SSC CGL 2025 Tier-I · 21 September 2025, Shift 3 · General Awareness · Question 4 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 Mughal Emperor is known for popularising pietra dura, or stone inlay technique, and the double dome in Indian architecture?

(a)Babur
(b)Akbar
(c)Shah Jahan
(d)Aurangzeb

Answer

Why

Correct — C. Shah Jahan (reigned 1628–1658) put both features on his most famous building. His Taj Mahal at Agra is white marble inlaid with coloured stone in pietra dura, and it is crowned by a double dome.

In the Red Fort at Delhi, pietra dura panels behind his throne show Orpheus playing the lute → option (c).

Why the others are wrong

(a)
Babur — Babur ruled in India only from 1526 to 1530. He is remembered for laying out formal gardens, not for marble inlay or domes.
(b)
Akbar — Akbar's signature buildings, Fatehpur Sikri and the Agra Fort, are mostly red sandstone. The marble inlay in the stem belongs to the next two reigns.
(d)
Aurangzeb — Aurangzeb built the Badshahi Mosque at Lahore and the small Moti Masjid in Delhi's Red Fort. The stem's pairing of inlay and dome is credited to his father, Shah Jahan.

Concept

Pietra dura is Italian for 'hard stone'. Shaped pieces of coloured stone are cut and set into marble so the pattern sits flush with the surface.

A double dome is two shells, one above the other. The inner dome keeps the ceiling in proportion to the room, and the taller outer dome gives the building its height from outside.

The Taj Mahal puts both on one building, which is why the question ties them to Shah Jahan.

Neither feature was new under Shah Jahan. Humayun's Tomb, built in Akbar's reign, already has a double dome, and the tomb of Itimad-ud-Daulah at Agra, built under Jahangir, already uses stone inlay.

The stem's verb is popularising, and it pairs the two features. That pairing is Shah Jahan's.

Key facts

Shah Jahan reigned from 1628 to 1658.
The Taj Mahal, built by Shah Jahan in memory of Mumtaz Mahal, combines white marble, pietra dura and a double dome.
The tomb of Itimad-ud-Daulah at Agra, built in Jahangir's reign, is an early Mughal use of marble inlay.
Shah Jahan also built the Red Fort and the Jama Masjid of Shahjahanabad (Delhi).

Study next

The charbagh garden plan around Mughal tombsHumayun's Tomb as the model for later Mughal tombsFatehpur Sikri and the Buland Darwaza under Akbar

Common traps

Picking Akbar because Humayun's Tomb, built in his reign, has a double dome: the stem pairs the dome with pietra dura, and that pairing is Shah Jahan's.
Confusing pietra dura with jali work: a jali is a pierced stone screen, pietra dura is coloured stone set into marble.

Here an emperor is identified by the techniques of his buildings.

Mughal architecture is also asked at 14 Sep 2025, 12:30, GA Q.3, on its blend of styles and its red sandstone and white marble, and at 19 Sep 2025, 09:00, GA Q.2, which orders Agra Fort, Jahangir Mahal and the Red Fort by date.

Related PYQs

No directly related past PYQ was found.

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