SSC CGL 2024 Tier-I · 17 September 2024, Shift 2 · General Awareness · Question 19 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.

Who among the following is a Sarod player popularly known as ‘Sarod Samrat’?

(a)Ustad Amjad Ali Khan Bangash
(b)Pandit Kishan Maharaj
(c)Pandit Shivkumar Sharma
(d)Pandit Ravi Shankar

Answer

Why

Correct — A. Ustad Amjad Ali Khan is the sarod player the title "Sarod Samrat" attaches to.

The paper prints his family name, Bangash, and that is the clue: his line, the Senia Bangash school of Gwalior, is a sarod lineage carried down through the family.

The other three are all major Hindustani musicians, but each is known for a different instrument, so the instrument in the stem settles it — option (a).

Why the others are wrong

(b)
Pandit Kishan Maharaj — Pandit Kishan Maharaj was a tabla player of the Benares gharana. A percussionist, not a sarod player.
(c)
Pandit Shivkumar Sharma — Pandit Shivkumar Sharma is the musician associated with the santoor, the many-stringed instrument of Kashmiri origin, which he brought into Hindustani concert use.
(d)
Pandit Ravi Shankar — Pandit Ravi Shankar was a sitar player, and SSC asks him by that instrument elsewhere. The sarod is not his.

Concept

This is an instrument-to-musician match, a shape SSC repeats across its General Awareness papers.

The sarod is a fretless plucked instrument with a metal fingerboard, played with a plectrum cut from coconut shell. Having no frets, it slides continuously between notes, which is what separates its sound from the sitar's.

The four names here cover four different instruments — sarod, tabla, santoor and sitar — so knowing any three hands you the fourth.

Honorifics do not help. Ustad and Pandit mark the musician's tradition, not the instrument, so they cannot be used to sort the options.

Key facts

Ustad Amjad Ali Khan is a sarod player of the Senia Bangash lineage of Gwalior.
The sarod is fretless, has a metal fingerboard, and is plucked with a coconut-shell plectrum.
Pandit Kishan Maharaj was a tabla player of the Benares gharana.
The santoor is associated with Pandit Shivkumar Sharma and the sitar with Pandit Ravi Shankar.

Study next

Hindustani instrumentalists by instrument, covering sarod, sitar, sarangi, santoor and shehnaiGharanas of Hindustani music and the families that carry themPadma awards conferred on Indian classical musicians

Common traps

Matching by fame rather than by instrument. Ravi Shankar is the best-known name in this list and the wrong one here.
Assuming a title like 'Samrat' belongs to a vocalist. It is attached here to an instrumentalist.

The sarod is asked again at 12 Sep 2024, 12:30, GA Q.15 (Buddhadev Dasgupta), the sarangi at 13 Sep 2024, 12:30, GA Q.11 (Ustad Sabri Khan) and the sitar at 10 Sep 2024, 12:30, GA Q.12 (Ustad Vilayat Ali Khan).

Related PYQs

No directly related past PYQ was found.