Art & Culture Mixed Quiz: Set 21

The correct answer is A, Shah Jahan. The Sheesh Mahal, or palace of mirrors, inside the Agra Fort was built in Shah Jahan's reign as a bath and dressing chamber for the royal household. Thousands of tiny pieces of mirror glass are set into its walls and vaulted ceiling, so that one lamp fills the whole room with points of light. Shah Jahan rebuilt much of Akbar's red sandstone fort in white marble and added the Diwan-i-Khas, Khas Mahal, Musamman Burj and Moti Masjid; he spent his last years confined in this fort. Option B is wrong because Humayun built little that survives, and the Purana Qila at Delhi is linked with him. Option C is wrong because Babur ruled only from 1526 to 1530 and is remembered at Agra for laying out a riverside garden, the Aram Bagh. Option D is wrong because Akbar raised the Agra Fort itself from 1565 but not this chamber. Exam tip: Agra Fort begun by Akbar, marble palaces added by Shah Jahan.

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 D, Mopin. Mopin is the harvest and agricultural festival of the Galo people of Arunachal Pradesh, held in early April. It is a prayer to the goddess Mopin Ane for a good crop, for health and for prosperity, and for the driving away of evil and illness. People dress in white, smear rice flour on one another as a mark of blessing, perform the gentle Popir dance and share rice beer called apong and local delicacies. Option A is wrong because Losar is the new year of Buddhist communities, kept by the Monpas of Arunachal Pradesh and by Tibetans and Ladakhis. Option B is wrong because Ugadi is the new year of Karnataka, Andhra Pradesh and Telangana. Option C is wrong because Karma is a tribal festival of Jharkhand, Chhattisgarh and Odisha that honours the karam tree. Exam tip: Arunachal festivals pair with tribes as Mopin with Galo, Solung with Adi, Nyokum with Nyishi, Dree with Apatani and Losar with Monpa.

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 C, Tamil. Tamil was the first language to be given classical language status in India, in 2004. Sanskrit was declared classical in 2005, Kannada and Telugu together in 2008, Malayalam in 2013 and Odia in 2014. The status is granted by the Government of India on the advice of an expert committee set up with the Sahitya Akademi, and the usual tests are a high antiquity of early texts, a body of ancient literature valued by generations of speakers, and a literary tradition that is original and not borrowed from another community. Recognition brings money for study of the language, international awards for scholars and a centre of excellence. Option A is wrong because Kannada received the status four years after Tamil, in 2008. Option B is wrong because Sanskrit was the second language to get it, in 2005. Option D is wrong because Malayalam got it in 2013. Exam tip: Tamil 2004, Sanskrit 2005, Kannada and Telugu 2008, Malayalam 2013, Odia 2014.

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 A, Bharata. The Natya Shastra describes the playhouse, the actor's gestures, music, dance and the theory of rasa, the sentiment a performance raises in the spectator, and it is the foundation of every classical form of Indian theatre and dance. Option B is wrong because Abhinavagupta was a later commentator from Kashmir who wrote the Abhinavabharati on this very text, but not the text itself. Option C is wrong because Bhasa was a dramatist, the author of Swapnavasavadattam, and not a theorist. Option D is wrong because Panini wrote the Ashtadhyayi on Sanskrit grammar. Examiners often pair the treatise with the commentator, so keep Bharata for the work and Abhinavagupta for the commentary. The text lists eight rasas, and a ninth, shanta or tranquillity, was added by later writers on the subject.

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 A, Maharashtra. Mardani Khel is the Maratha art of armed combat from Maharashtra, and it is identified by the patta, a straight sword fixed to a gauntlet that covers the forearm, and by the vita, a corded javelin. It grew out of the fighting methods of the hill forts of the Deccan. Option B is wrong; Gujarat has stick dances and folk contests but Mardani Khel is not placed there. Option C is wrong, and it is the useful distractor, because Madhya Pradesh appears in this chapter only as the state that declared Mallakhamb its state game in 2013. Option D is wrong because Goa has no distinct art of this name in the examination list. Fix the pair of patta and Maharashtra, since the weapon alone is often enough to answer.

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 D, A - 4, B - 3, C - 2, D - 1. Ramanuja taught Vishishtadvaita or qualified non dualism, in which souls and matter are real but exist as attributes of Brahman. Madhvacharya taught Dvaita, a thoroughgoing dualism in which god and the individual soul remain eternally distinct. Nimbarka taught Dvaitadvaita or bhedabheda, holding that difference and non difference are both real. Vallabhacharya taught Shuddhadvaita, pure non dualism, in which Brahman is real and untouched by maya. Option A is wrong because it gives Ramanuja Dvaitadvaita, which belongs to Nimbarka. Option B is wrong because it gives Ramanuja Dvaita and Madhvacharya Shuddhadvaita, reversing the two positions that are most often confused. Option C is wrong because it pairs the four teachers with the philosophies in the order in which the lists happen to be printed, which is the trap in every match the list question of this kind.

