SSC CGL 2024 Tier-I · 17 September 2024, Shift 1 · General Awareness · Question 17 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.

Paryushana festival is celebrated by the people of which of the following communities?

(a)Jain
(b)Hindu
(c)Muslim
(d)Sikh

Answer

Why

Correct — A. Paryushana is the central annual observance of Jainism, which makes option (a) the community the question wants.

It is a period of fasting, scriptural reading, penance and forgiveness, kept in the monsoon month of Bhadrapada. Shvetambara Jains observe it for eight days and Digambara Jains for ten, as Das Lakshana Parva.

It closes with Samvatsari, or Kshamavani, when Jains seek pardon for the year's harm with the words Micchami Dukkadam.

Why the others are wrong

(b)
Hindu — The Hindu festivals of the Bhadrapada season are Ganesh Chaturthi and Onam. Paryushana's structure of fasting, confession and forgiveness belongs to the Jain calendar, not the Hindu one.
(c)
Muslim — Muslim observance runs on the Hijri lunar calendar — Ramzan, Eid-ul-Fitr, Eid-ul-Zuha, Muharram. Paryushana is dated by the Jain lunar month of Bhadrapada instead.
(d)
Sikh — Sikh commemorations are the Gurpurabs, marking the lives of the Gurus, along with Baisakhi and Hola Mohalla. Paryushana is not part of that calendar.

Concept

These items reward one small mental table of community and observance.

Jain — Paryushana, Das Lakshana, Mahavir Jayanti.
Sikh — Gurpurab, Baisakhi, Hola Mohalla.
Buddhist — Buddha Purnima.
Parsi — Navroz.

Paryushana's own theme is forgiveness. It falls inside chaturmas, the monsoon retreat when Jain monks stay in one place rather than travel, because walking in the wet season would harm the insect life that swarms then.

The festival name carries the whole question here, with no descriptive clue attached. That is how SSC usually sets religion-and-festival items, so recognition is the skill being tested rather than reasoning.

Key facts

Paryushana is kept for eight days by Shvetambara Jains and for ten days by Digambara Jains, as Das Lakshana Parva.
The concluding day is Samvatsari for Shvetambaras and Kshamavani for Digambaras, when forgiveness is asked with the phrase Micchami Dukkadam.
Paryushana falls within chaturmas, the Jain monsoon retreat, in the month of Bhadrapada.
Mahavir Jayanti marks the birth of Mahavira, the twenty-fourth Tirthankara of Jainism.

Study next

Jainism basics: the twenty-four Tirthankaras, the three jewels and the five vowsFestival-to-community matching across the Sikh, Parsi, Buddhist and Muslim calendarsRegional harvest festivals and the state each belongs to

Common traps

Assuming an unfamiliar Indian festival must be Hindu by default.
Confusing Paryushana with Mahavir Jayanti, which marks a birth rather than a period of penance.

SSC runs the festival-to-community match in both directions. Here you are given the festival and asked for the community.

At 11 Sep 2024, 09:00, GA Q.25 the same match is set on Shab-e-Barat, keyed to the Muslim community, with Jain sitting among the wrong options — so the two items teach each other.

Related PYQs

No directly related past PYQ was found.