Art & Culture GK Questions with Answers – Page 8

The correct answer is B, Andal, the only woman among the twelve Alvars, whose Tiruppavai and Nachiyar Tirumozhi are sung in Vaishnava temples, especially in the month of Margazhi, and who is worshipped at Srivilliputhur.

The correct answer is B, the Nalayira Divya Prabandham, whose very name means the divine collection of four thousand, compiled from the hymns of the twelve Alvars and treated in Sri Vaishnavism as the Tamil Veda, recited in temple worship alongside Sanskrit scripture.

The sixty-three Nayanars sang in Tamil to Shiva between roughly the sixth and ninth centuries; the hymns of the three greatest, Appar, Sambandar and Sundarar, make up the Tevaram, which forms the first seven books of the twelve-book Tirumurai canon, while Sekkizhar's Periya Puranam, the twelfth book, tells their lives.

The pillar was set up by Heliodorus, the Greek ambassador of the Indo-Greek king Antialcidas at the court of a local ruler, and its Brahmi inscription calls it a Garuda pillar raised in honour of Vasudeva, the god of gods; it is the standard epigraphic proof that Bhagavatism, the early…

The correct answer is A, Lakulisha, who is held in Pashupata tradition to be an incarnation of Shiva and is shown in sculpture holding a club, the lakula from which his name comes; the Pashupata school is the earliest Shaiva order for which texts and inscriptions survive.

The word means three bends, and the posture shifts the head one way, the torso another and the hip a third, giving the figure the swaying grace seen in dancing images and in classical Odissi.

Mahishasuramardini means the slayer of the buffalo demon Mahishasura, and the form shows the many-armed goddess, each hand holding a weapon given by a god, driving her trident into the demon as he emerges from the buffalo's body, with the lion at her side.

Its Chitrasutra section sets out the rules of painting and image making, including proportion, posture, the limbs of painting and the measurement system called iconometry, and it is grouped with the Shilpa Shastras and the manuals Manasara and Mayamata as the canonical guides for artists.

The reclining image, lying on the right side with the head resting on the hand and the eyes half closed, shows the Buddha's final passing away, and the colossal figures at Kushinagar and Ajanta are the examples usually cited.

The sculptor first models the figure in wax, coats it in fine clay to form a mould, and heats the mould so that the wax melts and runs out; molten metal is poured into the empty space, and the mould is broken to free the image, so each bronze is…

Saraswati is shown with the veena, a manuscript or palm-leaf book, a rosary and the swan, the bird also given to Brahma, whose consort she is in the later tradition.

The correct answer is C, Parshvanatha, the twenty-third Tirthankara, who is shown with the hood of a serpent, usually of seven heads, spread over his head and the coils rising behind him; his lanchana, the emblem on the pedestal, is a snake.

The Nataraja shows Shiva within a ring of flames, hair flying, the damaru drum in one hand and fire in another, the right foot pressing down the dwarf of ignorance called Apasmara and one hand raised in the gesture of protection; the form is linked with Chidambaram and is the…

The correct answer is B, Varaha, the boar, third in the usual sequence of ten avatars, carved either fully as a boar or with a boar's head on a human body, often lifting the earth goddess on one tusk.

Vishnu is recognised by four attributes, and each has its own name: the conch Panchajanya, the discus Sudarshana, the mace Kaumodaki and the lotus.

The gesture joins the thumb and forefinger of each hand into a circle, the wheel, and holds them before the chest, marking the turning of the wheel of law in the deer park at Sarnath, where the Buddha preached to his first five disciples.

In the Bhumisparsha, or earth-touching, mudra the Buddha sits with the left hand in his lap and the right hand lowered with the fingers pointing to the ground, calling the earth to witness that he had earned the right to enlightenment against the temptations of Mara.

The Descent of the Ganga is a huge open-air rock relief carved under the Pallavas at Mamallapuram (Mahabalipuram) in Tamil Nadu.

Chapchar Kut belongs to Mizoram and Khongjom Parba to Manipur, but Thang-Ta is from Manipur, not Sikkim. Chapchar Kut is the spring festival of the Mizos, held in March after the bamboo and forest are cut and left to dry for jhum cultivation; Cheraw, the bamboo dance, is its highlight.

Malhar is the raga of the monsoon, sung to welcome and call the rains. Hindustani music links many ragas with a season or a time of day.