Books and Authors Questions and Answers

Answer: C

Baataan Ri Phulwari was written by Vijaydan Detha.

Vijaydan Detha (Bijji) collected and rewrote the folk tales of Rajasthan in Rajasthani in the multi-volume Baatan Ri Phulwari (Garden of Tales). The tenth volume won the Sahitya Akademi Award for Rajasthani in 1974, and several of his stories were made into films, such as Paheli.

Laxmi Kumari Chundawat and Malchand Tiwari are other Rajasthani writers, and Shri Lal is not the author of this work.

Answer: B

The kind of poetry work is Rupak.

In Rajasthani literature a rupak is a poem that sets out the achievements of a dynasty or of an individual; Gajgun Rupak and Rupak Gogadeji Ro are named examples. That is exactly the description in the stem.

A vigat is a prose work giving detailed accounts of rulers, their families, territories and notable people, with statistical detail, and Munhta Nainsi's Marwar Ra Pargana Ri Vigat is the standard example, so it is prose rather than poetry. A veli is a verse form that celebrates the bravery, loyalty and lineage of kings and nobles; Veli Kishan Rukmani Ri by Prithviraj Rathore is its famous example, but it is a specific verse form, while rupak is the general type the stem describes. A saakhi (sakhi) is a composition from personal experience, mostly by saint poets such as Kabir, usually in the soratha metre.

Answer: C

The rhyming prose-poetry form is Vachnika.

A vachnika is a Rajasthani literary form written in rhythmic, rhyming prose mixed with verse, usually to praise the deeds of a hero. The best-known example is Achaldas Khinchi ri Vachnika by Shivdas Gadan, about the siege of Gagron.

Vaat (baat) is prose storytelling, Prakas is a verse account of a dynasty's achievements, and Jhamaal is a verse form. None is defined as rhyming prose-poetry.

Answer: C

'Padmavat' was written by Malik Mohammad Jaysi (Malik Muhammad Jayasi).

Jayasi, a Sufi poet, composed the Padmavat in Awadhi around 1540. The epic tells the story of Rani Padmini (Padmavati) of Chittor, Rawal Ratan Singh and Alauddin Khalji's siege, and is also read as a Sufi allegory of the soul's search for God.

The three Maharajas named in the other options were rulers, not the author of this poem.

Answer: A

The Bhagavad Gita was first translated into English by Charles Wilkins.

Wilkins, a servant of the East India Company who had learnt Sanskrit in Benares, published The Bhagvat-Geeta, or Dialogues of Kreeshna and Arjoon in London in 1785, with a preface by Governor-General Warren Hastings. He also prepared the first Bengali printing type, used for Halhed's Bengali grammar of 1778.

William Jones founded the Asiatic Society in 1784 and translated Kalidasa's Shakuntala and the law code of Manu, but not the Gita. Macaulay is known for his 1835 Minute on English education, and Lord Bentinck (spelt Bentington in the paper) was the Governor-General who abolished sati in 1829.

Answer: A

It was Pearl S. Buck.

She grew up in China as the daughter of missionaries, and won the Nobel Prize for Literature in 1938, largely for The Good Earth. All Under Heaven, published in 1973, was among her last novels.

Answer: A

A Simple Path was written by Mother Teresa, compiled with Lucinda Vardey.

The book sets out her spiritual method in five steps - silence, prayer, faith, love and service. It reflects the working philosophy of the Missionaries of Charity, the order she founded in Calcutta in 1950.

Answer: D

Matters of Discretion: An Autobiography is by I.K. Gujral.

He was prime minister from 1997 to 1998 and is remembered for the Gujral Doctrine, which offered India's smaller neighbours concessions without expecting reciprocity.

Answer: B

The City of Joy was written by Dominique Lapierre, published in 1985.

It describes life in the Anand Nagar slum of Calcutta. Lapierre gave much of the royalties to charitable work in the city, and the book was filmed by Roland Joffé in 1992.

Answer: D

The 3 Mistakes of My Life was written by Chetan Bhagat, published in 2008.

It is set in Ahmedabad around the 2001 earthquake and the 2002 riots, and follows three friends and a cricket shop. It was filmed as Kai Po Che! in 2013.