Art & Culture Mixed Quiz: Set 11

The correct answer is C, Odissi. Laxmipriya Mohapatra was an Odissi dancer from Odisha and one of the first women to perform the form on stage in its modern revival. She trained under the Gotipua tradition and later worked with her husband Kelucharan Mohapatra, the guru who shaped much of today's Odissi repertoire, helping to build the style's stage grammar in the 1950s and 1960s. She was honoured with the Sangeet Natak Akademi award for her work. Odissi grew out of the temple dance of the Jagannath shrine at Puri and is known for the tribhanga stance and soft, sculpture-like poses. A is wrong because Sattriya is the dance of the Vaishnava monasteries of Assam. B is wrong because Kathakali is the masked dance-drama of Kerala. D is wrong because Kuchipudi belongs to Andhra Pradesh and began as a village dance-drama. Exam tip: Odissi, Odisha, tribhanga, and the Mohapatra family of dancers.

The correct answer is B, Painting. Amritlal Vegad, born in Jabalpur in Madhya Pradesh in 1928, was a painter and collage artist who trained at Kala Bhavan in Santiniketan under Nandalal Bose, and later taught art in Jabalpur. He is remembered for collages made from torn pieces of coloured paper, and for the sketches and paintings with which he filled his Hindi travel writing on the Narmada, a river he walked along for thousands of kilometres. That is why Madhya Pradesh papers place him with the visual arts rather than the performing arts. Option A is wrong because he worked on flat surfaces in paper and colour, not in stone or metal. Option C is wrong because he was never a singer. Option D is wrong because he had no place in music; that misreading comes from grouping every artist under the performing arts. Exam tip: Vegad, Jabalpur, painting and collage, Narmada travelogues in Hindi.

The correct answer is A, Kerala. Ottamthullal is a solo dance-and-recitation art form of Kerala. It was created in the eighteenth century by the poet Kunchan Nambiar, who used it to make fun of the powerful in simple Malayalam that ordinary people could follow. A single performer in a green face paint, tall headgear and pleated costume dances and recites verse, while a mridangam or maddalam and an idakka keep the beat and a singer repeats the lines. Because it needs no stage, no curtain and almost no troupe, it is often called the poor man's Kathakali. Option B is wrong because Tamil Nadu is the home of Bharatanatyam, Karagattam and Kummi. Option C is wrong because Andhra Pradesh is known for Kuchipudi and the folk form Veedhi Natakam. Option D is wrong because Manipur gives us Manipuri, Lai Haraoba and the Thang-Ta martial dance. Exam tip: Kerala — Kathakali, Mohiniyattam, Ottamthullal, Koodiyattam, Theyyam and Chakyar Koothu.

The correct answer is D, Mallika Sarabhai. She won the best actress award in 1975 for her role in the Gujarati film Meena Gurjari, early in a career that moved between cinema, theatre and dance. Trained by her mother Mrinalini Sarabhai in Bharatanatyam and Kuchipudi, she is also known for playing Draupadi in Peter Brook's stage and screen production of The Mahabharata, and she runs the Darpana Academy in Ahmedabad. Option A is wrong because Sonal Mansingh is an Odissi and Bharatanatyam exponent honoured with the Padma Vibhushan, not a film actress. Option B is wrong because Sitara Devi was the Kathak dancer whom Rabindranath Tagore called Nritya Samragini, and her film work came in the 1940s. Option C is wrong because Shovana Narayan is a Kathak dancer who also served as an officer of the Indian Audit and Accounts Service. Exam tip: link Mallika Sarabhai with Darpana Academy and her mother Mrinalini Sarabhai.

The correct answer is B, Sarangi. Ustad Sultan Khan was one of the best known sarangi players of recent times. He belonged to the Sikar gharana of Rajasthan, learnt from his father Ustad Gulab Khan, and played the instrument both in classical concerts and in film music, where his voice and bow were heard in songs such as Albela Sajan and Piya Basanti. He was a founder member of the group Tabla Beat Science with Zakir Hussain and was given the Padma Bhushan. The sarangi is a short necked bowed instrument whose sound is said to come closest to the human voice, which is why it long accompanied vocalists. A is wrong because drums are struck, not bowed, and no drum tradition names him. C is wrong because the tabla is linked with players such as Zakir Hussain and Alla Rakha. D is wrong because the flute is linked with Hariprasad Chaurasia. Exam tip: sarangi, Sultan Khan, closest to the human voice.

