UPHESC Assistant Professor History 2025 PYQs

Concept: In the Bahmani kingdom the Sadr-i-Jahan was the chief justice and minister of religious affairs and charitable endowments.

1. Wakil-us-Sultanat – regent/chief minister; Amir-i-Jumla – finance; Wazir-i-Ashraf – foreign affairs; Peshwa – assistant to the Wakil; Kotwal – police.
2. Sadr dealt with ulema, waqf grants and qazis – religion and justice.

Short trick: Sadr = Shari‘a (religion + justice) in every Islamic state.

Concept: R. P. Tripathi held that Sher Shah was an able administrator but not an innovator – he revived and improved institutions of Alauddin Khalji and others.

1. K. R. Qanungo, by contrast, praised Sher Shah’s originality and called him a great constructive genius, precursor of Akbar.
2. Tripathi’s view: efficiency yes, originality no.

Short trick: Qanungo = admirer (‘original’), Tripathi = critic (‘reviver’).

Concept: Match each coin with its metal; note that II and IV are both ‘gold’.

1. Ilahi – Akbar’s gold coin; Shahansah/Shamsab – Akbar’s large gold coin → both gold (II or IV).
2. Jital – copper (III); Rupaiya – Sher Shah’s silver coin (I).
3. Only option D gives b – III and c – I with gold for a and d.

Short trick: Rupee = silver, Jital = copper, Akbar’s showpieces = gold.

Concept: Irfan Habib showed that the earliest clear Indian reference to the spinning wheel (charkha) is in Isami’s Futuh-us-Salatin (1350), and the first detailed description of the Persian wheel (rahat) with gearing is in the Baburnama.

1. Isami mentions the charkha as a symbol of women’s work.
2. Babur describes the geared water-wheel used in Lahore, Dipalpur, Sirhind.

Short trick: Charkha → Isami; Rahat → Babur.

Concept: The Barid Shahis of Bidar (1490s–1619), the weakest of the five Deccan sultanates, issued only copper coins.

1. Qutb Shahis of Golconda struck gold, silver and copper coins.
2. Sayyids and Lodis issued billon (silver-alloy) tankas besides copper; Bahlul Lodi’s ‘bahluli’ was copper.

Short trick: Bidar’s Barid Shahis – copper only.

Concept: In 1657 Shivaji captured Kalyan and Bhiwandi from Bijapur and began building ships there – the beginning of the Maratha navy.

1. Later he built sea forts like Sindhudurg and Vijaydurg.
2. Bajirao, Balaji Vishwanath and Tarabai belong to the 18th century.

Short trick: 1657: Kalyan–Bhiwandi = birth of Shivaji’s fleet.

Concept: In Sultanate weights, 1 man (maund) = 40 sers, as in Barani’s price lists for Alauddin Khalji’s markets.

1. Only the weight of the ser changed over time (Alauddin’s man ≈ 28–30 lb modern), but the ratio stayed 40 sers to a man.
2. ‘28’ is the approximate weight in pounds, not the number of sers.

Short trick: Man : ser = 1 : 40 (same as the later Indian maund).

Concept: The Modak (Moira/Halwai) of Bengal and eastern India was the caste of sweet-makers, who prepared gur (jaggery) based confectionery.

1. The name comes from modaka, a sweet made of jaggery.
2. Dyers were Rangrez/Chhipa; leather workers Chamar/Muchi; liquor-makers Sunri/Kalal.

Short trick: Modak (sweet) → gur → Modak caste.

Concept: Majma-ul-Bahrain (‘Confluence of the Two Oceans’, 1655) by Dara Shikoh compares Sufi and Vedantic concepts.

1. Dara also translated 52 Upanishads as Sirr-i-Akbar (1657).
2. Other works: Safinat-ul-Auliya, Sakinat-ul-Auliya.

Short trick: Two oceans = Islam (Sufism) + Hinduism (Vedanta) – Dara.

Concept: The Gandhak ki Baoli in Mehrauli was built by Iltutmish (early 13th c.) – its water smelled of sulphur (gandhak).

1. It is a five-tier stepwell near the dargah of Qutbuddin Bakhtiyar Kaki.
2. Iltutmish also built the Hauz-i-Shamsi at Mehrauli.

Short trick: Mehrauli water works (Gandhak Baoli, Hauz-i-Shamsi) = Iltutmish.

