Reshma-Chuharmal, a folk play of the ballad of the hero Chuharmal, belongs to which language region of Bihar?
- A.Maithili
- B.Magahi
- C.Angika
- D.Bajjika
Correct answer
Explanation
The correct answer is B, Magahi. Reshma-Chuharmal is sung and staged in the Magahi speaking tract south of the Ganga, around Patna, Nalanda and Mokama. It tells of Chuharmal, a hero revered as a deity by the Dusadh community, and of Reshma, a landlord's daughter; the ballad is valued today as much for its social content as for its music.
Option A, Maithili, is the language of the Mithila region, whose folk plays are Kirtaniya, Bidapat Naach, Bhakuli-Banka and the Dina-Bhadri ballad. Option C, Angika, is spoken around Bhagalpur and Munger in the Anga tract. Option D, Bajjika, is spoken in Muzaffarpur, Vaishali and Sitamarhi. All four are genuine speech regions of Bihar, so the examiner is testing whether the form has been learnt with its region, not merely its story.
Read the full article: Folk Music, Dance and Theatre of Bihar: Forms and Regions
Practice Questions
View allBhikhari Thakur, called the Shakespeare of Bhojpuri, is best known for creating which form of folk theatre?
- A.Kirtaniya
- B.Bidesia
- C.Nautanki
- D.Reshma-Chuharmal
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Bhikhari Thakur, born in 1887 at Kutubpur Diyara in Saran district, wrote the play Bidesia about a wife left behind when her husband migrates to Calcutta for work, and the name was then applied to the whole style of Bhojpuri naach he built, with its songs and its launda dancers.
Read the full explanation →The Jhijhiya dance, in which women balance a perforated earthen pot with a lamp in it, belongs to which region of Bihar?
- A.Mithila
- B.Magadh
- C.Shahabad
- D.Chhotanagpur
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Jhijhiya is danced by women of the Mithila region during Navratri, each carrying on her head an earthen pot pierced with many holes and holding a lighted lamp; the dance is offered to the Goddess and is traditionally believed to turn away witchcraft and evil spells.
Read the full explanation →Which folk dance of north Bihar is performed by a couple in the rainy season on the theme of quarrel, drought and migration?
- A.Domkach
- B.Jat-Jatin
- C.Jhumari
- D.Jharni
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Jat-Jatin is danced in the Mithila and Koshi tract of north Bihar, usually by a pair representing the husband Jat and the wife Jatin; the song moves through their quarrel, the failure of the rains and the husband leaving the village in search of work, which makes it the folk…
Read the full explanation →Ustad Bismillah Khan, who made the shehnai a solo concert instrument, was born at which place in Bihar?
- A.Dumraon in Buxar
- B.Bettiah in West Champaran
- C.Misrauliya in Saran
- D.Kutubpur in Saran
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Bismillah Khan was born at Dumraon in 1916, in the present Buxar district, into a family of shehnai players, and later settled at Varanasi.
Read the full explanation →Which gharana of Dhrupad singing belongs to Bihar?
- A.Gwalior
- B.Kirana
- C.Darbhanga
- D.Jaipur-Atrauli
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The Darbhanga gharana, carried by the Mallick family under the patronage of the Darbhanga Raj, is one of the surviving gharanas of Dhrupad, the oldest form of Hindustani classical singing; Pandit Ram Chatur Mallick and Pandit Siyaram Tiwari belong to it.
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