The correct answer is D, Ganga. Kashi, also called Varanasi or Banaras, stands on the left bank of the Ganga in eastern Uttar Pradesh and is among the oldest living cities in the world. Its name comes from the two small streams, the Varuna and the Assi, between which the old city lies. The riverfront has some eighty-four ghats, among them Dashashwamedh and Manikarnika, and the Kashi Vishwanath temple here is one of the twelve jyotirlingas. Sarnath, where the Buddha gave his first sermon, is only a few kilometres away. Option A is wrong because the Gomti flows past Lucknow and joins the Ganga near Ghazipur. Option B is wrong because the Saryu or Ghaghara flows past Ayodhya. Option C is wrong because the Yamuna passes Delhi, Mathura and Agra and meets the Ganga at Prayagraj. Exam tip: Varanasi on the Ganga, Lucknow on the Gomti, Ayodhya on the Saryu, Agra on the Yamuna.

The correct answer is B, Andhra Pradesh. Kalamkari takes its name from kalam, a pen, and kari, work. Its two centres are Srikalahasti, where the design is drawn freehand with a bamboo pen and the subjects come from temple mythology, and Machilipatnam, where carved wooden blocks print repeated floral and Persian derived patterns. The cloth is treated with myrobalan and buffalo milk, and the colours are drawn from plants and iron salts.

Option A, Odisha, is the home of Pattachitra, painted on a cloth and tamarind paste support with Jagannath themes, which is the strongest distractor. Option C, Punjab, is known for phulkari embroidery, not painted cloth. Option D, Gujarat, has Rogan painting, Mata ni Pachedi temple cloth and Pithora wall painting, but Kalamkari is not its tradition.

The correct answer is A, Andhra Pradesh. Tholu Bommalata is the leather shadow puppet theatre of Andhra Pradesh.

The name means the dance of leather dolls. Puppets are cut from goat or deer hide, dyed on both sides so the colours glow when a lamp throws their shadow on a cloth screen, and worked from behind while singers and a harmonium and drums carry the story. The plays are drawn from the Ramayana and the Mahabharata and often run through the night. India has four famous shadow puppet forms: Tholu Bommalata here, Togalu Gombeyaata in Karnataka, Ravanachhaya in Odisha and Tholpavakoothu in Kerala.

Option B is wrong because Karnataka's shadow form is Togalu Gombeyaata. Option C is wrong as Kerala has Tholpavakoothu, performed in Bhagavati temples. Option D is wrong because Maharashtra's puppet tradition is Kalasutri Bahulya, worked with strings.

Exam tip: leather shadow puppets - Andhra Pradesh; string puppets - Rajasthan's Kathputli.

The correct answer is B, Hoysala. The Hoysalas ruled southern Karnataka from Belur and Dwarasamudra, today's Halebidu, and their temples are unmistakable: a raised star shaped platform called the jagati, shrines on a stellate plan, soft chloritic schist or soapstone that allowed jewellery and hair to be carved in minute detail, lathe turned pillars, and bands of friezes showing elephants, horses and scenes from the epics. Somnathpur is the third temple of the group.

Option A, Pallava, refers to the earlier rock-cut rathas and structural temples at Mahabalipuram and Kanchipuram. Option C, Chandela, is the school of Khajuraho in Madhya Pradesh, built in sandstone on a panchayatana plan. Option D, Kalinga, is the Odisha school of Lingaraja, Jagannath and Konark. Telling Hoysala from Chandela by the star plan and the soapstone is the usual trap.

The correct answer is D, Golconda Fort. Golconda in Hyderabad was the capital of the Qutb Shahi dynasty, which ruled the Golconda Sultanate from 1518, when Quli Qutb Shah broke away from the Bahmani kingdom. The fort stands on a granite hill and is famous for its acoustics, since a clap at the Fateh Darwaza can be heard at the pavilion on top, and for the diamond trade that passed through it, including the Koh-i-Noor. In 1591 Muhammad Quli Qutb Shah founded the city of Hyderabad and built the Charminar, moving the capital there; Aurangzeb finally took Golconda in 1687. Option A is wrong because Chiktan Fort stands in Ladakh. Option B is wrong because Rajgad in Maharashtra was an early capital fort of Shivaji. Option C is wrong because the Red Fort was built by Shah Jahan in Delhi. Exam tip: Qutb Shahi rulers held Golconda and then Hyderabad; the Charminar was built by Muhammad Quli Qutb Shah in 1591.

