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Glossary · Y
39 terms defined in plain English, each with a link to articles that use it.
The Yadavas, also called the Seunas, were a medieval Deccan dynasty that rose around 1190 CE under Bhillama V with their capital at Devagiri, modern Daulatabad. Under Singhan II they dominated the western Deccan until Alauddin Khalji's 1296 raid and Malik Kafur's 1308 campaign ended their independence. For UPSC, they represent the Deccan powers between the Chalukyas and the Delhi Sultanate, notable for Marathi literary patronage.
Example: Singhan II (r. c. 1200-1247 CE)
The Yadavas of Devagiri were the Seuna dynasty branch that ruled from the hill fortress of Devagiri in Maharashtra from the late twelfth century to 1308. Founded by Bhillama V, they built Devagiri into a formidable capital later coveted by the Khaljis and Tughlaqs. For UPSC, they matter in medieval Deccan history and as the dynasty whose fall opened the Deccan to Delhi Sultanate expansion under Alauddin Khalji.
Example: Devagiri fort (Daulatabad, Maharashtra)
Yahya Khan was the Pakistani army general who ruled Pakistan as President and Chief Martial Law Administrator from 1969 to 1971. His regime's refusal to transfer power after the 1970 elections and the brutal Operation Searchlight crackdown in East Pakistan triggered the Bangladesh Liberation War, ending in Pakistan's defeat in December 1971 and his resignation. For UPSC, he is central to 1971 war and India-Pakistan relations questions.
Example: Bangladesh Liberation War, December 1971
Yajna Sri Satakarni was the last great Satavahana king, ruling roughly 174 to 203 CE during the dynasty's revival in the Deccan. His coins, some bearing ship motifs, testify to thriving maritime trade with the Roman world, and inscriptions record his patronage of Buddhism. For UPSC ancient history, he marks the final phase of Satavahana power before the Ikshvakus and other successors rose in the Deccan.
Example: Satavahana coins with ship motifs, indicating overseas trade
The Yajurveda is the Veda of sacrificial formulas, containing the prose mantras and ritual instructions a priest recites during yajnas. It exists in two recensions, the Krishna (Black) Yajurveda mixing mantra with commentary and the Shukla (White) Yajurveda keeping them separate, and it underpins the elaborate shrauta rituals of the later Vedic period. For UPSC, it is tested under Vedic literature and the evolution of ritual.
Example: The Shatapatha Brahmana, attached to the Shukla Yajurveda, which details the construction of the fire altar and the symbolism of Vedic sacrifice.
Yaksha and Yakshi are nature spirits of Indian tradition, male and female guardian deities associated with fertility, water and trees, later absorbed into Buddhist, Jain and Hindu art as auspicious motifs. Sculpted as voluptuous figures on stupas and gateways from the Mauryan period onward, they are favourites in UPSC art-culture questions. The famed Didarganj Yakshi in the Patna Museum exemplifies their early iconic form.
Example: Didarganj Yakshi (c. 3rd century BCE, Patna Museum)
Yakshagana is a vibrant dance-drama tradition of coastal Karnataka, performed overnight in village squares with elaborate costumes, towering headgear, drumming on the chende and maddale, and sung narration of epics like the Ramayana and Mahabharata. Blending dance, music, dialogue and improvisation, it is a classic UPSC art-culture topic illustrating India's living folk theatre and bhakti-era storytelling traditions.
Example: Coastal Karnataka (Tulunadu), the heartland of bayalata troupes
The Yale model is the policy-oriented school of international law associated with Myres McDougal and Harold Lasswell at Yale Law School, which treats law as a process of authoritative decision-making aimed at realising human dignity values rather than a fixed set of rules. It emphasises context, policy goals and effectiveness. For UPSC PSIR, it is one of the classic approaches to international law, contrasted with positivist and naturalist schools.
The yali is a mythical leonine creature of South Indian temple art, typically shown with a lion's body combined with elephant or horse features, carved on pillars, cornices and processional mounts. Part-lion and part-beast, it symbolises fierce protective power guarding sacred space. For UPSC art-culture, the yali is a signature motif of Dravidian temple architecture, especially in Vijayanagara and Nayaka period questions.
