Indian Culture Questions and Answers

Answer: A

Bhuri Bai of Pitol is associated with painting.

Bhuri Bai, from Pitol village in Jhabua district, is a Bhil artist, the first woman of her community to paint on paper and canvas. Her Pithora-inspired paintings of Bhil life and myth are exhibited at Bharat Bhavan and elsewhere, and she received the Padma Shri in 2021.

She is not a singer, dancer or dramatist, so the other options are wrong.

Answer: C

The practice is called Dagna.

Dagna is a superstition found in tribal areas of Madhya Pradesh, especially Shahdol and Umaria, in which infants suffering from pneumonia or other illnesses are branded on the stomach with a hot iron rod or bangle in the belief that it will cure them. It causes serious burns and has led to deaths, and the administration has campaigned against it.

'Gulabi', 'Jharia' and 'Jhulni' are not names of this practice.

Answer: A

The Abujhmaria are a sub-tribe of the Gond.

The Abujhmaria (Hill Maria) live in the Abujhmarh hills of the Bastar region and are one of the Maria groups of the Gond people, speaking a form of Gondi.

The Baiga, Saharia and Bhil are separate tribes, not parent groups of the Abujhmaria. The Baiga and Saharia are Particularly Vulnerable Tribal Groups of Madhya Pradesh in their own right, and the Bhil are a large tribe of western Madhya Pradesh and Rajasthan with their own subgroups such as the Bhilala.

Answer: C

The key gives Moon (Chandrama) (C).

I could not confirm this. The sources found on Baiga tattooing (godna) describe it chiefly as women's practice, marking stages of life such as puberty, marriage and motherhood, and say nothing specific about the tattoos of men or about the back of the hand. Nothing found points to the sun, star or tree instead, so the key is kept as printed.

The question rests on a handbook of Baiga culture that I could not check.

Answer: A

Gondi is most commonly written in Devanagari.

Gondi, a Dravidian language, has had little written tradition of its own; it is usually written today in Devanagari in Madhya Pradesh and Maharashtra (and in Telugu script in Telangana). Native scripts such as Gunjala Gondi and Masaram Gondi exist but are not in common use.

Brahmi is an ancient script, Grantha was used for Sanskrit in Tamil Nadu, and Sinhala is the script of Sri Lanka.

Answer: A

The Badal Bhoi Museum is in Chhindwara.

The Shri Badal Bhoi State Tribal Museum in Chhindwara, founded in 1954, displays the material culture of the tribes of Madhya Pradesh. It is named after Badal Bhoi, a tribal freedom fighter of Chhindwara district.

Dindori, Mandla and Betul are other tribal districts, but the Badal Bhoi museum is in Chhindwara. Bhopal has the separate Madhya Pradesh Tribal Museum, opened in 2013, which is a different institution.

Answer: A

Bhuri Bai is famous for Painting.

Bhuri Bai, from Pitol in Jhabua district, is a painter of the Bhil community and one of the first Bhil women to paint on paper and canvas. She developed her art at Bharat Bhavan in Bhopal and paints scenes of Bhil life, nature and myth in the community's dotted style. She received the Padma Shri in 2021.

Her recognition is for painting, not music, dance or writing.

Answer: D

The Parikrama of 7 seas, 9 Narayanas and 84 Mahadevas is completed in Ujjain.

Ujjain, the ancient Avantika, has a traditional pilgrimage circuit of its sacred sites: the 84 Mahadev temples, the seven sacred lakes called sagars (the Sapta Sagar) and nine Narayan temples, along with the Panchkroshi yatra. Completing these is part of the religious tradition of the city of Mahakaleshwar.

Amarkantak, Chitrakoot and Omkareshwar are major pilgrimage places of Madhya Pradesh, but this particular set of 7, 9 and 84 shrines belongs to Ujjain.

Answer: C

The Madhya Pradesh Tribal Museum is in Bhopal.

The Madhya Pradesh Janjatiya Sangrahalaya (Tribal Museum), in the Shyamla Hills area of Bhopal, opened in 2013. It presents the life, art, crafts and beliefs of the state's tribes, including the Gond, Bhil, Baiga, Korku, Sahariya and Kol, in large installations made by tribal artists.

Chhindwara is the trap: it has the older Shri Badal Bhoi State Tribal Museum, founded in 1954, but the museum known as the Madhya Pradesh Tribal Museum is the one in Bhopal. Indore and Ratlam are not its location.

Answer: A

The key gives Gonds (A).

I could not confirm this. Searches for a festival called Mandwara, Mandwa or Mandai among the tribes of Madhya Pradesh turned up no source that names the community that celebrates it, and nothing that points to a different answer, so the key is kept as printed.

The Gonds are the largest tribe of the state and keep many seasonal and harvest festivals, which makes the keyed answer plausible. Baiga, Bhariya and Sahariya are the other tribes listed; no evidence was found for any of them either.