Art & Culture Mixed Quiz: Set 40

The correct answer is B. The Rajabai Clock Tower in the University of Mumbai campus, designed by Sir George Gilbert Scott and completed in 1878, is a Victorian Gothic tower modelled on the Big Ben clock tower in London, with pointed arches, stained glass and carved figures. Option A is wrong because the Writers Building of 1777 is neo-classical, with Corinthian columns and a pediment, built as the office of the clerks of the East India Company. Option C is wrong because the Gateway of India is Indo-Saracenic, with a dome, jaali screens and Gujarati decorative detail, and not Baroque. Option D is wrong because the Se Cathedral at Old Goa is Portuguese, with a Tuscan exterior and a Corinthian interior, while Dravidian is a south Indian temple style using a vimana and gopuram. Keeping style pairs straight is the quickest way to answer matching questions on this topic.

The correct answer is B, Guru Arjan Dev, the fifth Guru, under whom the Harmandir Sahib was built and who had the Adi Granth compiled and installed in it in 1604, appointing Baba Buddha as its first granthi. Option A, Guru Ram Das, the fourth Guru, founded the city of Amritsar and had the sacred tank excavated, so he is the natural trap: he made the site, his successor made the shrine and the scripture. Option C, Guru Hargobind, the sixth Guru, built the Akal Takht facing the shrine in 1606 and introduced the two swords of spiritual and temporal authority. Option D, Guru Tegh Bahadur, the ninth Guru, was executed at Delhi in 1675, where Gurdwara Sis Ganj Sahib now stands. The gold plating that gave the Golden Temple its popular name came much later, in the reign of Maharaja Ranjit Singh in the early nineteenth century.

The correct answer is A, Tamil Nadu. Swamimalai is a temple town in the Thanjavur district of Tamil Nadu, in the old Chola heartland near Kumbakonam, and its stapathi families have cast panchaloha images by the solid lost-wax method in an unbroken line from the Chola workshops. Swamimalai bronze icons are registered as a geographical indication, which is why the place appears in questions on both art and the GI list. Option B is wrong because Kerala's metal crafts are the Aranmula kannadi mirror and the bell metal vessels of Payyanur and Mannar. Option C is wrong because Karnataka's metal craft is Bidriware from Bidar, which is a zinc alloy inlaid with silver. Option D is wrong because Andhra Pradesh is associated with Budithi brass and Kondapalli wooden toys rather than panchaloha icons. The pairing of craft, town and state is the standard form of this question.

The correct answer is B, Madhya Pradesh. The Khajuraho Dance Festival is held every February at Khajuraho in the Chhatarpur district of Madhya Pradesh, with the Western group of temples as its setting, and it presents the recognised classical dance styles of the country on an open-air stage. Option A, Odisha, holds the Konark Festival at its Sun Temple in early December and the Mukteshwar Dance Festival at Bhubaneswar in January, which is why it is the strongest distractor; both are temple festivals of dance, but neither is Khajuraho. Option C, Rajasthan, is the home of the Jaipur Literature Festival and of the desert and camel fairs, not of this dance festival. Option D, Tamil Nadu, holds the Mamallapuram Dance Festival and the Natyanjali Festival at Chidambaram. Fix the pair Khajuraho and Madhya Pradesh, because it is the single most asked festival in the chapter.

The correct answer is B, Madhya Pradesh. The Tansen Samaroh is held every December near Gwalior, at the tomb of Tansen, one of the nine jewels of Akbar's court and a founding figure of Hindustani classical music; the state also confers the Tansen Samman at the festival. Option A, Uttar Pradesh, is a strong distractor because Tansen is usually said to have been born near Gwalior but spent his later years at the Mughal court, and because Uttar Pradesh holds the Taj Mahotsav at Agra. Option C, Rajasthan, holds the Jaipur Literature Festival and the Pushkar and Desert fairs. Option D, Maharashtra, holds the Sawai Gandharva Bhimsen Mahotsav at Pune and the Elephanta Festival at Mumbai. Madhya Pradesh is the state to remember for three festivals, Khajuraho for dance, Tansen for music and Kalidas Samaroh at Ujjain for literature and drama.

