Indian Culture Questions and Answers

Answer: D

The key names the Jamatia tribe.

Garia Puja is the spring festival of Tripura offered to Baba Garia at the start of the sowing season, in the month of Boishakh (April). The Jamatia community carries out the main organisation of the festival through its apex body, the Hoda, and observes it most elaborately, with rituals through a month and a fair of about a week.

Bengali Hindus and the Manipuri community have their own festivals and are not the communities of Garia Puja. The Reang tribe, option B, also worships Garia, and the Tripuri tribe too, so the question is not watertight. The key follows the Jamatia, whose celebration is the main one.

Answer: D

The chief of the Jamatia Hoda is called the Okra.

The Jamatia Hoda is the traditional council of the Jamatia community of Tripura, with its seat at Udaipur, which administers their customary law. Its head, the Hoda Okra, is chosen by the village chiefs (chokdiris) and moyal panchais and serves for five years.

Dewan, Rai and Sangnakma are not the title of the head of the Jamatia Hoda.

Answer: B

The correct matching is A-3, B-4, C-1, D-2.

• Reang: Hozagiri, performed by women balancing on earthen pitchers.
• Chakma: Bizhu, danced at the Bizhu festival marking the end of the Bengali year.
• Mog: Sangrai, at the Sangrai festival of the Bengali new year.
• Halam: Hai-Hak, a harvest dance of the Halam (Malsum) community.

Every other code assigns at least one of these dances to the wrong community, for instance Hozagiri to the Chakma or Bizhu to the Reang.

Answer: C

The worship of fourteen deities is Kharchi Puja.

Kharchi Puja, held in July at the Chaturdasha Devata temple in Old Agartala, is the worship of the fourteen deities of the Tripura royal family. It lasts a week and draws people of all communities.

Ker Puja, held two weeks later, honours Ker, the guardian deity of Vastu, and the Ashokastami festival is held at Unakoti. Neither is the worship of the fourteen gods.

Answer: A

The traditional Hasham Bhojan was organised by the King of Tripura.

It was an annual royal feast held at the capital, also called Asha Bhojan, at the time of Durga Puja in October. The tribal chiefs and headmen were invited and entertained, and the king and his subjects exchanged views on the occasion.

The chaudhuris and the heads of the tribes were the guests, not the hosts, so B is wrong. Women of the Tripuri community and the Chantai, the head of the traditional village police, did not organise it either.

Answer: A

The tribe is the Halam.

The Halam, a Kuki-Chin people of Tripura, call themselves Riam, which in their tradition means roughly 'human being'. The name Halam is generally said to have been given to them by the Tripura rulers. Their sub-groups include the Molsom, Hrangkhol, Kaipeng, Ranglong and Rupini.

The Chaimal, Chakma and Jamatia are separate communities with their own names; none of them is known by the name Riam.

Answer: D

The wrong match is Garo Community - Jhum Dance.

The best-known dance of the Garo people is the Wangala dance, performed at the Wangala harvest festival in honour of the sun god Saljong.

The other three pairs are correct. The Hojagiri dance, in which women balance pitchers and lamps while dancing, belongs to the Reang (Bru) community. The Bizu dance is performed by the Chakma community at the Bizu festival marking the end of the Bengali year. The Lebang (Lebang Boomani) dance belongs to the Tripuri community.

Answer: B

The main festival of the Chakma is Biju.

Biju (also written Bizu) is the Chakma new year festival, held over three days at the end of the Bengali month of Chaitra, in mid-April. Homes are decorated with flowers, a dish of mixed vegetables is cooked, and the Biju dance is performed.

Bihu is the main festival of Assam, celebrated by the Assamese at about the same season. Ker is a puja of the Tripura royal tradition held after Kharchi Puja, and Rasa (the Ras Lila) is the great Vaishnava festival of Manipur. None of them is the Chakma festival.

Answer: D

The Hojagiri (printed Hazagiri) dance belongs to the Reang tribe.

Hojagiri is performed by Reang (Bru) women during the Hojagiri festival, held in autumn. The dancers move only the lower half of the body while balancing pitchers, bottles and lamps on their heads and standing on earthen pots, to the music of the bamboo flute and drum.

The other tribes are known for their own dances, such as the Garia dance of the Tripuri and the Bizu dance of the Chakma, but Hojagiri is identified above all with the Reang.

Answer: A

The Tripitakas are sacred books of the Buddhists.

Tripitaka means 'three baskets'. The three are the Vinaya Pitaka (rules for monks and nuns), the Sutta Pitaka (the Buddha's discourses) and the Abhidhamma Pitaka (philosophical analysis). Written in Pali, they form the canon of Theravada Buddhism.

The sacred texts of the Hindus include the Vedas and Upanishads, those of the Jains are the Agamas, and the holy book of Muslims is the Quran.