The Yalta Conference of February 1945 was the wartime meeting of Roosevelt, Churchill and Stalin in Crimea that shaped the postwar order. The Big Three agreed on Germany's division and denazification, the founding of the United Nations, and Soviet entry into the war against Japan. For UPSC world history, Yalta marks the high point of Grand Alliance cooperation and the origin of Cold War disputes over Eastern Europe and Poland.
Example: Potsdam Conference, July-August 1945
The Yalta Conference of early 1945 was the second Big Three summit, held from 4 to 11 February at Yalta in Crimea, where the Allied leaders planned Europe's postwar settlement. Its accords covered German occupation zones, free elections in liberated Europe, and the veto structure of the future UN Security Council. UPSC treats it as the moment Allied unity peaked before disagreements over Poland and Eastern Europe hardened into the Cold War.
Example: United Nations Charter, signed June 1945
Yardangs are streamlined, wind-eroded ridges carved in deserts by abrasion: the wind sculpts elongated hills aligned with the prevailing wind direction, often in parallel fleets. They are classic aeolian landforms, distinct from dunes because they are erosional, not depositional. For UPSC it is GS-1 physical geography: desert landforms and wind action.
Example: The yardang fields of the Lut Desert in Iran, a UNESCO World Heritage site.
Yasodharman was the early sixth-century ruler of Malwa whose Mandasor pillar inscription records his decisive victory over the Huna chief Mihirakula around 528 CE, checking the Huna advance into central India. Styling himself with imperial titles, he briefly dominated much of northern India. For UPSC ancient history, he is the key figure in the fall of Huna power and the political fragmentation between the Guptas and Harsha.
Example: Mandasor pillar inscription (c. 532 CE)
Yavanas were the Greeks and, by extension, western foreigners in ancient Indian literature, the term deriving from Ionia (Yona). From Indo-Greek kings like Menander to Yavana traders and guards mentioned in Sanskrit texts, they shaped Indo-Hellenistic art, coinage and astronomy. For UPSC, the Yavanas are central to post-Mauryan history, Gandhara art, and questions on India's early contacts with the Mediterranean world.
Example: Menander (Milinda), Indo-Greek king, c. 150 BCE
Yavanika is the stage curtain of ancient Sanskrit theatre, named after the Yavanas (Greeks), suggesting Greek influence on Indian dramaturgy. Mentioned in the Natyashastra, it was drawn aside to reveal scenes and characters, functioning like the modern theatre curtain. For UPSC art-culture, the term supports debates on Indo-Greek cultural exchange and is a fine prelims detail on classical Indian theatre conventions.
Example: Natyashastra of Bharata (c. 2nd century BCE to 2nd century CE)
The Year of Africa is 1960, when seventeen African nations won independence from European colonial rule, including fourteen French colonies plus Nigeria, Somalia and others. Driven by postwar decolonisation pressures, it transformed the UN's membership and Cold War geopolitics. For UPSC world history and GS-2 IR, it is the landmark reference for African decolonisation, pan-Africanism and India's solidarity with newly independent states.
Example: Nigeria's independence, 1 October 1960
The Year of Africa, 1960, is the year in which seventeen African states, including Nigeria and the Congo, won independence in a single wave. It transformed the United Nations' membership and made decolonisation the organisation's central business.
Year-round agitation was the Home Rule Leagues' break with the Congress's old sessional rhythm: instead of meeting once a year, Tilak's and Besant's leagues ran continuous propaganda, lectures and press campaigns for self-government within the British Empire on the dominion model. For UPSC it is GS-1 modern India: the Home Rule Movement of 1916-18 and its mass-politics methods.
Example: The two Home Rule Leagues founded in 1916, by Bal Gangadhar Tilak in April and Annie Besant in September.
Yellow biotechnology is the branch of biotechnology devoted to food production and nutrition, alongside red (medical), green (agricultural), white (industrial) and blue (marine) biotechnology in the colour classification. It covers fermentation technology, food processing, fortified foods, probiotics and food safety, applying biology to improve the quality, quantity and nutritional value of food. (In some alternative schemes the label is also applied to insect biotechnology, the use of insect-derived molecules and cells.)
Example: Probiotic curd cultures and vitamin-fortified staple foods are products of yellow biotechnology.
