SSC CGL 2024 Tier-I · 19 September 2024, Shift 1 · General Awareness · Question 7 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 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.

Tarun Bhattacharya, who was awarded the Sangeet Natak Akademi Award in 2018, is known for playing which musical instrument?

(a)Sitar
(b)Santoor
(c)Violin
(d)Tabla

Answer

Why

Correct — B. Tarun Bhattacharya is a Hindustani classical santoor player, trained under Pandit Ravi Shankar, and it is santoor playing for which the Sangeet Natak Akademi honoured him.

The santoor is a trapezoid box zither of Kashmiri origin. Its many strings are struck with a pair of light curved wooden mallets, so it is a struck rather than a plucked instrument.

The year in the stem is decoration. The only thing that identifies the man is the instrument.

Why the others are wrong

(a)
Sitar — The sitar is a long-necked plucked lute. It is the instrument of Bhattacharya's teacher Ravi Shankar, which is precisely the association this option is set to catch.
(c)
Violin — The violin entered Indian classical performance mainly through the Carnatic tradition, where it is bowed in a seated posture. It is not Bhattacharya's instrument.
(d)
Tabla — The tabla is a pair of hand drums used largely as accompaniment. It is percussion, and it belongs to a different line of players altogether.

Concept

The Sangeet Natak Akademi is India's national academy for music, dance and drama, in existence since 1953, and its annual awards are the standard source for SSC's performing-arts questions.

The santoor's older home is the sufiana music of Kashmir, where it accompanies voice.

Its move to the Hindustani concert platform as a solo instrument is credited to Pandit Shivkumar Sharma, and Tarun Bhattacharya belongs to the generation that followed.

Learn the instrument-artist pairs both ways round: the name can be given and the instrument asked for, as here, or the instrument given and the name asked for.

The stem's award year is a real fact but not a discriminator; four santoor players could share it. Answer from the instrument.

Key facts

Tarun Bhattacharya plays the santoor and trained under Pandit Ravi Shankar.
The santoor is a hammered box zither of Kashmiri origin, struck with light wooden mallets.
Pandit Shivkumar Sharma is credited with establishing the santoor as a Hindustani classical solo instrument.
The Sangeet Natak Akademi is India's national academy for music, dance and drama.

Study next

Instrument-to-artist pairings in Hindustani classical musicThe sufiana tradition of Kashmir and the santoor's move to the concert stageSangeet Natak Akademi awards, fellowships and where the Akademi is based

Common traps

Answering with the teacher's instrument, the sitar, instead of the artist's own.
Assuming a musician awarded for Hindustani music must be a sitar or tabla player.

A musician's name is set against four instruments at 12 Sep 2024, 12:30, GA Q.15 (Buddhadev Dasgupta and the sarod), 25 Sep 2024, 09:00, GA Q.9 (Alla Rakha and the tabla) and 26 Sep 2024, 16:00, GA Q.25 (Pandit Ram Narayan and the sarangi).

The pairing also runs backwards: 12 Sep 2024, 09:00, GA Q.10 names the bamboo flute and asks for its exponent, and 17 Sep 2024, 12:30, GA Q.19 asks which Sarod player is called 'Sarod Samrat'.

Related PYQs

No directly related past PYQ was found.