BharatNotes Built from the Folk Arts chapter. Almost every item here is a community, a function or a construction detail — and those are exactly what the questions are set on.
Section A — Dance and drama (Q1–4)
1. The Kalbelia folk songs and dances were inscribed by UNESCO in — Recall
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(d) 2010. On the Representative List of the Intangible Cultural Heritage of Humanity.
Why not the others: (a) 2013 is the Hill Forts inscription and a natural confusion, since both are UNESCO listings for Rajasthan three years apart — but one is World Heritage and the other Intangible Cultural Heritage.
2. What does scholarship say about the Kalbeliya dance form? Type D · date and status
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(a) The codified form is argued to have been created in the 1980s, crediting Gulabo Sapera. The argument concerns the choreographed stage genre, not the community or its musical traditions. The community is old; the dance as a performance genre is argued to be recent.
Why not the others: For Prelims, answer the 2010 inscription. The scholarship belongs in a Mains or interview answer, attributed — it is the syllabus's clearest case of an invented tradition, and the question it raises is whether listing preserves a living practice or fixes one version as authoritative.
3. The Kuchamani Khyal style is associated with — Type B · Khyal, wrong attribution
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(b) Lacchiram, in Nagaur, using folk music. The three Khyal varieties are Alibuxi (Alibux), Shekhawati (Nainuram, 1823-1905) and Kuchamani (Lacchiram).
Why not the others: The table can be asked four ways — style to playwright, to district, to musical character, or playwright to dates. Shekhawati is pure classical; Kuchamani is folk; Alibuxi mixes the two.
4. Turra-Kalangi was begun by two saints named — Recall
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(c) Shah Ali and Tukangir. About 400 years old, from the Chittorgarh-Madhya Pradesh border, preferred in Mewar. Turra represents Shiva and Kalangi Shakti.
Why not the others: A tradition founded by two saints, one with a Muslim name and one with a Hindu one, and structured as a contest between two parties. It complicates any account of Rajasthan's folk culture as religiously sealed.
Section B — Music, communities and instruments (Q5–11)
5. The Manganiyar community is associated above all with the — Type A · community, wrong instrument
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(d) Kamaycha. The Langa are associated with the sarangi and the algoza; the ravanhattha belongs to the Thori or Nayak Bhopas.
Why not the others: Both Langa and Manganiyar are hereditary Muslim folk musician communities of western Rajasthan, and the instrument is what distinguishes them in a question.
6. Khartal and morchang belong to which class of instrument? Type C · class, wrong instrument
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(a) Ghan. Ghan instruments are struck solids. The four-fold scheme derives from the Natya Shastra: Tat (strings), Sushir (air), Avanaddh (membranes), Ghan (solids).
Why not the others: (b) Avanaddh covers nagara, dhol, chang, damru — stretched membranes. Khartal is a pair of wooden clappers, which is a solid, not a drum.
7. The sarangi's bow is called the — Recall
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(b) Gaj. Made of horsehair. The instrument is built from toon, sagwan (teak) and rohida wood and carries 27 strings.
Why not the others: (a) the jarib is the land-measuring chain from the administration chapter, (c) the chashala the ring on a yupa pillar, (d) the nishan the flag of the Bhagat panth. Three real terms from three other chapters.
8. What is distinctive about the ravanhattha's bow? Concept
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(c) It carries ghungroos, so the bowing makes a second rhythm. The instrument is described as probably the earliest played with a bow, and belongs to the Thori or Nayak Bhopas.
Why not the others: The engineering in these instruments is in the resonance, not the melody — bells on the bow, thirteen strings on a kamaycha that are never bowed, a wooden block set into a bamboo tube. That is why they sound as they do.
9. The kamaycha carries three main gut strings plus — Recall
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(d) Nine supplementary and four sympathetic steel strings. Played with a long curved bow of horse-tail hair.
Why not the others: Thirteen of its strings are never bowed. They resonate, which is the point of the design.
10. The algoza is — Recall
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(a) A bamboo flute with a wooden block inserted, usually played in pairs. The upper part is peeled and a wooden block set inside to form the air channel.
Why not the others: Usually two are played together, which is the detail that identifies it. It is a Sushir instrument, associated with the Langa.
