PYQP – Art & Culture – Fairs and Festivals in India

UPSC – CSE Prelims 2024

ART & CULTURE – FAIRS & FESTIVALS IN INDIA

1. Consider the following pairs (Difficult)

            Tradition                                  State

1. Chapchar Kut Festival              Mizoram
2. Khongiom Parba ballad           Manipur
3. Thang-Ta dance                       Sikkim

Which of the pairs given above is/are correct?

(a) 1 only

(b) 1 and 2

(c) 3 only

(d) 2 and 3

Ans: (b)

Chapchar Kut

• It is a festival of Mizoram.
• It is celebrated during March after completion of their most arduous task of Jhum operation i.e., jungle-clearing (clearing of the remnants of burning).
• Chapchar Kut was discouraged when the Missionaries came to Mizoram as it was felt that it did not adhere to Christian values
• However, it was revived in 1973 on a mass scale sans animistic practice and alcohol.
• Chapchar Kut is one of three annual festivals of the Mizos celebrated to mark three different stages of the agricultural cycle. The other two are Mim Kut and Pawl Kut, also revived in the last century.

Khongjom Parba

• It is a style of ballad singing from Manipur using Dholak (drum) which depicts stories of heroic battle fought by Manipuris against the mighty British Empire in 1891.

Thang Ta 

• It is a popular term for the ancient Manipuri Martial Art known as Huyen Langlong.
• In the Meitei language, huyen means war while langlon or langlong can mean net, knowledge or art.
• Huyen langlon consists of two main components: thang-ta (armed combat) and sarit sarak (unarmed fighting).

UPSC – CSE Prelims 2017

ART & CULTURE – FAIRS & FESTIVALS IN INDIA

1. Consider the following pairs:

                   Traditions                      Communities

1. Chaliha Sahib Festival –           Sindhis
2. Nanda Raj Jaat Yatra –            Gonds
3. Wari-Warkari             –            Santhals

Which of the pairs given above is/are correctly matched?

(a) 1 only

(b) 2 and 3 only

(c) l and 3only

(d) None of the above

Ans: (a)

The Chaliha Sahib festivalis an important festival celebrated by the Sindhis wherein they pray to their God, Jhulelal. A special ‘jyot’ that is believed to have protected the Sindhi people and their culture during the ancient times, from around 1897 AD, was brought from the PujChalihasahibMandirPeergoath in Sindh by the Sindhis to India during partition in 1947. This Akhandjyot was then placed in the Chaliha Sahib PujJhulelalMandir in

Ulhasnagar. To this date, the jyot is kept lit in a structure similar to the one in Sindh. It is here that Sindhis from all over the country come to worship Jhulelal and offer their prayers during the festival. It is customary to also go on a 40 day fast during the festival.

The three-week-long Nanda Devi Raj Jat is a pilgrimage and festival of Uttarakhand. People from the entire Garhwal division-Kumaon division primarily participate in it. The goddess Nanda Devi is worshipped.

The Gonds are the tribal community mostly found in the Gond forests of the central India

WariWarkari is an annual pilgrimage (yatra) to Pandharpur – the seat of the Hindu god Vithoba in Maharashtra.

Palakhis (palanquin processions) carrying the paduka (foot prints) of various saints – most notably Dnyaneshwar and Tukaram – from the Varkari (Warkari, “one who performs the Wari”) sect (which venerates Vithoba), are taken from their respective shrines to Pandharpur.

The Santhals are a tribe of people indigenous to Terai of Nepal and India, who live mainly in Nepal and the Indian States of Jharkhand, West Bengal, Bihar, Odisha, Assam (part of the Tea Tribes). The Santhals mostly speak Santhali, a member of the Munda language family.