Art & Culture Previous Year Questions (PYQ) with Answers – Page 2

The correct answer is C, Kathakali. Kathakali, which means 'story play', is the classical dance-drama of Kerala, performed traditionally by men, in which stories from the Ramayana and Mahabharata are told through hand gestures (mudras), eye movements and facial expressions. Its most striking feature is the heavy, colourful makeup and towering headgear: green (pacha) for noble heroes, a red-streaked face (kathi) for villains, and beard (thadi) types for demons and monkeys. The vigorous body training comes from Kalaripayattu, Kerala's ancient martial art. Performances are accompanied by the chenda and maddalam drums and go on through the night. A is wrong because Mohiniyattam, also from Kerala, is a gentle solo dance by women, the 'dance of the enchantress', with simple makeup and no masks. B is wrong because Kuchipudi is the classical dance of Andhra Pradesh. D is wrong because Odissi belongs to Odisha and is known for its tribhangi posture. Exam tip: Kerala has two classical dances, Kathakali (masks, makeup, martial vigour) and Mohiniyattam (graceful, feminine).

The correct answer is D, three. Raja Parba is Odisha's three-day festival of womanhood held in mid-June, when the sun enters Mithuna (Gemini). The three days are Pahili Raja, Raja Sankranti or Mithuna Sankranti, and Basi Raja, and a ritual bath of Mother Earth, Vasumati Snana, closes it on the fourth morning. The word Raja comes from 'rajaswala', a menstruating woman: Bhudevi, Mother Earth, is believed to menstruate during these days, so no ploughing or digging is done, and unmarried girls rest, wear new clothes, play on rope swings and eat poda pitha. It marks the onset of the monsoon and the coming farming season. Option A is wrong because five is not the count of Raja days; the festival is not a five-day affair. Option B is wrong because six days belong to no Raja tradition. Option C is wrong because the fourth day, Vasumati Snana, is only a closing bath and the festival itself is counted as three days. Exam tip: Raja Parba = Odisha, three days, Mithuna Sankranti in June, swings and poda pitha.

The correct answer is D, Delhi. The Quwwat-ul-Islam mosque, "Might of Islam", stands in the Qutub complex at Mehrauli in Delhi, next to the Qutub Minar and the Iron Pillar. Qutb-ud-din Aibak began it in 1192-93, right after the Turkish conquest, making it the first mosque built in Delhi and the earliest surviving example of Indo-Islamic architecture in India. Its pillars were taken from twenty-seven demolished Hindu and Jain temples, which is why they still carry bells, chains and floral carvings, and Iltutmish and Alauddin Khalji later enlarged it. The complex is a UNESCO World Heritage Site. A, Panipat, has the Kabuli Bagh mosque built by Babur after the first battle of Panipat in 1526. B, Lahore, has the Badshahi mosque of Aurangzeb. C, Ajmer, has Aibak's other mosque, the Adhai Din ka Jhonpra, which is the usual trap in this question. Exam tip: Aibak built Quwwat-ul-Islam in Delhi and Adhai Din ka Jhonpra in Ajmer.

The correct answer is D, twelfth. Qutb-ud-din Aibak began the Quwwat-ul-Islam mosque in 1192, soon after the second battle of Tarain, and the first phase was finished by about 1198, which falls in the last decade of the twelfth century. He laid the foundation of the Qutb Minar beside it in 1199, and Iltutmish completed the minaret. It is counted as the first mosque built in Delhi by the new sultanate, put together with stone taken from earlier temples on the site, which is why its pillars carry older Indian motifs. Iltutmish and later Alauddin Khalji enlarged the courtyard, and the fourth-century iron pillar of Chandra stands within it. Options A, B and C are wrong because the eleventh century is before the sultanate reached Delhi, while the thirteenth and fourteenth centuries cover the later additions rather than the original mosque. Exam tip: Tarain 1192, Quwwat-ul-Islam 1192-98, Qutb Minar begun 1199.

The correct answer is D, lotus. The star-shaped shrine of Gurudwara Shri Hemkund Sahib is built with a roof shaped like an upturned lotus, a flower that also appears in the story of the site. The gurudwara stands in Chamoli district of Uttarakhand at a height of over 4,600 metres, beside a glacial lake ringed by seven peaks called Sapt Shring. It is dedicated to Guru Gobind Singh, the tenth Sikh Guru, who describes the place in his composition Bachittar Natak, and the shrine stays open only from about May to October because of snow. Options A, B and C are wrong because the rose, the marigold and the sunflower have no place in the design of this gurudwara; the marigold is used in garlands and the other two are garden flowers. The lotus, on the other hand, is a standing symbol of purity in Indian religious architecture. Exam tip: Hemkund Sahib is in Uttarakhand, near the Valley of Flowers National Park.

