Srikalahasti and Machilipatnam are the two centres of which textile craft?

The correct answer is A, Gujarat. Patola sarees are woven at Patan in Gujarat, where both the warp and the weft yarns are tied and dyed before weaving. Because both sets of yarn carry the design, the finished pattern reads the same on the front and the back of the cloth, which is what makes it a double ikat. Option B is wrong because Odisha weaves the Sambalpuri bandha saree, an ikat in which only one set of yarn is usually resist dyed. Option C is wrong because Telangana is the home of Pochampally ikat, known for its geometric patterns. Option D is wrong because Maharashtra weaves the Paithani saree, a brocade with peacock and lotus motifs on the pallu and no ikat work at all. Remember the pair Patan with Patola and the word double.

The correct answer is B, Bishnupur in West Bengal. Baluchari weaving takes its name from the village of Baluchar in Murshidabad and moved to Bishnupur in the Bankura district, which is its centre today. Its mark of identity is the pallu, where episodes from the Ramayana and the Mahabharata, and scenes of court life, are woven in silk. Option A is wrong because Kanchipuram weaves thick mulberry silk sarees with contrasting borders, not narrative pallus. Option C is wrong because Chanderi in Madhya Pradesh is known for light, glossy and almost transparent cotton silk sarees. Option D is wrong because Paithan in Maharashtra is the home of the Paithani, whose pallu carries peacock and lotus motifs rather than stories. The pair to hold is Bishnupur with Baluchari.

The correct answer is C, Assam. Muga is reared from the Assam silkworm in the Brahmaputra valley and is the only naturally golden silk in the world, used for the mekhela chador and for sarees woven at Sualkuchi near Guwahati. Option A is wrong because Karnataka is the leading producer of mulberry silk, the white and fine variety that makes up the bulk of Indian silk, and Mysuru is famous for its crepe silk sarees. Option B is wrong because Jharkhand, with Chhattisgarh and Odisha, produces tasar, the coarser copper coloured forest silk. Option D is wrong because West Bengal rears mulberry silk and weaves Baluchari and Jamdani, but not Muga. Assam alone also gives eri, the warm ahimsa silk. A useful rule is that Assam supplies two of the four Indian silks, muga and eri, while the other states supply mulberry and tasar.

The correct answer is B, Tamil Nadu. The saree is named after the temple town of Kanchipuram in Tamil Nadu, where it is woven from thick mulberry silk. Its body and its contrasting border are often woven separately and then joined so firmly that the joint holds even if the saree tears, and wide bands of zari are used. Option A is wrong because Kerala weaves the kasavu, an off white cotton saree with a plain gold border, at Balaramapuram and Chendamangalam. Option C is wrong because Andhra Pradesh is known for Venkatagiri and Uppada sarees and for Kalamkari painted cloth. Option D is wrong because Karnataka gives Mysore crepe silk and the Ilkal saree. Do not shift Kanchipuram out of Tamil Nadu. Examiners often shift this saree to a neighbouring southern state, so fix it to the temple town of Kanchipuram itself.

The correct answer is A, tie and dye. In Bandhani the cloth is pinched and tied with thread in thousands of tiny knots before it is dipped in dye, so the tied points resist the colour and appear as white or light dots in patterns of squares, waves and flowers. Kutch, Jamnagar, Jodhpur and Sikar are its known centres. Option B is wrong because wax resist dyeing is Batik, practised in Madhya Pradesh and West Bengal, where molten wax and not thread blocks the dye. Option C is wrong because metal thread embroidery is Zardozi, a needle craft of Lucknow and Bhopal. Option D is wrong because painting with a kalam or pen is Kalamkari of Andhra Pradesh. Bandhani is dyeing, not weaving or stitching.