CTET GK Questions 2026

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.

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.

The bansuri is the bamboo transverse flute, a sushira vadya with no reed, in which the player changes notes by covering the finger holes.

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.

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.

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.

The santoor is a trapezoid wooden box carrying many strings over small bridges, struck with a pair of light curved mallets.

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.

Sushira means hollow, and the class covers every instrument in which a column of air inside a tube is set vibrating.

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.

Tansen was counted among the navratnas, the nine jewels of Akbar's court, and had earlier served the ruler of Rewa.

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.

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.

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.

Dhrupad is austere and devotional, sung in four sections called sthayi, antara, sanchari and abhog, and it opens with a long unmetred alap.

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.

The melakarta ragas are the parent scales of Carnatic music, each of them using all seven notes in both ascent and descent.

Sarangadeva wrote the Sangeeta Ratnakara in the thirteenth century while attached to the Yadava court at Devagiri in the Deccan.

The Samaveda is the Veda of melody. Most of its verses are taken from the Rigveda, but they are arranged for singing rather than for recitation, and that singing is known as Samagana.

The Eighth Schedule of the Constitution lists 22 languages. It began with 14 languages in 1950.