SSC CGL 2024 Tier-I · 9 September 2024, Shift 3 · General Awareness · Question 20 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 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.

In which of the following states is the Nrityagram, an Odissi dance institution, located?

(a)Karnataka
(b)Tamil Nadu
(c)Kerala
(d)Maharashtra

Answer

Why

Correct — A. Nrityagram is a residential dance village at Hesaraghatta, on the outskirts of Bengaluru, and Bengaluru is in Karnataka.

The Odissi dancer Protima Gauri built it as India's first modern gurukul for classical dance, and it was formally inaugurated in May 1990. She died in the Malpa landslide in 1997 while on a pilgrimage to Kailash Mansarovar.

Why the others are wrong

(b)
Tamil Nadu — Tamil Nadu is the home of Bharatanatyam and of Kalakshetra at Chennai, a different institution founded by Rukmini Devi Arundale. Nrityagram is not there.
(c)
Kerala — Kerala is where Kathakali and Mohiniyattam belong, and where the Kerala Kalamandalam stands at Cheruthuruthy. Nrityagram is not a Kerala institution.
(d)
Maharashtra — Maharashtra has no claim here. The link is only biographical: Protima Gauri left a Mumbai life to build the village, but she built it in Karnataka.

Concept

Odissi is the classical dance of Odisha, but the institution that teaches it in this question sits a thousand kilometres away.

Nrityagram was conceived as a gurukul: students live on the campus and train for years under resident gurus, in the older residential model rather than as a timetabled college.

It is worth learning alongside the other named dance institutions — Kalakshetra at Chennai and the Kerala Kalamandalam at Cheruthuruthy — because SSC asks all three the same way, by state.

Students reach for Odisha here because the dance is Odissi. Odisha is not among the options, and it is the location of the institution, not the origin of the dance, that the stem asks for.

Key facts

Nrityagram is at Hesaraghatta near Bengaluru in Karnataka and was formally inaugurated on 11 May 1990.
It was founded by the Odissi dancer Protima Gauri, also known as Protima Bedi.
Odissi is the classical dance of Odisha, even though Nrityagram teaches it from Karnataka.

Study next

Odissi: its gurus, repertoire and recognition as a classical danceDance institutions and their states: Kalakshetra, Kerala Kalamandalam and NrityagramPadma awardees associated with Odissi

Common traps

Answering with the home state of the dance form instead of the state where the institution stands.
Confusing Nrityagram with Kalakshetra in Chennai, which is a different institution in a different state.

Classical dance recurs through this cycle as institution, dancer or state — an Odissi Padma Shri awardee was asked on 13 Sep 2024, 09:00, General Awareness Q.17, and a which-dancer-is-NOT-Odissi stem on 19 Sep 2024, 09:00, General Awareness Q.19.

Related PYQs

No directly related past PYQ was found.