Rajasthan Mixed Quiz: Set 7

Jhamarkotra, a short distance from Udaipur city, is the largest rock phosphate deposit in the country and the main domestic source of raw material for phosphatic fertiliser, which India otherwise imports in large quantity.

Rampura Agucha lies in Bhilwara district and is the largest lead and zinc mine of the country, worked for many years as a very large open pit and now mined underground; silver comes out of the same ore as a by product.

The Khetri copper complex in Jhunjhunu district, run by Hindustan Copper Limited, works the copper ore of the Khetri and Kolihan mines, and Kho-Dariba in Alwar is the other copper belt of the state.

Bhilwara grew into the largest textile centre of Rajasthan on worsted yarn and suiting fabric, with spinning, weaving and processing units in one place, and it is therefore called the textile city of the state and sometimes its Manchester.

Tungsten, in the form of the ore wolframite, is mined at the Rewat hill near Degana in Nagaur district, which has long been the main tungsten occurrence of the country.

It was opened in 1927, draws Sutlej water from the Hussainiwala headworks near Ferozepur and carries it into Sri Ganganagar, which became the first and for long the only canal irrigated district of Rajasthan.

Blue pottery reached Jaipur through Persian and Afghan craftsmen in the Mughal period and was revived in the twentieth century by the artist Kripal Singh Shekhawat; its paste is made of quartz, fuller's earth and ground glass instead of clay, and the pieces are painted in cobalt blue and fired…

The Thar desert and the arid plains west of the Aravalli take up the greater part of Rajasthan, and their soil is overwhelmingly sand, low in nitrogen and organic matter, porous so that water sinks away quickly, but often well supplied with lime and phosphate.

The Makrana quarries have been worked for centuries and their calcitic white marble went into the Taj Mahal at Agra, the Victoria Memorial at Kolkata and many temples and palaces; the stone is prized because it takes a high polish and weathers slowly.

The Desert National Park, spread over Jaisalmer and Barmer, is the largest protected area of Rajasthan and the main surviving habitat of the Great Indian Bustard, called godawan in Rajasthani and the state bird; the Sudasari enclosure within the park is set aside for it, and the Akal wood fossil…

Kota Doria is woven at Kaithun and nearby villages in Kota district from cotton and silk yarn in a chequered weave so fine and open that the cloth is almost weightless, and the sarees made from it carry a geographical indication tag.

The Central Sheep and Wool Research Institute, an institute of the Indian Council of Agricultural Research, works at Avikanagar in Tonk district on sheep and rabbit breeding, wool quality and grazing management.

Fluorite, also called fluorspar, is mined at Mando ki Pal in Dungarpur district in the far south of the state; the mineral is used as a flux in steel making and in the chemical industry.

Mount Abu, in Sirohi district, is the only hill station of Rajasthan.

Thewa is the craft of a single family line of Pratapgarh in southern Rajasthan, where a thin sheet of gold is cut into a pattern and fused on to coloured glass to make pendants, boxes and plates; the craft carries a geographical indication tag.

Keoladeo Ghana National Park at Bharatpur, once the duck shooting reserve of the Bharatpur rulers, was listed in 1981 and is also a World Heritage Site famous for its winter migratory birds; the Sambhar salt lake was listed in 1990 and attracts flamingos.

Mangala was found in 2004 in the Barmer Sanchor basin and was the largest onshore oil discovery ever made in the country; with the neighbouring Bhagyam and Aishwariya fields it turned Rajasthan into a crude oil producing state.

The potters of Molela, a village in Rajsamand district, make flat clay plaques in low relief showing Dharmaraj, Devnarayan, Nagaraja and other folk gods, which pilgrims from the tribal districts of Rajasthan, Gujarat and Madhya Pradesh carry home to their shrines; Molela clay work carries a geographical indication tag.

Rawatbhata stands on the Chambal in Chittorgarh district, beside the Rana Pratap Sagar dam whose water cools the reactors.

Phad is painted at Shahpura in Bhilwara district, traditionally by the Joshi family of chiteras, on a long cloth scroll that a singer priest unrolls at night while reciting the epics of Devnarayan and Pabuji; the figures are flat, in profile and in strong red, yellow and green.