A traveller crosses south India in the late 1600s. He passes through several towns with strong forts and busy temples. In each town a local ruler collects taxes, keeps his own troops and no longer sends gifts to a distant emperor. Old inscriptions in the same towns, however, praise a great king of an earlier age and call the ancestors of these rulers his loyal military commanders. The traveller wonders how the old empire had changed.
The towns the traveller passed through were centres of nayaka power. Which group of towns is made up only of such centres?
Answer & explanation
Correct answer: option 1
The correct answer is Option (1) → Chandragiri, Madurai, Ikkeri and Thanjavur
Option (1) Chandragiri, Madurai, Ikkeri and Thanjavur — Correct. <strong>Chandragiri, Madurai, Ikkeri and Thanjavur</strong> were all <strong>centres of nayaka power</strong>, along with Mysore.
Option (2) Golconda, Madurai, Bidar and Mysore — Incorrect. Madurai and Mysore were nayaka centres, but Golconda and Bidar were seats of Deccan Sultanates.
Option (3) Chandragiri, Bijapur, Ikkeri and Gulbarga — Incorrect. Chandragiri and Ikkeri were nayaka centres, but Bijapur and Gulbarga lay in the Sultanates to the north.
Option (4) Bidar, Thanjavur, Golconda and Mysore — Incorrect. Thanjavur and Mysore were nayaka centres, but Bidar and Golconda belonged to the Sultans.
NCERT (2026-27): “2.3 The rayas and the nayakas … |