SSC CGL 2025 Tier-I · 23 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.

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.

In the Nagara temple, which element is the projecting central offset of the wall face?

(a)Karna Sringa
(b)Pratiratha
(c)Anuratha
(d)Bhadra

Answer

Why

Correct — D. A Nagara temple wall is not one flat face. Its plan steps out in vertical offsets, and the one at the centre of each face is the bhadra.

Temple glossaries define the bhadra as a projection typically of the central part of the wall, often aligned to one of the cardinal directions → option (d).

Why the others are wrong

(a)
Karna Sringa — Karna names the corner offset, and a sringa is a miniature spire. Either way the term points to the corner, not to the centre of the wall face.
(b)
Pratiratha — Pratiratha is one of the intermediate offsets, set in pairs on either side of the centre, between it and the corner. It flanks the central projection rather than forming it.
(c)
Anuratha — Anuratha is another intermediate offset, also repeated in pairs on either side of the centre. It adds steps to the wall; the central step itself is the bhadra.

Concept

A Nagara temple is read in two directions. Upward, the curving shikhara rises over the sanctum and is crowned by the amalaka.

Across the plan, each wall face is broken into offsets. A central bhadra is flanked by intermediate offsets and closed by the corner offsets, the karnas.

Pancharatha and saptaratha plans are named by how many offsets a face carries: five or seven.

Odishan temples use their own names for the same parts: the central offset is the raha, the corner the kanika, and anuratha and pratiratha name offsets in between.

Key facts

Bhadra: the central offset of a Nagara wall face, often aligned to a cardinal direction.
Karna: the corner offset of the wall.
Pancharatha: a plan with five offsets on each face, a central one, two intermediate and two at the corners.
Amalaka: the stone disc that sits atop a Nagara shikhara.

Study next

The parts of a Nagara shikhara: amalaka, kalasha and urushringaOdishan temple terms: rekha deul, pidha deul, raha and kanikaHow Dravida temples differ: vimana and gopuram

Common traps

Picking an option with 'ratha' in it because the offsets are called rathas — the central one has its own name, bhadra.
Confusing wall terms with tower terms — a sringa is a spirelet on the superstructure, not a part of the wall face.

Here the Nagara wall is asked by one named part. The tower is asked at 19 Sep 2025, 12:30, GA Q.11 (the simplest shikhara's base, keyed: square with curving walls) and 19 Sep 2025, 16:00, GA Q.2 (the amalaka atop the shikhara).

Related PYQs

No directly related past PYQ was found.

Topic: Culture — all 246 SSC CGL questions on it, every solved shift.