Art & Culture Mixed Quiz: Set 19

The correct answer is B, 1 and 2 only. Ajanta and Lepakshi both carry painting on their walls and ceilings, while Sanchi does not, so the first two alone fit. The Ajanta caves in Maharashtra hold the finest surviving Buddhist murals in India, painted in the tempera technique between the second century BCE and the fifth century CE, with the Bodhisattva Padmapani and the Jataka scenes among the best known. The Veerabhadra temple at Lepakshi in Andhra Pradesh is covered with Vijayanagara murals of the sixteenth century, including the large ceiling panels of Shiva and the vividly painted Nataraja. A is wrong because Lepakshi is left out of it. C is wrong because Sanchi in Madhya Pradesh is famed for its stupas and for the carved gateways of its toranas, which is sculpture, not painting. D is wrong because two of the three places do have murals. Exam tip: Ajanta stands for painting, Sanchi for sculpture on stupa railings and gateways.

The correct answer is C, Jammu & Kashmir. Pashmina is the very fine wool combed from the undercoat of the Changthangi goat, reared by herders on the cold high plateau of Ladakh, and it was first spun and woven into shawls in the valley of Kashmir. The craft is traced to the fifteenth century, when Sultan Zain-ul-Abidin is said to have brought weavers from Central Asia; the shawls later reached Europe and gave English the word cashmere. A single Kani or Jamawar shawl can take months on the loom, and Kashmir Pashmina now carries a GI tag. A is wrong because Uttar Pradesh is known for Banarasi silk and chikankari. B is wrong because Punjab is known for phulkari embroidery. D is wrong because Himachal Pradesh weaves Kullu shawls and Kinnauri patterns from sheep wool. Exam tip: Pashmina — Changthangi goat of Ladakh, woven in Kashmir, GI tagged.

The correct answer is A, Article 343. It states that the official language of the Union shall be Hindi in the Devanagari script and that the form of numerals to be used shall be the international form of Indian numerals; it also allowed English to continue for fifteen years from the commencement of the Constitution, a period Parliament extended through the Official Languages Act of 1963. Option B is wrong because Article 345 deals with the official language of a State, not of the Union. Option C is wrong because Article 348 fixes English as the language of the Supreme Court, the High Courts and of Bills, Acts and ordinances. Option D is wrong because Article 351 only lays a duty on the Union to promote the spread of Hindi and to enrich it by drawing on Sanskrit. Note that the Constitution nowhere uses the phrase national language.

The correct answer is B, both statements are true, but B is not the correct explanation of A. Chola temples such as the Brihadisvara temple at Thanjavur, built by Rajaraja I, were far more than places of worship. They held land and villages, employed priests, garland makers, cooks, dancers and musicians, ran schools and craft workshops, and even lent money, so the religious, social and cultural life of the region gathered around them. Chola bronzes were cast by the lost wax method and mostly show deities such as Nataraja, Vishnu and Parvati, while a few portray donors and devotees, including saints and members of the royal family. Both statements are correct facts, but the subject matter of the bronzes does not explain why the temples were social centres; their land, wealth and grants do. So option A is wrong. Option C is wrong because Statement B is true, and option D is wrong because Statement A is true. Exam tip: Brihadisvara temple, Thanjavur, Rajaraja I; Chola bronzes by the lost wax method, Nataraja the most famous.

The correct answer is B, Masulipatnam. Masulipatnam, the port town of coastal Andhra Pradesh, was the great centre of the painted and block printed cotton that European traders bought as chintz, and the same town is still one of the two homes of kalamkari. Option A is wrong because Burhanpur in Madhya Pradesh was known for its fine muslin and zari weaving, not for chintz. Option C is wrong because Calicut on the Malabar coast gave its name to calico, a plain woven cotton, which is the cloth most often confused with chintz in examinations. Option D is wrong because Dhaka was famous for muslin of the finest count, the cloth called malmal and abrawan. Keep the three names separate: chintz from Masulipatnam, calico from Calicut and muslin from Dhaka.

The correct answer is D, Chhau. Chhau was inscribed on UNESCO's Representative List of the Intangible Cultural Heritage of Humanity in 2010. It is a masked dance-drama of eastern India with three styles named after their homes: Seraikella in Jharkhand and Purulia in West Bengal, where masks are worn, and Mayurbhanj in Odisha, where the dancers perform without masks. The form grew out of martial training, so its steps imitate combat and the movements of birds and animals, while its stories come from the Ramayana, the Mahabharata and local legend. It is danced at the spring festival of Chaitra Parva to the beat of the dhol and the dhumsa. A is wrong because Fugdi is a women's folk dance of Goa. B is wrong because Jhoomar belongs to Punjab. C is wrong because Dalkhai is a folk dance of western Odisha. Exam tip: Indian entries on the UNESCO list include Chhau (2010), Ramlila, Kutiyattam, Vedic chanting and Sankirtana.

