RAS question
The Buland Darwaza at Fatehpur Sikri was built to commemorate Akbar's victory over:
Correct answer: (C) Gujarat.
The Buland Darwaza at Fatehpur Sikri was built by Akbar to commemorate his victory over Gujarat.
Explanation
Akbar's Buland Darwaza at Fatehpur Sikri marks the Gujarat victory, not a generic phase of Mughal expansion. The Gujarat victory dates to 1573 and the gateway's construction to 1575, while Encyclopaedia Britannica notes that Akbar conquered Gujarat in 1573 and celebrated the victory by building the Buland Darwaza at his new capital, Fatehpur Sikri. The monument is therefore best read as imperial commemoration: a grand gateway attached to a specific western campaign. Its stated height of 54 metres reinforces why it became a memorable architectural marker in medieval Indian history questions.
Why the other options are wrong
- (A) Bengal was a Mughal conquest under Akbar, but Buland Darwaza was not built to commemorate Bengal.
- (B) The Deccan does not fit this monument because those campaigns came later and were under Akbar's generals.
- (D) Rajput victories are not the commemorative context here; Buland Darwaza is tied to Gujarat.
Concept
This tests the Mughal architecture-and-conquest link: monuments are often tied to specific campaigns, not just rulers. RAS repeats such facts because they connect medieval political history with art and architecture in one question.