Kalaripayattu, one of the oldest martial arts in the world, is associated with which Indian state?

The correct answer is B, a long bamboo staff. Silambam is the staff art of Tamil Nadu, and the length of bamboo, usually about the height of the practitioner, is what identifies it in any list of weapons. Option A is wrong because the flexible sword is the urumi and it belongs to Kalaripayattu of Kerala, the art most often set against Silambam in the same question. Option C is wrong; the spear is the ta of Thang-Ta in Manipur and the shield appears in Gatka of Punjab as the farri and in Pari-Khanda of Bihar as the pari. Option D is wrong because the knuckleduster belongs to Vajra Mushti of Karnataka, wrestling shown during the Mysore Dasara. Since papers often ask only for the weapon, memorise the pairs of art and weapon rather than descriptions of technique.

The correct answer is C, Manipur. Thang-Ta is the armed component of the Manipuri martial system called Huyen Langlon, where thang means sword and ta means spear, while the unarmed component is called Sarit Sarak. Option A is wrong because Mizoram is associated with Inbuan wrestling, a belt wrestling contest in which kicking is barred and the knee may not be bent, and with Insuknawr or rod push. Option B is wrong; no classical martial art in the standard examination list is fixed to Nagaland. Option D is wrong because Assam gives the traditional ball game Dhopkhel, played in the spring season, not Thang-Ta. Manipur is the densest state in this chapter, since Cheibi Gad-ga, Sagol Kangjei, Yubi Lakpi and Hiyang Tannaba all belong to it as well, so learn them as one group.

The correct answer is B, Punjab. Gatka is the Punjabi martial art fought with the soti, a wooden stick, and the farri, a shield, and it is displayed at Sikh festivals such as Hola Mohalla. It was one of the indigenous disciplines brought into the Khelo India Youth Games from the 2021 edition. Option A is wrong; Haryana is known in sport for wrestling and boxing academies but not for a distinct traditional martial art in this list. Option C is wrong because Rajasthan is associated with Rajput sword traditions and the khanda as a weapon, yet Gatka is not a Rajasthani art. Option D is wrong; no standard martial art of the examination list is assigned to Jammu and Kashmir. Do not confuse the stick of Gatka with the stick used in Mardani Khel practice in Maharashtra, whose identifying weapon is the patta.

The correct answer is C, Himachal Pradesh. Thoda is the archery based contest of Himachal Pradesh, played around the Baisakhi season, in which two groups called the Pashi and the Saathi shoot blunt wooden arrows aimed below the knee of the opposing players, and dance and drumming accompany the contest. Option A is wrong; Uttarakhand shares the western Himalayan culture but Thoda is fixed to Himachal Pradesh in every standard list. Option B is wrong because Sikkim is associated with archery as a popular sport of Buddhist communities, yet Thoda as a named tradition is not Sikkimese. Option D is wrong because archery in Arunachal Pradesh and the north east generally is not organised as Thoda. The team names Pashi and Saathi are the surest way to identify this question, so learn them along with the state.

The correct answer is A, Maharashtra. Mardani Khel is the Maratha art of armed combat from Maharashtra, and it is identified by the patta, a straight sword fixed to a gauntlet that covers the forearm, and by the vita, a corded javelin. It grew out of the fighting methods of the hill forts of the Deccan. Option B is wrong; Gujarat has stick dances and folk contests but Mardani Khel is not placed there. Option C is wrong, and it is the useful distractor, because Madhya Pradesh appears in this chapter only as the state that declared Mallakhamb its state game in 2013. Option D is wrong because Goa has no distinct art of this name in the examination list. Fix the pair of patta and Maharashtra, since the weapon alone is often enough to answer.