The correct answer is A, Karnataka. The Gol Gumbaz stands at Bijapur, now called Vijayapura, in Karnataka. It is the tomb of Muhammad Adil Shah of the Adil Shahi dynasty of Bijapur and was completed in the middle of the seventeenth century. Its dome is one of the largest masonry domes in the world and rests on interlocking arches without any supporting pillars inside, leaving a single vast chamber. The gallery running around the base of the dome is famous as the whispering gallery, where a low sound is repeated several times.

Option B, Tamil Nadu, is the land of Dravida temple building, not of the Deccan sultanates. Option C, Kerala, has its own timber and tiled roof tradition. Option D, Telangana, does hold Qutb Shahi work such as the Charminar and the Golconda fort, but the Adil Shahi capital was Bijapur in Karnataka, so D is the trap option here.

The correct answer is B, Bharia. Patalkot is a deep, horseshoe-shaped valley in the Tamia area of Chhindwara district, and most of its villages are home to the Bharia tribe. The valley floor lies more than a thousand feet below the surrounding Satpura plateau, so for a long time the Bharias lived almost cut off from the outside world, depending on the forest for food and herbal medicine. The Bharias of Patalkot are one of the three Particularly Vulnerable Tribal Groups (PVTGs) of Madhya Pradesh, along with the Baiga and the Sahariya. Option A is wrong because the Bhil, the largest tribe of the state, live mainly in western districts such as Jhabua, Alirajpur and Dhar. Option C is wrong because the Khairwar are a separate tribe and not the main community of Patalkot. Option D is wrong because the Oraon belong mainly to the Chhotanagpur region of Jharkhand. Exam tip: Patalkot, Chhindwara, Bharia tribe, one of the three PVTGs of Madhya Pradesh with the Baiga and Sahariya.

The correct answer is C, 1972. The Convention Concerning the Protection of the World Cultural and Natural Heritage was adopted by the General Conference of UNESCO in 1972 and came into force in 1975 once enough countries had ratified it. It created the World Heritage List, the idea of outstanding universal value and the World Heritage Committee that decides on inscriptions. India became a party to the Convention in 1977 and its first sites were inscribed in 1983.

Option A, 1945, is the year the United Nations came into being, and UNESCO itself was founded that November, but the heritage Convention came much later. Option B, 1959, is remembered instead for the international campaign to save the Abu Simbel temples in Egypt, the work that gave UNESCO the idea of a shared world heritage. Option D, 1992, is the year the World Heritage Centre was set up and the year Manas entered the danger list, not the year of the Convention.

The correct answer is A, Kui. Kui is the language of the Kondh (Kandha) tribe of Odisha and is grouped with Telugu and Gondi in the south-central or south-eastern branch of the Dravidian family. It is spoken mainly in Kandhamal, Rayagada, Kalahandi, Koraput and Boudh districts, is written in the Odia script, and has a rich body of oral songs and folk tales. The Odisha cabinet cleared a proposal in July 2023 recommending that Kui be placed in the Eighth Schedule of the Constitution, which began with fourteen languages in 1950 and now lists twenty-two, Odia among them. Option B is wrong because Malto is a North Dravidian language of the Rajmahal hills in Jharkhand and West Bengal. Option C is wrong because Tulu belongs to coastal Karnataka and Kasaragod in Kerala, and Karnataka has pressed its own case. Option D is wrong because Kodagu is spoken in the Kodagu district of Karnataka. Exam tip: Brahui, Kurukh and Malto are North Dravidian; Kui and Gondi sit with Telugu.