11. Terah Taali is performed with manjiras — Recall
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(b) Tied to the bodies of the women performing. Small bronze or brass cymbals, which is why the dance is performed seated.
Why not the others: It is the link between the dance topic and the instrument topic: manjira is a Ghan instrument, and here it is worn rather than held.
Section C — From the board textbook: the songs themselves (Q12–17)
12. The mand song padharo mahare des, described as an open invitation to tourists, was sung by — Recall
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(c) Padma Shri Allah Jillai Bai. Mand singing of Rajasthan is famous the world over, and the board names four regional types: Udaipur ki Mand, Jodhpur ki Mand, Jaipur-Bikaner ki Mand and Jaisalmer ki Mand.
Why not the others: (a) Gavari Bai is the Meera of Wagad, a Krishna poet of Dungarpur, in the personalities chapter. (d) Amrita Devi is Khejarli. All three are women of Rajasthan from three different chapters, which is why they work as options.
13. Most mand couplets are based on the ragas Des and Sorath. The heroic songs sung during wars are based on — Concept
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(d) Sindhu and Maru.
Why not the others: All the named ragas are ones the board says Rajasthani folk music resembles — Mand, Des, Sorath, Maru, Paraj, Kalingda, Jogiya, Asawari, Bilawal, Peelu, Khamaj — so every option is plausible and only the pairing decides it. A song of welcome in Des and Sorath, a song of war in Sindhu and Maru: the repertoire is sorted by occasion at the level of the raga itself, which is a better observation than either list.
14. The Languriya songs, popular in the Karauli region, are sung by devotees of — Recall
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(a) Kaila Devi — and the board sets this directly. Their popularity in Karauli comes from Brij culture at Bharatpur and Kaman, which also makes songs of Krishna Leela popular there.
Why not the others: (a) is also the goddess whose temple the board lists under Karauli in its district-wise heritage listing, so the district is doubly attached to her.
15. The board explains the high-octave, full-throated singing of the desert districts as a result of — Concept
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(b) The free and unrestrained environs — the board is deriving vocal technique from landscape, and open country produces open singing. Desert songs named: Kurjaa, Pipli, Rattan Rano, Mumal, Ghughri, Kevda.
Why not the others: Contrast the other two regions, because the contrast is the answer. In the southern hills group singing is favoured over solos or duets, with simple, short tunes of limited notes among the Bhil, Meena, Girasiya and Sehriya. In the flat plains the songs are linguistically and compositionally diverse, with a predominance of bhakti and shringar ras. The famous song of the Bhils of northern Mewar is humseedo, sung by male and female together.
16. According to the board, the most popular and numerous folk songs of Rajasthan are in — Concept
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(c) Shringar, and specifically viyog shringar — the pangs of separation from a beloved gone to foreign lands to earn a livelihood. The board's order is shringar, then shanta, then veer.
Why not the others: (a) veer is the expected answer and it comes last, which is the whole reason to know this. A region whose history is told through forts, sieges and sakas sings most often not about war but about a spouse who has gone away to work. The migration underlying viyog shringar is the ordinary condition of the desert economy, and the songs record it where the chronicles do not.
17. Fifteen days before Deepawali in Mewar, boys go from house to house singing lovadi or harni. The girls' songs are called — Recall
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(d) Ghadalyo.
Why not the others: Each is a real occasion song, and the occasions are the examinable part. Jaccha is sung at a child's birth, praising the expectant mother; bindola when the bridegroom is invited and returns; jala for the women of the bride's family going to see the janvasa; ghodi at the bridegroom's departure, the ghudchadi. The board credits its folk-music material to Folk Music of Rajasthan by Devilal Samar — the same authority who gave the three-fold geographical classification of the folk dances.
Assertion and Reason (Q18–21)
Decide whether each statement is true on its own before asking whether the second explains the first.
18. A: The Kalbeliya dance form was inscribed by UNESCO as intangible heritage. R: The dance form as now codified is argued by scholars to have been created in the 1980s. Type D · date and status
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(b) Both are true and R does not explain A — if anything it complicates it. The inscription is 2010; the scholarship concerns the choreographed stage genre, not the community. Holding the two apart is the point.
