RAS question
During Gangaur, the clay idols made by women are called:
Correct answer: (C) Isar and Gauri.
During Gangaur, the clay idols made by women are traditionally called Isar and Gauri.
Explanation
Gangaur tests a precise Rajasthan culture fact: the festival centres on the paired deities Isar and Gauri, representing Lord Shiva and Goddess Parvati. Women make their clay idols, decorate them, worship them for 18 days, and immerse them in water on Chaitra Shukla Tritiya. The official Utsav page describes the same ritual frame through the Mewar Festival at Udaipur in Chaitra, with a procession carrying the idols of Isar, identified as Shiv, and Gangaur, identified as Parvati. These idols are ornamented, dressed in colourful attire, taken to Gangaur Ghat at Lake Pichola, and worshipped there.
Why the other options are wrong
- (A) Shiv-Parvati identifies the deities represented, but the asked-for traditional idol names in this Gangaur context are Isar and Gauri.
- (B) Ram-Sita belongs to a different devotional pairing and is not the pair named in Gangaur ritual vocabulary or the Utsav festival description.
- (D) Gan-Gaur names the festival context, while the idols themselves are Isar and Gauri.
Concept
This tests Rajasthan art and culture through festival-specific ritual vocabulary, not just the broad deity association. Such names recur in RAS because local festivals often appear as one-line factual traps in prelims.