Art & Culture Mixed Quiz: Set 5

The correct answer is D, Gwalior. Gwalior is the oldest gharana of Hindustani classical vocal music, not of Kathak, and it is placed among these options precisely because a candidate who remembers the word gharana without remembering the art form will pick it. Keep the two lists separate in memory.

Options A, B and C are the three recognised gharanas of Kathak. The Lucknow gharana, associated with Bindadin Maharaj and later with Birju Maharaj, is known for expression and grace. The Jaipur gharana is known for vigorous footwork and complex rhythmic patterns. The Banaras gharana, to which Sitara Devi belonged, has its own distinctive use of the floor and of natural stance. A fourth, Raigarh, is sometimes added, but the standard examination answer lists three.

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, Rajasthan. Kalbeliya is the song and dance tradition of the Kalbeliya community of Rajasthan, who were traditionally snake charmers, and the dancer in a black swirling skirt imitates the movement of a serpent to the been and the khanjari. UNESCO inscribed the songs and dances of the Kalbeliya on the list of the intangible cultural heritage of humanity in 2010, the same year as Chhau and Mudiyettu.

Option B, Gujarat, has Garba, which was inscribed much later, in 2023. Option C, Punjab, has Bhangra and Giddha, neither of them on the UNESCO list, though the craft of the Thatheras of Jandiala Guru in Punjab was inscribed in 2014. Option D, Haryana, has Khoria, Dhamal and Loor, which have no UNESCO listing. Remember 2010 for Chhau, Kalbeliya and Mudiyettu together.

The correct answer is A, Buddhism. The Great Stupa at Sanchi, in the Raisen district of Madhya Pradesh, is one of the oldest Buddhist monuments in India. It was first built by the Mauryan emperor Ashoka in the 3rd century BCE as a brick mound over relics of the Buddha, and was later enlarged with a stone casing. Four richly carved gateways, or toranas, were added around the 1st century BCE; they show Jataka tales and scenes from the Buddha's life, in which the Buddha himself appears only through symbols such as the Bodhi tree, a wheel or footprints. The Buddhist Monuments at Sanchi became a UNESCO World Heritage Site in 1989. B is wrong because the stupa is not a Hindu shrine; famous Hindu temple sites include Khajuraho and Konark. C is wrong because famous Jain sites include Dilwara and Shravanabelagola. D is wrong because famous Islamic monuments include the Qutub Minar and the Jama Masjid. Exam tip: Sanchi stupa = Ashoka = Buddhism = Madhya Pradesh = UNESCO 1989.

The correct answer is B, Sarangadeva. Sarangadeva wrote the Sangeeta Ratnakara in the thirteenth century while attached to the Yadava court at Devagiri in the Deccan. Because it has seven chapters it is also called the Saptadhyayi, and because it was written before the northern and southern traditions drew apart, both of them still treat it as authoritative.

Option A, Matanga, wrote the Brihaddeshi, the work remembered for using the word raga in something close to its modern meaning, but not the Sangeeta Ratnakara. Option C, Bharata Muni, is the author of the Natya Shastra, the treatise on drama that contains the earliest systematic description of swaras and shrutis. Option D, Venkatamakhin, belongs to the seventeenth century and to the south; his Chaturdandi Prakashika set out the scheme of seventy-two melakarta ragas that Carnatic music still uses. All four are treatise writers, which is exactly why they are offered together.

The correct answer is C, Kharosthi. Kharosthi was written from right to left, like the Aramaic script from which it grew. It was the script of Gandhara in the north-west, now in Pakistan and Afghanistan, and was used roughly from the third century BCE to the third century CE, mostly for Prakrit. That is why two of Ashoka's major rock edicts, at Shahbazgarhi and Mansehra, are in Kharosthi, while almost all his other edicts are in Brahmi. It spread along the Silk Road into Central Asia and then died out. Option A is wrong because Brahmi runs left to right and is the parent of Devanagari and most other Indian scripts. Option B is wrong because Sharada, the old script of Kashmir, grew out of Brahmi and is also written left to right. Option D is wrong because Nandinagari, a southern form of Nagari used for Sanskrit manuscripts, runs left to right as well. Exam tip: Kharosthi is the odd one out, right to left and found in the north-west; Brahmi is left to right and found almost everywhere else.

