Pushkar Kumbh Mela 2025 was held in May 2025 in which of the following State(s) ? 1. Rajasthan 2. Uttar Pradesh 3. Uttarakhand Select the correct answer from the code given below : Code :
- (a)1 and 2
- (b)2 and 3
- (c)Only 3
- (d)Only 1
Correct — C, Only 3 (Uttarakhand). The Pushkar Kumbh of 2025 was held from 15 to 26 May 2025 at Keshav Prayag in Mana village, Chamoli district, Uttarakhand — the confluence just beyond Badrinath where the Alaknanda meets the stream identified in tradition with the Saraswati. It was inaugurated by Chief Minister Pushkar Singh Dhami on 15 May 2025. This is a twelve-yearly Vaishnavite observance, and by the traditional reckoning it falls in the year Jupiter (Brihaspati) enters Gemini (Mithun rashi); it draws pilgrims from the south, largely Telugu-speaking Vaishnavites, who bathe there for moksha. So of the three States listed, only Uttarakhand hosted it — option (c). The name is the trap: this event has nothing to do with the town of Pushkar in Rajasthan.
- (a)1 and 2 — Neither State hosted it. Rajasthan is chosen because of the town of Pushkar near Ajmer, whose famous fair is a camel and cattle mela held around Kartik Purnima in November — not a May Kumbh. Uttar Pradesh is chosen because of the Prayagraj Maha Kumbh, which had indeed been held earlier in 2025, in January-February, and had dominated the news.
- (b)2 and 3 — Uttarakhand alone is right; adding Uttar Pradesh is what makes this option wrong. The 2025 gathering at Prayagraj was the Maha Kumbh, a separate event on a separate cycle held in January-February 2025, not the Pushkar Kumbh of May 2025.
- (d)Only 1 — Rajasthan is the pure name-trap. Pushkar in Ajmer district has India's best-known Brahma temple and the Pushkar Lake, and its annual fair is a major event — but the 'Pushkar Kumbh' of the question is the twelve-yearly Himalayan gathering at Keshav Prayag, and it has no connection with the Rajasthani town.
India has more than one twelve-yearly bathing festival, and they are governed by different planetary reckonings and held at different sacred confluences. The Pushkar Kumbh (also written Pushkaram) is the Vaishnavite observance of the upper Alaknanda valley in Uttarakhand, centred on Keshav Prayag at Mana — the last inhabited settlement on the Indo-Tibetan border above Badrinath, which the government now brands as 'India's first village' rather than its last. It is distinct both from the far larger Kumbh/Maha Kumbh cycle of Prayagraj, Haridwar, Ujjain and Nashik, and from the Pushkar fair of Rajasthan, which is an annual cattle fair, not a Kumbh at all.
This is a current-affairs question dressed as a geography one, and the examiner has built it on a name collision. A candidate who reads 'Pushkar' and reaches for Ajmer marks (d); a candidate who remembers that 2025 was a huge Kumbh year in India reaches for Prayagraj and marks (b). The discriminator is the date. The Prayagraj Maha Kumbh ran in January-February 2025; anything described as a Kumbh in May 2025 has to be something else, and the only twelve-yearly bathing festival on the calendar then was at Mana in Chamoli. Note also that Uttarakhand's own Kumbh city is Haridwar — Mana is a separate, much smaller Vaishnavite observance within the same State.