19. A: The Langa and Manganiyar were directly affected by the end of the princely order. R: They were hereditary musicians attached to patron families rather than performers in a market. Concept
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(a) R explains A. When princely patronage ended in 1949, what replaced it was tourism and the world-music circuit — a direct line from the integration chapter to a living livelihood.
20. A: Rajasthan's folk instruments are better described as solutions to acoustic problems than as simple. R: A kamaycha carries thirteen strings that are never bowed, and a ravanhattha's bow carries bells. Concept
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(a) R is the evidence for A. These are engineering decisions, arrived at without notation or workshops.
21. A: Turra-Kalangi is one of the three main varieties of Khyal. R: It is preferred in Mewar and originated on the Chittorgarh-Madhya Pradesh border. Type B · Khyal, wrong attribution
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(d) R is true and A false. The three Khyal varieties are Alibuxi, Shekhawati and Kuchamani; Turra-Kalangi is a distinct tradition.
Match the following (Q22–24)
Lock the one pair you are certain of, then eliminate. Every wrong code is a real swap, not a random shuffle.
22. Khyal style with playwright and region Type B · Khyal, wrong attribution
List I — A. Alibuxi · B. Shekhawati · C. Kuchamani · D. Turra-Kalangi
List II — 1. Lacchiram; Nagaur; folk music · 2. Shah Ali and Tukangir; Mewar · 3. Alibux; classical and folk mixed · 4. Nainuram (1823-1905); Sikar and Jhunjhunu; pure classical
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(a) D is deliberately included although it is not a Khyal style, because that is itself a common error.
23. Instrument with community or dance Type A · community, wrong instrument
List I — A. Kamaycha · B. Sarangi and algoza · C. Ravanhattha · D. Manjira
List II — 1. Thori or Nayak Bhopas · 2. Tied to the bodies of Terah Taali dancers · 3. Manganiyar · 4. Langa
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(a) A and B are the pair that identifies the two great musician communities of western Rajasthan.
24. Instrument with its class Type C · class, wrong instrument
List I — A. Kamaycha · B. Algoza · C. Nagara · D. Khartal
List II — 1. Ghan · 2. Avanaddh · 3. Tat · 4. Sushir
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(a) From the Natya Shastra: strings, air, membranes, struck solids. Morchang joins khartal in Ghan, which surprises people.
Section D — Named artists, listed elements and the instruments they are recorded for (Q25–Q54)
Every name here sits in a government award citation or a national heritage dossier, and every wrong option is a name, a year or a district that circulates attached to something else.
25. In the nomination file for the 2010 inscription, the two instruments the Kalbelia women dance to are the — Type A · community, wrong instrument
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(a) Khanjari and poongi. The khanjari is the percussion instrument and the poongi the wind instrument. At Holi the Kalbelias perform a special dance with a third instrument, the chang.
Why not the others: Every option is a real pairing belonging to somebody else, which is how this is set. (b) the kamaycha is the Manganiyar's; (c) sarangi and algoza are the Langa's; (d) manjira and chautara are carried by the Kamad for Ramdevji's songs.
26. The khanjari and the poongi are made by the Kalbelias themselves, from — Recall
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(b) Dried vegetable gourds and leather hide. A community that makes its own instruments out of gourd and hide is the reason the sound cannot be separated from the livelihood.
Why not the others: All three are the materials of other instruments on this page. (a) toon, sagwan and rohida are the sarangi's woods; (c) seesham and kair are what a government citation gives for the algoza; (d) bronze or brass is the manjira.
27. In Kalbeliya performance, as the nomination file describes it — Concept
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(c) The women sing and dance while the men play the instruments.
Why not the others: (d) is Terah Taali — Kamad women dancing seated with manjiras wrapped around the body, the men playing tanpura, cymbals and chautara. (b) is Walar of the Garasiya of Sirohi, the one dance identified by using no instruments at all. The division of labour is the same in Kalbeliya and Terah Taali — women dance, men play — and that shared pattern is worth more than either entry alone.
28. The nomination file locates the Kalbelia community predominantly in — Recall
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(d) Jodhpur, Jaisalmer, Jalore and Barmer in western Rajasthan, and Jaipur and Pushkar in eastern Rajasthan.
Why not the others: (a) Bikaner and Churu are the Jasnathi fire dance; (b) Sirohi is Walar, of the Garasiya; (c) Dungarpur and Banswara are Garba at Navratri. Four districts and two cities — the file names the cities separately because the community is in them too.
