UPPSC 2019 Prelims GS Paper-I · Question 55 of 150

Correct — B, A-2, B-3, C-4, D-1. All four pairs are standard and independently verifiable. The Pallavas ruled from Kanchi (Kanchipuram) in northern Tamil Nadu, the seat from which Mahendravarman I and Narasimhavarman I built the rock-cut and structural temple tradition that culminates at Mamallapuram and in the Kailasanatha temple at Kanchi itself. The Pandyas ruled from Madura (Madurai) on the Vaigai, their capital from Sangam times through the thirteenth-century revival under the Sundara Pandyas, with Korkai as their pearl-fishery port. The Yadavas — the Seunas — ruled from Devagiri in the western Deccan, the hill fortress that Alauddin Khalji raided in 1296 and that Muhammad bin Tughlaq later renamed Daulatabad and made his second capital. The Kakatiyas ruled from Warangal, called Orugallu in Telugu, the capital of Ganapatideva, Rudrama Devi and Prataparudra until the Delhi Sultanate took it in 1323. Only code (b) carries all four of these pairings.

• (a)A-2, B-1, C-4, D-3 — It puts Pallava at Kanchi and Yadava at Devagiri correctly, then swaps the remaining two: it makes Warangal the Pandya capital and Madura the Kakatiya capital. Warangal is unambiguously Kakatiya and Madurai unambiguously Pandya, so the last two legs are inverted.
• (c)A-1, B-2, C-3, D-4 — This is the plain 1-2-3-4 sequence and every pair fails. It places the Pallavas at Warangal, the Pandyas at Kanchi, the Yadavas at Madurai and the Kakatiyas at Devagiri. A single check — Pallava must be Kanchi — knocks it out at once.
• (d)A-2, B-4, C-3, D-1 — Pallava-Kanchi and Kakatiya-Warangal are right, but it hands Devagiri to the Pandyas and Madurai to the Yadavas. Devagiri is deep in the western Deccan and was never a Tamil capital, while Madurai lies at the southern tip of the peninsula and was never held by the Seuna Yadavas.

The list spans two eras of peninsular history. The Pallavas of Kanchi (roughly sixth to ninth centuries) and the Pandyas of Madurai are the older Tamil powers, locked with the Chalukyas and later the Cholas in the classic triangular contests of south India. The Yadavas of Devagiri and the Kakatiyas of Warangal belong to the twelfth-to-fourteenth-century Deccan, both emerging from the wreck of the Later Chalukya empire, both patrons of major temple architecture, and both destroyed within a generation by the Khalji and Tughlaq expeditions southwards — the Yadavas finally annexed in 1317-18 and the Kakatiyas in 1323. Learning them as dynasty-capital pairs also fixes the political map that the Delhi Sultanate marched into.

Two similar-sounding names carry the trap. 'Kanchi' and 'Kakatiya' both start with a hard K, and candidates in a hurry pair them — which is exactly what option (c) offers. The second confusion is between the two Deccan capitals, Devagiri and Warangal: both fell to Delhi within thirty years, so they blur together. Anchor them geographically instead. Devagiri is in western Maharashtra, in the Yadava heartland; Warangal is in Telangana, in the Kakatiya heartland. Note also the paper's spellings: 'Kaktiya' is the printed form of Kakatiya, and 'Madura' the older English spelling of Madurai — neither changes the intended pairing.

• Pallava capital: Kanchipuram; their port was Mamallapuram, and Narasimhavarman I captured the Chalukya capital Vatapi in 642 CE.
• Pandya capital: Madurai on the Vaigai; Korkai was their pearl-fishery port, and the dynasty spans the Sangam age to the thirteenth-century Sundara Pandyas.
• Yadava (Seuna) capital: Devagiri; Alauddin Khalji's raid of 1296 was the first Turkish incursion into the Deccan, and the kingdom was annexed in 1317-18.
• Muhammad bin Tughlaq renamed Devagiri as Daulatabad and shifted his capital there in 1327.
• Kakatiya capital: Warangal (Orugallu); rulers include Ganapatideva, the queen Rudrama Devi and Prataparudra, and Warangal fell to the Delhi Sultanate in 1323.
• Motupalli on the Andhra coast was the chief Kakatiya seaport, noticed by Marco Polo; the Ramappa temple at Palampet, built under Ganapatideva, was inscribed as a UNESCO World Heritage Site in 2021.

• Pairing Kakatiya with Kanchi because both begin with K — Kanchi is Pallava, Warangal is Kakatiya.
• Swapping the two Deccan capitals. Devagiri (Daulatabad) is in Maharashtra and Yadava; Warangal is in Telangana and Kakatiya.
• Reading 'Madura' as somewhere other than Madurai, or 'Kaktiya' as a dynasty you do not know — both are simply older or printed spellings.

UPPSC sets dynasty-and-capital as a four-by-four match-list almost every cycle, sometimes swapping capitals for mahajanapadas or for temple sites; UPSC prefers a sharper single fact about one of the same dynasties — a port, a founding date or a chronological ordering — so the capital list is the base layer for both.

• practice — not a real PYQ

  Dwarasamudra was the capital of which of the following dynasties?

  • (a)Kakatiya
  • (b)Hoysala
  • (c)Yadava
  • (d)Pandya

  Answer(b) Hoysala — Dwarasamudra, modern Halebidu in Karnataka, was the Hoysala capital; the Kakatiyas ruled from Warangal, the Yadavas from Devagiri and the Pandyas from Madurai.

• practice — not a real PYQ

  Devagiri was renamed Daulatabad and made a second capital by

  • (a)Alauddin Khalji
  • (b)Muhammad bin Tughlaq
  • (c)Firoz Shah Tughlaq
  • (d)Ghiyasuddin Balban

  Answer(b) Muhammad bin Tughlaq — he renamed the old Yadava capital Daulatabad and shifted his capital there in 1327; Alauddin Khalji had earlier raided Devagiri in 1296 but did not annex it.