SSC CGL 2025 Tier-I · 24 September 2025, Shift 2 · General Awareness · Question 17 of 100

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.

Consider the statements about Karma: 1. The ritual honours the Karam tree on Bhadra Ekadashi in Chhattisgarh. 2. The drum most associated is the Madal. Which is/are correct?

(a)Only 1 correct
(b)Only 2 correct
(c)Both 1 & 2 correct
(d)Neither 1 nor 2 correct

Answer

Why

Correct — A. Statement 1 matches the festival. Karma (Karam) falls on the Ekadashi of the bright fortnight of Bhado, when a Karam branch is worshipped, and Chhattisgarh is among the states that keep it.

The key rejects statement 2. Accounts of the Karma dance name the timki as its main drum, and the madal is best known as Nepal's folk drum → option (a).

Why the others are wrong

(b)
Only 2 correct — Statement 1 is sound: Karma is kept on Bhado Shukla Ekadashi in honour of the Karam tree, and Chhattisgarh observes it. An option that drops statement 1 cannot be right.
(c)
Both 1 & 2 correct — The key does not accept statement 2. Accounts of the Karma dance name the timki as its main drum. The madal is best known as Nepal's national instrument, though some Adivasi groups play it too.
(d)
Neither 1 nor 2 correct — Statement 1 holds. The Ekadashi of Bhado's bright fortnight and the Karam-tree worship are exactly what it says, and Chhattisgarh is among the states that keep the festival.

Concept

Karam (colloquially Karma) is a harvest festival of Jharkhand, Chhattisgarh, Odisha, West Bengal and neighbouring regions, dedicated to Karam-Devta. It falls in August-September.

Karam branches are brought to the village and planted at the centre of the dancing ground, and men and women sing and dance through the night. Unmarried girls tend the Jawa, baskets of sprouting grain.

Statement 2 turns on a drum's name. The madal is Nepal's national instrument, though some Adivasi groups also play one, and the key treats it as the wrong drum for Karma.

Key facts

Karam (Karma) falls on the Ekadashi of the bright fortnight of Bhado, in August-September.
Karam branches are planted at the centre of the dancing ground, and the festival is dedicated to Karam-Devta.
Karma Naach is performed in Chhattisgarh, Jharkhand, Madhya Pradesh, Odisha and West Bengal.
Unmarried girls tend the Jawa, baskets of nine kinds of seed, for 7-9 days.

Study next

Karam rites: the Karam branch and the Jawa basketsJharkhand's Jhumar and the drums that accompany itTribal harvest festivals of eastern India: Karam, Sohrai, Sarhul

Common traps

Reading madal as mandar. The names are close, and the key treats the madal as a different drum.
Rejecting statement 1 because Karma is best known in Jharkhand. Chhattisgarh observes it too.

Karma is matched with a Bhadra Ekadashi agrarian ritual at 16 Sep 2025, 12:30, GA Q.23, and the Jawa rite of the Karam season is asked at 15 Sep 2025, 12:30, GA Q.2. Jhumar's mandar and nagara drums are tested at 21 Sep 2025, 12:30, GA Q.20.

Related PYQs

No directly related past PYQ was found.

Topic: Culture — all 246 SSC CGL questions on it, every solved shift.