The Rajput kingdoms and the battles of Tarain

None of the four belongs to the early eighth century. The Hoysalas emerged as hill chiefs in the Western Ghats and became a significant power only from the late eleventh century under Vishnuvardhana, with their capital at Dwarasamudra. The Gahadavalas of Kannauj and Varanasi rose in the late eleventh century under Chandradeva and ended with Jayachandra's defeat in 1194. The Kakatiyas of Warangal became independent of the Western Chalukyas in the twelfth century. The Yadavas or Seunas of Devagiri likewise asserted independence in the twelfth century as Chalukya power collapsed. All four are therefore products of the eleventh and twelfth century political reordering of the peninsula and the Ganga valley, not of the eighth century, which belongs to the Pratihara, Pala, Rashtrakuta and Pallava era.

Hence (d).

• Pair 1 is correctly matched. Nannuka was the founder of the Chandela line in Jejakabhukti, the Bundelkhand region whose later rulers raised the temples at Khajuraho.
• Pair 2 is incorrectly matched. Jayashakti was himself a Chandela, one of the early rulers of that house whose name, with his brother Vijayashakti, is associated with the consolidation of Chandela power, and he had no connection with the Paramaras of Malwa.
• Pair 3 is correctly matched. Nagabhata II was a Gurjara Pratihara ruler, the son of Vatsaraja, who took Kanauj and made it the Pratihara capital in the course of the tripartite struggle with the Palas and the Rashtrakutas.
• Pair 4 is incorrectly matched. The Bhoja best known to Indian history is the Paramara king of Dhar, celebrated as scholar and patron, and the name also belongs to Mihira Bhoja of the Gurjara Pratiharas; neither line is Rashtrakuta. Exactly two pairs are correct, giving (b). The item is difficult because the question sets the Chandela, Paramara, Pratihara and Rashtrakuta houses against one another and swaps names between them, so nothing short of secure knowledge of each dynasty's rulers will serve.

• Pair 1 is incorrect. Champaka is the old name of Chamba in the western Himalaya, in present day Himachal Pradesh, founded in the tenth century by Raja Sahil Varman and named for his daughter Champavati; it is not in Central India.
• Pair 2 is correct. Durgara is the early name of the Dogra country around Jammu, the term Dogra deriving from it, and it appears in inscriptions and in Kalhana's Rajatarangini as a hill state on the Chenab.
• Pair 3 is incorrect. Kuluta is the Kullu valley, again in Himachal Pradesh, a name known from the Allahabad pillar inscription of Samudragupta and from Varahamihira; Malabar is the Kerala coast. The official answer (b) follows. Elimination route: recognising either Champaka as Chamba or Kuluta as Kullu removes three options and leaves only (b), and the two names are close enough to their modern forms for a candidate with a feel for Sanskritic place names to make the connection. Without that, the item is unanswerable from standard preparation, which is what places it at the difficult end.