29. The Sangeet Natak Akademi's 1990 award for Terah Taali went to Mangi Bai, whose citation gives her birthplace as — Recall
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(a) Village Vanine, Chittor district, born 1935, taught by Shri Goramdasji, her husband's elder brother.
Why not the others: (b) Padarla in Pali and (c) Jaisalmer are the two places circulated as the form's main centre, and they contradict each other — this page names no main centre for Terah Taali. (d) Borunda is the seat of Rupayan Sansthan, with whose folk-arts documentation the citation associates her; it is not her birthplace.
30. The Akademi's 1990 citation records the Kamad community's primary social obligation and profession as — Type A · community, wrong instrument
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(b) Ritual song and dance in devotion to Baba Ramdeo — and "the dance of Teratali is a part of this heritage." That is the Government of India stating the Kamad-Ramdevji link as the reason the dance exists at all.
Why not the others: (a) the Bhopas perform Pabuji's phad; (c) Kathputli is hereditary in Bhat families; (d) impersonation is Bahurupia. The deity, and not only the cymbals, is the answerable part of a Terah Taali question.
31. Alibakshi Khyal belongs to which region? Type B · Khyal, wrong attribution
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(c) Mewat. The national intangible-heritage inventory files the element "Alibakshi Khayal and Pandwan ka Kadda", described as "a genre of classical singing of Mewat in Haryana and Rajasthan" — so the same entry pairs it with the Pandun ka Kada, the Mewati oral Mahabharata.
Why not the others: (a) Nagaur is Kuchamani, of Lacchiram; (b) Sikar and Jhunjhunu are Shekhawati, of Nainuram; (d) the Chittorgarh-MP border is Turra-Kalangi, which is not a Khyal style at all. A candidate who answers "Alwar" is not wrong in spirit — Mewat reaches into the Alwar, Bharatpur and Deeg country — but Mewat is the term the inventory uses.
32. Female roles in Khyal performances are played by — Type F · artist, wrong instrument or wrong year
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(d) Men. Ugamraj Khilari, born 1932 at village Merta Road into a family of farmers and trained by Bhawarlal Sharma, received the award for Khyal in 1975. The citation records that he had assimilated "in particular the Lacchiram tradition of the Kuchamani Khyal", and names his roles in Harishchandra, Gog Chauhan, Bhakt Pooran Chand, Dhola Maru and Amar Singh Rathod.
Why not the others: (a) the Kamad women dance Terah Taali, which is the form where women perform — the confusion is between a women's form and a form in which men perform the women. (b) splits the three styles along a line no record draws. Note what the citation settles in passing: Kuchamani survives as a named Lacchiram tradition, not merely as one man's authorship.
33. Chaar Bait is — Recall
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(a) A four-line sequence of verses, sung to the beat of the duff. Its places are Tonk in Rajasthan, Bhopal in Madhya Pradesh and Rampur, Chandpur, Malihabad and Amroha in Uttar Pradesh; the troupe is an akhara headed by an ustad, and groups compete in a didactic style of question and answer, the poet often writing new verses on the spot, late into the night.
Why not the others: (b) the naqqara is Khyal's kettledrum; (c) the chang is the Shekhawati Holi dance, and the Kalbelia's Holi instrument; (d) khartal and kamaycha belong to the western musician communities. One instrument, one verse-length and one troupe-name carry the whole entry.
34. The Government of India's heritage dossier traces Chaar Bait's claimed origin to — Concept
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(b) An Arab form called Rajeez, sung at high pitch with fast beats in war camps in the evenings. It was carried east to Persia and Afghanistan and reached 18th-century India with Pathan and Afghan soldiers recruited into the private armies of Indian states. A folk theatre with a military history is unusual, and the dossier says so in as many words — it also records that its singers are generally unlettered people from economically weak backgrounds.
Why not the others: (c) is what circulates about Tamasha, traced to no record; (d) is the Pandun ka Kada, which the national inventory pairs with Alibakshi Khyal; (a) is a Nautanki claim of the same unverified family.
