UPPSC 2024 Prelims GS Paper-I · Question 38 of 150

Correct — B, A-4, B-3, C-2, D-1. Kanchipuram (A) belongs to the ancient period (4): it is one of India's oldest continuously inhabited cities, known to early Tamil and Sanskrit literature, the capital of the Pallavas from about the sixth to the ninth century CE and a celebrated centre of learning — a classic ancient temple town whose plan grows outward from its great shrines. Jaisalmer (B) is medieval (3): the Bhati Rajput ruler Rawal Jaisal founded it in 1156 CE on the Trikuta hill, shifting his seat from Lodhurva, and it grew as a walled fort-town on the caravan routes crossing the Thar. Kodaikanal (C) is colonial (2): it was laid out in the Palani Hills in 1845 by American missionaries and British officials as a retreat from the heat and disease of the plains — the same hill-station type as Shimla, Darjeeling, Ooty and Mussoorie, arranged around a lake, a mall and church and club buildings. Bhilai (D) is post-independence (1): the Bhilai Steel Plant in Durg district (then Madhya Pradesh, now Chhattisgarh) was built under the Second Five Year Plan on an Indo-Soviet agreement of 1955, with production beginning in 1959, and the township of numbered sectors around the works is entirely a planned creation of independent India. Hence A-4, B-3, C-2, D-1.

• (a)A-2, B-3, C-4, D-1 — It gets Jaisalmer and Bhilai right but swaps the other two — making Kanchipuram a colonial town and Kodaikanal an ancient one. Kodaikanal did not exist as a town before the 1840s; it is one of the purest examples of a colonial hill station in India, whereas Kanchipuram is documented centuries before the Christian era's close as a Pallava capital.
• (c)A-1, B-2, C-3, D-4 — It reverses the chronology completely — Kanchipuram becomes post-independence and Bhilai ancient. Bhilai was a village until the steel plant of the 1950s created the township; no ancient city stood there.
• (d)A-3, B-4, C-1, D-2 — Every pair is wrong. It dates Jaisalmer to the ancient period (it was founded in 1156 CE, firmly medieval), Kodaikanal to after Independence (it was a British-era hill station from 1845) and Bhilai to the colonial period (its plant and township date from 1955-59).

Indian urban geography classifies towns partly by the era in which they were founded or deliberately laid out, because each era produced a recognisable type. Ancient towns are religious, administrative and craft centres — temple towns such as Kanchipuram, Madurai, Varanasi and Puri. Medieval towns are largely fort and capital towns of the Rajput, Sultanate and Mughal states — Jaisalmer, Jodhpur, Jaipur, Agra, Delhi, Golconda. Colonial towns are the port cities the Europeans built (Chennai, Kolkata, Mumbai), the cantonments, and the hill stations created for the health and leisure of a European administration. Post-independence towns are planned administrative capitals (Chandigarh, Bhubaneswar, Gandhinagar) and industrial townships built around a public-sector plant (Bhilai, Rourkela, Durgapur, Bokaro).

The fastest route through this item is elimination on the one unambiguous pair. Of the four cities only Bhilai can be post-independence — it grew with a steel plant of the 1950s — so D-1 must hold, and that already removes options (c) and (d). What remains is a single decision between (a) and (b): is Kanchipuram ancient and Kodaikanal colonial, or the reverse? Kodaikanal is the giveaway, because hill stations as a settlement type simply do not predate the British. That fixes C-2, A-4, and the answer is (b). Remember the type, not the date: temple town = ancient, desert fort town = medieval, hill station or port = colonial, steel township or new capital = post-independence.

• Kanchipuram, Tamil Nadu — an ancient temple city and the Pallava capital (c. 6th-9th century CE); its Kailasanathar temple was built under Narasimhavarman II in the early 8th century, and it is counted among the seven sacred cities (Sapta Puri).
• Jaisalmer, Rajasthan — founded in 1156 CE by Rawal Jaisal of the Bhati Rajputs, who moved his capital from Lodhurva; its living fort, the Sonar Quila, is one of the six forts inscribed by UNESCO as the Hill Forts of Rajasthan in 2013.
• Kodaikanal, Tamil Nadu — established in 1845 in the Palani Hills by American missionaries and British officials; its central lake is artificial, created in the 1860s. Colonial hill stations were built as sanatoria and summer seats of government.
• Bhilai, Chhattisgarh — the Bhilai Steel Plant was set up under the Second Five Year Plan on the Indo-Soviet agreement of 1955, with production from 1959; of the three integrated plants of the decade, Bhilai had Soviet collaboration, Rourkela West German and Durgapur British.
• Post-independence planned towns fall into two families: administrative capitals (Chandigarh, Bhubaneswar, Gandhinagar, Naya Raipur) and industrial townships built around a public-sector plant.

• Assuming any town in a desert or in the deep south must be ancient — Jaisalmer is medieval (1156 CE) and Kodaikanal is Victorian (1845).
• Reading 'period of being planned' as 'period of first settlement'; the question asks when the town took its present planned shape, which is why Bhilai is dated to the steel plant and not to the village that preceded it.
• Forgetting the elimination shortcut — fixing the one certain pair (Bhilai = post-independence) removes half the options before any hard recall is needed.

UPPSC repeatedly builds match-lists that pair Indian places with a period, a function, a state or a dynasty; UPSC prefers a single city asked through its historical association — who founded it, which dynasty ruled from it, or what it is known for today.

• practice — not a real PYQ

  Kodaikanal, Ooty, Shimla and Darjeeling belong to which category of Indian towns?

  • (a)Ancient temple towns
  • (b)Medieval fort towns
  • (c)Colonial hill stations
  • (d)Post-independence industrial townships

  Answer(c) Colonial hill stations — all four were developed by the British in the nineteenth century as sanatoria and summer retreats from the heat of the plains.

• practice — not a real PYQ

  The city of Jaisalmer was founded in 1156 CE by which ruler?

  • (a)Rawal Jaisal
  • (b)Rana Kumbha
  • (c)Rao Jodha
  • (d)Sawai Jai Singh II

  Answer(a) Rawal Jaisal — the Bhati Rajput chief who shifted his seat from Lodhurva to the Trikuta hill; Rao Jodha founded Jodhpur (1459) and Sawai Jai Singh II founded Jaipur (1727).