The correct answer is A, the Sangeet Natak Akademi. The Akademi created the National School of Drama in New Delhi in 1959 as one of its own training units, and the school became an independent autonomous body in 1975; it trains students in acting, direction, stage design and allied crafts, and it runs a repertory company. Option B is wrong because the Lalit Kala Akademi works in the visual arts and set up regional art centres with studios, not a drama school. Option C is wrong because the Indian Council for Cultural Relations sends Indian artists and teachers abroad and funds foreign students in India, but it founded no such school. Option D is wrong because the Ministry of Information and Broadcasting deals with film and broadcasting, including the Film and Television Institute of India at Pune, which is the plausible but different institution in this family.

The correct answer is B, Guru Gobind Singh, the tenth and last human Guru of the Sikhs, who was born at Patna in 1666 while his father Guru Tegh Bahadur was travelling in the east. The gurdwara built on that site is Takht Sri Patna Sahib, one of the five Takhts, and the only one in Bihar. Option A, Guru Nanak, the first Guru, was born in 1469 at Rai Bhoi di Talwandi, now Nankana Sahib in Pakistan, and spent his last years at Kartarpur, also in present-day Pakistan, which is reached through the corridor opened in 2019. Option C, Guru Angad, the second Guru, is associated with Khadur Sahib in Punjab and with the Gurmukhi script. Option D, Guru Amar Das, the third Guru, is associated with Goindwal Sahib and its baoli. Keep the birthplaces of the first and the tenth Guru apart, since that is the pairing most often tested.

The correct answer is B, William Emerson. The Victoria Memorial was designed by Sir William Emerson, then president of the Royal Institute of British Architects, after Lord Curzon proposed a memorial to Queen Victoria in 1901. The foundation stone was laid in 1906 and the building was opened in 1921. Emerson used white Makrana marble, the stone of the Taj Mahal, over a plan that is classical in its proportions but Indo-Saracenic in its detail, with a central dome, corner chhatris, arched loggias and a bronze figure of Victory on the dome. Vincent Esch supervised the construction and designed the north approach. Option A is wrong because Stevens designed Victorian Gothic work in Mumbai, chiefly Victoria Terminus and the Municipal Corporation building. Option C is wrong because Lutyens worked on New Delhi, not Kolkata. Option D is wrong because Wittet designed the Gateway of India and the Prince of Wales Museum in Mumbai.

The correct answer is A, Tirumala, Tirupati. The Vijayanagara workshops extended the bronze tradition from deities to royal portraiture, and the standing copper figures of the emperor Krishnadevaraya with his two queens, Tirumala Devi and Chinnaji Devi, were placed in the Venkateshvara temple at Tirumala, where they remain. They show the ruler with hands joined in anjali mudra, an attitude of worship rather than command, and they are the standard example of portrait sculpture in Indian metal. Option B is wrong because Hampi, the Vijayanagara capital, preserves stone architecture such as the Vitthala temple and the stone chariot, not these figures. Option C is wrong because Thanjavur is the Chola centre, associated with the Brihadeeswara temple and processional bronzes of deities. Option D is wrong because Madurai is the Nayaka centre known for the Meenakshi temple and its pillared halls.

The correct answer is C, caves 30 to 34. The thirty-four caves at Ellora in Maharashtra are grouped by faith: caves 1 to 12 are Buddhist, caves 13 to 29 are Hindu, and caves 30 to 34 are Jain, the finest of the Jain group being Cave 32, the Indra Sabha, with its carved mandapa and the image of Mahavira. Option A names the Buddhist group, which includes Cave 10, the Vishvakarma chaitya, the only chaitya hall at Ellora. Option B names the Hindu group, which includes Cave 16, the rock-cut Kailasa temple carved in the reign of the Rashtrakuta king Krishna the First. Option D is not a group at all; those numbers fall inside the Hindu range. The site is a World Heritage Site and is valued precisely because three faiths were carved side by side in the same cliff.

