BPSC 70th CCE Prelims General Studies · Question 108 of 143

Correct — B, Sonepur Mela. Sonepur stands at the point where the Gandak ends: the river rises in Nepal as the Kali Gandaki, becomes the Narayani, enters India as the Gandak, runs some 300 km southeast across the Bihar plain through West Champaran, Gopalganj, East Champaran, Saran, Muzaffarpur and Vaishali, and empties into the Ganga at Sonpur, opposite Patna. The fair held there is described by the Saran district administration in its own words as making Sonepur 'internationally famous for the large fair held on the occasion of Kartik Purnima'. Its other name, Harihar Kshetra Mela, comes from the Hariharnath temple at the site, where Hari (Vishnu) and Hara (Shiva) are worshipped together, and from the Gajendra Moksha legend of Vishnu rescuing the elephant from the crocodile — which is one reason elephants were historically the fair's most famous merchandise. The district administration explains the timing: 'During Kartik Purnima Ganga Snan or ceremonial bathing in the Ganga is held by Hindus to be unusually efficacious. On the day of full moon (Kartik Purnima) immense crowd assembles and take bath. The Mela commences on that day.' The fair is widely reckoned the largest cattle fair in Asia, is organised by the Bihar State Tourism Development Corporation, and falls in November–December. On the stem's 'one month long', be precise rather than dogmatic: the district administration says it 'lasts for more than a fortnight', and the fair is commonly reported as running anywhere from about a fortnight to a full month — in 2018, for instance, from 21 November to 22 December. The month is the popular and usual description rather than a fixed statutory duration, and the answer does not turn on it.

• (a)Katihar Mela — Katihar is a real district of eastern Bihar, and a busy railway junction, but there is no cattle fair of this name and standing there — and, decisively, it fails the geography in the stem. Katihar lies far to the east near the Bihar–West Bengal border, nowhere near the Gandak, which ends its course at Sonpur next to Patna.
• (c)Purnia Mela — Purnia is likewise a genuine district of the Seemanchal region in north-eastern Bihar, in the Kosi–Mahananda country, and equally distant from the Ganga–Gandak confluence. Naming two real districts is what makes this option set work on a candidate who knows Bihar's map only loosely, since both names sound as though they could carry a fair.
• (d)More than one of the above — This can be true only if at least two of the first three options answer the stem, and here only one place can: a confluence is a single point on the map, and the Gandak meets the Ganga at exactly one place, Sonpur. Since neither Katihar nor Purnia is on that confluence, no second option can be added to the first.

Bihar's geography is made by rivers that come down from Nepal and end in the Ganga, and its calendar of fairs follows them. The Gandak is one of the great left-bank tributaries: its catchment of about 46,300 sq km lies mostly in Nepal, its basin contains three peaks above 8,000 m — Dhaulagiri, Manaslu and Annapurna — it crosses into India in Maharajganj district of Uttar Pradesh and enters Bihar at Valmikinagar in West Champaran, where the Gandak barrage stands, before finishing at Sonpur. Where a big tributary joins the Ganga, three things tend to coincide: a bathing site of religious merit, a temple town, and a market. Sonpur has all three. The bathing day is Kartik Purnima, the full moon of the month of Kartik, when the ritual dip in the Ganga is held to be especially meritorious; the temple is Hariharnath, whose present structure is attributed to Raja Ram Narain of the late Mughal period, with earlier repairs credited to Raja Man Singh; and the market grew into a livestock fair that once drew traders from as far as Delhi and Tamil Nadu. Tradition holds that the fair was originally held across the river at Hajipur, with only the puja performed at Sonpur, and that it moved to Sonpur under Aurangzeb.

The stem gives three independent identifying facts — a cattle fair, roughly a month long, at the Ganga–Gandak confluence — and the geographic one is the strongest filter, because it is a point and not a region. Fix where the Gandak ends and the question is finished: it flows southeast across north Bihar and joins the Ganga at Sonpur in Saran district, across the water from Patna and next to Hajipur. Katihar and Purnia are both in the far north-east of the state, in the Kosi and Mahananda basins, several hundred kilometres from that point, so neither can host a fair at this confluence whatever else may be held there. That also settles the fourth option: since 'more than one of the above' requires two of the first three to be true at once, and a confluence admits only one location, the option collapses as soon as the geography is applied. This is the general test to run whenever BPSC offers its house fourth option — ask whether the stem is the kind of statement that could be true of two places at the same time. A unique geographic point almost never is; a category such as 'states with major coal reserves' very often is.

• The Gandak — Kali Gandaki in Nepal's upper reaches, then the Narayani — enters India in Maharajganj district of Uttar Pradesh and flows about 300 km across Bihar before joining the Ganga at Sonpur
• Saran district administration: Sonepur is 'internationally famous for the large fair held on the occasion of Kartik Purnima'; the fair 'commences on that day and lasts for more than a fortnight'
• The fair is also called the Harihar Kshetra Mela, after the Hariharnath temple at Sonepur where Vishnu and Shiva are worshipped together; it is organised by the Bihar State Tourism Development Corporation and falls in November–December
• It is generally reckoned the biggest cattle fair in Asia; in 2018 it ran from 21 November to 22 December
• Tradition records that the fair was originally held at Hajipur, with only the puja at Sonepur's Harihar Nath temple, and shifted to Sonepur under the Mughal emperor Aurangzeb
• The Gandak's catchment of about 46,300 sq km lies mostly in Nepal and contains Dhaulagiri, Manaslu and Annapurna; the Gandak barrage stands at Valmikinagar in West Champaran

• Treating any well-known Bihar district name as a fair site; Katihar and Purnia are real districts with no fair of this description
• Reaching for 'More than one of the above' when the stem names a unique geographic point — a confluence has one location
• Confusing Sonepur in Saran district with Sonepur (Subarnapur) in Odisha, a different place entirely

BPSC tests Bihar's geography and culture together, as here — a fair identified by the rivers it sits between — and it fills the option set with genuine Bihar district names so that recognition alone does not help. UPSC handles the same material as matching: tradition to state, tributary to main river, festival to region, usually as a pairs question where two of three pairs are right, so the whole map has to be held rather than one landmark.

• practice — not a real PYQ

  The Sonepur Mela begins on which day of the Hindu calendar ?

  • (a)Makar Sankranti
  • (b)Kartik Purnima
  • (c)Buddha Purnima
  • (d)Maha Shivaratri

  Answer(b) Kartik Purnima — the fair commences on the Kartik full moon, when ceremonial bathing in the Ganga at Sonepur is held to be especially meritorious.

• practice — not a real PYQ

  The Gandak river joins the Ganga near which of the following places ?

  • (a)Bhagalpur
  • (b)Buxar
  • (c)Sonpur
  • (d)Munger

  Answer(c) Sonpur — the Gandak ends at Sonpur in Saran district, opposite Patna and beside Hajipur; the other three towns lie on the Ganga but not at this confluence.