The correct answer is A, Odisha. The International Sand Art Festival is held every year on Chandrabhaga beach at Konark in Odisha, and its ninth edition took place in December 2020. The state tourism department organises it alongside the Konark Festival of classical dance, staged at the open-air theatre near the Sun Temple, so that visitors get sculpture on the sand by day and dance in the evening. Artists from India and abroad carve large figures in wet sand along the shore. Odisha has a long association with the art form: Sudarsan Pattnaik of Puri, honoured with the Padma Shri, has won many international sand sculpture titles. Option B is wrong because Tamil Nadu's well known coastal festival is the Mamallapuram dance festival. Option C is wrong because Maharashtra holds the Ellora-Ajanta festival. Option D is wrong because Andhra Pradesh hosts the Visakha Utsav. Exam tip: link Konark in Odisha with three things — the Sun Temple, the Konark dance festival and the International Sand Art Festival at Chandrabhaga beach.

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.

The correct answer is A, Zoroastrianism. The Avesta, also called the Zend-Avesta, is the sacred book of the Zoroastrians, the followers of the prophet Zarathustra or Zoroaster of ancient Iran. It is written in Avestan, an old Iranian language close to the Sanskrit of the Rigveda, which is why the two texts share many words and gods. Its oldest and most respected part is the Gathas, the hymns held to be Zarathustra's own words. Zoroastrians worship Ahura Mazda, the lord of wisdom, keep a sacred fire burning in their temples and follow the rule of good thoughts, good words and good deeds. Their descendants in India are the Parsis, who reached Gujarat around the eighth century. B is wrong because the Buddhist canon is the Tripitaka, written in Pali. C is wrong because the Jain scriptures are the Agamas or Angas, in Prakrit. D is wrong because the sacred book of Judaism is the Torah, part of the Hebrew Bible. Exam tip: Avesta Zoroastrian, Tripitaka Buddhist, Agama Jain, Torah Jewish, Guru Granth Sahib Sikh.

The correct answer is A, Greece. The Gandhara School of Art, which grew in the north west around Taxila and Peshawar between the first and fifth centuries, was shaped by Greek or Hellenistic sculpture that had reached the region after Alexander's campaign and stayed on through the Indo Greek and Kushana rulers. That is why its Buddha figures have wavy hair, sharp features, a halo without decoration and heavy robes with deep folds, carved mostly in blue grey schist. The school also produced the first images of the Buddha in human form, alongside the Mathura school. Kanishka was its best known patron. B is wrong because Roman influence came later and in small measure, mainly through trade. C and D are wrong because Hungary and Belgium had no contact with ancient India. Exam tip: Gandhara Greek and grey schist, Mathura Indian and red sandstone, Amaravati white marble.

The correct answer is C, Odisha. Patachitra is the traditional cloth-scroll painting of Odisha, closely tied to the Jagannath temple at Puri. The word comes from pata, meaning cloth, and chitra, meaning picture. Artists prepare the canvas by pasting layers of cloth with tamarind seed paste, use natural colours from conch shell, lamp black and mineral stones, and paint themes from the lives of Jagannath, Krishna and Radha with bold outlines and decorative floral borders. The village of Raghurajpur in Puri district is its best known centre and Odisha Patachitra carries a Geographical Indication tag. A is wrong because Gujarat is known for Pithora painting and Patola weaving. B is wrong because Tamil Nadu is known for Tanjore painting. D is wrong because Andhra Pradesh is known for Kalamkari and Cherial scrolls. Exam tip: Patachitra with Odisha and Raghurajpur; Madhubani with Bihar; Warli with Maharashtra; Kalamkari with Andhra Pradesh.

The correct answer is C, Amritsar. Sri Harmandir Sahib, popularly called the Golden Temple, stands in Amritsar in Punjab and is the holiest shrine of the Sikhs. The fourth Guru, Ram Das, had the sacred tank dug and the city grew around it, taking its name Amritsar from the pool of nectar; the fifth Guru, Arjan Dev, built the shrine and installed the Adi Granth there in 1604. Maharaja Ranjit Singh later covered its upper storeys with gold leaf, which gave the temple its popular name. It has a door on each of its four sides to show that it is open to people of every caste and faith, and its community kitchen feeds thousands every day. A is wrong because Manali is a hill town in Himachal Pradesh. B is wrong because Patna has Takht Sri Patna Sahib, the birthplace of Guru Gobind Singh, which is a different shrine. D is wrong because Jalandhar has no such temple. Exam tip: Amritsar founded by Guru Ram Das; Harmandir Sahib built by Guru Arjan Dev; Akal Takht stands beside it.