Arrange the following conquests of Alauddin Khilji in chronological order. 1. Ranthambor 2. Gujarat 3. Warangal 4. Chittor Select the correct answer from the code given below : Code :
- (a)3, 4, 1, 2
- (b)4, 2, 3, 1
- (c)1, 3, 2, 4
- (d)2, 1, 4, 3
Correct — D, 2, 1, 4, 3 — Gujarat, then Ranthambor, then Chittor, then Warangal. Alauddin Khalji's expansion runs in two clean phases and this list straddles both. The western and Rajput phase came first: in early 1299 he sent Ulugh Khan and Nusrat Khan against Gujarat, the raid that brought back the slave who became Malik Kafur; Ranthambor, held by the Chauhan Hammiradeva, fell in July 1301 after a long siege; and Chittor, the Guhila stronghold under Ratnasimha, was taken in 1303 after an eight-month investment. The Deccan phase followed, run largely by Malik Kafur, and Warangal came in 1310 — a month-long siege after which the Kakatiya ruler Prataparudra submitted with tribute rather than being annexed. One caution on the first item: 1299 is the date of the Gujarat raid; the region was formally annexed later, around 1304, and dating Gujarat by the annexation instead of the raid is what makes candidates rebuild the sequence wrongly.
- (a)3, 4, 1, 2 — Very nearly the sequence reversed. It opens with Warangal, which was the last of the four in 1310, and closes with Gujarat, which was the first in 1299. If you remember only that the Deccan campaigns came after the Rajput ones, this option falls immediately.
- (b)4, 2, 3, 1 — It starts with Chittor, taken in 1303, and then places Gujarat (1299) and Ranthambor (1301) after it. Chittor is in fact the third of the four; nothing in this order survives the dates.
- (c)1, 3, 2, 4 — The subtler error. It gets Ranthambor early, which is defensible, but then inserts Warangal second — moving the 1310 Deccan campaign in front of both Gujarat and Chittor. It also leaves Chittor last, when Chittor preceded Warangal by seven years.
Alauddin Khalji ruled from 1296 to 1316 and pursued the widest territorial expansion of the Delhi Sultanate before the Tughlaqs. His campaigns fall into two blocks. The first, roughly 1299 to 1311, subdued the western and Rajput kingdoms — Gujarat, Ranthambor, Chittor, Malwa in 1305, Siwana and Jalore — and these were annexations, folded into the Sultanate's directly administered territory. The second, from 1307 onward and conducted mainly by Malik Kafur, reached into the Deccan and the far south — Devagiri, Warangal in 1310, Dwarasamudra and Madurai in 1311 — and these were mostly tributary submissions rather than annexations, because holding the peninsula from Delhi was beyond the Sultanate's reach.
Chronology questions on Alauddin are answered by phase before they are answered by date. Fix the rule that everything Rajput comes before everything Deccan, and the four items sort themselves into a front group — Gujarat, Ranthambor, Chittor — and a back group of one, Warangal. That alone eliminates three of the four options here, because only (d) puts Warangal last. Ordering the front group then needs just two dates: the Gujarat expedition of 1299 and the fall of Ranthambor in July 1301, with Chittor in 1303 behind both. The recurring trap in this area is the Gujarat date, because the campaign of 1299 was a raid and the formal annexation came about five years later; examiners date it by the campaign.
- Gujarat: invaded in early 1299 by Ulugh Khan and Nusrat Khan; formally annexed around 1304 — the raid is the date examiners use
- Ranthambor fell in July 1301 after a long siege; its ruler was the Chauhan Hammiradeva
- Chittor was taken in 1303 after an eight-month siege; its ruler was Ratnasimha of the Guhila line
- Warangal was besieged in 1310 and the Kakatiya ruler Prataparudra submitted with tribute rather than being annexed
- Malik Kafur, who led the Deccan campaigns, was brought back from the Gujarat expedition of 1299
- Other campaigns in the same reign: Malwa 1305, Devagiri and Siwana 1308, Dwarasamudra and Madurai 1311, Jalore 1311
- Dating Gujarat by the annexation of about 1304 rather than the raid of 1299, which reorders the whole sequence
- Placing Warangal early because it is a famous conquest; every Deccan campaign came after every Rajput one in this list
- Confusing Chittor's 1303 siege with the later Rajput sieges of Siwana and Jalore in 1308 and 1311
UPPSC asks Alauddin Khalji almost exclusively as a chronology — arrange four conquests in order — and it has now done so twice in four papers with an overlapping list, so the campaign dates are worth memorising outright. UPSC asks the same reign through statement sets on Mongol invasions, market regulations and the character of the Deccan submissions.
With reference to Indian history, consider the following statements : 1. The first Mongol invasion of India happened during the reign of Jalal-ud-din Khalji. 2. During the reign of Ala-ud-din Khalji, one Mongol assault marched up to Delhi and besieged the city. 3. Muhammad-bin-Tughlaq temporarily lost portions of north-west of his kingdom to Mongols. Which of the statements given above is/are correct ?
- (a) 1 and 2
- (b) 2 only
- (c) 1 and 3
- (d) 3 only
Answer(b) 2 only
The same reign, asked in the same year at the national level, and the missing half of the story. The Mongol siege of Delhi in 1303 falls in the very gap between Ranthambor and Chittor — which is why Alauddin was fighting on two fronts through these campaigns.
Arrange the following conquests of Alauddin Khalji in correct chronological order and select the correct answer from the code given below. 1. Ranthambore 2. Jaisalmer 3. Warangal 4. Chittor Code :
- (a) 1, 2, 3, 4
- (b) 2, 1, 3, 4
- (c) 2, 1, 4, 3
- (d) 1, 2, 4, 3
Answer(c) 2, 1, 4, 3
The same question three years later with Jaisalmer swapped in for Gujarat — and the same shape of answer, since Jaisalmer too was besieged in 1299. UPPSC is clearly working from one campaign list, so learn Gujarat 1299, Jaisalmer 1299, Ranthambor 1301, Chittor 1303 and Warangal 1310 as a block.
- practice — not a real PYQ
The general who led Alauddin Khalji's campaigns into the Deccan and the far south was
- (a)Ulugh Khan
- (b)Nusrat Khan
- (c)Malik Kafur
- (d)Zafar Khan
Answer(c) Malik Kafur — brought back from the Gujarat expedition of 1299, he led the campaigns against Devagiri, Warangal in 1310, and Dwarasamudra and Madurai in 1311.
- practice — not a real PYQ
The Kakatiya ruler who submitted to Alauddin Khalji's forces at Warangal in 1310 was
- (a)Ratnasimha
- (b)Prataparudra
- (c)Hammiradeva
- (d)Ramachandra
Answer(b) Prataparudra — the Kakatiya ruler of Warangal, who submitted with tribute after a month-long siege in 1310; Ratnasimha held Chittor, Hammiradeva held Ranthambor, and Ramachandra was the Yadava ruler of Devagiri.