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
Correct — C, 2, 1, 4, 3 — Jaisalmer, then Ranthambore, then Chittor, then Warangal. Alauddin Khalji's campaigns fall into two clean phases, and the four forts in this list are strung across both. The Rajput phase came first. Jaisalmer was besieged in 1299, the same season as the raid on Gujarat, and ended in the saka and jauhar remembered in Rajput tradition. Ranthambore, held by the Chauhan Hammiradeva, fell in July 1301 after a long siege that Amir Khusrau accompanied. Chittor, the Guhila stronghold of Ratnasimha, was taken in 1303 after an eight-month siege — the campaign that later bardic literature, above all Malik Muhammad Jayasi's Padmavat of 1540, wrapped around the legend of Padmini. Then came the Deccan phase, run by the slave-general Malik Kafur: Devagiri in 1308, Warangal in 1310, and Dwarasamudra and Madurai in 1311. Warangal is therefore the last of the four by a clear seven years, and it was not an annexation — after a month-long siege the Kakatiya ruler Prataparudra bought peace with a vast tribute and continued to rule as a vassal, which is the pattern Alauddin used in the south generally. So the order is Jaisalmer 1299, Ranthambore 1301, Chittor 1303, Warangal 1310, which is 2, 1, 4, 3. One honest note on the evidence: of the four, Jaisalmer is the thinnest-documented. It is conventionally dated to 1299 and every standard account places it earliest, but it does not get the detailed narrative that Khusrau gives Ranthambore, Chittor and the Deccan campaigns, so the 1299 date rests on a weaker footing than the other three.
- (a)1, 2, 3, 4 — Wrong at both ends. It opens with Ranthambore (1301) before Jaisalmer (1299) and closes with Warangal (1310) before Chittor (1303), so it inverts both halves of the sequence. This is the option a candidate picks by reading the printed numbers as though they were already in order — which is exactly what a chronology question is designed to punish.
- (b)2, 1, 3, 4 — Gets the Rajput half right — Jaisalmer in 1299 before Ranthambore in 1301 — and then places Warangal ahead of Chittor. That reverses the two phases of the reign. Chittor fell in 1303, while the Deccan expeditions under Malik Kafur only began in 1308 with Devagiri and reached Warangal in 1310. Alauddin secured Rajputana before turning south; he did not do both at once.
- (d)1, 2, 4, 3 — The mirror image of option (b). It gets the closing pair right — Chittor in 1303 before Warangal in 1310 — but opens with Ranthambore before Jaisalmer. Ranthambore fell in July 1301, roughly two years after the Jaisalmer siege of 1299, so the first two positions must be swapped. As with option (b), getting one pair right is not enough when the question is built out of two independent pairings.
Alauddin Khalji's territorial expansion between 1296 and 1316 ran in two distinct directions. First he secured northern and western India, taking the Rajput forts that commanded the routes and the treasuries: Gujarat raided in 1299 and annexed in 1304, Jaisalmer in 1299, Ranthambore in 1301, Chittor in 1303, Malwa in 1305, Siwana in 1308 and Jalore in 1311. Only after the north was under control, and after the Mongol threat had been beaten off, did he send Malik Kafur into the peninsula — Devagiri in 1308, Warangal in 1310, Dwarasamudra and Madurai in 1311. The southern campaigns were deliberately different in kind: they extracted enormous tribute and acknowledgment of overlordship rather than annexing territory, because Delhi could not garrison the far south.
Chronology questions on the Khalji conquests are easiest to handle by phase rather than by date. Ask first which of the listed places are Rajput forts and which are Deccan capitals: Jaisalmer, Ranthambore and Chittor belong to the northern phase of 1299 to 1303, Warangal to the southern phase of 1308 to 1311. That alone puts Warangal last and eliminates the two options that do not. Then order the three Rajput forts, which is the only fine judgement the question demands: Jaisalmer 1299, Ranthambore 1301, Chittor 1303. It also helps to remember why the two phases are separated. The Mongols were pressing hard in these years — one assault under Alauddin marched up to Delhi and besieged the city in 1303, the year Chittor fell — and the Deccan expeditions became possible only once that frontier was secure.
