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🔒 Log in to trackBook and author questions are pure matching. Learn the pairs in small groups: ancient texts, Mughal memoirs, freedom-era works, autobiographies, Booker winners and world classics. Each wrong option is usually a real author from the same group.
Ancient and classical texts
Most questions here ask one author for one famous book.
| Book | Author | Note |
|---|---|---|
| Arthashastra | Kautilya (Chanakya) | Statecraft and economy of the Mauryan age |
| Rajatarangini | Kalhana | Historical chronicle of Kashmir |
| Abhijnana Shakuntalam | Kalidasa | Most famous Sanskrit drama |
| Mudrarakshasa | Vishakhadatta | Story of Chanakya and Chandragupta |
| Indica | Megasthenes | Greek envoy's account of Mauryan India |
| Harshacharita | Banabhatta | Biography of Harshavardhana |
| Panchatantra | Vishnu Sharma | Fable collection |
| Ramcharitmanas | Tulsidas | Awadhi retelling of the Ramayana |
Mughal-era chronicles
- Baburnama is Babur's own story. It is in Turkish and is the first autobiography of its kind in Indian history.
- Akbarnama and Ain-i-Akbari were written by Abul Fazl.
- Tuzuk-i-Jahangiri is Jahangir's own memoir.
- Padshahnama was written by Abdul Hamid Lahori. It covers Shah Jahan's reign.
Tip: Wrong options swap authors inside the same period. Fix the century first, then pick the name.
Freedom-era and modern works
| Book | Author |
|---|---|
| Anandamath (source of Vande Mataram) | Bankim Chandra Chattopadhyay |
| Gitanjali (Nobel 1913) | Rabindranath Tagore |
| Hind Swaraj, My Experiments with Truth | M.K. Gandhi |
| Discovery of India, Glimpses of World History | Jawaharlal Nehru |
| Poverty and Un-British Rule in India | Dadabhai Naoroji |
| India Wins Freedom | Maulana Abul Kalam Azad |
| Annihilation of Caste | B.R. Ambedkar |
| Train to Pakistan | Khushwant Singh |
| The Guide, Malgudi Days, Swami and Friends | R.K. Narayan |
| A Suitable Boy | Vikram Seth |
Watch: Vande Mataram comes from Anandamath, not from Tagore. Tagore wrote Jana Gana Mana.
Autobiographies and memoirs
| Book | Author |
|---|---|
| Wings of Fire, Ignited Minds, India 2020 | A.P.J. Abdul Kalam |
| Long Walk to Freedom | Nelson Mandela |
| The Story of My Life | Helen Keller |
| Autobiography of an Unknown Indian | Nirad C. Chaudhuri |
| Playing It My Way | Sachin Tendulkar |
| Sunny Days | Sunil Gavaskar |
| Straight from the Heart | Kapil Dev |
| The Race of My Life | Milkha Singh |
| Unbreakable | M.C. Mary Kom |
| Ace Against Odds | Sania Mirza |
| The Test of My Life | Yuvraj Singh |
| A Shot at History | Abhinav Bindra |
Booker Prize winners
| Book | Author | Year |
|---|---|---|
| Midnight's Children | Salman Rushdie | 1981 |
| The God of Small Things | Arundhati Roy | 1997 |
| The Inheritance of Loss | Kiran Desai | 2006 |
| The White Tiger | Aravind Adiga | 2008 |
Midnight's Children is also the 'Booker of Bookers'. Kiran Desai is the daughter of Anita Desai. Anita Desai was shortlisted several times but never won.
Tomb of Sand (Ret Samadhi) by Geetanjali Shree won the International Booker in 2022. Daisy Rockwell translated it.
World classics
| Book | Author | Book | Author |
|---|---|---|---|
| War and Peace | Tolstoy | Crime and Punishment | Dostoevsky |
| Pride and Prejudice | Jane Austen | Hamlet, Macbeth | Shakespeare |
| Iliad, Odyssey | Homer | Don Quixote | Cervantes |
| One Hundred Years of Solitude | Marquez | The Old Man and the Sea | Hemingway |
| Animal Farm, 1984 | Orwell | The Godfather | Puzo |
| The Origin of Species | Darwin | Das Kapital | Karl Marx |
| The Wealth of Nations | Adam Smith | The Republic | Plato |
| Paradise Lost | Milton | The Canterbury Tales | Chaucer |
Question types you will see
Each type: how to recognise it, the method step by step, and one question to try.
Ancient or medieval text and its author
The question names Arthashastra, Rajatarangini, Akbarnama or a Sanskrit drama and asks for the author.
Place the book in a period: ancient, Mauryan, Gupta or Mughal.
Recall the pair from the tables above.
Remove options whose author lived in a different age.
Pick the one that remains.
Wrong options are real authors from other periods, so time order removes them.
Who wrote Rajatarangini, the historical chronicle of Kashmir?
Show solutionHide solution
Rajatarangini is a chronicle of Kashmir.
Its author is Kalhana (12th century).
Arthashastra is Kautilya's; Harshacharita is Banabhatta's.
Kalhana
Freedom-era work and its author
The stem names Hind Swaraj, Discovery of India, Anandamath or Gitanjali.
Link each leader to two books: Gandhi, Nehru, Tagore, Bankim.
Match the title to its leader.
Check the hint in the stem, such as Vande Mataram or Nobel 1913.
