Indian Culture Questions and Answers

Answer: D

Lala Hardaul is a folk deity of Bundelkhand.

Hardaul was a seventeenth-century Bundela prince of Orchha, the younger brother of Jujhar Singh, who according to legend was poisoned after being falsely suspected. He came to be worshipped across Bundelkhand, with small platforms (chabutaras) in villages, and he is invoked especially at weddings to keep away storms and trouble.

Malwa, Baghelkhand and Nimad are other cultural regions of Madhya Pradesh with their own folk deities; the Hardaul cult belongs to the Bundela country around Orchha, Tikamgarh and Jhansi.

Answer: D

Pithora painting belongs to the Bhil tribe.

Pithora paintings are ritual wall paintings made by Bhil and Bhilala communities, including the Rathwa, in western Madhya Pradesh and eastern Gujarat, especially in the Jhabua and Alirajpur region. Brightly coloured horses, riders and scenes of daily life are painted on the house wall to honour the deity Pithora, often to fulfil a vow.

The Gond are known for their own dot-and-line painting style; the Kol and Sahariya are not associated with Pithora.

Answer: B

The keyed answer is Jhabua.

Jhabua is the district of the Bhil and Bhilala communities, and the tribal art of the Bhil region, with its doll craft, bead work and Bhil painting, is centred there. The key places the artwork named Bhiligudia in Jhabua. What could not be confirmed is any source that mentions an artwork under that name, so the answer rests on the key and on the Bhil association.

Dhar is also a Bhil district, but the key does not choose it. Mandla and Dindori are Gond and Baiga districts, whose best-known art is Gond painting.

Answer: D

The pair that is not a Bharia dance is Dahra, Dadariya.

A Bharia community listing names their dances as bhadam (bhadma), setaam, sela (seila), gedi-dandar, karma, bada karma, dhandhara and ahir (ahirai). That covers every pair in the other options: Bhadam and Setaam, Karma and Gedi-dandar, and Seila and Ahirai.

Neither Dahra nor Dadariya could be matched to a name on that list. Because the community's own list does not include them, option D is the one that is not a Bharia dance, which agrees with the key. Spellings of tribal dance names vary between sources.

Answer: D

The Mandhata fair is organized in Khandwa district.

Mandhata is the island in the Narmada on which the Omkareshwar Jyotirlinga temple stands, in Khandwa district. A large fair is held there around Kartik Purnima (October to November), drawing pilgrims who bathe in the Narmada and visit the temple.

Rehli is in Sagar district, Amarkantak, the source of the Narmada, is in Anuppur district, and Chanderi, known for its handloom saris, is in Ashoknagar district. None of them is the site of the Mandhata fair.

Answer: A

The key gives Baraya dance.

I could not confirm this independently. The Bhil dances that references list (Bhagoria, Gair and the wedding and festival dances of Madhya Pradesh and Rajasthan) are performed by men and women together or by men, and none of the names in the options, Baraya, Rathya or Ghann, turned up in any source I could reach. So the key is the Commission's reading, and I cannot say what dance it has in mind.

'None of the above' is not the keyed option, and I found nothing that supports Rathya or Ghann as a women-only Bhil dance either. Ghoomar, which some sources trace to the Bhils, is danced by women, but it is a Rajasthan dance and is not among the options.

Answer: D

The pair that is not correctly matched is Sahariya-Khamb swang.

Khamb swang is the dance-drama of the Korku tribe of the Satpura region, performed around a pole (khamb) in the rainy season. It is a Korku tradition, not a Sahariya one; the Sahariya live mainly in the Gwalior-Chambal region in the north of the State.

The key accepts the other three pairs, among them the well-known link between the Bhils and Pithora, the ritual wall painting of the Bhil and Bhilala households of western Madhya Pradesh.

Answer: A

The festival is the Nimar festival.

The Nimar Utsav is held every year at Maheshwar, on the banks of the Narmada, in the fort complex of Devi Ahilyabai Holkar, who made Maheshwar her capital. Organised by the State tourism and culture departments, it showcases the music, dance and crafts of the Nimar region.

The Malwa Utsav is held in Indore and Ujjain, the Bhoj festival is linked with Bhojpur and Dhar, and Tejaji is a folk deity of Rajasthan and Malwa. None is held at the Ahilyabai fort.

Answer: C

The Banjara community is included in Other Backward Classes in Madhya Pradesh.

Compilations of the community's status list the Banjara among the Other Backward Classes in Madhya Pradesh, as in Chhattisgarh, Maharashtra and Rajasthan, while listing them as a Scheduled Tribe in Andhra Pradesh, Telangana and Odisha. That agrees with the key.

These are secondary compilations, not the state's own notification, which I did not see. The status differs from state to state, so the tribe and caste options are traps that come from the community's classification elsewhere.

Answer: D

The Pawari/Bhoyari dialect is spoken in Betul.

Pawari, also called Bhoyari, is the speech of the Pawar (Panwar) community, who settled in the Satpura districts of south Madhya Pradesh, chiefly Betul and neighbouring Chhindwara.

Rewa, Satna and Sidhi are in the Bagheli-speaking region of north-east Madhya Pradesh, so they are not where Pawari is spoken. Betul lies on the Satpura plateau in the south of the State, bordering Maharashtra.