SSC CGL 2024 Tier-I · 26 September 2024, Shift 3 · General Awareness · Question 25 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.

Pandit Ram Narayan was associated with which of the following musical instruments?

(a)Sarangi
(b)Sarod
(c)Mohan veena
(d)Rudra veena

Answer

Why

Correct — A. Pandit Ram Narayan was a sarangi player, and the musician who established the sarangi as a solo concert instrument.

The sarangi is bowed, carved from a single block of wood, with three main gut strings stopped by the nails and cuticles of the left hand and a bank of sympathetic strings ringing beneath them.

Before him it was heard mostly behind khayal and thumri singers. Moving it to the front of the stage is what his name carries, and option (a) names the instrument.

Why the others are wrong

(b)
Sarod — The sarod is plucked, not bowed, and has a fretless metal fingerboard. Ali Akbar Khan and Amjad Ali Khan are the names it carries.
(c)
Mohan veena — The Mohan veena is a modern instrument — an archtop guitar modified and played on the lap — devised and played by Vishwa Mohan Bhatt.
(d)
Rudra veena — The rudra veena is a large plucked stick-zither of the dhrupad tradition, with two gourd resonators under a wide fingerboard. Zia Mohiuddin Dagar is its best-known modern exponent.

Concept

Musician-to-instrument items are settled fastest by sorting the instruments by how the sound is made.

Bowed: sarangi, violin, esraj. Plucked: sitar, sarod, veena, surbahar. Struck: tabla, pakhawaj, santoor.

The sarangi's distinctive feature is the stopping technique: the left-hand nails press the strings sideways rather than the fingertips pressing down.

That is why its tone is so often compared to the human voice, and why it grew up as the accompanist to singers.

The paper gives only the name and asks for the instrument. Knowing that Ram Narayan is the sarangi's solo pioneer settles it without needing any date.

Key facts

Pandit Ram Narayan was a sarangi player who brought the instrument to the solo concert stage.
The sarangi is bowed, and its main gut strings are stopped with the nails and cuticles of the left hand.
Sympathetic strings running beneath the playing strings give the sarangi its ringing resonance.
Ram Narayan was awarded the Padma Vibhushan.

Study next

Hindustani instrumentalists and their instruments, sorted as bowed, plucked and struckThe role of accompaniment instruments in khayal and thumriCivilian honours awarded to musicians, and the Sangeet Natak Akademi Award

Common traps

Assuming a Pandit title points to a plucked instrument such as the sitar or sarod
Confusing sarangi with sarod, when one is bowed and the other plucked

SSC prints a musician's name and four instruments, and the pairing is the whole question.

Ustad Sabri Khan is matched to the sarangi at 13 Sep 2024, 12:30, GA Q.11, and Ali Akbar Khan to the sarod at 23 Sep 2024, 09:00, GA Q.12.

Zia Mohiuddin Dagar is matched to the rudra veena at 12 Sep 2024, 16:00, GA Q.9, and Vishwa Mohan Bhatt appears as the Mohan veena player at 9 Sep 2024, 09:00, GA Q.9.

Related PYQs

No directly related past PYQ was found.