The correct answer is A, Shehnai. The shehnai is called a mangal vadya, an instrument of auspicious occasions, because it is played at weddings, temple rituals and processions. It is a double-reed wind instrument with a wooden body and a metal bell at the end, and in classical music it belongs to the sushir or wind family. Ustad Bismillah Khan, who played the shehnai from the ramparts of the Red Fort on 15 August 1947 and received the Bharat Ratna in 2001, turned it into a concert instrument. Option B is wrong because the santoor is a trapezoid string instrument of Kashmir struck with light mallets, made famous by Pandit Shivkumar Sharma. Option C is wrong because the tabla is a pair of drums used for rhythm in Hindustani music. Option D is wrong because the damaru is a small two-headed drum linked with Lord Shiva. Exam tip: shehnai-Bismillah Khan, santoor-Shivkumar Sharma, sarod-Amjad Ali Khan.

The correct answer is D, Odissi. Kelucharan Mohapatra was the guru who brought Odissi, the classical dance of Odisha, back to the stage in the twentieth century. He began as a gotipua boy dancer and a pakhawaj player, and went on to train Sanjukta Panigrahi, Sonal Mansingh, Madhavi Mudgal and Protima Bedi. He received the Padma Vibhushan in 2000 and a Sangeet Natak Akademi Fellowship. Odissi is marked by the tribhanga or three-bend pose and the square chauka stance, both drawn from the temple sculpture of Konark and Puri. Option A is wrong because Kuchipudi belongs to Andhra Pradesh, whose great teacher was Vempati Chinna Satyam. Option B is wrong because Manipuri comes from Manipur and the Jhaveri sisters are among its exponents. Option C is wrong because Bharatanatyam is from Tamil Nadu, linked with Rukmini Devi Arundale and Balasaraswati. Exam tip: pair guru with form — Kelucharan Mohapatra with Odissi, Birju Maharaj with Kathak, Kalamandalam Gopi with Kathakali.

The correct answer is B, Black Pagoda. European sailors called the Konark Sun temple the Black Pagoda because its dark stone tower stood out on the Odisha coast and served them as a landmark, in contrast to the whitewashed Jagannath temple at Puri, which they called the White Pagoda. The temple was built in the thirteenth century by King Narasimhadeva I of the Eastern Ganga dynasty in the Kalinga style. It is shaped as the chariot of Surya, the sun god, with twelve pairs of carved wheels and seven horses drawing it, and the wheels work as sundials. UNESCO placed it on the World Heritage list in 1984. A is wrong because the White Pagoda was the sailors' name for the Puri temple. C and D are wrong because no such names were used for Konark; they are only distractors. Exam tip: Konark = Black Pagoda, Narasimhadeva I, Kalinga style, UNESCO site since 1984.

The correct answer is B, All-India War Memorial. India Gate was built as the All-India War Memorial to honour soldiers of the British Indian Army who died in the First World War and in the Third Anglo-Afghan War of 1919. It was designed by Sir Edwin Lutyens, the chief architect of New Delhi. The Duke of Connaught laid its foundation stone in 1921, and it was completed in 1931. The names of thousands of soldiers are carved on its walls. In 1972, after the 1971 war, the Amar Jawan Jyoti was added beneath the arch. Option A is wrong because the Afghan war is only one of the wars it remembers, and that was never its name. Option C is wrong because 'Archway of Delhi' is just a description, not an official name. Option D is wrong because the memorial honours the Indian soldiers of the British Indian Army, not only British soldiers. Exam tip: India Gate = All-India War Memorial, designed by Lutyens, built 1921–1931.

The correct answer is D, i - c, ii - d, iii - a, iv - b. An idgah is an open walled ground on the edge of a town where the whole community gathers for the Id prayer, so it matches an open prayer place. A dargah is the tomb of a Sufi saint, where followers of every faith come to offer flowers and prayers. A cul-de-sac is a narrow lane closed at one end, the kind of street that filled the crowded mohallas of Shahjahanabad. A khanqah is the hospice where a Sufi master lived with his disciples, taught and fed visitors. A is wrong because it turns the idgah into a Sufi lodge and the khanqah into a prayer ground. B is wrong because it calls the idgah a saint's tomb and the dargah an open prayer place. C is wrong because it makes the idgah a lodge and the khanqah a tomb. Exam tip: idgah, open Id prayer ground; khanqah, Sufi hospice; dargah, the saint's tomb.

