SSC CGL 2024 Tier-I · 23 September 2024, Shift 1 · General Awareness · Question 12 of 97

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.

Ali Akbar Khan is known for playing the ________.

(a)Ektara
(b)Sarangi
(c)Tanpura
(d)Sarod

Answer

Why

Correct — D. Ali Akbar Khan was a sarod player, the son and disciple of Allauddin Khan of the Maihar gharana and the leading sarodiya of his generation.

The sarod is a fretless plucked lute with a polished metal fingerboard and a skin-covered resonator, which gives it a heavier, more sliding tone than the sitar.

Ali Akbar Khan took it to concert stages abroad, founded the Ali Akbar College of Music, and received the Padma Vibhushan. Option (d) names his instrument.

Why the others are wrong

(a)
Ektara — The ektara is a one-stringed drone plucked with a finger, carried by Baul singers and wandering minstrels. It has no melodic range for a concert soloist.
(b)
Sarangi — The sarangi is bowed rather than plucked, held upright with the nails stopping the strings. Its best-known exponent is Pandit Ram Narayan.
(c)
Tanpura — The tanpura plays no melody at all. It is a drone that holds the tonic under a performance, so nobody is known as a tanpura soloist.

Concept

The sarod is a principal plucked lute of Hindustani classical music, alongside the sitar. It is fretless, and the polished metal fingerboard lets a player slide continuously between notes across a goatskin-covered body.

Its modern lineage runs through Allauddin Khan of the Maihar gharana, whose children and students carried the instrument to audiences worldwide. Ali Akbar Khan was his son.

The way to hold these instruments apart in an exam is by how each is sounded: the sarod and sitar are plucked, the sarangi is bowed, the tanpura only drones.

Key facts

Ali Akbar Khan was a sarod maestro, son and disciple of Allauddin Khan of the Maihar gharana.
The sarod is fretless and plucked, with a metal fingerboard over a skin-covered resonator.
Ali Akbar Khan founded the Ali Akbar College of Music and received the Padma Vibhushan.
The tanpura is a drone instrument and carries no melody.

Study next

The Maihar gharana and the musicians Allauddin Khan trainedTelling sarod, sitar, sarangi and santoor apart by how each is playedPadma awardees in Hindustani classical music

Common traps

Pairing Ali Akbar Khan with the sitar because of his long association with Ravi Shankar. Ravi Shankar played the sitar, Ali Akbar Khan the sarod.
Treating the tanpura as a solo instrument. It supplies the drone and nothing more.

Name-the-instrument is one shape among several.

The music questions in this corpus also ask which award a musician won (12 Sep 2024, 16:00, GA Q.24, on Bickram Ghosh), which state instituted an award (12 Sep 2024, 12:30, GA Q.5, Kalidas Samman) and which gharana a player belongs to (19 Sep 2024, 16:00, GA Q.10, on Ali Akbar Khan himself).

The sarod is asked again on 12 Sep 2024, 12:30, GA Q.15 (Buddhadev Dasgupta) and on 17 Sep 2024, 12:30, GA Q.19 ('Sarod Samrat'), and the sarangi on 13 Sep 2024, 12:30, GA Q.11 (Ustad Sabri Khan) and 26 Sep 2024, 16:00, GA Q.25 (Pandit Ram Narayan).

Related PYQs

No directly related past PYQ was found.