The correct answer is C, Shehnai. Bismillah Khan played the shehnai, a double reed wind instrument long associated with weddings, temple processions and auspicious beginnings in north India, and he is credited with carrying it from ceremonial use onto the classical concert stage. He spent his life in Varanasi and received the Bharat Ratna in 2001.

Option A, the sarod, is the fretless plucked instrument of Allauddin Khan, Ali Akbar Khan and Amjad Ali Khan. Option B, the sarangi, is the bowed instrument said to come closest to the human voice, whose best known player is Ram Narayan. Option D, the santoor, is the struck string instrument of Kashmir that Shivkumar Sharma established in classical concerts. Every option names a real instrument with its own famous player, so the question is a straight test of the artist and instrument table.

The correct answer is B, Jainism. Jainism holds that souls (jiva) live not only in humans, animals and plants but also in earth, water, fire and air. Jain thought ranks living beings by the number of senses they have. The lowest group, the one-sensed beings, includes earth-bodies, water-bodies, fire-bodies, air-bodies and plants, so even a stone or running water has a soul. This is why Jain monks practise ahimsa so strictly, sweeping the path and straining water so that they harm as few beings as possible. Mahavira taught that each jiva is bound by karma and is freed only through right faith, right knowledge and right conduct, the three jewels. Option A is wrong because Buddhism denies a permanent soul through its doctrine of anatta. Option C is wrong because Shaivism centres on devotion to Shiva and does not give souls to rocks. Option D is wrong because Vaishnavism centres on devotion to Vishnu and his avatars. Exam tip: souls in stones and water with the strictest ahimsa means Jainism; no soul (anatta) means Buddhism.

The correct answer is D, Narasimhadeva 1. The Sun temple at Konark in Odisha was built in the thirteenth century by Narasimhadeva I of the Eastern Ganga dynasty. It is shaped as a colossal chariot for the sun god Surya, with twelve pairs of carved stone wheels and seven horses straining to pull it; the wheels work as sundials. Built in the Kalinga style of the Nagara order, it stood by the sea and European sailors called it the Black Pagoda. The main tower has collapsed, but the jagamohana and the carvings survive, and UNESCO placed it on the World Heritage List in 1984. Option A is wrong because Anantha Padmanabhan is not a ruler linked with this temple. Option B is wrong because Samudragupta of the Gupta dynasty ruled a thousand years earlier and left no temple here. Option C is wrong because Anantavarman Chodaganga, of the same dynasty, began the Jagannath temple at Puri. Exam tip: Konark means Narasimhadeva I, Puri means Anantavarman Chodaganga, and both belong to the Eastern Ganga dynasty.

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, Taj Mahal. Pietra dura, an Italian term meaning hard stone, is the craft of cutting coloured semi-precious stones and setting them into marble to form flowers and creepers. Its finest Indian example is the Taj Mahal at Agra, built by Shah Jahan between 1632 and 1648 in memory of Mumtaz Mahal; the Indian name for the technique is parchin kari. Stones such as jasper, carnelian, lapis lazuli, jade and turquoise were used, and the same work appears in the Itmad-ud-Daulah tomb and the Red Fort. The Taj Mahal became a UNESCO World Heritage Site in 1983. Option B is wrong because India Gate in Delhi, designed by Edwin Lutyens, is a sandstone war memorial. Option C is wrong because the Charminar of Hyderabad, built by Quli Qutb Shah in 1591, is of granite and lime stucco. Option D is wrong because the Gateway of India in Mumbai, finished in 1924, is in the Indo-Saracenic style. Exam tip: pietra dura or parchin kari is Shah Jahan's marble inlay, at its best in the Taj Mahal.