The correct answer is B, the Jaipur Literature Festival. It began in 2006, is held every January at the Diggi Palace in Jaipur, admits visitors free of charge and draws writers, translators and publishers from many countries, which is how it came to be called the greatest literary show on Earth. Option A, the Kerala Literature Festival, is held on the beach at Kozhikode and is the largest in the south, but it started later and has a different setting. Option C, the Kolkata Literary Meet, is held in that city in winter, alongside the Apeejay Kolkata Literary Festival, and is strongly associated with Bengali letters. Option D, the Goa Arts and Literature Festival, is a smaller gathering that joins literature with the visual and performing arts. For the exam, hold on to the three details: 2006, Diggi Palace and Jaipur.

The correct answer is B, Shiva. The great three-headed bust in the main cave on Elephanta island in Mumbai harbour shows Shiva in three aspects, the calm, the fierce and the gentle, and the Elephanta group as a whole is Shaiva in character. Option A is wrong because Vishnu's avatars are the subject of Cave 15 at Ellora, the Dashavatara cave, not of Elephanta. Option C is wrong because Brahma is rarely given a temple of his own anywhere in India. Option D is wrong because Surya is the deity of Konark and Modhera. The island was named Elephanta by the Portuguese after a stone elephant found on its shore, and its Indian name is Gharapuri; the caves were inscribed as a World Heritage Site in 1987. Papers often pair Elephanta's Trimurti with Ellora's Kailasa temple in the same question.

The correct answer is B, St Francis Xavier, the Jesuit missionary whose body was brought to Goa and placed in the Basilica of Bom Jesus, where it is displayed for public veneration at long intervals. The basilica, completed in the opening years of the seventeenth century, is part of the Churches and Convents of Goa inscribed on the UNESCO World Heritage List. Option A, St Thomas the Apostle, is associated with the San Thome Basilica at Chennai, which stands over the tomb attributed to him. Option C, Vasco da Gama, died at Kochi and was first buried in St Francis Church there, the oldest European church in India, before his remains were taken to Portugal, so he is the strongest distractor in the set. Option D, St Philomena, gives her name to the neo-Gothic cathedral at Mysuru. Learn the Goan pair together: Bom Jesus for St Francis Xavier and the Se Cathedral for its Golden Bell.

The correct answer is A, Goa. The Mando is a slow song in Konkani, sung by couples at weddings and gatherings, whose melody carries the mark of three centuries of Portuguese presence; the quick Dulpod usually follows it, and Dekhni is the third well known Goan form. Option B, Maharashtra, which surrounds Goa and shares the Konkani-speaking coast, is the obvious distractor, but its own forms are Powada, Lavani and Bharud. Option C, Kerala, has Sopana Sangeetham, Vanchipattu and Mappila Pattu, which also absorbed outside influence, in its case Arabic. Option D, Puducherry, was a French possession and does carry a European trace in its culture, which is why it is offered here, but the Mando is not from there. Goan folk music is sung in Konkani, which is also the official language of the state and one of the languages listed in the Eighth Schedule.

The correct answer is C, Lord Nataraja. The festival is held in the courtyard of the Nataraja temple at Chidambaram, where Shiva is worshipped in his dancing form as Nataraja, and dancers from across the country offer their art there over five days beginning on Maha Shivratri; the very name Natyanjali means an offering of dance. Option A, Lord Vishnu, is central to Srirangam and Tirupati but not to Chidambaram. Option B, Goddess Meenakshi, is the deity of the great temple at Madurai, where the Chithirai festival and the celestial wedding are observed. Option D, Lord Murugan, is worshipped at the six abodes in Tamil Nadu, including Palani, and his festival is Thaipusam. The link to remember is Chidambaram, Nataraja, Maha Shivratri and Bharatanatyam offered as worship rather than performance.