Yeravda Jail is the central prison at Yeravda, Pune, where Mahatma Gandhi was imprisoned in 1932 after protesting the Communal Award's separate electorates for Dalits. His fast unto death there forced the Poona Pact of 24 September 1932 with B.R. Ambedkar, replacing separate electorates with reserved seats. For UPSC, it is inseparable from the Communal Award, Poona Pact and Gandhi-Ambedkar debate in modern Indian history.
Example: Poona Pact, 24 September 1932
Yes Bank is an Indian private-sector bank founded in 2004 that grew rapidly on aggressive corporate lending before collapsing under bad loans in 2020. The RBI imposed a moratorium and the State Bank of India led a rescue, making it a landmark bank-resolution case. For UPSC, it illustrates banking supervision, depositor protection, moral hazard, and the RBI's prompt corrective action framework in economy and governance answers.
Example: RBI moratorium and SBI-led rescue, March 2020
Yijing is a Chinese Buddhist pilgrim-monk who sailed from Canton to India in 671 CE and studied for a decade at Nalanda (676-685). His travel account, a record of Buddhist practices in India and the Malay archipelago, documents monastic discipline, daily life at Nalanda, and the sea route between China and India. For UPSC, his writings are a key foreign source on seventh-century Buddhism and ancient Indian education.
Example: A Record of Buddhist Practices Sent Home from the Southern Sea
Yoga is one of the six orthodox schools of Indian philosophy, systematized by Patanjali in the Yoga Sutras, and also a physical-spiritual discipline of postures, breath control, and meditation. It teaches that disciplining the mind through an eightfold path leads to liberation. For UPSC, Yoga appears in philosophy and culture syllabi and in India's soft-power diplomacy through the UN-recognized International Day of Yoga.
Example: International Day of Yoga, 21 June (adopted by the UN in 2014)
Yogacara is a Mahayana Buddhist school holding that consciousness alone is ultimately real, with the world explained as projections of the mind. Founded by Asanga and systematized by Vasubandhu, it maps experience through eight levels of consciousness culminating in the storehouse consciousness. For UPSC, it matters in philosophy and art-history, as Yogacara metaphysics shaped Buddhist thought across India, Tibet, and East Asia.
Example: Vasubandhu's Twenty Verses on consciousness-only
Yogendra Singh is an Indian sociologist (1932-2020) and longtime professor at Jawaharlal Nehru University known for studies of modernization, social stratification, and culture in India. His book Modernization of Indian Tradition (1973) argued that Indian change proceeds through tradition-rooted, adaptive processes rather than simple westernization. For UPSC, his framework is standard material for sociology optional and social-issue answers in mains.
Example: Modernization of Indian Tradition (1973)
The Yokohama Strategy and Plan of Action for a Safer World was the first global blueprint for disaster reduction, adopted at the 1994 Yokohama conference. It emphasised prevention, preparedness and mitigation over post-disaster relief.
Example: it was succeeded by the Hyogo Framework for Action in 2005
Yorktown is the 1781 siege in Virginia where combined American and French forces trapped Lord Cornwallis's British army, forcing its surrender. The defeat ended major combat of the American Revolutionary War and paved the way to American independence and the Treaty of Paris. For UPSC, Yorktown is the classic endpoint of the American Revolution, useful for comparative colonialism and nationalist-movement questions in world history.
Example: Siege of Yorktown, 1781
Yotta NM1 is a hyperscale data centre building at Hiranandani Fortune City, Panvel in Navi Mumbai, developed by Yotta Data Services, a Hiranandani Group company, and inaugurated in July 2020. With about 7,200 racks and 50 MW of IT power, it was certified by the Uptime Institute as the largest Tier IV data centre in Asia and the second largest in the world at launch, offering 99.995% design availability through fully redundant systems. It anchors India's push for domestic cloud capacity and data localisation, hosting enterprises, governments and global cloud operators.
Example: The complex draws on multiple redundant fibre paths and captive power arrangements to meet the uptime and sovereignty needs of Indian government and enterprise workloads.
Young India is a weekly journal founded by Mahatma Gandhi in 1919 to articulate his political thought and national program. Through it he explained satyagraha, non-cooperation, and swaraj to a countrywide audience and replied to critics of the movement. For UPSC, it is a core primary source on Gandhi's writings and on how the nationalist leadership communicated with the masses during the Non-Cooperation era.
