar, near Vidisha, calls itself a Garudadhvaja (Garuda standard), but it dates to the late 2nd century BCE, after the Mauryan dynasty ended.

Key facts

Sarnath's capital has four lions back to back, over an abacus with an elephant, a bull, a lion and a horse between Dharma wheels.
Rampurva in Bihar yielded both a bull capital and a lion capital.
Sankissa in Uttar Pradesh has a damaged elephant capital.
The Sarnath Lion Capital was adopted as India's State Emblem on 26 January 1950.

Study next

Ashoka's edicts: Major Rock Edict XIII and the Kalinga warThe Heliodorus (Garuda) pillar at Besnagar and post-Mauryan art

Common traps

Remembering only the Sarnath lions and so rejecting the bull or the elephant.
Taking the Garuda of the Heliodorus pillar as Mauryan because it also crowns a free-standing stone pillar.

Here the pillars are tested by elimination: three real capital animals and one outsider. Ashoka also appears at 13 Sep 2024, 16:00, GA Q.4 (the name Piyadassi) and 18 Sep 2024, 16:00, GA Q.10 (the Kalinga war in Major Rock Edict XIII).

Related PYQs

No directly related past PYQ was found.

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