SSC CGL 2024 Tier-I · 18 September 2024, Shift 3 · General Awareness · Question 5 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 10 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.

With which of the following dances is Yamini Krishnamurthy associated?

(a)Mohiniyattam
(b)Sattriya
(c)Bharatanatyam
(d)Odissi

Answer

Why

Correct — C. Yamini Krishnamurthy trained in Bharatanatyam from childhood at Kalakshetra and made her debut in it, and that is the form her career is identified with.

She went on to perform Kuchipudi and Odissi as well, which is why more than one option looks plausible.

The dance she is named with, and the one the key takes, is Bharatanatyam — option (c).

Why the others are wrong

(a)
Mohiniyattam — Mohiniyattam is Kerala's lasya-dominant solo form, carried by dancers such as Kalamandalam Kalyanikutty Amma. Yamini Krishnamurthy stands outside that lineage.
(b)
Sattriya — Sattriya comes from the sattras, the Vaishnava monasteries of Assam in Sankaradeva's tradition, and was recognised as a classical form only in 2000. Its lineage is monastic.
(d)
Odissi — She did perform Odissi, so the option is not absurd. But Odissi's own lineage runs through Kelucharan Mohapatra and Sanjukta Panigrahi, while her training and debut were in Bharatanatyam.

Concept

Bharatanatyam is the classical dance of Tamil Nadu, grown out of the temple dance of the devadasis and remade for the stage in the twentieth century.

Its grammar descends from the Natya Shastra tradition, and a recital moves through alarippu, jatiswaram, shabdam, varnam, padam and tillana.

Rukmini Devi Arundale founded Kalakshetra at Madras in 1936 and moved the form from temple to proscenium, while E. Krishna Iyer campaigned for its respectability. Yamini Krishnamurthy belongs to the generation that carried it to a national audience.

She is one of the dancers whose repertoire crosses styles: trained in Bharatanatyam, accomplished in Kuchipudi and Odissi.

SSC keys the primary association, so read this family of questions as asking what a dancer is best known for, not as asking for a complete list.

Key facts

Yamini Krishnamurthy is identified with Bharatanatyam and also performed Kuchipudi and Odissi.
She trained at Kalakshetra, which Rukmini Devi Arundale founded at Madras in 1936.
Bharatanatyam belongs to Tamil Nadu and grew out of the temple dance tradition.
Sattriya, from Assam, was recognised as a classical dance form in 2000.

Study next

The classical dance forms and their home statesLeading exponents of each form and the institutions they foundedThe margam: the order of items in a Bharatanatyam recital

Common traps

Assuming a dancer belongs to a single form. Several cross styles, and SSC keys the primary one.
Pairing Bharatanatyam with Kerala because both are southern.

The dancer-to-form pairing is a standing SSC template — Kathak at 17 Sep 2024, 09:00, GA Q.9, Kuchipudi at 23 Sep 2024, 12:30, GA Q.1, and the odd one out among Odissi dancers at 19 Sep 2024, 09:00, GA Q.19. The state pairing is asked at 11 Sep 2024, 09:00, GA Q.4.

Related PYQs

No directly related past PYQ was found.