Example: Gandhi's weekly Young India (1919-1932)
Young Italy is a secret revolutionary society founded by Giuseppe Mazzini in 1831 to unify Italy as a democratic republic through insurrection and the mobilization of youth. It spread conspiracies across the peninsula and inspired a generation of patriots. For UPSC, it is the standard example of romantic nationalism in modern world history, paralleling India's own secret revolutionary societies.
Example: Giuseppe Mazzini, 1831
Young Italy in 1831 refers to the founding moment of Giuseppe Mazzini's secret society for Italian unification. In that year Mazzini launched a conspiratorial movement to build Italy as a united republic, rejecting foreign domination and monarchy. For UPSC, the 1831 founding marks the birth of organized Italian nationalism, a reference point for unification movements and romantic nationalism in world-history answers.
Example: Mazzini founds Young Italy, 1831
The Young Plan is the 1929-30 settlement that restructured Germany's World War I reparations, succeeding the Dawes Plan. Drafted by a committee chaired by the American industrialist Owen D. Young, it reduced annual payments and stretched the schedule to 1988. For UPSC, it anchors modern world-history questions on interwar economics, the Depression's origins, and the resentment politics that weakened Weimar Germany.
Example: Adopted at the Hague Conference, 1930
Your job in one line is not a standard UPSC syllabus term but a phrase from interview and skilling discourse, where a candidate must summarize their role and purpose crisply. It tests clarity of thought, communication, and self-awareness. For UPSC, it is a useful discipline for personality-test preparation, where DAF-based questions reward precise, honest self-presentation over rehearsed verbosity.
Youth is the first stage of W. M. Davis's cycle of erosion: after uplift, streams cut vigorously downward, carving narrow V-shaped valleys with waterfalls, rapids and almost no floodplain. Structure, process and stage, Davis's triad, govern how the landscape then matures. For UPSC it is GS-1 physical geography: fluvial landforms and the Davis-Penck debate.
Example: The Himalayan rivers such as the Indus and the Ganga, which display youthful gorges, rapids and waterfalls in their upper courses.
Youth alienation is the estrangement of young people from mainstream opportunities and institutions, making them receptive to radical ideologies. In Kashmir and LWE areas, unemployed educated youth are prime recruitment targets. It matters because insurgencies replenish themselves through the young.
Example: Unemployed graduates drawn into militant or Maoist ranks
Youth unemployment (15-29) stays in double digits is a factual summary of India's labour-market data: monthly Periodic Labour Force Survey readings put joblessness among 15 to 29 year olds near 15 percent, far above the overall rate, with urban youth hit hardest. For UPSC, it is a go-to data point for mains answers on the demographic dividend, employment generation, and inclusive growth.
Example: PLFS monthly bulletin, August 2026 (15.1 percent)
The Yueh-chi are a Central Asian nomadic people who, after being displaced by the Xiongnu, settled in Bactria and became the ancestors of the Kushana dynasty. One branch under Kujula Kadphises moved into the Indian subcontinent and founded the Kushana empire. For UPSC, the Yueh-chi explain the foreign origins of the Kushanas and India's ancient Silk Road linkages with Central Asia.
Example: Kujula Kadphises, founder of the Kushana empire
Yugantar Ashram is the San Francisco headquarters of the Ghadar Party, founded in 1913 by Indian revolutionaries abroad to overthrow British rule through armed revolt. From there the party published the Ghadar newspaper in several Indian languages and tried to incite mutiny in the British Indian Army during World War I. For UPSC, it is central to revolutionary nationalism and the diaspora's role in the freedom struggle.
Example: Ghadar newspaper, first published 1913
Yuva Sangam is a youth exchange programme run by the Department of Higher Education under the Ek Bharat Shreshtha Bharat initiative, launched in 2023. Young people aged 18 to 30 travel to paired states and union territories for structured exposure tours built around five themes: tourism, traditions, development, people to people connect, and technology. It matters for UPSC as an example of national integration policy, experiential learning under NEP 2020, and cooperative federalism in practice.
Example: In Phase VII, a 51 member youth delegation from Madhya Pradesh visited Karnataka with the Central University of Karnataka as nodal agency.