Leaders are the usual distractors for each other, so a two-book link per leader settles it.
Anandamath, the novel that gave the nation Vande Mataram, was written by which author?
Show solutionHide solution
Vande Mataram comes from Anandamath.
Its author is Bankim Chandra Chattopadhyay.
Discovery of India is Nehru's; Hind Swaraj is Gandhi's.
Bankim Chandra Chattopadhyay
Autobiography and its author
The stem says 'is the autobiography of' or asks who wrote Wings of Fire or Long Walk to Freedom.
Split the options into Indian leaders, sportspersons and foreign figures.
Match Wings of Fire to Kalam, Long Walk to Freedom to Mandela.
Match sports titles using the hooks: Sunny, Race, Unbreakable, Ace, Test.
Remember Baburnama as the earliest autobiography linked to India.
Most memoir titles hint at the writer's life or sport.
Long Walk to Freedom is the autobiography of whom?
Show solutionHide solution
Long Walk to Freedom is a foreign memoir.
Its author is Nelson Mandela.
Wings of Fire is Kalam's; My Experiments with Truth is Gandhi's.
Nelson Mandela
Booker Prize winners and their books
The stem names The White Tiger, Midnight's Children or The Inheritance of Loss.
Recall the ladder: Rushdie 81, Roy 97, Desai 06, Adiga 08.
Match the book to its year and author.
Reject Anita Desai as a winner. She was only shortlisted.
Only four Indian-linked authors won the main Booker, so the ladder covers every case.
Who is the author of The White Tiger (Booker Prize 2008)?
Show solutionHide solution
The 2008 winner is the fourth on the ladder.
The book is The White Tiger.
Its author is Aravind Adiga.
Aravind Adiga
World classic and its author
The stem names War and Peace, One Hundred Years of Solitude, Don Quixote or The Republic.
Place the book by country: Russia, Greece, Spain, Britain or Latin America.
Match it to the pair in the world classics table.
Keep thinkers separate: Darwin, Marx and Adam Smith wrote non-fiction.
Country clues remove most wrong options at once.
One Hundred Years of Solitude, a landmark of magical realism, was written by whom?
Show solutionHide solution
It is a Latin American classic.
Its author is Gabriel Garcia Marquez (Colombia).
Don Quixote is Cervantes'; War and Peace is Tolstoy's.
Gabriel Garcia Marquez
Modern Indian fiction
The stem names Train to Pakistan, The Guide, Malgudi Days or A Suitable Boy.
Recall the pairs: Khushwant Singh, R.K. Narayan, Vikram Seth.
Use the setting hint: Train to Pakistan is a Partition novel; Malgudi is a fictional town.
Reject Booker winners unless the stem mentions a prize.
These books are famous but not prize winners, so a prize hint would mislead you.
Malgudi Days is a work of which author?
Show solutionHide solution
Malgudi is a fictional town.
Its creator is R.K. Narayan.
Train to Pakistan is Khushwant Singh's.
R.K. Narayan
Shortcuts that save time
Say it in order: Rushdie 81, Roy 97, Desai 06, Adiga 08. The books run Midnight's Children, God of Small Things, Inheritance of Loss, White Tiger. Geetanjali Shree (2022) won the International Booker, which is for translated fiction.
Who wrote The White Tiger, the 2008 Booker winner?
Show solutionHide solution
Recall the ladder: 81, 97, 06, 08.
The 2008 slot is the fourth book, The White Tiger.
Aravind Adiga
Sunny Days is Sunil Gavaskar. Race of My Life is Milkha Singh, who ran races. Unbreakable is Mary Kom, the boxer. Ace Against Odds is Sania Mirza, the tennis player. Test of My Life is Yuvraj Singh, who fought cancer.
Mistakes to avoid
Where most students lose marks on this subtopic.
Giving Vande Mataram to Tagore.
It is from Anandamath by Bankim Chandra. Tagore wrote Jana Gana Mana.
Saying Gandhi wrote Unto This Last.
John Ruskin wrote it. Gandhi only paraphrased it in Gujarati as Sarvodaya.
Giving The Discovery of India to another leader.
Nehru wrote it in Ahmednagar Fort jail, 1942-46.
Mixing Anita Desai with her daughter Kiran Desai.
Kiran Desai won the Booker in 2006. Anita Desai never won.
Treating the International Booker as the same prize.
Geetanjali Shree won the International Booker in 2022, for a translated book.
Quick revision
Read this the night before the exam.
Kautilya - Arthashastra; Kalhana - Rajatarangini; Kalidasa - Shakuntalam; Megasthenes - Indica.
Banabhatta - Harshacharita; Vishnu Sharma - Panchatantra; Tulsidas - Ramcharitmanas.
Baburnama is Babur's own story; Akbarnama is by Abul Fazl; Tuzuk-i-Jahangiri is Jahangir's.
Gandhi - Hind Swaraj and My Experiments with Truth; Nehru - Discovery of India; Tagore - Gitanjali (Nobel 1913).
Booker: Rushdie 1981, Roy 1997, Kiran Desai 2006, Adiga 2008.
Wings of Fire - Kalam; Long Walk to Freedom - Mandela; Playing It My Way - Tendulkar.
Practice: 20 questions
Sets of 10, mixed across the question types above. Every answer has a step-by-step explanation.
Topic test · 10 questions
Suggested time 3 min · wrong answers go to your mistake notebook automatically.