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Art & CultureHard

Sattriya dance originated in the monasteries established by which Vaishnava saint?

  1. A.Chaitanya Mahaprabhu
  2. B.Srimanta Sankardeva
  3. C.Siddhendra Yogi
  4. D.Vallathol Narayana Menon

Correct answer

B. Srimanta Sankardeva

Explanation

The correct answer is B, Srimanta Sankardeva. The Assamese saint of the fifteenth and sixteenth centuries founded the sattras, the Vaishnava monasteries that give the form its name, and created the Ankiya Naat plays staged in the namghar, in which the dance developed. Celibate monks kept the tradition alive inside those monasteries, and the Sangeet Natak Akademi recognised it as classical in 2000.

Option A, Chaitanya Mahaprabhu, led the Bhakti movement in Bengal and Odisha in the same period, but the sattras of Assam are not his foundation. Option C, Siddhendra Yogi, belongs to Andhra Pradesh and shaped Kuchipudi, composing the Bhama Kalapam. Option D, Vallathol Narayana Menon, was the Malayalam poet who founded Kerala Kalamandalam in 1930 and revived Kathakali and Mohiniyattam, both of which belong to Kerala and not to Assam. A safe way to hold the four apart is to attach a region to each name: Sankardeva with Assam, Chaitanya with Bengal, Siddhendra Yogi with Andhra Pradesh and Vallathol with Kerala.

Read the full article: Classical Dances of India: Eight Forms, States and Gurus

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Q1.Art & CultureEasy

Bharatanatyam is the classical dance form of which Indian state?

  1. A.Kerala
  2. B.Tamil Nadu
  3. C.Karnataka
  4. D.Andhra Pradesh
Show answer
Correct answer: B. Tamil Nadu

Bharatanatyam grew in the temples of Tamil Nadu, where it was performed by devadasis under the older name sadir or dasiattam, and it was brought to the concert stage in the twentieth century by E. Krishna Iyer and Rukmini Devi Arundale, who founded Kalakshetra at Madras in 1936.

Q2.Art & CultureEasy

Which classical dance form of Kerala is a dance-drama performed with elaborately painted faces and towering headgear?

  1. A.Mohiniyattam
  2. B.Kathakali
  3. C.Kuchipudi
  4. D.Odissi
Show answer
Correct answer: B. Kathakali

The name means story-play, and the form stages episodes from the Ramayana and the Mahabharata. Its characters are identified by make-up types, chiefly pacha for noble heroes, kathi for proud anti-heroes such as Ravana, thadi for fierce figures, kari for demonesses and minukku for gentle women and sages.