SSC CGL 2025 Tier-I · 18 September 2025, Shift 2 · 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.

According to the Gupta dynasty's administrative structure, which one of the following pairs of officer and role is correctly matched?

(a)Prathamakulika – Public Works Supervisor
(b)Gramika (Gramadhyaksha) – Village Headman
(c)Talavataka – Military Paymaster
(d)Pustapala – Tax-Collection Officer

Answer

Why

Correct — B. Gramika is the village headman. D.C. Sircar's Indian Epigraphical Glossary defines the title as 'a village headman' and cites it from, among other sources, the Gupta inscriptions of Corpus Inscriptionum Indicarum, Vol. III.

The option's gloss, Gramadhyaksha, is literally the superintendent of the village. The pair holds → option (b).

Why the others are wrong

(a)
Prathamakulika – Public Works Supervisor — Prathama-kulika literally means 'the chief artisan'. Sircar explains it as a member of the artisan class on a local administrative board, not a supervisor of public works.
(c)
Talavataka – Military Paymaster — Talavataka has no military role in the glossary. Sircar reads it as possibly a superintendent of temple property, or, per some, the Talati, a petty revenue officer.
(d)
Pustapala – Tax-Collection Officer — Pustapala was the record-keeper. Sircar notes the title in the Gupta-age Damodarpur copper plates, and collecting tax was not its job.

Concept

Gupta officers are known from titles in copper-plate grants and inscriptions, and epigraphists reconstruct each role from context.

D.C. Sircar's Indian Epigraphical Glossary (1966) gives the readings used here: gramika, a village headman; pustapala, a record-keeper; prathama-kulika, the chief artisan on an administrative board; talavataka, possibly a superintendent of temple property.

Scholars do not agree on every title. Sircar records two readings of Talavataka: a superintendent of temple property, or the Talati, a petty revenue officer. Neither is a military paymaster.

Gramika gets a single meaning, village headman, with sources going back to the Manusmriti and the Arthashastra.

Key facts

Gramika: a village headman (Sircar, Indian Epigraphical Glossary).
Pustapala: a record-keeper, a title found in the Gupta-age Damodarpur copper plates.
Prathama-kulika: literally 'the chief artisan', a member of the artisan class on an administrative board.
Talavataka: possibly a superintendent of temple property, or the Talati, a petty revenue officer.

Study next

Damodarpur copper plates of the Gupta ageGupta-era dues and levies: bhoga, dasaparadha and related termsReading official titles from their roots: grama, adhyaksha, kulika, pala

Common traps

Taking pustapala for a tax officer because records and revenue go together: the title means record-keeper.
Reading prathama-kulika as a works officer: kulika is an artisan, and prathama means the first or chief.

Gupta officers are tested as title–role pairs here and at 17 Sep 2025, 16:00, GA Q.3, where the key pairs Talavataka with Village Accountant. Gupta-era dues are matched the same way at 19 Sep 2025, 09:00, GA Q.3 (key: Dasaparadha – fines from ten offences).

Related PYQs

No directly related past PYQ was found.

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