35. Circulated accounts credit the introduction of Chaar Bait at Tonk to Nawab Faizullah Khan. He was in fact the Nawab of — Type F · artist, wrong instrument or wrong year
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(c) Rampur. The heritage dossier names no ruler and no founder at Tonk at all, and attributes the form's arrival to Pathan and Afghan soldiers of the 18th century.
Why not the others: (b) Bhopal and (d) Amroha are themselves Chaar Bait centres in the dossier's own list, which is exactly why they sit plausibly among the options; (a) Tonk is the trap the claim depends on — the form is at Tonk, the nawab is not.
36. In the Sangeet Natak Akademi's national inventory of intangible cultural heritage, Rammat appears as — Recall
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(d) A listed Rajasthan element, described only as "a folk dance of Rajasthan." That is a caution, not a confirmation: the folk-theatre literature treats Rammat as theatre, the inventory calls it a dance, and both descriptions stand here without being merged. Bahurupia Performance and Kachchi Ghodi are the other two Rajasthan entries touching this chapter.
Why not the others: (a) and (b) — Tej Kavi, the Swatantra Bawani Rammat said to have been presented to Gandhi in 1943, the actor-name Khelar, and the performance on wooden planks by Pushkarna Brahmins all circulate widely and none is traced to a government or scholarly record. The inventory names no founder, no actor-term and no date.
37. The Padma Shri list of 25 January 2024 carries a single-name entry under Art for Rajasthan, of an impersonation artist — Recall
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(a) Shri Jankilal. Bahurupia Performance is itself an element in the national inventory, described there as "also called impersonation" — a living artist honoured at that level, plus an element entry, answer "is Swang still performed" better than any list of swang titles.
Why not the others: (b) Puran Bhaat holds the Akademi's award for Puppetry, 2003; (c) Taga Ram Bheel the Padma Shri 2026 for the algoza; (d) Begam Batool the Padma Shri 2025. Four real Rajasthan names, four arts, four years.
38. The Sangeet Natak Akademi's own wording describes Gavari as — Concept
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(b) "Gavari, the dance-theatre of the Bhils." The phrase is from the Akademi's 1997 citation for the director Bhanu Bharti — born Ajmer, 1947, National School of Drama 1973, who built Pashu Gayatri, Kal Katha and Amar Beej on his study of the Bhil tribe of the Mewar region, headed the Bharatiya Lok Kala Mandal, Udaipur, and chaired the Rajasthan Sangeet Natak Akademi.
Why not the others: (a) and (c) force a choice the record refuses — Gavri is both, and the question that asks which one is the wrong question. (d) the forty-day run from the day after Raksha Bandhan, and the character names Budhiya, Rai, Kutkudiya and Jhatpatiya, circulate widely, are traced to no record, and conflict with the September-October window the Government of Rajasthan's dance page gives.
39. Kathputli is — Recall
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(c) String puppetry, hereditary in Bhat families. The Akademi's 2003 award for Puppetry (Rajasthan) went to Puran Bhaat, who "belongs to a family practising Kathputli ka Nach hereditarily", learnt from his father Shri Malu Ram, and is cited for "his mastery over string puppetry of the Kathputli tradition."
Why not the others: The examinable distinction is between the family and the technique — an inherited profession, and a marionette on strings. The Sthapak title in (a) and the ardu wood in (b) circulate together with claims about where the puppets are made, and none of it is on a primary record.
40. The bhapang, a single-string plucked drum, belongs to the — Type A · community, wrong instrument
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(d) The Mewati Jogis. Gafruddin Mewati Jogi holds the Sangeet Natak Akademi Award of 2022 and the Padma Shri of 2026 for it, and is recorded as also playing the jogiya sarangi and the dholak.
Why not the others: (a) and (b) put the instrument in the west, where nearly every other instrument on this page belongs — that is the trap: the bhapang is an eastern instrument, of the Deeg and Bharatpur belt. (c) the Thori or Nayak Bhopas play the ravanhattha.
41. The 2026 citation places Gafruddin Mewati Jogi's village Kaithwara, in tehsil Pahadi, in the district of — Recall
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(a) Deeg, which became a district in the 2023 reorganisation, having been part of Bharatpur.