- Jaisalmer was besieged in 1299 and ended in saka and jauhar; it is the thinnest-documented of the four conquests in this list and its date rests on a weaker evidentiary base than the others
- Ranthambore, held by the Chauhan Hammiradeva, fell in July 1301 after a prolonged siege that Amir Khusrau witnessed and described
- Chittor, under the Guhila ruler Ratnasimha, was captured in 1303 after an eight-month siege; the Padmini legend attached to it comes from Jayasi's Padmavat, written in 1540, more than two centuries later
- Warangal was besieged for a month in 1310 by Malik Kafur; the Kakatiya ruler Prataparudra submitted with an immense tribute and remained on his throne as a tributary rather than being annexed
- The full expansion sequence: Gujarat raided 1299 and annexed 1304, Jaisalmer 1299, Ranthambore 1301, Chittor 1303, Malwa 1305, Siwana and Devagiri 1308, Warangal 1310, Dwarasamudra, Madurai and Jalore 1311
- A Mongol army besieged Delhi itself in 1303, the year Chittor fell — which is why the Deccan campaigns had to wait until the frontier was secure
- Answering in the order the items are printed. The numbering here is deliberately scrambled, and option (a) is the reward for not checking
- Treating Warangal as an annexation. Prataparudra kept his throne and paid tribute; Alauddin's Deccan policy was extraction, not incorporation
- Reading the Padmini story as evidence for the Chittor campaign. Jayasi wrote the Padmavat in 1540, well over two centuries after 1303, and contemporary chronicles do not mention her
- Confusing Devagiri with Warangal. Devagiri (the Yadavas) fell first, in 1308; Warangal (the Kakatiyas) followed in 1310
UPPSC returns to the Delhi Sultanate every year and favours either a chronology of campaigns, as here, or a matched-pair item on a ruler and an institution or a relative. UPSC almost never asks for bare dates; it asks which statement about a reign is correct, which department belongs to which Sultan, or how the Mongol invasions map onto particular reigns.
Consider the map given below: The route indicated in the map was followed, during the course of his military exploits, by
- (a) Chandragupta II
- (b) Harshavardhana
- (c) Rajendra Chola
- (d) Malik Kafur
Answer(d) Malik Kafur
The southern half of this chronology drawn as a map. The route from Delhi through Devagiri and Warangal to Dwarasamudra and Madurai is Malik Kafur's campaign of 1310-11 — which is precisely why Warangal comes last among the four conquests here, and why it belongs to a different phase of the reign from the Rajput forts.
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
Supplies the reason for the gap between Alauddin's Rajput conquests and his Deccan expeditions. A Mongol army besieged Delhi itself in 1303, the year Chittor fell; only after that frontier was secured could Malik Kafur be sent south in 1308.
Which of the following is not correctly matched?
- (a) Gulbadan Begum – Daughter of Babur
- (b) Iltutmish – Father of Razia
- (c) Hamida Banu Begum – Wife of Allaudin Khilji
- (d) Shah Turkan – Wife of Iltutmish
Answer(c) Hamida Banu Begum – Wife of Allaudin Khilji
UPPSC testing the same Sultan by a different device — a deliberately mismatched pair rather than a sequence. Both questions punish a hazy sense of period: knowing that Alauddin ruled from 1296 to 1316 is what rules out a sixteenth-century Mughal consort there, and what separates his 1299-1303 Rajput sieges from his 1308-11 Deccan expeditions here.
- practice — not a real PYQ
The Kakatiya ruler who submitted to Malik Kafur after the siege of Warangal in 1310 and continued to rule as a tributary of Delhi was
- (a)Ramachandra
- (b)Prataparudra
- (c)Vira Ballala III
- (d)Hammiradeva
Answer(b) Prataparudra — the Kakatiya king of Warangal, who bought peace with an enormous tribute; Ramachandra was the Yadava of Devagiri, Vira Ballala III the Hoysala of Dwarasamudra, and Hammiradeva the Chauhan of Ranthambore.
- practice — not a real PYQ
Which one of the following forts was captured by Alauddin Khalji in 1301 from the Chauhan ruler Hammiradeva?
- (a)Chittor
- (b)Jalore
- (c)Ranthambore
- (d)Siwana
Answer(c) Ranthambore — taken in July 1301 after a long siege; Chittor followed in 1303, Siwana in 1308 and Jalore in 1311.