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, Bihar. The Barabar and Nagarjuni hills lie near Gaya in Bihar and hold the oldest surviving rock-cut caves in the country, cut in the Mauryan period in the third century BCE and connected with the Ajivika sect; their polished interiors carry the mirror-like finish known as Mauryan polish. Option A is wrong because Maharashtra has the far more numerous Western Deccan caves at Bhaja, Karle, Ajanta and Ellora, but all of these are later. Option C is wrong because Odisha has the Udayagiri and Khandagiri Jain caves of Kharavela, which belong to the first century BCE. Option D is wrong because Madhya Pradesh is the home of the Sanchi and Bharhut stupas and the Bagh caves, not of the earliest rock-cut excavations. Fix the sequence as Barabar first, then the Deccan chaityas, then Ajanta and Ellora.

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 A, Karnataka. Yakshagana is performed through the night in coastal Karnataka on episodes from the epics, with tall headgear, painted faces, a singer who carries the story and drums that mark the dance. Option B is wrong because Kerala's Sanskrit theatre is Kutiyattam, recognised by UNESCO as intangible cultural heritage, and its dance drama is Kathakali. Option C is wrong because Maharashtra's folk theatre is Tamasha, with the Powada ballad beside it. Option D is wrong because Gujarat, along with Rajasthan, has Bhavai, a satirical folk play. This is the commonest question shape in the chapter, so revise the forms as pairs with their states rather than by their descriptions. The singer who carries the story in Yakshagana is called the Bhagavata, and the drums used are the chande and the maddale.

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 B, Mizoram. Inbuan is the belt wrestling of Mizoram, in which a wrestler grips a belt worn round the waist of the opponent and must lift him off the ground; kicking is not allowed and the knee may not be bent, and stepping outside the circle loses the bout. Option A is wrong because Meghalaya is known for archery contests but not for Inbuan. Option C is wrong; Tripura has its own folk games yet Inbuan is not among them. Option D is wrong, and it is the sharpest distractor, because Manipur has a long wrestling tradition of its own called Mukna, and candidates who remember only that the north east is involved often choose Manipur. Mizoram also gives Insuknawr, the rod push contest, so keep the two Mizo entries together.

The correct answer is C, Purva Mimamsa. Purva Mimamsa is the school founded by Jaimini, which treats the karma kanda or ritual portion of the Vedas as authoritative and holds that liberation follows from the correct performance of Vedic duty. Kumarila Bhatta and Prabhakara are its two great commentators, and the school divides into the Bhatta and the Prabhakara traditions after them. Option A, Lokayata, is the materialist Charvaka school, which denies the Vedas altogether and therefore cannot claim either thinker. Option B, Madhyamika, is a Mahayana Buddhist school associated with Nagarjuna and his doctrine of shunyata, from a wholly different tradition. Option D, Uttara Mimamsa, is another name for Vedanta, the school of the jnana kanda and of the Upanishads, whose commentators are Shankaracharya, Ramanuja and Madhvacharya; it is the strongest distractor because the two Mimamsas share a name.

The correct answer is B, the Lomas Rishi cave. Its doorway copies in stone the curved wooden arch and lattice of a real chaitya hall, and above it runs a band of elephants moving towards a stupa; this carved arch is the ancestor of the horseshoe-shaped chaitya window, the gavaksha, seen later at Bhaja, Karle and Ajanta. Option A is wrong because the neighbouring Sudama cave, though also Mauryan and highly polished, has a plain entrance. Option C is wrong because the Karan Chaupar cave is a single polished chamber without the decorated facade. Option D is wrong because Vishwakarma is the name of Cave 10 at Ellora, the Carpenter's Cave, and belongs to a much later period. The Lomas Rishi facade is the standard illustration of stone copying timber in Indian art.

The correct answer is A, Andhra Pradesh. Tholu Bommalata uses large leather puppets held against a lit screen, and the shadows tell episodes from the Ramayana and the Mahabharata through the night. Option B is wrong because West Bengal's tradition is Putul Nautch, which uses rod puppets. Option C is wrong because Rajasthan is the home of Kathputli, the string puppet form seen at fairs. Option D is wrong because Kerala has Pavakathakali, a glove puppet form that borrows the make-up and the music of Kathakali. Puppetry questions are decided by the kind of puppet as much as by the state, so learn string, shadow, rod and glove with one example each. The Sangeet Natak Akademi supports these puppet traditions through its centres and through the annual festivals it holds.