‘Padayani’, a local dance form primarily performed in ________ to please Goddess Bhadrakali.

Correct — A. Padayani is a ritual performance of the Bhadrakali temples of central Travancore, in southern Kerala.

Its performers wear kolams, huge masks and headgear cut from the sheath of the areca palm and painted with natural colours, and dance through the night in the temple courtyard.

The ritual is understood as cooling the goddess's anger after her fight with the demon Darika, which is why the stem says it is performed to please Bhadrakali. Kerala is option (a).

Why the others are wrong

• (b)
  Odisha — Odisha has its own ritual and folk traditions, Chhau and Danda Nata among them. Padayani is not one of them and is not performed there.
• (c)
  Assam — Assam is associated with Bihu and with the Sattriya tradition of the Vaishnava monasteries. Neither connects to a Bhadrakali temple ritual.
• (d)
  West Bengal — West Bengal worships Kali intensely, which makes it a tempting tick, but its own folk forms are Gambhira and the Chhau of Purulia. Padayani belongs to Kerala.

'Padayani' names a temple ritual, not a stage dance. It belongs to Bhadrakali temples in central Travancore, and it is performed at night in the temple courtyard over a season rather than as a programme.

Its visual signature is the kolam, a large painted mask-and-headgear made from areca palm sheath and worn with the whole body, so that a single performer becomes a figure several times human size.

SSC files items like this under 'state and its folk form', so what has to be retained is the pairing — Padayani with Kerala and with Bhadrakali — not the choreography.

Key facts

• Padayani is performed in Bhadrakali temples of central Travancore in Kerala.
• Its performers wear kolams, masks and headgear made from painted areca palm sheath.
• The ritual is associated with appeasing Kali after her killing of the demon Darika.

Common traps

• Placing any Kali ritual in Bengal by reflex.
• Treating Padayani as a classical stage form rather than a temple ritual.

No directly related past PYQ was found.