Art & Culture GK Questions with Answers – Page 17

Golconda, on the edge of Hyderabad, was the capital of the Qutb Shahi rulers before they moved down to the new city; it was the market through which the diamonds of the region were traded, and its acoustics are famous, a clap at the Fateh Darwaza being heard at the…

The correct answer is B, Sawai Pratap Singh, who had the Hawa Mahal built in 1799 as a screen of small windows and jharokhas through which the women of the household could watch the processions in the street below without being seen.

The Vijay Stambha was raised by Rana Kumbha of Mewar to mark a victory, and the Kirti Stambha, the tower of fame, stands in the same fort, so a question may ask for either.

The correct answer is A, Chittorgarh Fort, which spreads over the largest area of any fort in the country and holds within it palaces, tanks and temples as well as the Vijay Stambha and the Kirti Stambha.

The correct answer is C, Shah Jahan, who built the Red Fort of red sandstone as the citadel of his new capital Shahjahanabad, completing it in 1648; the Diwan-i-Aam, the Diwan-i-Khas, the Rang Mahal and the Moti Masjid stand inside, and it was inscribed as a World Heritage Site in…

Bodh Gaya in Bihar is where Siddhartha attained enlightenment under the Bodhi tree, and the Mahabodhi Temple complex that grew around the spot, with the Vajrasana or diamond throne beside the tree, was inscribed as a World Heritage Site in 2002.

The fifth Guru compiled the Adi Granth and installed it in the Harmandir Sahib at Amritsar in 1604, Baba Buddha being appointed its first Granthi.

Its third corridor, lined with more than a thousand carved pillars, is the longest temple corridor in India, and the temple is doubly important for examinations because it is both a Jyotirlinga and the southern member of the Char Dham.

The Gommateshwara statue at Shravanabelagola is a monolithic image of Bahubali, son of the first Tirthankara, and it was raised by Chavundaraya, a minister of the Western Ganga kingdom; the Mahamastakabhisheka, in which the statue is anointed, is held once in twelve years.

The Dilwara group of five Jain temples stands at Mount Abu in the Sirohi district of Rajasthan and was built in the Solanki period, Vimal Vasahi being dedicated to Adinath and Luna Vasahi to Neminath; the ceilings and pillars are the finest marble work of Jain architecture in India.

The Konark Sun Temple in Odisha, conceived as the chariot of the sun god with carved wheels and horses, was raised in the thirteenth century by Narasimhadeva I of the Eastern Ganga dynasty, and it was inscribed as a World Heritage Site in 1984.

The Kamakhya Temple rises on the Nilachal or Nilachala hill in Guwahati, Assam, overlooking the Brahmaputra, and its annual Ambubachi Mela draws pilgrims from across eastern India.

The four Char Dham placed in the four directions are Badrinath in the north, Dwarka in the west, Puri in the east and Rameswaram in the south, so Kedarnath does not belong to this set.

The Brihadisvara or Rajarajesvaram temple at Thanjavur was completed about 1010 CE by the Chola king Rajaraja I, and it is the oldest of the three shrines inscribed by UNESCO as the Great Living Chola Temples.

The Jagannath Temple stands at Puri on the Odisha coast and was built in the twelfth century by Anantavarman Chodaganga Deva of the Eastern Ganga dynasty.

The anda, meaning the egg, is the solid hemispherical dome of a stupa, raised over the relic chamber, and it is the part that gives the stupa its shape.

Sammed Shikharji stands on Parasnath hill in the Giridih district of Jharkhand, the highest hill in the state, and is held to be the place where twenty of the twenty-four tirthankaras attained liberation, which makes it the holiest of all Jain tirthas.

The thirty-four caves at Ellora in Maharashtra are grouped by faith: caves 1 to 12 are Buddhist, caves 13 to 29 are Hindu, and caves 30 to 34 are Jain, the finest of the Jain group being Cave 32, the Indra Sabha, with its carved mandapa and the image of…

The Hathigumpha or elephant cave at Udayagiri near Bhubaneswar carries the long Prakrit inscription of Kharavela, the Chedi or Mahameghavahana king of Kalinga, which records his campaigns and his patronage of Jainism; Udayagiri and the neighbouring Khandagiri form a Jain cave group.

The Dilwara group of five marble temples stands on Mount Abu in the Sirohi district of Rajasthan, in the Aravalli range, and belongs to the Solanki period; the Vimal Vasahi is dedicated to Adinath and the Luna Vasahi to Neminath, and both are famous for ceilings and pillars carved as…