SSC
Guru Shyama Charan Pati received the Padma Shri for his contribution to which dance?
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Answer: Option D — Chhau
Detailed Solution
Explanation
Guru Shyama Charan Pati was a renowned guru of Mayurbhanj Chhau, the style of Chhau dance that developed in the Mayurbhanj district of Odisha. He received the Padma Shri for his contribution to Chhau.
Shyama Charan Pati devoted his life to performing, teaching and preserving Mayurbhanj Chhau. He trained many students and worked to keep the traditional techniques, compositions and repertoire of the dance alive, at a time when royal patronage had ended and traditional arts faced many difficulties. Mayurbhanj Chhau grew under the patronage of the royal family of Mayurbhanj, whose capital was at Baripada, and it is performed mainly during the Chaitra Parva, the spring festival held in April. The most important feature of Mayurbhanj Chhau is that it is performed without masks, unlike the other two styles of Chhau, so the dancers express emotions through their faces as well as their bodies. The training begins with basic exercises called topkas and uflis, which imitate the movements of animals, birds and daily life. The music is provided by drums such as the dhol, dhumsa and nagara, and by the mohuri.
Chhau is a semi-classical dance of eastern India that combines martial arts, acrobatics, folk traditions and stories from the epics. It has three styles: Seraikela Chhau (Jharkhand), Purulia Chhau (West Bengal) and Mayurbhanj Chhau (Odisha). In 2010, UNESCO inscribed Chhau on its Representative List of the Intangible Cultural Heritage of Humanity. Other famous Chhau artists who have received the Padma Shri include Makar Dhwaja Darogha (Seraikela), Gopal Prasad Dubey (Seraikela) and Shashadhar Acharya (Seraikela).
Why not the other options?
- ✗Gotipua is a dance of Odisha performed by young boys dressed as girls in honour of Lord Jagannath.
- ✗Odissi is the classical dance of Odisha.
- ✗Sambalpuri dances are the folk dances of western Odisha, such as Dalkhai.
- ✗Good to know
- ✗Shyama Charan Pati is associated with Chhau, not these forms.
💡 Exam tip
Questions often name a Padma Shri awardee and ask for the art form. Remember the Chhau gurus: Shyama Charan Pati (Mayurbhanj), Makar Dhwaja Darogha, Gopal Prasad Dubey and Shashadhar Acharya (Seraikela).💬 Discussions on this question
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Awards & Honours — Preparation
This question tests your understanding of Awards & Honours, a key topic in the General Knowledge section. The detailed solution above uses a step-by-step approach to show the reasoning, and where available, a shortcut that helps you solve similar questions in under 90 seconds during the actual exam.
This topic covers national and international awards: Bharat Ratna and the Padma awards, gallantry awards, the Dadasaheb Phalke Award, Jnanpith and Sahitya Akademi awards, sports awards, Nobel Prizes, the Ramon Magsaysay Award and other global honours, along with the fields they recognise and notable winners. Static questions ask about the field each award is given for, the year it started, and the first winners. For example, the Jnanpith Award is for literature and the Dadasaheb Phalke Award is for cinema. Questions on recent winners change every year, so revise those from the latest announcements and treat older winner lists as background only. Practise the awards and honours questions below, written in the style of the general awareness sections of exams such as SSC, banking, railways, CUET GAT, MAH CET and CLAT. Each question comes with a detailed explanation that adds related facts, so every question helps you revise more than one point.