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The Tarpa Festival, named after a traditional wind instrument of the Warli and Kokna tribes, is celebrated in:
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Answer: Option D — Dadra and Nagar Haveli
Detailed Solution
The Tarpa Festival is a cultural festival held every year in Dadra and Nagar Haveli, now part of the Union Territory of Dadra and Nagar Haveli and Daman and Diu. It is held every year at Silvassa, the capital, and it showcases the culture of the tribal communities of the region.
The festival is named after the "tarpa", a traditional wind instrument of the Warli, Kokna and Kathodi tribes. The tarpa is made from a long, dried bottle gourd, with bamboo pipes and a palm-leaf horn, and it produces a deep, haunting sound. The tarpa player stands in the centre, and men and women dance around him in a circle, holding each other by the waist, moving in a spiral, in a dance called the Tarpa dance. The dance is traditionally performed after the harvest, through the night. The tarpa is regarded as a sacred instrument, and the Warlis believe that it represents the divine, with the dancers following its music as the people follow God.
The Tarpa Festival includes performances of the Tarpa dance and other tribal dances, such as the Bhavada, the Dhol dance and the Gheria, music, exhibitions of tribal art and handicrafts, and tribal food. It aims to preserve the tribal culture of the region and to promote tourism.
More than half of the population of Dadra and Nagar Haveli is tribal, mainly Warlis, Koknas, Dhodias, Dublas and Kathodis. The Warlis are famous for Warli painting, which uses simple geometric shapes (circles, triangles and lines) in white on a mud background to show scenes of daily life, harvests and festivals; the tarpa dance is a common subject of these paintings. Dadra and Nagar Haveli was ruled by the Portuguese until it was freed in 1954 and became part of India in 1961. In 2020, it was merged with Daman and Diu to form one Union Territory.
Why not the other options?
- ✗Puducherry is a Union Territory with a French heritage.
- ✗Lakshadweep is a group of coral islands in the Arabian Sea.
- ✗Andaman and Nicobar Islands are home to tribes such as the Onge and Jarawa.
Quick tip
Remember: The Tarpa Festival = Dadra and Nagar Haveli, the Warli and Kokna tribes and the tarpa (a gourd wind instrument). Warli painting often shows the tarpa dance.
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Festivals & Fairs of India — Preparation
This question tests your understanding of Festivals & Fairs of India, 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 the religious, harvest, tribal and cultural festivals of India, the fairs (melas) held across the country, and the states, communities and seasons linked to them. It also includes festivals listed by UNESCO as intangible cultural heritage, such as Kumbh Mela and Durga Puja in Kolkata. Most questions ask which state celebrates a festival, which tribe it belongs to, or what event it marks. Harvest festivals are especially common: Pongal (Tamil Nadu), Onam (Kerala), Bihu (Assam), Lohri and Baisakhi (Punjab) and Nuakhai (Odisha). Fairs such as the Pushkar camel fair (Rajasthan) and the Sonepur cattle fair (Bihar) are also frequently tested. Revise festivals state by state. Practise the festivals and fairs 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.