Fairs: Kumbh, Pushkar and Sonepur

The Gangasagar Mela is held every year around Makar Sankranti (mid-January) on Sagar Island in South 24 Parganas district of West Bengal, where the Hooghly branch of the Ganga enters the Bay of Bengal. Pilgrims take a holy dip at the confluence and visit the temple of the sage Kapil Muni, linked with the legend of King Sagara's sons and the descent of the Ganga brought by Bhagiratha. It is one of the largest annual bathing fairs in India.

The Rann Utsav is Gujarat's winter festival on the white salt desert of Kutch, with a tent city at Dhordo. The Hampi Utsav (Vijaya Utsav) of Karnataka celebrates the heritage of the Vijayanagara capital with music, dance and light shows among the ruins. The Sangai Festival, held every November, is Manipur's tourism festival, named after the sangai, the brow-antlered deer of Keibul Lamjao that is Manipur's State animal; it is not Mizoram's.

The Sonepur Mela in Saran district, Bihar, is held at the Gandak–Ganga confluence, opposite Hajipur, and begins around Kartik Purnima (November) with a holy bath, running for about a month. It is centred on the Harihar Nath temple, where Vishnu (Hari) and Shiva (Hara) are worshipped together, and on the Puranic story of Gajendra Moksha, in which Vishnu saved the elephant king from a crocodile at this spot. Historically it was Asia's largest cattle and elephant fair. All three statements are correct.

Shigmo is Goa's Hindu spring festival around Holi (February–March), with float parades and folk performances such as ghode modni and romta mel. Sao Joao (the feast of St John the Baptist, 24 June) is a monsoon festival of Goa's Catholics, especially at Siolim, when young men jump into wells and ponds wearing crowns of leaves and flowers. Losoong is the Bhutia–Lepcha harvest and new-year festival of Sikkim in December, and Bhagoria is the pre- Holi haat festival of the Bhils of Madhya Pradesh. So only two are Goan.

Navaratri takes many regional forms. In Tamil Nadu, homes set up Bommai Golu, an odd-numbered flight of steps with dolls of gods and scenes of daily life. The Mysuru Dasara of Karnataka ends with the Jamboo Savari, in which the image of Chamundeshwari rides on a caparisoned elephant in a golden howdah, a tradition of the Wodeyars. In Telangana, women build Bathukamma flower stacks over nine days and float them in tanks. The Bastar Dussehra, centred on Danteshwari at Jagdalpur, is in Chhattisgarh, not Odisha.

The Kullu Dussehra is a week-long festival that starts on Vijayadashami itself. Its centre is the image of Raghunath (Rama), brought to Kullu from Ayodhya in the 17th century in the reign of Raja Jagat Singh; his chariot is pulled to the Dhalpur maidan, and hundreds of village devtas are carried in palanquins to pay homage. No effigy of Ravana is burnt; the festival ends on the last day with the Lanka Dahan ritual on the bank of the Beas. So statement 3 is wrong.

Kartik Purnima (October–November) is one of the most crowded days of the Hindu calendar. The Pushkar fair in Rajasthan reaches its climax with a bath in the holy lake on that full moon. Dev Deepawali at Varanasi, when the ghats are lit with lakhs of lamps, is held on Kartik Purnima, fifteen days after Diwali. Guru Nanak's birth anniversary (Prakash Purab) is also celebrated on Kartik Purnima by tradition. The Gangasagar Mela, however, is tied to Makar Sankranti in January.

The Chandrabhaga Mela is held on Magha Saptami (Magha Shukla Saptami, January–February), traditionally the birthday of Surya, at Chandrabhaga beach near Konark in Puri district, Odisha. Pilgrims bathe in the pool left in the bed of the old Chandrabhaga river and in the sea, then greet the rising Sun and visit the Navagraha shrine at the Konark temple. Legend says Samba, son of Krishna, was cured of leprosy here by worshipping the Sun, which is also the founding story of Konark.