The correct answer is C, Gol Gumbaz. Gol Gumbaz, the tomb of Muhammad Adil Shah, carries the dome long described as the second largest in the world after St Peter's Basilica in Rome. It stands at Vijayapura, the old Bijapur, in Karnataka and was completed in 1656 for the seventh ruler of the Adil Shahi dynasty of the Deccan. The dome is about 44 metres across and rests on intersecting arches, so the hall below it needs no pillars and is one of the largest single chambers under one roof anywhere. A gallery running inside the drum, the Whispering Gallery, carries even a soft sound around the ring, and the building is as famous for that echo as for its size. Option A is wrong because GlampEco is not a monument. Option B is wrong because Teela names no such dome. Option D is wrong because the Calico Dome was a modern structure in Ahmedabad, not a historic tomb. Exam tip: Gol Gumbaz means Vijayapura, the Adil Shahi dynasty and the Whispering Gallery.

The correct answer is C, Assam. Sattriya was developed in the sattras, the Vaishnavite monasteries of Assam, by the saint-reformer Srimanta Sankardev in the 15th century. He created it as part of his one-act plays called 'Ankia Naat' to spread devotion to Lord Krishna, and for centuries it was performed only by male monks, the bhokots, inside the sattras. The Sangeet Natak Akademi recognised Sattriya as a classical dance of India in the year 2000. It is still closely tied to the sattras of Majuli, the river island in the Brahmaputra. A is wrong because West Bengal is known for folk forms such as the Purulia Chhau, not Sattriya. B is wrong because the monasteries of Arunachal Pradesh, such as Tawang, are Buddhist and have masked dances, not Sattriya. D is wrong because Sikkim's monasteries are also Buddhist and are known for the Cham masked dance. Exam tip: Sattriya, Assam, Srimanta Sankardev, the sattras, and classical status in 2000.

The correct answer is D, a - iv, b - i, c - ii, d - iii. The Champakkulam Moolam boat race is held on the Pampa river in Alappuzha, Kerala, and is the oldest snake-boat race in the state. The Somnath fair is held at the Somnath temple in Gujarat on Kartik Purnima, where pilgrims gather at the first of the twelve Jyotirlingas. The Surajkund crafts fair takes place every February at Surajkund in Faridabad, Haryana, and brings craftspeople from India and abroad together under a theme state each year. The Baneshwar fair is a tribal fair of the Bhils held at Dungarpur in Rajasthan, where the Som and Mahi rivers meet. Option A is wrong because it sends the Somnath fair to Rajasthan and the Baneshwar fair to Haryana. Option B is wrong because it places the boat race in Rajasthan. Option C is wrong because it moves the Somnath fair to Haryana and Surajkund to Gujarat. Exam tip: Champakkulam - Kerala, Somnath - Gujarat, Surajkund - Haryana, Baneshwar - Rajasthan.

The correct answer is C, Punjab. Bhangra is the men's dance of the Punjab harvest, danced at Baisakhi in April to the beat of the dhol, with leaps, shoulder work and the raised arms that everyone recognises. Its women's counterpart is Giddha, in which short verses called bolis are sung and clapped between the steps.

Option A, Himachal Pradesh, has Nati, the long chain dance of Kullu and the hill districts, and Namgen. Option B, Jammu and Kashmir, has Rouf, danced by women in facing rows, Dumhal of the Wattal men in tall caps, Hikat, and the folk theatre Bhand Pather. Option D, Uttarakhand, has the sword dance Chholiya of Kumaoni weddings, Jhora, Langvir Nritya and the Ramman festival of Chamoli, which UNESCO inscribed in 2009. The dhol and Baisakhi together fix Bhangra to Punjab.

The correct answer is A, Rajasthan. Dabu is a mud resist hand block printing craft of Rajasthan, practised mainly at Akola in Chittorgarh and at Bagru and Sanganer near Jaipur. A paste of clay, gum, lime and wheat chaff is stamped on the cloth with wooden blocks; the covered portions resist the dye, usually indigo, and stay pale while the rest takes colour. The cloth is washed and the mud falls away, leaving the pattern, and the steps are repeated for more colours. Rajasthan is also home to Bandhani tie and dye, Bagru and Sanganeri prints and Kota Doria weaving. Option B is wrong because Odisha is known for Ikat or Bandha tie and dye and Pattachitra painting. Option C is wrong because Andhra Pradesh is known for Kalamkari, printed and painted with a bamboo pen. Option D is wrong because Assam is known for Muga and Eri silk weaving. Exam tip: Dabu means mud resist, Bandhani means tie and dye, Kalamkari means pen work.

