SSC CGL 2024 Tier-I · 26 September 2024, Shift 3 · General Awareness · Question 14 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.

Vishu festival is celebrated in which of the following states?

(a)Madhya Pradesh & Rajasthan
(b)Gujarat and Maharashtra
(c)Kerala And Karnataka
(d)Kerala And Tamil Nadu

Answer

Why

Correct — D. Vishu is the Malayalam New Year, kept on the first day of the month of Medam, when the sun enters Aries around 14-15 April.

Kerala is its home. The same solar new year day is marked across the border in Tamil Nadu, as Puthandu, and Vishu itself is kept by Malayalam-speaking families in the Tamil Nadu districts next to Kerala.

That is the pairing option (d) prints: Kerala with Tamil Nadu.

Why the others are wrong

(a)
Madhya Pradesh & Rajasthan — Neither state has a Vishu tradition. The Hindi belt starts its year on Chaitra Shukla Pratipada, in March or early April, on a lunisolar reckoning rather than the mid-April solar date.
(b)
Gujarat and Maharashtra — Maharashtra keeps Gudi Padwa as its new year and Gujarat keeps Bestu Varas, the day after Diwali. Neither falls on the Medam solar date, and neither is called Vishu.
(c)
Kerala And Karnataka — Karnataka's statewide new year is Ugadi, a lunisolar festival on the first day of Chaitra. Its Tulu-speaking coastal belt does keep the mid-April solar day, but under the name Bisu.

Concept

Indian new year festivals split into two families, and this festival-to-state item sits on that split.

The solar family turns on the sun entering Aries in mid-April: Vishu in Kerala, Puthandu in Tamil Nadu, Bohag Bihu in Assam, Baisakhi in Punjab, Pohela Boishakh in Bengal.

The lunisolar family turns on the first day of Chaitra, a few weeks earlier: Ugadi in Karnataka and the Telugu states, Gudi Padwa in Maharashtra.

So a festival's date tells you which group of states can plausibly own it.

The same mid-April solar day is kept in the Tulu Nadu belt of coastal Karnataka as well, under the name Bisu, and in Mahe.

What separates the options is that Karnataka as a whole marks Ugadi, on a different date, while Tamil Nadu shares the solar day as Puthandu.

Key facts

Vishu is the Malayalam New Year, falling on the first day of Medam, around 14-15 April.
Its central ritual is the Vishukkani, the auspicious arrangement of fruit, grain, coins and a mirror that is looked at first on waking.
The same mid-April solar date carries Puthandu in Tamil Nadu, Bohag Bihu in Assam, Baisakhi in Punjab and Pohela Boishakh in Bengal.
Ugadi, the Kannada and Telugu new year, follows the lunisolar calendar and falls on the first day of Chaitra.

Study next

Solar and lunisolar new year festivals in India and the calendars behind themKerala's festival calendar, especially Onam and how it differs from VishuHarvest festivals asked as state-matching items: Bihu, Pongal, Baisakhi

Common traps

Reading Vishu as a Karnataka festival because Kerala's other neighbour also has an April new year
Confusing Vishu with Onam, which is Kerala's harvest festival in Chingam, around August-September

SSC prints one festival and four states or state pairs, and the whole question is the match.

Bihu is matched to Assam at 25 Sep 2024, 12:30, GA Q.6, and Kati Bihu is asked from the month side at 23 Sep 2024, 12:30, GA Q.7.

Related PYQs

No directly related past PYQ was found.