SSC CGL 2024 Tier-I · 13 September 2024, Shift 3 · General Awareness · Question 16 of 98

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.

Tera Tali folk dance is primarily associated with which of the following states?

(a)Rajasthan
(b)Haryana
(c)Madhya Pradesh
(d)Assam

Answer

Why

Correct — A. Tera Tali is a devotional dance of western Rajasthan, performed seated by women of the Kamad community.

The name counts the instruments: thirteen (terah) small brass manjiras are tied to the dancer's wrists, elbows and waist, and she strikes them with cymbals held in her hands.

The songs are sung in praise of Baba Ramdev, a folk deity of western Rajasthan. Community, deity and instrument all place the dance in option (a).

Why the others are wrong

(b)
Haryana — Haryana has neither the Kamad performers nor the Baba Ramdev cult that Tera Tali serves. The dance belongs to the Thar belt of western Rajasthan, not the Haryana plains.
(c)
Madhya Pradesh — Madhya Pradesh is the standard trap, because the dance is sometimes listed for both states. The stem's word is primarily, and the performers and their deity are Rajasthani.
(d)
Assam — Assam's signature folk form is Bihu, danced at the Bohag festival on the Brahmaputra plain. Tera Tali has no connection with the north-east.

Concept

Tera Tali is worship before it is performance. Women of the Kamad community sit on the floor and play the rhythm on their own bodies, striking the thirteen manjiras tied to them.

The songs honour Baba Ramdev, whose shrine at Ramdevra in western Rajasthan draws a large annual fair.

That is why the dance is fixed to a community and a deity rather than to a season or a harvest, as many folk dances are.

Note the honest ambiguity the stem sidesteps with the word primarily: Tera Tali is occasionally listed for Madhya Pradesh as well. SSC keys Rajasthan, and the dance's own tradition supports it.

Key facts

Tera Tali is a folk dance of Rajasthan performed by women of the Kamad community.
Its name refers to the thirteen manjiras, small brass cymbals, tied to the dancer's body.
It is performed in devotion to Baba Ramdev, a folk deity of western Rajasthan.
The dance is performed seated rather than moving across the floor.

Study next

Folk dances of Rajasthan: Ghoomar, Kalbeliya and Tera TaliState-to-folk-dance matching for General AwarenessFolk deities and devotional performance traditions

Common traps

Picking Madhya Pradesh because the dance is sometimes credited to both states.
Confusing Tera Tali with Ghoomar, which is also Rajasthani but is danced standing, in a circle.

State-to-dance matching runs right across this corpus: Matki to Madhya Pradesh on 17 Sep 2024, 16:00, GA Q.13, Yakshagan to Karnataka on 26 Sep 2024, 16:00, GA Q.2, and Kuki dance to Nagaland on 26 Sep 2024, 09:00, GA Q.13.

Prepare the topic as a state-by-state list, never as isolated names.

Related PYQs

No directly related past PYQ was found.