SSC CGL 2024 Tier-I · 12 September 2024, Shift 2 · General Awareness · Question 6 of 100

Text as printed on a candidate's response sheet for this shift; answer per SSC's tentative key as marked on that sheet. Solution last reviewed 6 September 2026.

Where this paper and its answers come from

SSC does not publish CGL question papers or a public answer key. The questions and options here are reproduced as printed on a candidate's own response sheet for this shift — the Commission's text, unchanged. Each answer is SSC's tentative key as marked on that sheet; SSC allowed challenges to it and never publishes a final key. The solutions are written by UnlockIAS.

Which of the following institutes was founded by Mrinalini Sarabhai who was a Bharatanatyam and Kathakali dancer?

(a)Nalanda Nritya Kala Mahavidyalaya
(b)Nrityanjali Institute of Performing Arts
(c)Sri Thyagaraja College of Music and Dance
(d)Darpana Academy of Performing Arts

Answer

Why

Correct — D. Mrinalini Sarabhai founded the Darpana Academy of Performing Arts at Ahmedabad in 1949, with her husband, the physicist Vikram Sarabhai.

Trained in both Bharatanatyam and Kathakali, she used Darpana to carry classical technique into dance-drama on contemporary themes, alongside teaching, puppetry and theatre. Her daughter Mallika Sarabhai later led it — option (d).

Why the others are wrong

(a)
Nalanda Nritya Kala Mahavidyalaya — Nalanda Nritya Kala Mahavidyalaya is a Mumbai dance college associated with the Mohiniyattam exponent Kanak Rele, not with Sarabhai's Ahmedabad academy.
(b)
Nrityanjali Institute of Performing Arts — Nrityanjali is nritya plus anjali, an offering of dance — a name built to sound like any dance school. Nothing of Mrinalini Sarabhai's carries it: her institution is Darpana, Ahmedabad, 1949.
(c)
Sri Thyagaraja College of Music and Dance — Sri Thyagaraja College of Music and Dance takes its name from the Carnatic composer Tyagaraja. Sarabhai's forms were Bharatanatyam and Kathakali, and her institution was Darpana.

Concept

Dance questions come in two shapes: form-to-state, and dancer-to-institution. This is the second.

Mrinalini Sarabhai (1918-2016) trained in Bharatanatyam and in Kathakali, an unusual pairing, and founded Darpana at Ahmedabad in 1949. It became a base for classical performance, socially themed dance-drama and puppetry.

The family widens the frame: Vikram Sarabhai, her husband, built the Indian space programme, and Mallika Sarabhai carried the academy forward.

The trap is geography. A dancer trained in Bharatanatyam and Kathakali suggests Tamil Nadu or Kerala, but Darpana is in Gujarat.

Key facts

Mrinalini Sarabhai founded the Darpana Academy of Performing Arts at Ahmedabad in 1949.
She was trained in Bharatanatyam and in Kathakali.
Her husband was the physicist Vikram Sarabhai and her daughter is the dancer Mallika Sarabhai.

Study next

Dance institutions and their founders, such as Nrityagram in Karnataka and Kalakshetra at ChennaiBharatanatyam and Kathakali: their home states and defining featuresPadma awardees in the classical dance forms

Common traps

Choosing an option because its name sounds like a dance school, when all four do.
Placing the academy in Kerala or Tamil Nadu because of her Kathakali and Bharatanatyam training.

Dance items pair a person, a form or an institution with a place.

Nrityagram and its state is asked at 9 Sep 2024, 16:00, GA Q.20 (keyed Karnataka), the state of Bharatanatyam at 11 Sep 2024, 09:00, GA Q.4 (keyed Tamil Nadu), and the state where Kathakali is performed at 12 Sep 2024, 09:00, GA Q.2 (keyed Kerala).

Related PYQs

No directly related past PYQ was found.