Read the statements about the Goncha Festival of Bastar: 1.) Tupki, a mock gun made of bamboo, uses Goncha fruit as bullets. 2.) The chariot procession was started by Chalukya rulers. 3.) Rath Yatra begins on Ashadh Shukla Dashmi and ends on Dutiya. Which of the above statements are correct?
- (a)Only 1 and 2
- (b)Only 2 and 3
- (c)Only 1 and 3
- (d)1, 2 and 3 are correct
Answer
Why
Correct — A. Statement 1 holds: the Ministry of Tourism's festival listing describes bamboo Tupkis used as mock guns to shoot Goncha fruit as harmless bullets.
Statement 2 holds: tradition credits the chariot to King Purushottam Dev of Bastar's Kakatiya/Chalukya house, who brought it back from Puri.
Statement 3 reverses the calendar. Goncha keeps time with Puri's Rath Yatra, which sets out on Ashadha Shukla Dwitiya and returns on Dashami. So 1 and 2 stand.
Why the others are wrong
- (b)Only 2 and 3 — It keeps the false statement 3, which puts the start on Dashami and the end on Dwitiya, and it drops statement 1, the Tupki mock battle fought with Goncha fruit.
- (c)Only 1 and 3 — It throws out a true statement and keeps a false one. Statement 2 is right about Bastar's Kakatiya/Chalukya kings, and statement 3 has the Ashadha dates reversed.
- (d)1, 2 and 3 are correct — Statement 3 fails, so all three cannot be correct. Puri's Rath Yatra, which Bastar follows, sets out on the second day of Ashadha's bright fortnight, not the tenth.
Concept
Goncha is Bastar's Rath Yatra, held at Jagdalpur in Chhattisgarh and timed to the Rath Yatra of Jagannath at Puri.
Its signature is the Tupki: a bamboo mock gun that fires Goncha fruit as harmless bullets during the festival.
The royal link runs through Bastar's ruling house, founded around 1324 by Annam Dev, brother of the last Kakatiya king of Warangal.
Statement 2 says Chalukya, while the Bastar district's own history calls the line Kakatiya. Sahapedia's account of Bastar Dussehra uses both names together, as Kakatiya/Chalukya, and the key reads statement 2 as true.
The stem's Dutiya is Dwitiya, the second lunar day.
Key facts
- Goncha is celebrated at Jagdalpur, Bastar, and is timed to the Rath Yatra at Puri.
- A Tupki is a bamboo mock gun that fires Goncha fruit as harmless bullets.
- Puri's Rath Yatra sets out on Ashadha Shukla Dwitiya, and the return Bahuda Yatra falls on Ashadha Shukla Dashami.
- Bastar's princely state was founded around 1324 by Annam Dev, brother of the last Kakatiya king of Warangal.
Study next
Common traps
- Reading Shukla Dwitiya and Dashami the wrong way round: the chariots go out on the second day and return on the tenth.
- Rejecting statement 2 because the district history calls Bastar's kings Kakatiya, when the key accepts Chalukya for the same line.
Here a festival is split into three statement checks, so every line must be tested on its own. The Puri original behind Goncha also appears at 13 Sep 2024, 16:00, GA Q.20, which asks the deity to whom Puri's Rath Yatra is dedicated.
Related PYQs
No directly related past PYQ was found.