Concept: Ramtanu Pandey received the title ‘Tansen’ from Raja Vikramajit (Vikramaditya) of Gwalior; Akbar gave him the title ‘Mian’.

1. He was a master of dhrupad (B true).
2. He created ragas like Miyan ki Malhar, Miyan ki Todi, Darbari Kanada (C true).
3. His tomb is at Gwalior near Muhammad Ghaus’s tomb (D true).

Short trick: Tansen ← Gwalior raja; ‘Mian’ ← Akbar.

Concept: Shah Jahan founded the madrasa Dar-ul-Baqa (‘abode of eternity’) near the Jama Masjid of Shahjahanabad (Delhi).

1. Firoz Tughluq’s famous college was the Madrasa-i-Firozshahi at Hauz Khas.
2. Iltutmish’s madrasa was the Muizzi madrasa; Abul Fazl was a scholar, not a founder of this institution.

Short trick: Shahjahanabad + Jama Masjid + Dar-ul-Baqa = Shah Jahan.

Concept: Abu Talib Kalim of Hamadan was Shah Jahan’s Malik-ush-Shu‘ara (poet laureate) and wrote the verse chronicle Padshahnama.

1. Haji Muhammad Jan Qudsi was also a court poet of Shah Jahan, but the laureate title went to Kalim.
2. Akbar’s laureates: Ghazali Mashhadi, then Faizi.

Short trick: Shah Jahan – Kalim; Akbar – Faizi.

Concept: Zeb-un-Nissa, eldest daughter of Aurangzeb, wrote Persian poetry under the pen-name (takhallus) Makhfi (‘the hidden one’); her verses are collected in Diwan-i-Makhfi.

1. Jahanara wrote Munis-ul-Arwah (on Muinuddin Chishti) in prose.
2. Mariam-uz-Zamani was Jahangir’s mother.

Short trick: Makhfi = hidden → the poet-princess who wrote from behind the veil, Zeb-un-Nissa.

Concept: In Persian, banna means a builder or mason; its plural banna’an/bannayan was used in medieval records for masons.

1. Building works of the Sultans and Mughals list bannayan (masons), sang-tarash (stone-cutters), najjar (carpenters) etc.
2. Goldsmith = zargar; astrologer = munajjim/jotshi.

Short trick: Banna → bina (building) → mason.

Concept: Shaikh Akhi Sirajuddin Usman, a disciple of Nizamuddin Auliya, carried the Chishti order to Bengal (Gaur/Pandua).

1. His disciple Shaikh Alaul Haq and then Nur Qutb-i-Alam strengthened it at Pandua.
2. Hamiduddin Nagauri – Nagaur (Rajasthan); Qutbuddin Munawwar – Hansi (Punjab).

Short trick: Akhi Siraj – ‘Aina-i-Hind’ – Chishti lamp of Bengal.

Concept: Kumaravyasa (Naranappa, 15th c.) wrote the Karnata Bharata Kathamanjari, the popular Kannada Mahabharata (‘Gadugina Bharata’).

1. Kamban wrote the Tamil Ramayana (Ramavataram).
2. Basava was the 12th-century Virashaiva reformer (vachanas).

Short trick: Kumara-Vyasa = ‘young Vyasa’ – Kannada Mahabharata.

Concept: Mawas (or mawasat) were the defiant, rebellious tracts and villages that refused revenue; the Sultans led punitive plundering raids against them.

1. Barani and Ibn Battuta describe expeditions against mawas villages in the Doab and Katehar.
2. Hence ‘mawas’ is linked to raids on rebellious villages, not a tax, coin or officer.

Short trick: Mawas = rebel refuge → punitive raid.

Concept: Abdur Razzaq (1443) wrote that Vijayanagara’s coins – varaha (pagoda/hun), pratapa (half varaha) and fanam – were of gold.

1. He added that the tar was silver (1/6 fanam) and the jital copper.
2. Varaha carried the boar emblem; pratapa = ½ varaha; fanam = 1/10 pratapa.

Short trick: Varaha–Pratapa–Fanam = gold; Tar = silver; Jital = copper.

Concept: The Nonias (from non/lon = salt) were the caste that extracted saltpetre (shora) and salt from saline earth in Bihar–Bengal.

1. Saltpetre from Bihar/Bengal was a major export of the Dutch and English companies (for gunpowder) in the 17th–18th c.
2. The English and Dutch advanced money to Nonia workers through contractors.

Short trick: Non = salt → Nonia = saltpetre/salt maker.