The correct answer is A, Samuel Hahnemann. Hahnemann was a German physician who set out the principles of homoeopathy in the Organon of Medicine, chief among them the maxim similia similibus curentur, let like be cured by like, together with the law of the minimum dose and the method of potentisation. World Homoeopathy Day is kept on 10 April, his birthday. Option B is wrong because Ibn Sina, known in Europe as Avicenna, wrote the Unani classic Al-Qanun fi al-Tibb. Option C is wrong because Hippocrates is the founder of the Unani system and is called Buqrat in its literature. Option D is wrong because Edward Jenner developed vaccination against smallpox using cowpox material and is linked with immunology, not with homoeopathy. Homoeopathy reached India in the eighteenth century and took its deepest root in Bengal.

The correct answer is A, St Francis Church at Kochi, built in 1503 by the Portuguese and therefore the oldest European church in India. Vasco da Gama died at Kochi in 1524 and was buried in this church, and his remains were moved to Portugal some years later, though the gravestone is still shown to visitors. The church itself passed from Portuguese to Dutch and then to British hands, which is why its history is a favourite with paper setters. Option B, the Se Cathedral in Old Goa, is later and is remembered as the largest church in Asia and for its Golden Bell. Option C, St Paul's Cathedral at Kolkata, was consecrated in the nineteenth century and is called the first episcopal church of the East. Option D, Medak Cathedral in Telangana, is a large twentieth-century Gothic revival church of the Church of South India. The date 1503 is the key to this question.

The correct answer is A, Haryana. The mela is held at Surajkund in the Faridabad district of Haryana, close to Delhi, and runs through the first fortnight of February; craftspeople and folk performers from across the country gather there, and each edition names a theme state and a partner country. Option B, Delhi, is the trap, because Surajkund lies just beyond the capital's border and many visitors come from the city, but the site and the organising state are Haryana. Option C, Punjab, is known for the Baisakhi harvest celebrations and the rural sports at Kila Raipur. Option D, Uttar Pradesh, holds the Taj Mahotsav at the Shilpgram in Agra, which is a similar mixture of crafts with dance and music and is therefore easy to confuse with Surajkund. Pair Surajkund with Faridabad in Haryana.

The correct answer is A, Khwaja Moinuddin Chishti, the saint who brought the Chishti order to India and settled at Ajmer, where his tomb became the best known dargah in the subcontinent; the annual Urs there draws pilgrims of every faith, and Mughal emperors from Akbar onwards made the journey. Option B, Nizamuddin Auliya, was a later Chishti saint of Delhi, and his dargah in the Nizamuddin area is among the most visited in the capital. Option C, Shaikh Salim Chishti, is buried in the marble tomb inside the courtyard of the Jama Masjid at Fatehpur Sikri, the saint whose blessing Akbar sought for an heir. Option D, Khwaja Bande Nawaz, whose full name is Sayyid Muhammad Hussaini Gesudaraz, is buried at Gulbarga in Karnataka. All four belong to the Chishti tradition, so fix each name against its town: Ajmer, Delhi, Fatehpur Sikri and Gulbarga.

The correct answer is B, Tamil Nadu. Mamallapuram, also written Mahabalipuram, lies on the coast south of Chennai and is a World Heritage site of Pallava rock-cut architecture; the dance festival is staged there from late December into January, with the great relief called Arjuna's Penance as its backdrop. Option A, Karnataka, holds the Hampi Festival among the ruins of Vijayanagara and the Pattadakal Dance Festival at its temple complex, which is the nearest comparison and the usual distractor. Option C, Kerala, holds the Nishagandhi Dance Festival at Thiruvananthapuram and the temple festival of Thrissur Pooram. Option D, Telangana, is associated with Bathukamma and Bonalu rather than with a classical dance festival of this kind. Tamil Nadu is the state of three events to remember: Mamallapuram, Natyanjali at Chidambaram and the Thyagaraja Aradhana.