The correct answer is D, Narasimhadeva 1. The Sun temple at Konark in Odisha was built in the thirteenth century by Narasimhadeva I of the Eastern Ganga dynasty. It is shaped as a colossal chariot for the sun god Surya, with twelve pairs of carved stone wheels and seven horses straining to pull it; the wheels work as sundials. Built in the Kalinga style of the Nagara order, it stood by the sea and European sailors called it the Black Pagoda. The main tower has collapsed, but the jagamohana and the carvings survive, and UNESCO placed it on the World Heritage List in 1984. Option A is wrong because Anantha Padmanabhan is not a ruler linked with this temple. Option B is wrong because Samudragupta of the Gupta dynasty ruled a thousand years earlier and left no temple here. Option C is wrong because Anantavarman Chodaganga, of the same dynasty, began the Jagannath temple at Puri. Exam tip: Konark means Narasimhadeva I, Puri means Anantavarman Chodaganga, and both belong to the Eastern Ganga dynasty.

The correct answer is C, Shehnai. Ustad Bismillah Khan was the shehnai player who lifted that instrument from wedding processions to the concert stage. Born in 1916 at Dumraon in Bihar, he settled in Varanasi and played at the Vishwanath temple, and he performed from the Red Fort on the eve of independence in 1947 and again on the first Republic Day. He was given the Bharat Ratna in 2001, becoming the third musician after M.S. Subbulakshmi and Ravi Shankar to receive it, and he had earlier received the Padma Shri, Padma Bhushan and Padma Vibhushan. Option A is wrong because the santoor, a struck box zither of Kashmir, is linked with Shivkumar Sharma. Option B is wrong because the sitar is associated with Ravi Shankar and Vilayat Khan. Option D is wrong because the tabla brings to mind Alla Rakha and Zakir Hussain. Exam tip: match instrument to artist, shehnai with Bismillah Khan, sarod with Amjad Ali Khan, flute with Hariprasad Chaurasia and santoor with Shivkumar Sharma.

The correct answer is B, Abhaya Mudra. Early Mathura Buddhas show the right hand raised with the palm facing out, the gesture that says "fear not". The Mathura School flourished under the Kushanas in the first centuries CE, at the same time as the Gandhara school of the north-west. Mathura sculptors worked in the local spotted red sandstone and gave the Buddha a round smiling face, a shaven head with a spiral top-knot and a strong, fleshy body, a style that was wholly Indian. The seated Buddha from the Katra mound, now in the Mathura Museum, is a well-known example with the right hand in abhaya. Option A is wrong because the dhyana mudra of meditation, with hands resting in the lap, is typical of Gandhara images. Option C is wrong because the dharmachakra mudra of teaching became famous later, as in the Gupta-period Buddha of Sarnath. Option D is wrong because the varada mudra of giving, with the palm lowered, is seen more often in later images. Exam tip: Mathura means red sandstone and abhaya; Gandhara means grey schist and dhyana.

The correct answer is A, Brihadisvara Temple. The Brihadisvara (Brihadeeswarar) Temple at Thanjavur was built by Rajaraja Chola I and completed around 1010 CE, which is why it is also called Rajarajeswaram or the Big Temple. It is the finest example of Dravidian temple architecture: a granite vimana about 66 metres high, a single-stone capstone said to weigh around 80 tonnes, and a huge monolithic Nandi facing the shrine of Shiva. Along with Gangaikonda Cholapuram and the Airavatesvara Temple at Darasuram, it forms the UNESCO World Heritage listing called the Great Living Chola Temples. B is wrong because the Naganathaswamy Temple is at Thirunageswaram near Kumbakonam and is famous as the Ketu shrine among the Navagraha temples. C is wrong because the Thirumananjeri Temple is a wedding-blessing shrine near Kumbakonam, not Rajaraja's temple. D is wrong because the Murugan temples such as Palani and Swamimalai are not Chola royal temples in Thanjavur. Exam tip: Rajaraja I built Thanjavur's Brihadisvara; his son Rajendra I built Gangaikonda Cholapuram.

The correct answer is C, Losar festival. Losar marks the Tibetan New Year and is kept for about a fortnight, usually in February or March, in Ladakh, Sikkim, Himachal Pradesh, Arunachal Pradesh and among Tibetan communities across India. In Tibetan, lo means year and sar means new. Homes are cleaned and decorated, butter lamps are lit, masked Cham dances are performed in the monasteries, and families eat guthuk, a noodle soup, to drive out the ill luck of the old year. Option A is wrong because Saga Dawa marks the birth, enlightenment and passing of the Buddha and falls in the fourth Tibetan month. Option B is wrong because Ongkor is a harvest festival held before the crops are cut. Option D is wrong because Shoton, the yoghurt festival of Lhasa, is known for Tibetan opera and the unveiling of a giant thangka. Exam tip: Losar is the Tibetan New Year; Saga Dawa marks the Buddha's birth and enlightenment.