Why not the others: (b) Bharatpur is what the older books print for Kaithwara and Pahadi tehsil, and it is not a random wrong answer — his own institution, the Brajrang Mewat Sahitya Lok Kala Sansthan founded in 2007, is recorded at Bharatpur in the same short biography. Both names belong in the answer; only Deeg is the current district.
42. The khartal, as the Sangeet Natak Akademi's citation describes it, consists of — Type F · artist, wrong instrument or wrong year
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(b) Four flat rectangular pieces of wood, held two in each hand — the Akademi's wording in the Ustad Bismillah Khan Yuva Puraskar citation of 2013-14 for Khete Khan Manganiyar, born 3 March 1976 at Hamira, nephew of Sakar Khan.
Why not the others: (a) is half the instrument, and it is the version that circulates most; (c) describes something different again; (d) is the manjira of Terah Taali. The class does not change — khartal is Ghan either way — but the count does, and the count is what a construction question asks for.
43. The Rashtrapati Bhavan citation of 2026 for the algoza player Taga Ram Bheel describes the instrument as — Concept
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(c) A dual flute of seesham and kair dry wood, "played by mouth and throat." The breath is controlled at the throat to sustain the drone while the second pipe carries the melody. Taga Ram Bheel, born 17 April 1960 at Moolsagar, Jaisalmer, holds the Padma Shri of 2026 and founded the Algoza Folk Music Institute there.
Why not the others: (a) is not an error — it is the other official description, a bamboo tube with a wooden block set in to form the air channel. Two government descriptions differ on the material, agree that the algoza is a paired flute, and neither is dropped; read the stem for which document is being asked about. (d) no notification declaring a state instrument — or a state dance, or a state song — of Rajasthan was located, and the 2026 citation describes the algoza at length without using any such designation.
44. Rupayan Sansthan, the folklore institution founded by Komal Kothari, has its seat at — Recall
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(d) Borunda, in Jodhpur district — confirmed twice, since Mangi Bai's 1990 citation places the folk-arts documentation at Rupayan Sansthan, Borunda, and Khete Khan's 2013-14 citation calls him a member of Rupayan Sansthan, Jodhpur. Two scales of the same address. Kothari himself: Fellow of the Sangeet Natak Akademi 1986, Nehru Fellowship 1978, Padma Shri 1983, Padma Bhushan 2004 entered posthumously, former Secretary of the Rajasthan Sangeet Natak Akademi.
Why not the others: (a) Kapasan circulates as his birthplace, where the fellowship citation gives only "in Rajasthan"; the 1960 founding year that travels with it is likewise not on a primary record. (b) Udaipur is the Bharatiya Lok Kala Mandal. Name the institution, not only the loss: what replaced princely patronage was an archive, an award and a festival circuit.
45. Gavari Devi of Jodhpur received the Sangeet Natak Akademi Award for the folk music of Rajasthan for — Type F · artist, wrong instrument or wrong year
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(a) 1986. The citation ends "receives the Sangeet Natak Akademi Award for Folk Music of Rajasthan for 1986", and the Akademi's awardee database lists her under 1986. She was born 1921 into a family of traditional musicians of Jodhpur and trained by Jamunabai and her father Bansilal.
Why not the others: (b) 1988 is the year that circulates for her, and it is the year of Allah Jilai Bai's award in the same category — two Mand singers, two years, and the wrong pairing is the obvious distractor. (c) 1975 is the year the Rajasthan Sangeet Natak Akademi honoured Gavari Devi, and also the year of the national award for Khyal; (d) 1990 is Mangi Bai's, for Terah Taali.
46. The Akademi's 1988 citation records that Allah Jilai Bai was — Concept
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(b) Attached to the Bikaner court till the dissolution of the native states. She learnt vocal music from the age of eight at a school supported by Maharaja Ganga Singh, her teacher being Hussain Bux, a Bikaner court musician, and sang thereafter for Akashvani and Doordarshan. Her Padma Shri is of 1982.
Why not the others: (c) membership of Rupayan Sansthan is what a different citation records, of Khete Khan; (d) the Padma Bhushan 2010 is Ustad Sultan Khan's. The line to carry is the first one: a court singer became a radio singer because the courts stopped existing. Not a decline and not a rescue — a change of patron, dated by the Akademi's own wording to the dissolution of the states.
