New Delhi : Sparsh Sinha of Bidar, Karnataka, has emerged as the national winner of Bharatiya Goodh Varg Paheli 2026, a Hindi cryptic crossword competition organised by Extra-C for the Rajbhasha Directorate under the Cabinet Department, Government of Bihar, on the occasion of Hindi Diwas.
The competition was aimed at encouraging students and members of the public to engage with the Hindi language through the intellectually challenging format of cryptic crosswords.
Unlike conventional crosswords, cryptic crosswords require participants to use a combination of vocabulary, language comprehension, logical reasoning, analytical skills and creative thinking to interpret clues and arrive at the correct answers.
Competition Held Online
The competition was conducted online through crypticsingh.com. Registration opened on September 3, 2026, while the competition was held from September 14 to September 27.
The results were announced on October 3, with participants from different parts of the country securing national, state/UT and city-level positions.
Top Three National Winners
The top three positions at the national level were secured by:
- Sparsh Sinha – Bidar, Karnataka
- Narayan Mandyam – Thane, Maharashtra
- Madhup Kumar Tewari – New Delhi, Delhi
Sinha’s first-place finish made him the national champion of the 2026 edition of the competition.
State And UT-Level Winners
The competition also recognised winners at the State and Union Territory levels.
The winners were:
- Aditya Sharma – Chittoor, Andhra Pradesh
- Sanjay Sinha – Patna, Bihar
- Ratan Kumar – New Delhi, Delhi
- Rohan – Shimla, Himachal Pradesh
- Sunita Agrawal – Ranchi, Jharkhand
- Harish Kamath – Bengaluru Urban, Karnataka
- Surbhi Rani – Kannur, Kerala
- Ananta Krishnan – Pune, Maharashtra
- Prachinanda Sahu – Cuttack, Odisha
- Sunil Kumar – Bikaner, Rajasthan
- Lakshmi Vaidyanathan – Chennai, Tamil Nadu
- V. K. Sai Gayatri – Hyderabad, Telangana
- Tripti Chakraborty – West Tripura, Tripura
- Abhir Agrawal – Ghaziabad, Uttar Pradesh
The competition also included city-level winners, with participants from several cities in Bihar and other parts of the country.
Promoting Hindi Through Cryptic Crosswords
Bharatiya Goodh Varg Paheli 2026 was designed to promote engagement with Hindi through an innovative and recreational language-based activity.
The organisers said the format combines language skills with logical reasoning and problem-solving. Participants were encouraged to expand their Hindi vocabulary while developing concentration, analytical ability and creative thinking.
The initiative also highlighted the potential of cryptic crosswords as an engaging way to promote interest in Hindi among students, educators and members of the wider public.
