This Art & Culture quiz on Indian Classical Music puts 10 multiple-choice questions to you, the verified MCQs published with GK24's note on the topic. 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
Which Veda is regarded as the source of Indian classical music?
The Samaveda is the Veda of melody. Most of its verses are taken from the Rigveda, but they are arranged for singing rather than for recitation, and that singing is known as Samagana.
Read the full explanation →The Sangeeta Ratnakara, a treatise accepted by both the Hindustani and the Carnatic traditions, was written by whom?
Sarangadeva wrote the Sangeeta Ratnakara in the thirteenth century while attached to the Yadava court at Devagiri in the Deccan.
Read the full explanation →How many melakarta ragas are there in the Carnatic system?
The melakarta ragas are the parent scales of Carnatic music, each of them using all seven notes in both ascent and descent.
Read the full explanation →Teentaal, the most common tala of Hindustani music, has how many matras?
Teentaal runs over sixteen matras divided into four equal vibhags of four beats each. The first beat of the cycle is the sam and carries the stress, the third vibhag opens on a khali, and the cycle returns to the sam at the end.
Read the full explanation →Which is the oldest surviving form of Hindustani vocal music?
Dhrupad is austere and devotional, sung in four sections called sthayi, antara, sanchari and abhog, and it opens with a long unmetred alap.
Read the full explanation →The pakhawaj is the percussion instrument traditionally used to accompany which form?
The pakhawaj is a long barrel drum played horizontally with both hands, deeper and graver in tone than the tabla, and its weight suits the slow and solemn movement of dhrupad.
Read the full explanation →Who is known as the Pitamaha, or grandsire, of Carnatic music?
Purandara Dasa, a saint composer of the Kannada devotional tradition, is honoured as the Pitamaha of Carnatic music because he organised the way the music is taught.
Read the full explanation →Vishnu Narayan Bhatkhande is remembered for which contribution to Hindustani music?
Bhatkhande travelled across India collecting compositions and then arranged the ragas of Hindustani music under ten parent scales or thaats, among them Bilawal, Kalyan, Khamaj, Bhairav, Kafi, Asavari, Bhairavi and Todi.
Read the full explanation →Tansen, credited with the ragas Miyan ki Malhar and Darbari Kanada, was a musician in whose court?
Tansen was counted among the navratnas, the nine jewels of Akbar's court, and had earlier served the ruler of Rewa.
Read the full explanation →The singer Bade Ghulam Ali Khan belonged to which gharana of Hindustani music?
Bade Ghulam Ali Khan is the best known singer of the Patiala gharana, a school marked by fast and intricate taans, a free use of thumri alongside khayal, and a bright open tone.
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