47. The Padma Awards of 2026, which include Gafruddin Mewati Jogi and Taga Ram Bheel, were — Type D · date and status
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(c) Announced 25 January 2026; conferred 25 May 2026, at the Civil Investiture Ceremony-I, whose souvenir carries the full citations for both men. Both are entered as Art, Rajasthan.
Why not the others: (b) the announcement itself says only that Padma Awards "are conferred by the President of India at ceremonial functions... usually around March / April" — a statement of practice, not a record of an event — and the ceremony on record is of 25 May 2026. (d) Gafruddin's Sangeet Natak Akademi Award is of 2022. Announcement, conferment and an earlier award are three separate facts, and none of them implies another.
48. The Budget 2026-27, presented on 11 February 2026, provided Rs 30 crore for a Heritage Walk-Way programme at — Recall
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(d) Pushkar, Khatushyamji, Nathdwara, Keshoraipatan, Deeg and Chittorgarh. Read an allocation as an intention — a budget line is not a completed work, and it is not evidence that anything was built.
Why not the others: (a) Dungarpur, Karauli and Sikar are the fair districts of the same season — Beneshwar began 29 January 2026, with Rs 130 crore for Beneshwar Dham announced on 16 March 2026; the Kaila Devi mela ran 16 March to 1 April 2026 and Jeen Mata 19 to 27 March 2026. (b) is the Kalbelia belt; (c) the Chaar Bait centres. Every option is a real list from this topic, attached to the wrong programme.
49. A: Terah Taali survives today as a women's devotional form. R: The Akademi's 1990 citation records that Mangi Bai trained a large number of girls in it, ensuring the survival of an art once threatened by restrictions imposed on women. Concept
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(a) R explains A, in the citation's own words — "ensuring the survival of an art which was once threatened due to restrictions imposed on women." A women's devotional dance that nearly died because women were restricted from performing it, and was carried forward by one woman teaching girls, is a sharper argument about folk culture and gender than any general observation about tradition, and it is a sourced example where most answers offer generalities.
50. A: The argument that the Kalbeliya stage form is recent is a hostile outside reading of the UNESCO inscription. R: The nomination file India filed records that the community's music and dance "has evolved into a creative and contemporary version that enthralls audiences worldwide". Type D · date and status
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(d) R is true, A is false — and R is why A is false. The nominating dossier says something close to the scholarly point in its own words, which is why the argument belongs to scholarship rather than to debunking. The state did not claim an unchanged antiquity and then get caught; it described an evolving practice, and the popular retelling flattened it. For Prelims the answer remains the 2010 inscription.
51. A: The bhapang is an instrument of the Manganiyar of western Rajasthan. R: Gafruddin Mewati Jogi, honoured for the bhapang, is of Kaithwara village in Deeg district. Type A · community, wrong instrument
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(d) A is false and R is the evidence against it. The bhapang belongs to the Mewati Jogis of the Mewat country, in the Deeg and Bharatpur belt of eastern Rajasthan — the opposite end of the state from the Manganiyar. Deeg is the district since the 2023 reorganisation; Bharatpur is what the older books print.
52. Instrument with the artist the government record names Type A · community, wrong instrument
List I — A. Kamaycha · B. Bhapang · C. Algoza · D. Sarangi
List II — 1. Taga Ram Bheel, of Moolsagar, Jaisalmer · 2. Ustad Sultan Khan, born Sikar 1940 · 3. Sakar Khan Manganiar, of Hamira, Jaisalmer · 4. Gafruddin Mewati Jogi, of Kaithwara, Deeg
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(a) Sakar Khan — Akademi Award 1991, Padma Shri 2012, cited as excelling in the kamaicha and taught by his father Chuhar Khan. Gafruddin — Akademi Award 2022, Padma Shri 2026. Taga Ram Bheel — Padma Shri 2026. Ustad Sultan Khan — Akademi Award 1992, Padma Bhushan 2010. The khartal is the one instrument with two names on the record — Siddique Manganiar (1983) and Khete Khan Manganiyar (2013-14) — which is why it is kept out of a four-way pairing.
