SSC CGL 2025 Tier-I · 16 September 2025, Shift 3 · General Awareness · Question 3 of 75

We transcribed this text from the pictures on a candidate's response sheet for this shift; the answer is the key SSC colour-marked on that sheet. Solution last reviewed 13 September 2026.

Where this paper and its answers come from

SSC does not publish CGL question papers or a public answer key. From 2025 the candidate response sheet prints every question and option as a picture, so the text here is transcribed from those pictures for this shift and checked against them independently; where the layout carries meaning, the picture is shown as well. Each answer is the key SSC colour-marked on that sheet. SSC released a tentative key for challenge and later its final one, both only to candidates behind a login, and the sheet does not say which of the two it carries. The solutions are written by UnlockIAS.

Which of the following statements uniquely identifies a symbolic or lesser-known element linking Teej to both nature and mythology?

(a)Teej is a public holiday in all North Indian states during the month of Aadi.
(b)"Teej" refers to a lunar goddess linked to fertility and rain.
(c)The name “Teej” comes from a red insect seen in monsoon
(d)Swinging during Teej represents lunar cycles and Shiva’s Tandava.

Answer

Why

Correct — C. The red velvet mite, a small red creature that surfaces in the monsoon, is also called teej. The option's 'red insect' is this mite.

Hariyali Teej falls in that season, in Shravana, and remembers the day Shiva accepted Parvati as his wife. The name carries the nature, the festival carries the myth.

A name taken from a monsoon creature is the lesser-known link → option (c).

Why the others are wrong

(a)
Teej is a public holiday in all North Indian states during the month of Aadi. — Aadi is the fourth month of the Tamil calendar. Teej is reckoned by the north Indian lunar months Shravana and Bhadrapada, so the statement fails on its month alone.
(b)
"Teej" refers to a lunar goddess linked to fertility and rain. — The word Teej names the third lunar day, the tritiya, not a lunar goddess. The goddess worshipped at the festival, sometimes called Teej Mata, is Parvati.
(d)
Swinging during Teej represents lunar cycles and Shiva’s Tandava. — Swings are a monsoon custom, hung in courtyards and under trees for the season. The festival's myth is Parvati winning Shiva as her husband, not the Tandava or the lunar cycle.

Concept

Teej names a group of monsoon festivals: Hariyali Teej in Shravana, Hartalika Teej in Bhadrapada, and Kajari Teej.

The word has two roots. It names the third day of a lunar fortnight, the tritiya, and it is also the name of the red velvet mite that appears with the rains.

The myth behind the festivals is Parvati's long penance and Shiva's acceptance of her as his wife.

The stem calls the teej a red insect. Mites are not insects but arachnids, relatives of spiders and ticks. The key rests on the name, which does belong to the mite.

Key facts

Hariyali Teej falls in the month of Shravana, during the monsoon.
Hartalika Teej falls on the third day of the bright half of Bhadrapada.
The word teej names the third lunar day (tritiya) and also the red velvet mite of the monsoon.
Aadi is the fourth month of the Tamil calendar, falling in July-August.

Study next

The three Teej festivals: Hariyali, Kajari and HartalikaFestivals of the Tamil month of Aadi, such as Aadi PerukkuLunar calendar terms: tithi, paksha, amavasya and purnima

Common traps

Picking the mythological-sounding option. The question wants a link to nature, and the red monsoon mite is it.
Accepting Aadi because it sounds like a month of the rains. It is a Tamil month, not the north Indian reckoning of Teej.

The stem hides the fact inside a long phrase, so read each option for its checkable detail: a month, a word's origin, a myth.

Related PYQs

No directly related past PYQ was found.

Topic: Scientific Research — all 220 SSC CGL questions on it, every solved shift.