- Pushkar Kumbh 2025: 15-26 May 2025 at Keshav Prayag, Mana village, Chamoli district, Uttarakhand; inaugurated by Chief Minister Pushkar Singh Dhami
- Keshav Prayag is the confluence of the Alaknanda with the stream traditionally identified as the Saraswati, a short distance above Badrinath
- It is a twelve-yearly observance; by the traditional rule it is held in the year Jupiter (Brihaspati) enters Gemini (Mithun rashi), and it returned to Uttarakhand after twelve years
- It draws largely South Indian, mainly Telugu-speaking Vaishnavite pilgrims — quite a different congregation from the Prayagraj Kumbh
- Mana is the last village on the Indo-Tibet border above Badrinath, officially re-designated 'India's first village'; the Mana Pass lies above it
- Do not confuse it with (i) the Prayagraj Maha Kumbh of January-February 2025 in Uttar Pradesh, or (ii) the annual Pushkar camel fair at Ajmer, Rajasthan, held around Kartik Purnima in November
- Reading 'Pushkar' as Pushkar in Ajmer, Rajasthan — the Rajasthani event is an annual cattle and camel fair in November, not a Kumbh
- Assuming any Kumbh in 2025 must mean the Prayagraj Maha Kumbh, which was held in January-February 2025 in Uttar Pradesh
- Assuming Uttarakhand's only Kumbh is at Haridwar and therefore ruling the State out — Mana's Pushkar Kumbh is a separate, smaller observance
UPPSC asks the location plainly — which State hosted event X in month Y — and builds the options around a name collision. UPSC prefers the pairing form: a pilgrimage centre matched to its hills, river or community, where the location, not the event, is what you have to know.
Consider the following pairs: Place of Pilgrimage : Location 1. Srisailam : Nallamala Hills 2. Omkareshwar : Satmala Hills 3. Pushkar : Mahadeo Hills Which of the above pairs is/are correctly matched?
- (a) 1 only
- (b) 2 and 3 only
- (c) 1 and 3 only
- (d) 1, 2 and 3
Answer(a) 1 only
The same skill, and it even uses the same bait word. UPSC asked candidates to place Pushkar geographically — the town borders the Aravalli Range, not the Mahadeo Hills — while UPPSC asks which State the 'Pushkar' Kumbh was actually held in. Both reward knowing where a pilgrimage centre physically sits rather than recognising its name.
Consider the following pairs: Traditions — Communities 1. Chaliha Sahib Festival — Sindhis 2. Nanda Raj Jaat Yatra — Gonds 3. Wari-Warkari — Santhals Which of the pairs given above is/are correctly matched?
- (a) 1 only
- (b) 2 and 3 only
- (c) 1 and 3 only
- (d) None of the above
Answer(a) 1 only
Directly on the other twelve-yearly pilgrimage of the same district. The Nanda Raj Jaat Yatra pair is wrong there because the yatra belongs to the Garhwali and Kumaoni people of Uttarakhand, not to the Gonds — the same Chamoli-Uttarakhand association a candidate needs to place the Pushkar Kumbh here.
Which one of the following (Passes - States/U.T.) is correctly matched?
- (a) Mana – Himachal Pradesh
- (b) Aghil – Arunachal Pradesh
- (c) Niti – Uttarakhand
- (d) Diphu – Ladakh
Answer(c) Niti – Uttarakhand
Mana appears in both papers. In 2023 UPPSC tested whether candidates knew that the Mana and Niti passes belong to Uttarakhand's Chamoli district and not to Himachal Pradesh; in 2025 it tested the same Chamoli location from the festival side, since Keshav Prayag sits at Mana village below the pass.
- practice — not a real PYQ
Keshav Prayag, the site of the Pushkar Kumbh Mela of May 2025, is located near which of the following?
- (a)Haridwar
- (b)Badrinath
- (c)Kedarnath
- (d)Gangotri
Answer(b) Badrinath — Keshav Prayag lies at Mana village in Chamoli district, a short distance above the Badrinath shrine.
- practice — not a real PYQ
Consider the following pairs: Fair / Mela — State 1. Pushkar Fair (camel fair) — Rajasthan 2. Maha Kumbh 2025 — Uttar Pradesh 3. Nanda Devi Raj Jat — Himachal Pradesh Which of the pairs given above are correctly matched?
- (a)1 and 2 only
- (b)2 and 3 only
- (c)1 and 3 only
- (d)1, 2 and 3
Answer(a) 1 and 2 only — the Nanda Devi Raj Jat is a pilgrimage of Uttarakhand (Chamoli), not of Himachal Pradesh.