Who among the following is associated with the traditional Maach singing style?
- (a)Kaluram Bamniya
- (b)Satyendra Singh Lohia
- (c)Bhagwatilal Rajpurohit
- (d)Om Prakash Sharma
Correct — D, Om Prakash Sharma. The Ujjain-based artiste (Pandit Om Prakash Sharma) has been the leading face of Maach — the centuries-old folk musical theatre of Madhya Pradesh's Malwa region — for over seven decades. He belongs to the 'Ustad Kaluram school' of Maach, founded by his own grandfather, Ustad Kaluram, and was conferred the Padma Shri in 2024 in the Art category specifically for promoting traditional Maach folk songs linked with plays — having written 18 new Malwi plays, produced Maach productions, composed music, and trained younger artists.
- (a)Kaluram Bamniya — A different, similarly-named 2024 Padma Shri awardee from Dewas, Madhya Pradesh — honoured for singing Kabir/Nirguni bhajans in the Malwi dialect, not for Maach. (Not to be confused with Ustad Kaluram, Om Prakash Sharma's own grandfather and the founder of his Maach school.)
- (b)Satyendra Singh Lohia — A para-swimmer from Madhya Pradesh — the first Divyang Indian to receive the Tenzing Norgay Adventure Award — an athlete, not connected to Maach or folk singing.
- (c)Bhagwatilal Rajpurohit — A scholar, playwright and researcher in Sanskrit/Hindi/Malwi literature from Dhar district, MP, also honoured with a 2024 Padma Shri — but in the Literature & Education category, as a writer on Malwi culture, not as a Maach singing-tradition performer.
Maach is the centuries-old folk musical theatre (dance-drama) of the Malwa region of Madhya Pradesh, performed through night-long shows with dialogues sung to dholak, harmonium and sarangi accompaniment. Om Prakash Sharma, trained from childhood by his father (a classical singer) and shaped by his grandfather Ustad Kaluram's Maach school, is its best-known living exponent.
MPPSC frequently tests recent Padma Award winners from Madhya Pradesh, and the trap here is that MP had several 2024 Padma Shri awardees in adjacent cultural fields (Kabir-bhajan singing, Malwi literature) with confusingly similar names or subject matter — the question demands matching the exact art form (Maach) to the exact person.
- Maach: centuries-old folk musical theatre of the Malwa region, MP; sung dialogues accompanied by dholak, harmonium and sarangi.
- Om Prakash Sharma belongs to the Ustad Kaluram school of Maach, founded by his grandfather.
- Padma Shri 2024, Art category, awarded for linking traditional Maach folk songs with plays.
- He has written 18 new Maach plays in the Malwi dialect over a seven-decade career.
All four are honoured Madhya Pradesh figures — only Om Prakash Sharma is tied to Maach's singing tradition.
- Confusing Kaluram Bamniya (Kabir-bhajan singer) with Ustad Kaluram (Maach) or with Om Prakash Sharma himself, because of the shared/related name.
- Assuming any 2024 Madhya Pradesh Padma Shri awardee in a 'cultural' field must be the Maach exponent — the exact discipline must be checked.
MPPSC frequently tests recent Padma Award winners from Madhya Pradesh, tightly matched to their specific art form/field — don't stop at 'Padma Shri from MP', match the exact discipline.
Which one of the following pairs is correctly matched?
- (a) Naqqual — Bihar
- (b) Tamasha — Orissa
- (c) Ankia Nat — Assam
- (d) Baha — Punjab
Answer(c) Ankia Nat — Assam
Same concept — correctly matching a regional folk-theatre/performance form to its home state/region — as this question's need to correctly place Maach in Malwa, Madhya Pradesh.
- practice — not a real PYQ
Maach, the traditional folk musical theatre tradition for which Padma Shri (2024) awardee Om Prakash Sharma is known, belongs to which region of Madhya Pradesh?
- (a)Malwa
- (b)Bundelkhand
- (c)Nimar
- (d)Bagelkhand
Answer(a) Malwa.
- practice — not a real PYQ
Which musical instruments traditionally accompany a Maach performance?
- (a)Dholak, harmonium and sarangi
- (b)Sitar, tabla and flute
- (c)Veena, mridangam and ghatam
- (d)Shehnai, dhol and nagada
Answer(a) Dholak, harmonium and sarangi.