The correct answer is D, Assam. Ankiya Nat is the one-act devotional play written by Srimanta Sankardeva, the saint of the Vaishnava movement in Assam, and its performance is called a Bhaona, staged in the prayer hall of a satra or naamghar with a narrator, songs and masks. Option A is wrong because Bihar's folk theatre traditions are Bidesia and Reshma-Chuharmal, not Ankiya Nat. Option B is wrong because the street theatre of Tamil Nadu is Therukoothu, with Villu Paatu as its ballad form. Option C is wrong because Odisha shares the Jatra tradition with Bengal and has Prahlada Nataka of its own. Questions on folk theatre are almost always of this shape, a form against four states, so learn the pairs rather than the descriptions.

The correct answer is B, France. Le Corbusier is counted as a French architect. He was born Charles-Édouard Jeanneret in Switzerland in 1887, settled in Paris, took French citizenship in 1930 and worked from France for the rest of his life. Jawaharlal Nehru brought him to India to plan Chandigarh, the shared capital of Punjab and Haryana, after the first planner Albert Mayer and his architect Matthew Nowicki left the project. Le Corbusier laid the city out in numbered sectors on a grid and designed the Capitol Complex in Sector 1 — the High Court, the Secretariat, the Legislative Assembly and the Open Hand monument — which UNESCO added to its World Heritage list in 2016. Option A is wrong because Germany is the home of the Bauhaus school and Walter Gropius, not of Le Corbusier. Option C is wrong because Italy is linked with Renaissance architects such as Brunelleschi and Palladio. Option D is wrong because Spain is known for Antoni Gaudí of Barcelona. Exam tip: Chandigarh — Le Corbusier; New Delhi — Edwin Lutyens and Herbert Baker.

The correct answer is B, Kerala. Kalaripayattu belongs to Kerala, takes its name from the kalari, the arena in which it is taught, and is usually described as among the oldest surviving martial arts in the world. Its signature weapon is the urumi, a long flexible sword, and its training runs from body conditioning through wooden weapons and metal weapons to bare hands. Option A is wrong because Tamil Nadu gives Silambam, fought with a bamboo staff, and Kuttu Varisai, the unarmed art. Option C is wrong; Karnataka is associated with Vajra Mushti, wrestling with a knuckleduster shown at Mysore Dasara. Option D is wrong because Manipur gives Thang-Ta, Sarit Sarak and Cheibi Gad-ga. Candidates sometimes pick Tamil Nadu because the art is southern, so fix Kalaripayattu to Kerala and to the word kalari.

The correct answer is A, Kushana. The Gandhara school of art grew in the north-west, around Peshawar and Taxila, and reached its height under the Kushana rulers, above all Kanishka, in the first and second centuries. Its sculptors worked in grey schist and later in stucco, and they gave the Buddha a Greek-Roman face: wavy hair, a sharp nose, heavy drapery falling in folds, and a halo behind the head. This blending of styles is why it is called the Greco-Buddhist or Indo-Greek school. The Mathura school flourished in the same Kushana period but used red sandstone and a purely Indian idiom. B is wrong because the Mauryas are known for polished stone pillars and their animal capitals. C is wrong because the Nandas left no distinct school of sculpture. D is wrong because the Cholas are remembered for bronze images such as the Nataraja, many centuries later. Exam tip: Gandhara grey schist and a Greco-Roman Buddha, Mathura red sandstone — both under the Kushanas.

The correct answer is C, Lokayata and Kapalika. Neither of these belongs to the six orthodox systems, so this is the pair that stands outside. The six systems, called the Shad Darshanas, are Samkhya, Yoga, Nyaya, Vaisheshika, Mimamsa and Vedanta, and all six accept the authority of the Vedas. They are usually learnt in three pairs: Samkhya with Yoga, Nyaya with Vaisheshika, and Mimamsa with Vedanta. Lokayata is the materialist school also called Charvaka, which rejects the Vedas, the soul and life after death, and is therefore counted as heterodox along with Buddhism and Jainism. Kapalika was a Shaiva tantric sect, a religious order rather than a school of philosophy. A is wrong because Mimamsa and Vedanta are the two schools built on the Vedas themselves. B is wrong because Nyaya supplies Indian logic and Vaisheshika its atomism. D is wrong because Samkhya and Yoga form the oldest pair among the six. Exam tip: orthodox means Veda-accepting; Charvaka, Buddhism and Jainism are the three heterodox schools.

