Static General Knowledge makes up the rest of the General Awareness section in RRB NTPC, and the notices name its topics: General Science and Life Science up to Class 10, History of India and the freedom struggle, Physical, Social and Economic Geography of India and the world, Indian Polity and Governance, Indian Economy, Art and Culture, Indian Literature, Monuments and Places, Flora and Fauna, Famous Personalities, the UN and other world organisations, environmental issues, Transport Systems in India, Important Government and Public Sector Organisations, Common Abbreviations, and Basics of Computers and Computer Applications. RRB frames these as short factual questions: the unit of a physical quantity, the year of a battle, the article of the Constitution, the river a city stands on, the full form of an abbreviation, the headquarters of an organisation. GK24's GK notes on this page cover each topic in English and Hindi, arranged the way the syllabus lists them, with the facts RRB tends to ask placed first. Work through one topic at a time, note the lists (national parks, dances, articles, schedules, awards), and pair each topic with its quiz on GK24 to check what has stayed with you.
Which is the highest mountain peak located in India?
Kangchenjunga rises to 8,586 metres on the border of Sikkim with Nepal and is the third highest mountain in the world after Mount Everest and K2.
Read the full explanation →Pandit Ravi Shankar, who received the Bharat Ratna, played which instrument?
Ravi Shankar played the sitar, the long-necked fretted instrument with a gourd resonator and sympathetic strings that ring on their own.
Read the full explanation →The nadaswaram, played at temples and weddings in south India, is traditionally accompanied by which drum?
The nadaswaram is a long double reed wind instrument, the loudest of the classical wind instruments, and in Tamil Nadu it is played as a pair with the thavil, a barrel drum struck with one hand and a stick, at temple processions and weddings.
Read the full explanation →The ravanahatha, a bowed folk instrument, is associated mainly with which state?
The ravanahatha is an ancient spike fiddle with a coconut shell resonator, played with a horsehair bow that usually carries small bells, and it belongs to the folk musicians of Rajasthan, where it accompanies the ballad of Pabuji.
Read the full explanation →Pandit Hariprasad Chaurasia is famous for playing which instrument?
The bansuri is the bamboo transverse flute, a sushira vadya with no reed, in which the player changes notes by covering the finger holes.
Read the full explanation →The chenda, a drum played during Kathakali performances and temple festivals, belongs to which state?
The chenda is a cylindrical drum hung from the shoulder and struck with curved sticks, and it carries the sound of Kerala's temple festivals, of the percussion ensemble called Chenda Melam, and of Kathakali and Theyyam.
Read the full explanation →The ghatam, used in Carnatic music, belongs to which class of instruments?
The ghatam is a clay pot with nothing stretched across its mouth. The player strikes the body of the pot with fingers, palms and wrists, and changes the tone by moving the mouth of the pot against the stomach.
Read the full explanation →Ustad Amjad Ali Khan is a celebrated player of which instrument?
The sarod is a plucked instrument with a metal fingerboard and no frets, which lets a player slide continuously between notes and gives it its deep, singing tone.
Read the full explanation →Pandit Shivkumar Sharma is known for playing which instrument?
The santoor is a trapezoid wooden box carrying many strings over small bridges, struck with a pair of light curved mallets.
Read the full explanation →Ustad Bismillah Khan is associated with which musical instrument?
Bismillah Khan played the shehnai, a double reed wind instrument long associated with weddings, temple processions and auspicious beginnings in north India, and he is credited with carrying it from ceremonial use onto the classical concert stage.
Read the full explanation →In the classification given in the Natya Shastra, wind instruments are called by which name?
Sushira means hollow, and the class covers every instrument in which a column of air inside a tube is set vibrating.
Read the full explanation →The singer Bade Ghulam Ali Khan belonged to which gharana of Hindustani music?
Bade Ghulam Ali Khan is the best known singer of the Patiala gharana, a school marked by fast and intricate taans, a free use of thumri alongside khayal, and a bright open tone.
Read the full explanation →Tansen, credited with the ragas Miyan ki Malhar and Darbari Kanada, was a musician in whose court?
Tansen was counted among the navratnas, the nine jewels of Akbar's court, and had earlier served the ruler of Rewa.
Read the full explanation →Vishnu Narayan Bhatkhande is remembered for which contribution to Hindustani music?
Bhatkhande travelled across India collecting compositions and then arranged the ragas of Hindustani music under ten parent scales or thaats, among them Bilawal, Kalyan, Khamaj, Bhairav, Kafi, Asavari, Bhairavi and Todi.
Read the full explanation →Who is known as the Pitamaha, or grandsire, of Carnatic music?
Purandara Dasa, a saint composer of the Kannada devotional tradition, is honoured as the Pitamaha of Carnatic music because he organised the way the music is taught.
Read the full explanation →The pakhawaj is the percussion instrument traditionally used to accompany which form?
The pakhawaj is a long barrel drum played horizontally with both hands, deeper and graver in tone than the tabla, and its weight suits the slow and solemn movement of dhrupad.
Read the full explanation →Which is the oldest surviving form of Hindustani vocal music?
Dhrupad is austere and devotional, sung in four sections called sthayi, antara, sanchari and abhog, and it opens with a long unmetred alap.
Read the full explanation →Teentaal, the most common tala of Hindustani music, has how many matras?
Teentaal runs over sixteen matras divided into four equal vibhags of four beats each. The first beat of the cycle is the sam and carries the stress, the third vibhag opens on a khali, and the cycle returns to the sam at the end.
Read the full explanation →How many melakarta ragas are there in the Carnatic system?
The melakarta ragas are the parent scales of Carnatic music, each of them using all seven notes in both ascent and descent.
Read the full explanation →The Sangeeta Ratnakara, a treatise accepted by both the Hindustani and the Carnatic traditions, was written by whom?
Sarangadeva wrote the Sangeeta Ratnakara in the thirteenth century while attached to the Yadava court at Devagiri in the Deccan.
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