SSC
The 'Unakoti' festival, held at a site of ancient rock carvings of Lord Shiva, is celebrated in which state?
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Answer: Option D — Tripura
Detailed Solution
Unakoti is an ancient Shaiva pilgrimage site in the Unakoti district of north-eastern Tripura, famous for its huge rock-cut carvings and stone images. The Unakoti festival, especially the Ashokastami Mela, is held at the site every year in March-April and attracts thousands of pilgrims.
The name "Unakoti" means "one less than a crore" (one crore is ten million). According to legend, Lord Shiva was travelling to Kashi with a crore of gods and goddesses. They stopped for the night at this place, and Shiva told them to wake up before sunrise and continue the journey. In the morning, only Shiva woke up, so he cursed the others to turn into stone, leaving "one less than a crore" images. Another legend says that a sculptor named Kallu Kumhar wanted to accompany Shiva and Parvati to Mount Kailash, and was told that he could do so if he carved a crore of images in one night. He fell short by one, and was left behind.
The carvings were made between about the 7th and 9th centuries CE. The most famous is a huge carving of Lord Shiva's head, called Unakotiswara Kal Bhairava, which is about 30 feet high, with an elaborately carved headdress about 10 feet high. It is flanked by images of Goddess Durga and the river goddess Ganga. Other carvings include images of Ganesha, Vishnu, Hanuman and Nandi. The site is set amid forests, streams and waterfalls. The Archaeological Survey of India protects the site, and it has been included in UNESCO's tentative list of World Heritage Sites.
Other festivals of Tripura include Kharchi Puja, Garia Puja, Ker Puja and the Neermahal Water Festival at the lake palace of Neermahal.
Why not the other options?
- ✗Assam is known for festivals such as Bihu and the Ambubachi Mela.
- ✗Mizoram is known for Chapchar Kut.
- ✗Meghalaya is known for Wangala and Nongkrem.
Quick tip
Remember: Unakoti = Tripura, the rock carvings of Shiva (Unakotiswara Kal Bhairava), "one less than a crore" and the Ashokastami Mela.
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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.