The correct answer is C, Kerala. Mohiniyattam is the classical dance of Kerala, and its name comes from Mohini, the enchantress form of Lord Vishnu. It is danced solo by women in a plain off-white and gold Kasavu sari, with gentle swaying movements, soft footwork and delicate expression. The songs are in Manipravalam, a mixture of Sanskrit and Malayalam, and the music follows the Carnatic style. The poet Vallathol Narayana Menon revived the form at Kerala Kalamandalam in the twentieth century. Option A is wrong because the classical dance of Assam is Sattriya, begun by the saint Srimanta Sankardeva. Option B is wrong because West Bengal has no classical dance of its own; Chhau and Gambhira are its well known folk forms. Option D is wrong because the classical dance of Andhra Pradesh is Kuchipudi. Exam tip: Kerala has two classical dances, Kathakali and Mohiniyattam; Sattriya belongs to Assam and Odissi to Odisha.

The correct answer is A, Bundi style. The Bundi school of the Hadoti region is the one that fills its pictures with birds, animals and thick green forest. Its painters loved nature: mango and banana groves, lotus tanks, monsoon clouds with lightning, elephants, tigers, squirrels, parrots and peacocks all crowd the background, and human figures are shown with round faces and small noses against them. Bundi work began under Rao Surjan Singh with help from Chunar artists, and its offshoot at Kota went further, making hunting scenes in dense jungle its speciality. Option B is wrong because the Nathdwara school paints Shrinathji, mostly on cloth as pichhwai hangings. Option C is wrong because Kishangarh is remembered for the graceful Bani-Thani face and the Krishna-Radha themes of Nihal Chand, not for animals. Option D is wrong because Bikaner painting carries Mughal and Deccani influence, with pale colours and artists who signed their work. Exam tip: Bundi and Kota mean nature and hunting; Kishangarh means Bani-Thani.

The correct answer is B, Mizoram. The khuang is a hollow wooden drum of the Mizo people, made from a single log with animal hide stretched over both ends and slung from the shoulder while being played with the hands. No Mizo festival is complete without it: it sets the beat for Cheraw, the bamboo dance, and for the Chapchar Kut, Mim Kut and Pawl Kut festivals, and Mizos speak of it as the soul of their music. Other Mizo instruments include the darbu and darmang gongs, the tuium flute and the tingtang, a string instrument. Option A is wrong because Assam's best known instruments are the dhol, pepa, gogona and taal that accompany Bihu. Option C is wrong because Jharkhand's tribal music uses the mandar, nagara and dhak. Option D is wrong because West Bengal is associated with the ektara, dotara and khol, the drum of kirtan. Exam tip: khuang and Cheraw dance - Mizoram; pepa and Bihu - Assam; ektara and Baul songs - West Bengal.

The correct answer is B, Madhya Pradesh. Matki is a women's folk dance of the Malwa region of Madhya Pradesh, performed at weddings and other happy occasions. A single dancer balances an earthen pot, the matki, on her head and moves to the beat of the dhol while keeping her face covered with a veil; others join her one by one as the rhythm quickens. The solo version is often called Aada and Khada Nach. Madhya Pradesh also gives us Gaur, Karma, Saila, Grida and Jawara, so the state's folk dances are a favourite with paper setters. Option A is wrong because Assam is known for Bihu, Bagurumba and Jhumur. Option C is wrong because Bihar is known for Jat-Jatin, Jhijhiya, Bidesia and Paika. Option D is wrong because Rajasthan is known for Ghoomar, Kalbeliya, Bhavai, Chari and Terah Taali; the Chari dance also uses a pot, but one with a lit lamp in it. Exam tip: Matki and Jawara - Madhya Pradesh; Chari and Ghoomar - Rajasthan.

The correct answer is C, Odisha. Pattachitra is the old cloth-scroll painting of Odisha, and the name itself explains it: patta means cloth and chitra means picture. The painters, called chitrakars, treat a cloth with chalk and tamarind paste, then draw gods and legends on it with natural colours and a fine brush, keeping a decorated border around the scene. Most works show Jagannath, Balabhadra and Subhadra of Puri, Krishna's life or scenes from the epics. The village of Raghurajpur near Puri is famous for this craft and has a GI tag for Odisha Pattachitra. A is wrong because Andhra Pradesh is known for Kalamkari, drawn and dyed with a pen. B is wrong because Rajasthan is known for Phad paintings and the miniature schools of Kishangarh, Mewar and Bundi. D is wrong because Bihar is known for Madhubani or Mithila painting. Exam tip: Pattachitra is Odisha, Madhubani is Bihar, Kalamkari is Andhra Pradesh, Warli is Maharashtra.