Pushkar Kumbh Mela 2025 was held in May 2025 in which of the following State(s) ?
1. Rajasthan
2. Uttar Pradesh
3. Uttarakhand
Select the correct answer from the code given below :
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Correct — C, Only 3 (Uttarakhand). The Pushkar Kumbh of 2025 was held from 15 to 26 May 2025 at Keshav Prayag in Mana village, Chamoli district, Uttarakhand — the confluence just beyond Badrinath where the Alaknanda meets the stream identified in tradition with the Saraswati. It was inaugurated by Chief Minister Pushkar Singh Dhami on 15 May 2025. This is a twelve-yearly Vaishnavite observance, and by the traditional reckoning it falls in the year Jupiter (Brihaspati) enters Gemini (Mithun rashi); it draws pilgrims from the south, largely Telugu-speaking Vaishnavites, who bathe there for moksha. So of the three States listed, only Uttarakhand hosted it — option (c). The name is the trap: this event has nothing to do with the town of Pushkar in Rajasthan.

Why the other options are wrong — (a) Neither State hosted it. Rajasthan is chosen because of the town of Pushkar near Ajmer, whose famous fair is a camel and cattle mela held around Kartik Purnima in November — not a May Kumbh. Uttar Pradesh is chosen because of the Prayagraj Maha Kumbh, which had indeed been held earlier in 2025, in January-February, and had dominated the news.  (b) Uttarakhand alone is right; adding Uttar Pradesh is what makes this option wrong. The 2025 gathering at Prayagraj was the Maha Kumbh, a separate event on a separate cycle held in January-February 2025, not the Pushkar Kumbh of May 2025.  (d) Rajasthan is the pure name-trap. Pushkar in Ajmer district has India's best-known Brahma temple and the Pushkar Lake, and its annual fair is a major event — but the 'Pushkar Kumbh' of the question is the twelve-yearly Himalayan gathering at Keshav Prayag, and it has no connection with the Rajasthani town.

Concept: India has more than one twelve-yearly bathing festival, and they are governed by different planetary reckonings and held at different sacred confluences. The Pushkar Kumbh (also written Pushkaram) is the Vaishnavite observance of the upper Alaknanda valley in Uttarakhand, centred on Keshav Prayag at Mana — the last inhabited settlement on the Indo-Tibetan border above Badrinath, which the government now brands as 'India's first village' rather than its last. It is distinct both from the far larger Kumbh/Maha Kumbh cycle of Prayagraj, Haridwar, Ujjain and Nashik, and from the Pushkar fair of Rajasthan, which is an annual cattle fair, not a Kumbh at all.

State PCS 2025 Q77 — Current Affairs PYQ with Answer

State PCS 2025 Q77 — Current Affairs PYQ with Answer