SSC CGL 2024 Tier-I · 9 September 2024, Shift 2 · 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 5 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.

Which of the following celebrations is dedicated to Sun God and his wife Usha to thank them for sustaining life on earth and for granting wishes?

(a)Vishwakarma Puja
(b)Madai Festival
(c)Sorath Sabha
(d)Chhath Puja

Answer

Why

Correct — D. Chhath Puja is offered to Surya, the Sun God, and to Usha, the dawn.

The offering thanks them for sustaining life on earth, and asks that wishes be granted — the pairing the stem describes.

It is kept mainly in Bihar, Jharkhand, eastern Uttar Pradesh and the Nepal Terai.

The name comes from shashthi, the sixth day of the bright half of Kartika, when the main festival falls.

Why the others are wrong

(a)
Vishwakarma Puja — Vishwakarma Puja honours the divine architect and craftsman, not the sun. Tools, machines and vehicles are worshipped in workshops and factories, chiefly in eastern India in mid-September.
(b)
Madai Festival — Madai is a tribal fair of the Gond areas of Bastar in Chhattisgarh, built around local deities, the market and the dance that gather with them. No solar element.
(c)
Sorath Sabha — Saurath (Sorath) Sabha is a marriage assembly, not a worship rite. Maithil Brahmins gather at Saurath village near Madhubani in Bihar to settle matches.

Concept

Chhath is unusual on two counts worth remembering.

It is offered directly to a visible natural deity — no idol, no priest required, the sun itself receives the offering.

And it is one of the very few Hindu observances in which the setting sun is worshipped before the rising one, on the evening of the third day.

The four days run Nahay-Khay, Kharna, evening arghya and morning arghya. Devotees fast, stand in a river or pond, and offer arghya with baskets of thekua, sugarcane and fruit.

The main Chhath falls in Kartika, a few days after Diwali. A second, smaller observance — Chaiti Chhath — falls in the month of Chaitra.

Key facts

Chhath Puja is dedicated to the Sun God and to Usha.
It is observed mainly in Bihar, Jharkhand, eastern Uttar Pradesh and the Nepal Terai.
It falls on shashthi, the sixth day of the bright fortnight of Kartika, shortly after Diwali.
Saurath Sabha, near Madhubani in Bihar, is a Maithil Brahmin marriage assembly, not a sun festival.

Study next

Sun worship in India — Makar Sankranti, Pongal and the Konark Sun TempleTribal fairs of central India — Madai and Bastar DussehraState-wise festivals stored with their deity and month

Common traps

Reading 'Sorath' as a Gujarati festival, because Sorath is also an old name for part of Saurashtra.
Ruling out Chhath because the stem names Usha, while you learnt the folk name Chhathi Maiya.

SSC gives the description and asks for the festival, or gives the festival and asks for the state. Store each one with three tags — deity, state, month — and both versions fall out.

Related PYQs

No directly related past PYQ was found.