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 C, (A) is false, (B) is true. Mathura did stand on major trade routes, but those routes ran from the north-west to the east and from the north to the south, not from north to east and south to west as statement (A) puts it, so (A) is wrong as worded. Statement (B) is sound: Mathura was one of the great centres of early Indian sculpture, and the Mathura school carved in the spotted red sandstone of Sikri, shaping images of the Buddha, of Jain tirthankaras and of Hindu deities. The town on the Yamuna has been a settlement for more than two thousand five hundred years and served as a second capital of the Kushanas under Kanishka. A is wrong because statement (B) is plainly true. B is wrong because it accepts the mistaken direction of the routes. D is wrong for the same reason, since (A) cannot stand as written. Exam tip: Mathura used red sandstone, Gandhara grey schist and Amaravati white marble.

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, James Prinsep. Prinsep, an officer of the East India Company mint at Calcutta, deciphered the Brahmi script in 1837, which made the edicts of Ashoka readable and opened up the early history of India. Option A is wrong because Alexander Cunningham was the first Director General of the Archaeological Survey of India and surveyed and excavated sites, but he did not decipher the script. Option C is wrong because John Marshall headed the Archaeological Survey much later and is remembered for announcing the discovery of the Indus Valley Civilisation in 1924. Option D is wrong because William Jones founded the Asiatic Society of Bengal in 1784 and showed the kinship of Sanskrit with Greek and Latin, a different achievement altogether. Brahmi is the parent of nearly every Indian script, including Devanagari and the Tamil script.

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.

The correct answer is C, Karnataka. Channapatna, a town between Bengaluru and Mysuru, is called the toy town of India; its artisans turn soft ivory wood on a lathe and finish it with lac and vegetable colours, and the toys carry a GI. Option A is wrong because Andhra Pradesh has its own two toy centres, Kondapalli near Vijayawada and Etikoppaka in Visakhapatnam district, which are separate GIs. Option B is wrong because Tamil Nadu is known for the Thanjavur bobblehead doll and bronze icons rather than lacquered lathe toys. Option D is wrong because Odisha is known for Pattachitra painting, Sambalpuri bandha textiles and silver filigree of Cuttack. Questions on toys usually mix Channapatna with Kondapalli, so tie Channapatna to Karnataka and Kondapalli to Andhra Pradesh.

The correct answer is D, film. The Dadasaheb Phalke Award was instituted in 1969 for lifetime contribution to Indian cinema and is named after Dhundiraj Govind Phalke, who made the first Indian feature film, Raja Harishchandra, in 1913 and is called the father of Indian cinema; the first recipient was the actress Devika Rani. Option A is wrong because the highest sporting honours are the Major Dhyan Chand Khel Ratna Award and the Arjuna Award, which cover cricket along with other games. Option B is wrong because hockey is honoured through the same sports awards, and Major Dhyan Chand's name is attached to them. Option C is wrong for the same reason. Note also that the award is presented with the National Film Awards. Phalke's own films, made between 1913 and the coming of sound, were silent, so the award honours a body of work rather than a single film.

The correct answer is B, a long bamboo staff. Silambam is the staff art of Tamil Nadu, and the length of bamboo, usually about the height of the practitioner, is what identifies it in any list of weapons. Option A is wrong because the flexible sword is the urumi and it belongs to Kalaripayattu of Kerala, the art most often set against Silambam in the same question. Option C is wrong; the spear is the ta of Thang-Ta in Manipur and the shield appears in Gatka of Punjab as the farri and in Pari-Khanda of Bihar as the pari. Option D is wrong because the knuckleduster belongs to Vajra Mushti of Karnataka, wrestling shown during the Mysore Dasara. Since papers often ask only for the weapon, memorise the pairs of art and weapon rather than descriptions of technique.

The correct answer is C, only two pairs. Dignaga and Nathamuni are matched rightly while Aryadeva is not, so exactly two pairs are correct. Aryadeva, who lived about the third century, was a Buddhist monk of the Madhyamaka school and the chief disciple of Nagarjuna; his Chatuhshataka defends the doctrine of emptiness, so calling him a Jaina scholar is wrong. Dignaga, of the fifth or sixth century, founded the Buddhist school of logic and wrote the Pramanasamuchchaya, which shaped debate on perception and inference for centuries. Nathamuni, of about the tenth century, was the first acharya of the Srivaishnava tradition at Srirangam; he gathered the Tamil hymns of the Alvars into the Nalayira Divya Prabandham and was the grandfather in the line that led to Ramanuja. A is wrong because two pairs do match. B understates the count and D overstates it. Exam tip: Nagarjuna, Aryadeva, Buddhapalita and Chandrakirti all belong to the Madhyamaka line.