The correct answer is D, 72. The melakarta ragas are the parent scales of Carnatic music, each of them using all seven notes in both ascent and descent. The scheme that fixes their number at seventy-two comes from Venkatamakhin's Chaturdandi Prakashika, and every other Carnatic raga is treated as a janya, or derived, raga of one of these parents.

Option A, 10, is the number of thaats into which Vishnu Narayan Bhatkhande grouped the ragas of Hindustani music, so it belongs to the other system. Option B, 22, is the number of shrutis or microtones into which the older theory divided the octave. Option C, 32, matches nothing in this classification and is placed there only as a distractor. The examiner's favourite trick here is to swap the number of thaats with the number of melakartas, so remember the pair together: ten thaats in the north, seventy-two melakartas in the south.

The correct answer is A, Santoor. The santoor is a trapezoid wooden box carrying many strings over small bridges, struck with a pair of light curved mallets. It comes from Kashmir, where it was used in Sufiana music, and Shivkumar Sharma is credited with adapting it for Hindustani classical performance. Bhajan Sopori is the other well known name on the instrument.

Option B, the sitar, belongs to Ravi Shankar, Vilayat Khan and Nikhil Banerjee. Option C, the flute or bansuri, is the instrument of Pannalal Ghosh, who brought it into classical concerts, and later of Hariprasad Chaurasia, who often performed alongside Shivkumar Sharma. Option D, the veena, has its own line of players, from S. Balachander and Chitti Babu on the Saraswati veena to Asad Ali Khan on the rudra veena. Note also that the santoor, although struck, is counted among tata vadya because its sound comes from strings.

The correct answer is C, Mughal. Humayun's Tomb in Delhi is one of the earliest and finest examples of Mughal architecture.

The tomb was built in 1570 on the orders of Humayun's widow Bega Begum, also called Haji Begum, and the architect was Mirak Mirza Ghiyas of Persia. It was the first garden tomb in India, set in a charbagh, the four-part garden divided by water channels, and the first large structure to use red sandstone with white marble inlay and a high double dome. This plan became the model for the Taj Mahal built about eighty years later. UNESCO placed the tomb on the World Heritage list in 1993.

Option A is wrong because British architecture in India belongs to the colonial period after the eighteenth century. Option B is wrong because Chola architecture means Dravidian temples such as the Brihadeshwara temple at Thanjavur. Option D is wrong because Magadha is an ancient kingdom, not a style of tomb building.

Exam tip: Humayun's Tomb is the first garden tomb of India and the model for the Taj Mahal.

The correct answer is D, Odissi. Kelucharan Mohapatra was the guru who brought Odissi, the classical dance of Odisha, back to the stage in the twentieth century. He began as a gotipua boy dancer and a pakhawaj player, and went on to train Sanjukta Panigrahi, Sonal Mansingh, Madhavi Mudgal and Protima Bedi. He received the Padma Vibhushan in 2000 and a Sangeet Natak Akademi Fellowship. Odissi is marked by the tribhanga or three-bend pose and the square chauka stance, both drawn from the temple sculpture of Konark and Puri. Option A is wrong because Kuchipudi belongs to Andhra Pradesh, whose great teacher was Vempati Chinna Satyam. Option B is wrong because Manipuri comes from Manipur and the Jhaveri sisters are among its exponents. Option C is wrong because Bharatanatyam is from Tamil Nadu, linked with Rukmini Devi Arundale and Balasaraswati. Exam tip: pair guru with form — Kelucharan Mohapatra with Odissi, Birju Maharaj with Kathak, Kalamandalam Gopi with Kathakali.