Indian Culture Questions and Answers

Answer: D

The key gives Bhoi.

I could not find a source that names the most prominent office or place in a Gond tribal panchayat, so this is not independently confirmed. General accounts of Gond village government describe a headman (called mukhia, mahji or patel) with a council of elders, and none of them uses the four words in the options, so the key rests on the Commission's source.

Nothing I found shows Muqaddam, Dewan or Likhai to be the Gond term instead.

Answer: B

The principal deity of the Baiga is Burha Dev.

Burha Dev (Bura Deo, the old god) is the chief god of the Baiga, as of their Gond neighbours in the Mandla-Dindori region, and is worshipped at a sacred tree in the village.

Bijasan is a form of the mother goddess and Indra Dev is the Hindu god of rain; neither they nor Mari Dev is the chief deity of the Baiga.

Answer: A

The key gives Gudi.

I could not find a source on the name of the Mother Goddess shrine in tribal culture, so this is not independently confirmed. The word gudi means a small shrine or temple in several Indian languages, which is consistent with the key, but the question evidently draws on a particular tribe's usage that I could not trace.

Nothing I found shows Bijasan, Khairmata or Badidevi to be the shrine's name instead.

Answer: C

The key gives Valmiki Ji.

I could not confirm this. The sources I found say the Sahariya, a Particularly Vulnerable Tribal Group of Madhya Pradesh, trace their origin to Shabari of the Ramayana, or to Baiju Bheel, a devotee of Shiva, and one says their written ancestry is almost entirely lost. None names Valmiki as the ancestor, and none shows Parshuram, Naharja Baba or Bhadoi Baba to be the one.

Valmiki is the Ramayana's author, so a link with Shabari's story is conceivable, but I cannot say more. Because nothing shows the key wrong, it stands as the Commission's answer.

Answer: C

The 2024 Khajuraho Dance Festival was the 50th edition.

The festival began in 1975 and is held each February against the backdrop of the Khajuraho temples, featuring India's classical dance forms. Its golden jubilee edition in February 2024 was marked with a mass Kathak performance that entered the Guinness World Records.

75, 60 and 35 do not match the count of editions since the festival began in 1975.

Answer: D

The largest and most famous Udayagiri sculpture is the Varaha avatar.

In Cave 5 of the Udayagiri caves near Vidisha, of the early fifth century CE (Gupta period, under Chandragupta II), a colossal relief shows Vishnu as the boar Varaha lifting the earth goddess Bhudevi from the cosmic ocean, surrounded by rows of sages and gods. It is the largest and best-known panel of the site.

Matsya, Kurma and Vamana are other avatars of Vishnu, but none is the subject of Udayagiri's great relief.

Answer: A

The key gives Birth ceremony (A).

I could not confirm this. Searches found no source that describes Dhanbau songs or the ceremony they belong to; they turned up only unrelated material. Nothing points to marriage, education or funeral instead, so the key is kept as printed.

Tribal songs in Madhya Pradesh are usually tied to one rite of passage, and the question rests on a handbook of the state's tribal culture that I could not check.

Answer: B

The key gives the Korku (B).

I could not confirm this. Searches for the Meghnath pillar (Meghnath khambh) found no source that names the tribe which erects it. The Korku are a tribe of the Satpura region (Betul, Hoshangabad, Khandwa and Burhanpur), but I could not link them to the pillar from any source read.

Agaria, Bhil and Kanwar are the other tribes offered; nothing found supports any of them. The key is kept as printed.

Answer: A

Umathwadi is a form of Malwi.

Malwi, the language of the Malwa plateau, has several local varieties, and Umathwadi, spoken in the old Umatwara area around Rajgarh, is counted among them.

Nimadi is spoken in the Nimar region of the Narmada valley, Bundeli in Bundelkhand and Bagheli in Baghelkhand, and Umathwadi is not counted among their sub-dialects.

Answer: A

Devlalikar is associated with painting.

Dattatreya Damodar Devlalikar was a painter and art teacher who founded the art school in Indore (now the Government Fine Arts College) and shaped the Indore school of painting. Among his students were M.F. Husain and N.S. Bendre.

He was not known for drama, wooden craft or singing; his place in Madhya Pradesh's cultural history is as a painter and teacher of painters.