This Art & Culture quiz on Devotional Music: Bhajan, Kirtan, Qawwali, Abhang and Baul puts 10 multiple-choice questions to you, the verified MCQs published with GK24's note on the topic, 1 of them asked in real previous-year papers. Every question carries a full explanation of why the correct option is right and why the other options are wrong, so you learn the fact behind the answer rather than the letter. Attempt it right after reading the note, keep to the timer, and use the explanations at the end to mark what needs another look. Sit it again before the exam as a quick revision of the topic.
10 questions with answers and explanations
The development of qawwali in India is credited to which figure?
Khusrau lived in the thirteenth and fourteenth centuries and was the disciple of the Chishti saint Nizamuddin Auliya of Delhi.
Read the full explanation →Abhang, the devotional verse sung for Vithoba of Pandharpur, belongs to which tradition?
Abhang is Marathi devotional verse, and the word means unbroken. Dnyaneshwar, Namdev, Eknath, Chokhamela and Tukaram composed abhangs for Vithoba of Pandharpur, and pilgrims still sing them on the wari to Pandharpur with the taal and the ektari.
Read the full explanation →The Baul singers, whose songs UNESCO proclaimed a Masterpiece of the Oral and Intangible Heritage of Humanity, belong mainly to which region?
The Bauls are wandering mystic minstrels of Bengal, on both sides of the border, whose songs blend Vaishnava Sahajiya and Sufi ideas and reject caste and ritual.
Read the full explanation →Which one of the following saints was a contemporary of Chhatrapati Shivaji Maharaj?
Sant Tukaram was a Varkari poet of the seventeenth century who composed abhangs for Vithoba of Pandharpur and lived in Dehu near Pune, in the years when Shivaji was building the Maratha state.
Read the full explanation →Sankirtana, the ritual singing, drumming and dancing inscribed on the UNESCO Representative List in 2013, belongs to which state?
The Sankirtana of Manipur is the Vaishnava ritual music of the Meitei people, in which singers and drummers perform in the temple courtyard, the mandap, with the barrel drum called pung and with cymbals; the drum dance is the Pung Cholom.
Read the full explanation →In qawwali, a composition in praise of the Prophet Muhammad is called
The qawwali repertoire follows a fixed order of forms, and the naat is the song in praise of the Prophet Muhammad, usually sung early in a performance after the opening praise of God.
Read the full explanation →Who is honoured as the Pitamaha of Carnatic music, and composed devotional songs called devaranamas in Kannada?
Purandara Dasa belonged to the Haridasa movement of Karnataka and composed devaranamas, devotional songs in Kannada, and he is credited with organising the graded exercises with which Carnatic music is still taught.
Read the full explanation →The Ashtachhap, the eight poet-singers whose devotional songs are sung as haveli sangeet, belonged to the sect founded by
Vallabhacharya founded the Pushtimarg, the path of grace, whose worship of Krishna as Shrinathji is centred at Nathdwara in Rajasthan.
Read the full explanation →The Thevaram hymns, sung in Tamil Shiva temples, were composed by the
The Nayanars were the Shaiva saint-poets of the Tamil country, and the hymns of Appar, Sundarar and Sambandar make up the Thevaram, the first seven books of the Shaiva canon called the Tirumurai.
Read the full explanation →Sopana sangeetam, the devotional music sung on the steps of a temple sanctum to the hourglass drum edakka, belongs to which state?
Sopana sangeetam takes its name from sopanam, the flight of steps leading to the sanctum of a Kerala temple, where the singer stands and sings slow devotional verse, keeping time on the edakka, an hourglass drum played with a stick.
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