UPSC Civil Services GK Questions 2026

The release was issued by the Prime Minister's Office and carried his words praising the pace of the team, the understanding between the runners and their determination, which he said had made the race an exciting one and a proud moment for athletics in the country.

The name of the discipline itself carries the answer: the figure before the multiplication sign gives the number of runners and the figure after it gives the lap each of them covers, so a mixed 4x400m relay is run by four athletes who each complete a lap of 400 metres.

The Prime Minister's message congratulated Manu TS, Poovamma MR, Vishal TK and Vithya Ramraj specifically on taking the silver medal in the mixed 4x400m relay at the Asian Games, so option B is the one supported by the release.

Nongkrem is the harvest thanksgiving dance of the Khasi people, held over several days at Smit, the seat of the Khyrim chiefdom near Shillong, where unmarried women dance in the centre in heavy silver and gold ornaments while men dance around them with swords and whisks.

Bhangra is the men's dance of the Punjab harvest, danced at Baisakhi in April to the beat of the dhol, with leaps, shoulder work and the raised arms that everyone recognises.

Kalbeliya is the song and dance tradition of the Kalbeliya community of Rajasthan, who were traditionally snake charmers, and the dancer in a black swirling skirt imitates the movement of a serpent to the been and the khanjari.

In Dollu Kunitha the dancers hang a large drum, the dollu, from the neck and beat it while moving in fast formations, and the dance belongs to the Kuruba shepherd community, who perform it in the service of their deity Beereshwara.

Hojagiri is danced by women of the Reang community of Tripura, who balance on an earthen pitcher while keeping a bottle with a lit lamp on the head, and bend the upper body while the feet stay still.

In Cheraw, men sit facing each other and hold long bamboo staves horizontally, clapping them together in a steady beat, while women in the Mizo puan step in and out of the closing gaps without letting a foot be caught.

Chhau is a martial masked dance of eastern India with three recognised styles, and Seraikella Chhau takes its name from the former princely seat of Seraikella in Jharkhand, where the royal house trained and refined it.

Lavani combines song and dance and is performed mainly by women in a nine-yard saree to the sharp beat of the dholki.

Ghoomar is danced by women in a wide ghagra who move in a circle and turn on the spot, the swirl of the skirt giving the dance its name.

Bihu is danced chiefly at Rongali or Bohag Bihu, the Assamese new year festival that falls in April and opens the sowing season.

During a long famine in Magadha, Bhadrabahu led a body of monks south to Shravanabelagola in Karnataka while Sthulabhadra stayed in the north and convened a council at Pataliputra.

Because early sculptors at Sanchi and Bharhut did not show the Buddha in human form, they used signs, and the wheel stands for the first sermon at Sarnath, which is itself called the turning of the wheel of law.

He presided over the First Buddhist Council, held at Rajgriha soon after the Mahaparinirvana in the reign of Ajatashatru, whose purpose was to settle the teaching before it could be distorted.

Mahavira preached in the spoken tongue of Magadha, and the twelve Angas that preserve his teaching are in Ardhamagadhi. They were finally written down at the second Jain council held at Vallabhi in Gujarat under Devardhi Kshamashramana.

It is the Jain teaching that every object has countless aspects and that no single judgement can capture the whole truth.

The Buddha attained enlightenment seated under a peepal tree at Bodh Gaya, and the tree is therefore called the Bodhi tree; in early Buddhist art, where the Buddha was never shown in human form, the tree itself stands for the enlightenment.

After twelve years of severe austerity Mahavira attained kaivalya at the age of forty-two under a sal tree at Jrimbhikagrama, on the bank of the river Rijupalika, and from that moment was known as Jina and Kevalin.