Which south - eastern Dravidian language has been approved by Odisha state to be included in the Eighth Schedule of the Constitution of India, on 10th July 2023?

The correct answer is B, Goa. Ranmale is a folk theatre of Goa, performed mainly in the Sattari and Sanguem areas.

It is staged at night in the open during the Shigmo festival and around Holi, in front of a village temple. Men play all the roles, including the female ones, and the episodes are taken from the Ramayana and the Mahabharata, tied together by a narrator, drums and the ghumot. Goa's other well known folk forms are Jagor, Dashavatara, Kalo and Khell, and Zagor is listed among its temple traditions.

Option A is wrong because West Bengal's folk theatre is Jatra. Option C is wrong as Jharkhand is known for Chhau and Paika. Option D is wrong because Chhattisgarh's forms are Nacha and Pandavani, the ballad style made famous by Teejan Bai.

Exam tip: Ranmale, Dashavatara and Jagor - Goa; Jatra - West Bengal; Nautanki - Uttar Pradesh; Tamasha - Maharashtra; Bhavai - Gujarat.

The correct answer is A, Deccan. The Bahmani buildings at Gulbarga belong to the Deccan or Provincial style of Indo-Islamic architecture.

When the Bahmani sultanate broke away from Delhi in 1347 it developed its own manner, blending Persian and Turkish ideas brought by architects from Iran with local craft and stone. The Jama Masjid inside Gulbarga fort is its finest example: it has no open courtyard, and sixty-three domes and wide arches cover the whole prayer hall, which is unusual in India. The Haft Gumbaz tombs stand nearby. After the capital moved to Bidar the same style produced the Mahmud Gawan madrasa.

Option B, Mameluke or Slave dynasty style, belongs to the early Delhi Sultanate, as in the Qutub Minar. Option C, Sikh style, is seen in gurdwaras of Punjab from a much later period. Option D, Nagara, is a north Indian temple style with a curved shikhara.

Exam tip: Delhi styles are Imperial, regional ones Provincial; Gulbarga and Bidar - Deccan style.

The correct answer is A, Andhra Pradesh. Tholu Bommalata is the leather shadow puppet theatre of Andhra Pradesh.

The name means the dance of leather dolls. Puppets are cut from goat or deer hide, dyed on both sides so the colours glow when a lamp throws their shadow on a cloth screen, and worked from behind while singers and a harmonium and drums carry the story. The plays are drawn from the Ramayana and the Mahabharata and often run through the night. India has four famous shadow puppet forms: Tholu Bommalata here, Togalu Gombeyaata in Karnataka, Ravanachhaya in Odisha and Tholpavakoothu in Kerala.

Option B is wrong because Karnataka's shadow form is Togalu Gombeyaata. Option C is wrong as Kerala has Tholpavakoothu, performed in Bhagavati temples. Option D is wrong because Maharashtra's puppet tradition is Kalasutri Bahulya, worked with strings.

Exam tip: leather shadow puppets - Andhra Pradesh; string puppets - Rajasthan's Kathputli.

The correct answer is B, Bhaktivedanta Swami Prabhupada. He founded ISKCON in New York in 1966.

Born Abhay Charan De in Calcutta in 1896, he sailed to the United States at the age of sixty-nine with a few rupees and a trunk of books, and began chanting the Hare Krishna mantra in a park in Manhattan. ISKCON follows Gaudiya Vaishnavism, the devotional tradition of Bengal, and is often called the Hare Krishna movement. Prabhupada translated the Bhagavad Gita As It Is and much of the Bhagavata Purana, and the society now runs temples and food relief programmes across the world.

Option A, Sri Chaitanya, was the sixteenth century Bengal saint whose teachings ISKCON follows, but he founded no such society. Option C, Sri Ramakrishna, inspired the Ramakrishna Mission, started by Swami Vivekananda in 1897. Option D was Prabhupada's own guru.

Exam tip: ISKCON, 1966, New York, Bhaktivedanta Swami Prabhupada, Gaudiya Vaishnav tradition of Chaitanya.

The correct answer is D, Assam. Muga silk is produced only in Assam and is the state's best known textile.

It comes from the semi-domesticated silkworm Antheraea assamensis, which feeds on som and soalu leaves in the Brahmaputra valley. The thread has a natural golden yellow shine that grows brighter with every wash, and a Muga mekhela chador can outlast its owner. Muga silk received a Geographical Indication tag in 2007, the first such tag given to a product from Assam. India makes four kinds of silk: mulberry, tasar, eri and muga.

Option A is wrong because Arunachal Pradesh is known for its Apatani and Adi weaves, not muga. Option B is wrong as Bihar is linked with tasar silk from Bhagalpur. Option C is wrong because Maharashtra is known for Paithani sarees, made from mulberry silk.

Exam tip: Muga and eri silk - Assam; tasar - Jharkhand and Bihar; mulberry - Karnataka.