SSC CGL 2025 Tier-I · 19 September 2025, Shift 3 · 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 11 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.

Read the following statements and choose the correct option: Statement 1: The amalaka sits atop the shikhara in Nagara-style temples. Statement 2 : In Drāviḍa-style temples, the vimana refers to the gateway tower (gopuram).

(a)Both Statement 1 and Statement 2 are correct
(b)Both Statement 1 and Statement 2 are incorrect
(c)Statement 1 is correct, but Statement 2 is incorrect
(d)Statement 1 is incorrect, but Statement 2 is correct

Answer

Why

Correct — C. Test each statement against the part it names.

Statement 1 holds. The amalaka, a notched stone disc ridged at the rim, sits on top of the shikhara of a Nagara temple, and a kalasha finial crowns it.

Statement 2 fails. The vimana is the structure over the garbhagriha, the sanctum. The gateway tower is a different structure, the gopuram.

One correct, one incorrect → option (c).

Why the others are wrong

(a)
Both Statement 1 and Statement 2 are correct — Statement 2 is wrong, so both cannot be correct. It hands the vimana the role of the gopuram: the vimana rises over the sanctum, the gopuram over the gateway.
(b)
Both Statement 1 and Statement 2 are incorrect — Statement 1 is right: the amalaka does sit atop the Nagara shikhara, beneath the kalasha. So 'both incorrect' fails on the first statement.
(d)
Statement 1 is incorrect, but Statement 2 is correct — This reverses the two. The amalaka statement is the correct one, and calling the vimana a gateway tower is the error.

Concept

North Indian Nagara temples rise into a curving tower, the shikhara, capped by the amalaka and then the kalasha.

South Indian Dravida temples call the structure over the sanctum the vimana. The complex is entered through gateway towers, the gopurams, and in large southern temples the gopurams are typically bigger than the vimana.

The gateway gopurams of a large southern temple are typically taller than its vimana, so the tallest tower in view is not the tower over the sanctum.

Key facts

Amalaka: a notched stone disc, ridged at the rim, that sits atop the shikhara of a Nagara temple.
The amalaka is crowned by a kalasha, the finial.
Vimana: the structure over the garbhagriha (sanctum) of a South Indian temple.
Gopuram: the gateway tower of a South Indian temple complex.

Study next

The three temple styles: Nagara, Dravida and VesaraParts of a Hindu temple: garbhagriha, mandapa, shikhara and vimanaDravida temples of the Pallavas and the Cholas

Common traps

Taking the tallest tower of a southern temple for the vimana: in large temples the gateway gopurams are typically taller than the vimana over the sanctum.
Reading Statement 2 as half-right because a vimana is a tower: it is the tower over the sanctum, and the statement fails because it names the gateway.

Here temple architecture is tested as two statements about named parts. Temple styles are matched to regions at 18 Sep 2025, 12:30, GA Q.2 (Vesara, Rekha-Deul, Bhumija, Kalinga), and a temple centre to its dynasty at 10 Sep 2024, 09:00, GA Q.8 (Mahabalipuram, keyed Pallava).

Related PYQs

No directly related past PYQ was found.