MPPSC 2026 Prelims Paper-I · Question 64 of 100

Correct — A or C, both accepted (grace question). Gudum Baja is a large drum slung from the neck and struck with the hands while the player dances; the dance performed to it carries the instrument's own name. It belongs to the Dhulia drummer community of the eastern, Gond-dominated belt of Madhya Pradesh, and the districts named for it in the folk-culture literature are Dindori, Mandla and Shahdol together. Two of those three are on the option list, and the commission could not defend one against the other: (A) Shahdol is routinely credited with the Gudum Baja tradition, and (C) Mandla is the parent district of Dindori — the block most often described as the instrument's heartland, Bajag, lies in Dindori, which was carved out of Mandla district in 1998. With the tradition straddling both answers, the final key accepted Shahdol and Mandla alike and awarded the mark for either.

• (b)Chhindwara — A Satpura district of the Gond, Korku and Bharia (the Bharia of Patalkot) — culturally rich, but Gudum Baja is not attributed to it; the drum's belt lies further east, in the Mandla–Dindori–Shahdol tract.
• (d)Jhabua — Jhabua is the heart of the western Bhil belt, whose signature is Bhagoria and the Bhil–Bhilala musical tradition. It sits at the opposite end of the state from the eastern drum belt Gudum Baja belongs to.

Gudum Baja is a hide-headed drum with a body traditionally forged in iron by Agaria metalworkers, the Gond community's hereditary smiths. Animal hide is stretched over the mouth and a paste locally called 'gad', made from banana and tree resin, is applied at the centre and sun-dried to tune the sound. The instrument is worn at the neck so the player can move, and it never plays alone: dafli, timki, mandar and shehnai complete the ensemble. Its use is not decorative — the community plays it for household purification, at weddings and engagements, and in grief as well as celebration. Troupes from the Dindori region have carried the Gudum Baja dance to Republic Day and international cultural stages.

Instrument-and-dance questions are really geography questions. Madhya Pradesh splits into two broad folk zones: the eastern Mahakoshal–Vindhya belt of the Gond, Baiga and Dhulia (Mandla, Dindori, Shahdol, Anuppur, Balaghat) where the drum traditions — Gudum Baja, mandar, Karma and Saila dancing — live; and the western Nimar–Malwa Bhil belt (Jhabua, Alirajpur, Dhar, Barwani) with its own repertoire around Bhagoria. Place the name in a zone first, then pick the district. Where a tradition genuinely spans districts — as here, across a parent district and the one carved out of it — a grace key is the likely outcome, so learn the belt rather than a single district.

• Gudum Baja: a neck-slung drum with a hide head, played while dancing; the dance takes the instrument's name
• Played by the Dhulia drummer community of the Dindori–Mandla–Shahdol belt of eastern Madhya Pradesh
• Dindori district, most often named as the instrument's heartland, was carved out of Mandla district in 1998
• The iron body is forged by Agaria smiths; a 'gad' paste of banana and tree resin is applied to the hide and sun-dried
• Ensemble partners include dafli, timki, mandar and shehnai
• MPPSC's official key accepted both Shahdol and Mandla for this question

• Fixing a folk tradition to exactly one district when it lives across a whole belt — this question was graced for that reason
• Forgetting the district splits of 1998–2003: an item attributed to Dindori is historically attributed to Mandla
• Assigning eastern (Gond–Baiga) traditions to the western Bhil districts, or the reverse

MPPSC asks the instrument, dance or song and expects the tribe or the district; the answer is safest when you know the belt. UPSC does not ask district-level folk trivia — it asks whether a term refers to a dance, a language, an instrument or a painting.

• practice — not a real PYQ

  The Gudum Baja, a neck-slung drum played while dancing, belongs to the folk tradition of which region of Madhya Pradesh?

  • (a)The Bhil belt of Jhabua and Alirajpur
  • (b)The Mahakoshal belt of Mandla, Dindori and Shahdol
  • (c)Bundelkhand
  • (d)The Malwa plateau

  Answer(b) The Mahakoshal belt of Mandla, Dindori and Shahdol — the home of the Dhulia drummers who play it.

• practice — not a real PYQ

  The iron work for tribal implements and drum bodies in central India is traditionally done by which community?

  • (a)Agaria
  • (b)Panika
  • (c)Pardhi
  • (d)Bharia

  Answer(a) Agaria — the hereditary iron-smelting and smithing group associated with the Gond.