Kalamkari, the art of drawing and printing on cloth with a bamboo pen and vegetable dyes, is chiefly associated with which state?

The correct answer is B, Bihar. Madhubani painting, also called Mithila painting, belongs to the Mithila region of northern Bihar around the districts of Madhubani and Darbhanga. It was traditionally painted by women on the plastered walls and floors of the house for weddings and festivals, using natural dyes and a nib of bamboo wrapped in cloth, and it is now also done on paper and cloth. Its styles are Bharni, Katchni, Godna and Tantrik, and Sita Devi, Ganga Devi and Mahasundari Devi are its best known artists. It carries a Geographical Indication tag.

Option A, Uttar Pradesh, is not its home, though Mithila culture extends towards the Nepal border and not into the Doab. Option C, Kerala, is known for temple murals and Kathakali, not Madhubani. Option D, Tamil Nadu, is known for Tanjore painting with its gold foil, so it is the usual distractor in this question.

The correct answer is D, Kishangarh school. Bani Thani was painted by Nihal Chand in the eighteenth century at Kishangarh in Rajasthan, under Raja Savant Singh, who wrote devotional poetry under the name Nagari Das. The figure has an elongated face, a long neck, a sharply arched eyebrow and a curving eye, and this stylised female type became the mark of the school. The painting is often called the Mona Lisa of India, and Kishangarh work usually sets its lovers beside lotus filled lakes.

Option A, the Bundi school, is recognised by dense blue green vegetation, water and animal life, not by this female type. Option B, the Jaipur or Amber school, worked under strong Mughal influence on large portraits. Option C, the Kangra school, is a Pahari style from the hills, delicate and lyrical, famous for the Gita Govinda series, and geographically far from Rajasthan.

The correct answer is A, Ajanta. The Bodhisattva Padmapani, holding a blue lotus, is painted on the left wall of the antechamber of Cave 1 at Ajanta in Maharashtra, with the Bodhisattva Vajrapani facing him. The figure belongs to the Vakataka period of the fifth century, and its downcast eyes and relaxed body are held up as the finest example of Indian mural painting. Ajanta was painted in tempera on a ground of mud, cow dung and rice husk, and the caves stand above the Waghora river.

Option B, Badami in Karnataka, has Chalukyan royal portraits in Cave 3. Option C, Bagh in Madhya Pradesh, has Buddhist murals very close to Ajanta in style, which makes it the strongest distractor, but not this painting. Option D, Ellora, is chiefly a site of rock cut sculpture and architecture, with surviving painting mainly in the Kailasa temple.

The correct answer is C, Maharashtra. The Warli are a tribal community of the Palghar and Thane districts of northern Maharashtra, on the border of Gujarat. Their painting is made with a rice paste white on a wall coated with red ochre and cow dung, and it is built out of a few geometric units: the circle for the sun and moon, the triangle for mountains and trees, and the square for the sacred enclosure called the chauk. The commonest subject is the tarpa dance, a spiral of dancers around a musician. Jivya Soma Mashe was the artist who took Warli painting to the wider world.

Option A, Bihar, is the home of Madhubani. Option B, Kerala, is known for its temple murals. Option D, Assam, has manuscript painting of the Sattras, not Warli work.

The correct answer is C, Habib Tanvir. He was a playwright, director and actor of the modern Indian theatre, best known for Charandas Chor and for working with folk performers of Chhattisgarh in his company Naya Theatre. He belongs to drama, not to painting, so he is the odd one out.

Option A, Tyeb Mehta, was a painter of the Progressive Artists Group generation, known for his diagonal canvases and the Falling Figure and Mahishasura series. Option B, Jamini Roy, was a Bengal painter who left academic realism for the bold flat line of Kalighat painting and folk art of Bengal. Option D, Satish Gujral, was a painter, sculptor and muralist who also designed the Belgian Embassy building in New Delhi, so painting is one of his fields. Questions of this kind slip one name from theatre, music or sculpture into a list of painters.