SSC
The Buxa Fort and the Kurumbera Fort are located in:
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Answer: Option A — West Bengal
Detailed Solution
Both the Buxa Fort and the Kurumbera Fort are located in West Bengal.
About the Buxa Fort:
- It is located in the Buxa Tiger Reserve, in the Alipurduar district of north Bengal, at a height of about 867 metres, near the border with Bhutan.
- It was originally a fort of the Bhutan kings, used to control the trade route between Bhutan and Bengal (and Tibet).
- The British took control of it after the Anglo-Bhutan War (Duar War) of 1865, under the Treaty of Sinchula.
The British later used it as a high-security detention camp for Indian freedom fighters and revolutionaries in the 1930s, because of its remote location in dense forests. It was considered second only to the Cellular Jail in the Andamans for its harshness.
After the Chinese occupation of Tibet (1959), it was used as a refugee camp for Tibetan Buddhist monks and refugees.
It is now in ruins and is a tourist and trekking spot in the Buxa Tiger Reserve.
About the Kurumbera Fort:
- It is located at Gaganeswar village, in the Paschim Medinipur district of south-west Bengal.
- It was built in the 15th century (around 1438-1469) during the rule of the Gajapati king Kapilendra Deva of Odisha.
- It is built of laterite stone and is a rectangular structure with a large courtyard surrounded by pillared corridors.
- It has a Shiva temple inside, and a mosque was later added during the Mughal period (under Aurangzeb).
- It is protected by the Archaeological Survey of India.
Other forts and palaces of West Bengal:
Fort William (Kolkata): built by the British East India Company; first built in 1696-1706, and the new fort was completed in 1781. It is now the headquarters of the Eastern Command of the Indian Army.
Hazarduari Palace (Murshidabad): a palace with 1,000 doors (including false doors), built in 1837.
Cooch Behar Palace.
Gaur and Pandua: medieval capitals with many monuments of the Bengal Sultanate.
Why not the other options?
- ✗Odisha has forts such as Barabati Fort in Cuttack.
- ✗Assam has the Ahom palaces near Sivasagar.
- ✗Bihar has the Rohtasgarh Fort.
Quick tip
Remember: Buxa Fort = Alipurduar, north Bengal (Buxa Tiger Reserve; British detention camp for freedom fighters; Tibetan refugees 1959); Kurumbera Fort = Paschim Medinipur (Gajapati Kapilendra Deva, 15th century).
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Monuments & Religious Places — Preparation
This question tests your understanding of Monuments & Religious Places, a key topic in the General Knowledge section. The detailed solution above uses a step-by-step approach to show the reasoning, and where available, a shortcut that helps you solve similar questions in under 90 seconds during the actual exam.
This topic covers India's important monuments, temples, mosques, churches, gurudwaras and pilgrimage sites, who built them and when, their architectural styles, and India's UNESCO World Heritage Sites. Questions ask who built a monument, where it is located, or which dynasty or style it belongs to. For example, the Qutub Minar was begun by Qutbuddin Aibak, and the Sun Temple at Konark was built by the Eastern Ganga king Narasimhadeva I. Revise the UNESCO World Heritage Sites as a list, noting the most recent additions. Practise the monuments and religious places questions below, written in the style of the general awareness sections of exams such as SSC, banking, railways, CUET GAT, MAH CET and CLAT. Each question comes with a detailed explanation that adds related facts, so every question helps you revise more than one point.