With reference to the history of India, consider the following pairs: Famous Place - Present State 1) Bhilsa – Madhya Pradesh 2) Dwarasamudra – Maharashtra 3) Girinagar – Gujurat 4) Sthanesvara – Uttar Pradesh Which of the pairs given above are correctly matched?

Pairs 1 and 3 are correct, so the answer is A. The core concept is that many historical place names have changed, and aspirants must map the ancient or medieval name to its modern location.

• Bhilsa (1) is in Madhya Pradesh. It is the medieval name of Vidisha, near Sanchi, which was an important Mauryan-era city. The Heliodorus pillar at Besnagar, near Vidisha, is a well-known reference.
• Dwarasamudra (2) is wrong. It was the Hoysala capital under Vishnuvardhana, located in present-day Karnataka (Halebidu, Hassan district), not Maharashtra.
• Girinagar (3) is in Gujarat. It is the ancient name of the Junagadh area. The Junagadh rock inscription of Rudradaman and the Ashokan edicts are found here.
• Sthanesvara (4) is wrong. It is modern Thanesar in Kurukshetra district of Haryana, not Uttar Pradesh. It was the early seat of the Pushyabhuti dynasty under Harshavardhana.

For Mains GS-I (Ancient and Medieval History), such place-name mapping links directly to dynastic history and archaeology, and it helps in answering questions on the spread of empires.

Trap: Aspirants often guess Dwarasamudra as a Maharashtra location because of its Deccan setting. It is a Karnataka site, and Sthanesvara is frequently confused with a UP city because of its proximity to the Gangetic plain.