Indian Culture Questions and Answers

Answer: C

In the Kural "Ozhukkaaraak kolka oruvandhan nenjaththu azhukkaaru iladha iyalpu", the word azhukkaaru means jealousy (envy). The verse tells a man to hold to the rule of living free from envy in his heart.

Love, submissiveness and good character are not what azhukkaaru means.

The couplet is Kural 161 in the chapter on not being envious, and it says that a man should hold as his rule the nature of a heart free from envy.

Answer: C

The Kural says that those who swim the ocean of birth cannot cross it unless they join the feet of the Lord, so the philosophy is surrender.

Siva Philosophy, Vidhya (knowledge) Philosophy and Soul Philosophy name other ideas; the verse is about surrender to the feet of the Lord, and the key accepts surrender philosophy.

The couplet is from the chapter on the Praise of God and compares birth to a great ocean that can be crossed only by those who take refuge at the feet of the Lord.

Answer: B

The key marks (i) and (ii): Pariperumal and Dharumar are classical commentators of the Thirukkural (Uraiyasiriyargal).

Ki.Va.Ja and Dhandapani Desigar are modern scholars and are not counted in this list, so the options with (iii) or (iv) are rejected. The answer follows the key.

Parimelazhagar, Manakkudavar, Kalingar and Dharumar are among the ancient commentators of the Kural, which is why Pariperumal and Dharumar are accepted in the list.

Answer: C

The key takes both statements as true with [R] explaining [A]: the Kural describes a country that is free from famine, plague and enemies, and poets wish for the development of countries and want every country to be special.

Options that deny either statement or the explanation are against the key.

The wording of the verse is about the land that is free from hunger, disease and enemies, so the assertion is a restatement of the verse itself.

Answer: A

The order of the Kural chapters is Domestic life (3), the goodness of the help to domestic life (1), the obtaining of sons (4) and the possession of love (2), that is 3, 1, 4, 2.

The chapters of the section on domestic virtue run in this order in the text, so option A is the sequence that follows the book.

The Kural begins with the chapter on the Praise of God and then moves to domestic life, so the domestic chapters come first, followed by the help to it, the obtaining of sons and the possession of love.

Answer: C

The series "Pagaivar pull aarga" (let the enemies' grass grow) is a refrain of the Aingkurunuru, where the poet prays for the welfare of the land.

Natrinai, Kalitthogai and Purananuru are other Sangam anthologies and do not contain this decad.

Aingkurunuru is an anthology of five hundred short poems in the akam tradition, arranged in five groups of one hundred poems, and it is one of the eight collections of the Sangam period.

Answer: B

The key takes both statements as true but [R] is not the correct explanation of [A]. Some poets lived on prize money while most had their own professions, and the refusal of low prizes by those who lived on them does not explain why most did not depend on prizes.

Option (C), which claims the reason explains the assertion, is not the key.

The pen tick on the booklet agrees with the key here, which reads (B), so there is no conflict between the tentative and final answers.

Answer: A

The key gives the code 3 4 1 2: the custom of an unrequited lover with Tholkappiam, mixing palmyra and sugarcane juice with coconut water with Purananuru, offering the crow with rice and ghee with Kuruntogai, and painting the walls of private houses with Manimegalai.

These matches follow the key. The other codes shuffle the works, for example by giving Tholkappiam to the house-painting custom.

Manimegalai is one of the five great epics of Tamil, and Kuruntogai and Purananuru are anthologies of the Sangam age.

Answer: B

Statement (iii) belongs to the chapter on Gratitude (Seynandri Arithal): a friend in need must not be forgotten, and comrades must not be forsaken.

Statement (i) is the verse on self-control of the senses like a tortoise and (ii) is about equality, which belong to other chapters. So (iii) only.

The chapter on gratitude is the 11th chapter of the first book on virtue and begins with the idea that help given without being asked is greater than the world.

Answer: D

Thiruvalluvar says that those who avoid the four ills, malice, desire, anger and bitter speech, reach virtue, so the order of the qualities as in the verse is malice (3), desire (2), anger (1) and bitter speech (4), that is 3, 2, 1, 4.

Each of the other orders places anger or bitter speech earlier than the verse does.

The verse names four faults, envy, covetousness, anger and harsh words, and the question lists them as malice, desire, anger and bitter speech.