RAS question
The Rajasthan Oriental Research Institute (Rajasthan Prachyavidya Pratishthan) is located at:
Correct answer: (D) Jodhpur.
The Rajasthan Oriental Research Institute, also known as Rajasthan Prachyavidya Pratishthan, is located at Jodhpur.
Explanation
The Rajasthan Oriental Research Institute is located in Jodhpur. The official background page explains the point clearly: the institute came into existence in 1954 with its headquarters at Jaipur, but the Rajasthan Government later decided to shift the headquarters to Jodhpur. Its own building was then constructed there, inaugurated in 1958, and the headquarters work was shifted to Jodhpur, while the Jaipur repository served as the first branch repository. This matters because the institute is linked with collecting and preserving Rajasthan's manuscript material, a core source base for studying the state's history, literature and culture.
Why the other options are wrong
- (A) Jaipur was associated with the institute's initial headquarters and later branch repository, but the official background says the headquarters work was shifted to Jodhpur.
- (B) Bikaner appears in the official background only through Pandit K. Madhav Krishna Sharma's manuscript-cataloguing work, not as the institute's location.
- (C) The cited official material does not place the Rajasthan Oriental Research Institute at Udaipur; it identifies the headquarters shift and location with Jodhpur.
Concept
This tests Rajasthan's cultural institutions and their locations, a recurring RAS theme because such bodies preserve the sources used for Rajasthan history, art and culture. The clue is to separate the present location from earlier institutional links such as Jaipur.