53. Award with the year the citation gives Type F · artist, wrong instrument or wrong year
List I — A. Ugamraj Khilari, for Khyal · B. Mangi Bai, for Terah Taali · C. Puran Bhaat, for puppetry · D. Gavari Devi, for folk music
List II — 1. 1975 · 2. 1986 · 3. 1990 · 4. 2003
Show answer
(a) All four are Sangeet Natak Akademi awards, and D is the one that circulates wrongly: Gavari Devi's is for 1986, and 1988 is Allah Jilai Bai's in the same category. Lock C, the only one in this century, then work back.
54. Honour with the recipient Type F · artist, wrong instrument or wrong year
List I — A. Sakar Khan Manganiar · B. Ustad Sultan Khan · C. Begam Batool · D. Ali Mohammed and Ghani Mohammed
List II — 1. Padma Bhushan 2010 · 2. Padma Shri 2024, as a duo · 3. Padma Shri 2012 · 4. Padma Shri 2025
Show answer
(a) Ali Mohammed and Ghani Mohammed were honoured as a duo, in the list of 25 January 2024 — one Padma Shri for two men, which is the detail that identifies the entry. Begam Batool, so spelt by the government, is Padma Shri 2025. Two other Padma years from this material pull people into the wrong code: Allah Jilai Bai's Padma Shri of 1982, and Komal Kothari's of 1983 with his Padma Bhushan of 2004, entered posthumously.
Flashcards
Tap to reveal. These are the ones that decide close questions.
Kalbeliya
UNESCO Intangible Cultural Heritage, 2010. Movements likened to a serpent. Scholarship argues the codified form dates from the 1980s, crediting Gulabo Sapera — a claim about the stage genre, not the community.
The three Khyal styles
Alibuxi — Alibux; classical and folk mixed. Shekhawati — Nainuram (1823-1905); Sikar and Jhunjhunu; pure classical. Kuchamani — Lacchiram; Nagaur; folk. Accompaniment: the naqqara.
Turra-Kalangi
About 400 years old; Chittorgarh-MP border, preferred in Mewar; begun by Shah Ali and Tukangir; Turra = Shiva, Kalangi = Shakti. Not a Khyal style.
The two communities
Langa → sarangi, algoza. Manganiyar → kamaycha. Both hereditary Muslim musician communities of western Rajasthan, attached to patron families.
The four classes
Natya Shastra: Tat strings (ravanhattha, kamaycha, sarangi) · Sushir air (algoza, been, bankiya) · Avanaddh membranes (nagara, dhol, chang, damru) · Ghan struck solids (manjira, khartal, morchang, jhanjh, ghungroo).
Construction details
Sarangi — toon, sagwan, rohida; 27 strings; bow called the gaj, of horsehair. Ravanhattha — ghungroos on the bow; Thori/Nayak Bhopas. Kamaycha — 3 gut + 9 supplementary + 4 sympathetic steel. Algoza — bamboo, wooden block, played in pairs.
Rapid one-liners
When was Kalbeliya inscribed by UNESCO?
2010 — Intangible Cultural Heritage, not World Heritage.
What do scholars argue about the Kalbeliya dance?
That the codified form dates from the 1980s, crediting Gulabo Sapera. The community is old; the stage genre is argued to be recent.
Which Khyal style uses pure classical music?
Shekhawati, of Nainuram, in Sikar and Jhunjhunu.
Manganiyar or Langa — who plays the kamaycha?
The Manganiyar. The Langa play sarangi and algoza.
What class is the khartal?
Ghan — a struck solid, a pair of wooden clappers. So is the morchang.
What is unusual about the ravanhattha's bow?
It carries ghungroos, so the bowing makes a second rhythm.
How many kamaycha strings are never bowed?
Thirteen — nine supplementary and four sympathetic.
More in This Series
- Folk Dance, Drama, Music and Instruments — the chapter these questions come from
- Caution for Readers — the claims that are genuinely unsettled
Sources & Verification
Every question is derived from the parent chapter, whose Sources & Verification section lists what was checked and what was deliberately not asserted.
No PYQ is cited anywhere on this page. Question numbers are our own, not RPSC's.
No question is set on any figure or claim the parent chapter declines to verify. Q2 and the first assertion-reason item handle the Kalbeliya dating scholarship explicitly, keeping the 2010 inscription and the argument about the form's creation apart rather than merging them in either direction. Dances beyond Kalbeliya and Terah Taali are not asked, because only those two were verified in the chapter.
