SSC CGL 2024 Tier-I · 17 September 2024, Shift 3 · General Awareness · Question 13 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.

Matki dance is the famous folk dance associated with which of the following states?

(a)Maharashtra
(b)Gujarat
(c)Punjab
(d)Madhya Pradesh

Answer

Why

Correct — D. Matki is a folk dance of the Malwa region of Madhya Pradesh, danced by women, in which a solo dancer turns with an earthen pot — the matki — balanced on her head.

It belongs to weddings and village celebrations rather than to the stage.

The pot is what makes the other states tempting, because more than one of them has a well-known custom built around an earthen pot. The dance actually called Matki is option (d).

Why the others are wrong

(a)
Maharashtra — Maharashtra's folk performance traditions are Lavani and Tamasha. Its famous pot is the Dahi Handi broken at Janmashtami, which is a festival custom and not a dance form.
(b)
Gujarat — Gujarat does dance around an earthen pot — the perforated garbo with a lamp inside, set at the centre of the circle. But that dance is Garba, not Matki.
(c)
Punjab — Punjab's folk dances are Bhangra and Giddha, tied to the harvest and to women's gatherings. Neither is the pot dance the question names.

Concept

Folk-dance items are a plain state-to-dance mapping, and the fastest way to build it is in regional clusters rather than alphabetically.

Central India gives Matki to Madhya Pradesh. Western India gives Garba to Gujarat and Lavani to Maharashtra.

The north-east and the south carry their own sets — Hojagiri in Tripura, Khuallam in Mizoram, Padayani in Kerala, Yakshagana in coastal Karnataka.

Keep folk apart from classical: a folk dance is a community form tied to a season, a deity or a rite, while a classical dance is a codified stage tradition traced to the Natya Shastra.

The pot is the trap. More than one of these states has a well-known custom built around an earthen pot, so recognising the pot does not settle the state — only the dance's name does.

Key facts

Matki is a folk dance of the Malwa region of Madhya Pradesh, performed by women with an earthen pot balanced on the head.
Garba, danced around a perforated earthen lamp-pot, is Gujarat's form and not Madhya Pradesh's.
Lavani and Tamasha are the folk performance traditions of Maharashtra.
Bhangra and Giddha are the folk dances of Punjab.

Study next

Folk dances of Madhya Pradesh and the regions they belong toFolk dance against classical dance, and how the two are asked differentlyState-to-dance pairs for the north-eastern states

Common traps

Choosing Maharashtra because the Dahi Handi pot is the pot you remember. That is a Janmashtami custom, not a dance.
Choosing Gujarat because Garba uses a pot. Garba circles the lamp-pot, while the Matki dancer carries hers on her head.
Assuming a folk dance belongs to whichever state's classical form you know best.

Folk dance is set as a bare state-to-dance match. Compare 13 Sep 2024, 16:00, GA Q.16 (Tera Tali, keyed to Rajasthan), 26 Sep 2024, 12:30, GA Q.16 (Fugdi, keyed to Goa) and 23 Sep 2024, 09:00, GA Q.23 (Hojagiri, keyed to Tripura).

A tribal form is asked at 25 Sep 2024, 16:00, GA Q.15, where the Tulsi Samman goes to a Baiga performer.

Lavani, the Maharashtra tradition behind option (a), is asked in this same General Awareness section at Q.3.

Related PYQs

No directly related past PYQ was found.