SSC CGL 2024 Tier-I · 18 September 2024, Shift 1 · General Awareness · Question 22 of 99

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/was a famous sitarist?

(a)Pandit Bhimsen Joshi
(b)Ravi Shankar
(c)Zakir Hussain
(d)Ustad Bismillah Khan

Answer

Why

Correct — B. Ravi Shankar was a sitar player — the musician who carried the instrument to Western audiences through his recitals, his recordings with Yehudi Menuhin, his teaching of George Harrison and his own concertos for sitar and orchestra.

Every other name in the list belongs to a different instrument or to the voice, so this is a straight artist-to-instrument match. Option (b) is the sitarist.

Why the others are wrong

(a)
Pandit Bhimsen Joshi — Pandit Bhimsen Joshi was a Hindustani vocalist of the Kirana gharana, not an instrumentalist. He received the Bharat Ratna in 2008.
(c)
Zakir Hussain — Zakir Hussain is a tabla player. His father, Alla Rakha, was Ravi Shankar's regular tabla accompanist, which is where the two names get tangled.
(d)
Ustad Bismillah Khan — Ustad Bismillah Khan made the shehnai a concert instrument and received the Bharat Ratna in 2001.

Concept

Artist-to-instrument matching is a fixed slot in SSC's culture questions, and the way to hold it is by instrument family rather than by name.

Strings: sitar (Ravi Shankar, Vilayat Khan), sarod (Amjad Ali Khan), santoor (Shivkumar Sharma), sarangi (Sabri Khan).

Percussion: tabla (Zakir Hussain, Alla Rakha), mridangam (Umayalpuram K Sivaraman).

Wind: shehnai (Bismillah Khan), bansuri or flute (Hariprasad Chaurasia).

The stem's is/was is doing quiet work: the list mixes musicians who have died with one still performing, so tense gives no clue about which name is being pointed at.

Key facts

Ravi Shankar was a sitar player and received the Bharat Ratna in 1999.
Bhimsen Joshi was a Hindustani vocalist of the Kirana gharana and received the Bharat Ratna in 2008.
Ustad Bismillah Khan was a shehnai player and received the Bharat Ratna in 2001.
Zakir Hussain is a tabla player.

Study next

Bharat Ratna and Padma awardees among Indian classical musiciansGharanas of Hindustani vocal music and the artists identified with themCarnatic instruments and the performers associated with each

Common traps

Choosing Zakir Hussain because he is the most familiar instrumentalist on the list.
Treating Bhimsen Joshi as an instrumentalist because the name sits among instrumentalists.

The stem names the instrument and asks for the player, so you work down the list checking what each artist played.

The reverse — artist named, instrument asked for — is set at 25 Sep 2024, 09:00, GA Q9 (Alla Rakha, keyed tabla), 26 Sep 2024, 09:00, GA Q12 (Arvind Parikh, keyed sitar) and 10 Sep 2024, 12:30, GA Q12 (Ustad Vilayat Ali Khan, keyed sitar).

Ravi Shankar himself returns at 19 Sep 2024, 12:30, GA Q1, as the sitar player who founded the National Orchestra of India.

Related PYQs

No directly related past PYQ was found.