Indian Culture Questions and Answers

Answer: B

The wrong match is Thabal Chongba - Tripuri.

Thabal Chongba ('dancing in the moonlight') is a folk dance of Manipur, performed by the Meitei during the Yaoshang festival, when young men and women dance in a circle holding hands. It is not a dance of the Tripuri people.

The other pairs are given as correct: Hozagiri is the celebrated dance of the Reang, and Wangala (printed Wangla) is the harvest dance of the Garo. Padisha is listed for the Mog, and the one pair that is plainly misplaced is Thabal Chongba.

Answer: D

The Reang (Bru) are known for the Hozagiri Dance.

Hozagiri is performed by Reang women and girls at the Hojagiri festival after the harvest. The dancers move only the lower body while balancing earthen pitchers, bottles and lit lamps on their heads, standing on pitchers, to the music of the khamb drum and bamboo flute.

Lebang Boomani and the Garia dance belong to the Tripuri community, and the Wangala dance belongs to the Garo.

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.