Indian Culture Questions and Answers

Answer: C

The couplet says that even the great sea shrinks (its wealth reduces) if the cloud does not give back the water it has taken, so what reduces is the great sea, option C.

Land ploughing, donation and worship are not what the couplet says is reduced.

The couplet says that if the cloud does not give back what it has taken from the sea, even the vast sea will shrink in its wealth. The word in the blank, great sea (nedungkadal), completes the first line, while land ploughing, donation and worship are the topics of other couplets.

Answer: D

The Kural calls numbers and letters the two eyes of living beings, option D.

Virtue and wealth, impartiality and self control, and wealth and love are not the pair named as the eyes.

The couplet (Kural 392) says that the two, numbers and letters, are called the eyes of living beings. It comes in the chapter on learning, and so the pair is learning in its two forms and not virtue and wealth or any of the other pairs offered.

Answer: B

Kamban compares Rama's calm acceptance of joy and sorrow to the lotus flower, which keeps its freshness whether it is crowned or discarded, option B.

Jasmine, lily and mullai are not used for that comparison.

Kamban's Ramayana describes Rama as a person who faced the order for exile with the same calm face as the offer of the crown, and he compares his face to a lotus that did not wither. Jasmine, lily and mullai are flowers used in other Tamil comparisons.

Answer: B

The key names the pallu as the best description of Maruthanilam Nanda Villakam in Chitrilakkiyam, option B.

Ula, Barani and Pillai Tamil are other minor literary forms and are not credited here. The booklet tick agrees with the key.

The Chitrilakkiyam are the minor literary forms of Tamil, such as ula, pallu, barani and pillai tamil. The pallu is a poem about the life of farmers and agricultural fields, with a description of the fertile Maruthanilam, so the key chooses it for a poem about the Maruthanilam named Nanda Villakam.

Answer: B

The statement, like a bird flying to a fruit-bearing tree, I went to the broad palace of Karikal's court, is by Mudathamakkanniyar in the Porunararruppadai, option B.

Kapilar, Nedumkilliyar and Alawanthar are other persons of the Sangam period and are not the speaker.

The Porunararruppadai, one of the ten idylls, was composed by Mudathamakanniyar in praise of the Chola king Karikala. The image of birds flying to a fruit-bearing tree describes how poets and bards came to Karikala's palace, so the speaker is the poet Mudathamakanniyar.

Answer: B

Mullaipattu is also called Nenjatruppadai, option B, because the lady consoles her heart.

Kurunthogai is a Sangam anthology, and Sirupanatruppadai and Thirumurugatruppadai are other Pathupattu poems with their own names.

The Mullaippattu is a short poem of 103 lines by Napputhanar, in which the lady waits for her husband's return and comforts her own heart. Because of this, it is also called Nenjatrupadai, the poem that guides the heart. The other names are different poems of the Pathupattu.

Answer: D

Pairs (1) and (3) are correct: Vedanta is the fountain head of Indian philosophy and the Rigveda contains the Gayatri mantra.

The Brahmanas are ritual texts, not musical hymns, which belong to the Samaveda, and the Upanishads, not the Puranas, form the Vedanta, so (2) and (4) are wrong. Option D.

Vedanta is the philosophical end of the Vedic tradition and the Rigveda contains the Gayatri mantra in its third book. The Brahmanas are ritual texts in prose, and the Puranas are mythological texts, not the Upanishads, so pairs (2) and (4) are wrongly matched.

Answer: B

Pairs (1), (2) and (4) are correct: Rajaji wrote Sakravarthi Thirumagal, Subramania Siva ran the journal Prabanchamitran, and V.O.C. wrote Meiyyarivu.

Kadavul Oruvare is not attributed to Bharathiyar in the key, so pair (3) is rejected. Option B.

Rajaji wrote Chakravarthi Thirumagal, Subramania Siva wrote in Prabanchamitran, and V.O. Chidambaram Pillai wrote Meiyyarivu. The work Kadavul Oruvare is not Bharathiyar's according to the key, so the matches (1), (2) and (4) are right.

Answer: C

The works match as Bankimchandra with Devi Chaudharani (2), Dinabandhu Mitra with Nil Darpan (3) and Premchand with Shatranj Ke Khilari (1), the code 2 3 1.

The other codes mismatch these authors and works.

Bankimchandra Chattopadhyay wrote Devi Chaudharani (1884), Dinabandhu Mitra wrote the play Nil Darpan (1860) about the indigo planters and Premchand wrote the story Shatranj Ke Khilari. These authors and works fit only the code 2 3 1.

Answer: D

The key places this theme in the chapter Benignity (perspective) of the Thirukkural, which deals with a person who does not forget the help of one who taught him or helped him.

The chapters on detectives, hopefulness in trouble and the tyranny of rule deal with other subjects. The match follows the key because the chapter name is a translation of a Tamil chapter title.

The Thirukkural has 133 chapters, and each chapter holds ten couplets on one theme, which is why a question can be set from the chapter title.