Which singer, called the Bihar Kokila, is identified above all with Chhath songs?
- A.Sharda Sinha
- B.Shanti Jain
- C.Vindhyavasini Devi
- D.Kumar Gandharva
Correct answer
Explanation
The correct answer is A, Sharda Sinha. Sharda Sinha, called the Bihar Kokila, carried the Chhath songs of Bihar from the river ghats to recordings heard across the country, and she sang Maithili and Bhojpuri wedding, Sohar and Sama-Chakeva songs as well. For most households in the state her voice is the sound of the Kartik Chhath fast.
Option B, Shanti Jain, is a genuine singer and scholar of Bhojpuri folk song, which makes the option plausible, but not the name attached to Chhath. Option C, Vindhyavasini Devi, was a noted folk singer of the Bhojpuri region honoured for her work on folk forms, again not the Chhath name. Option D, Kumar Gandharva, was a Hindustani classical vocalist of Madhya Pradesh known for his nirgun bhajans and has no connection with Bihar folk song. In a question of this kind the title given in the stem, Bihar Kokila, is the key.
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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