Indian Culture Questions and Answers

Answer: C

All three kinds are there.

The Chandelas built some eighty-five temples at Khajuraho between 950 and 1050, of which about twenty survive. They include Shaivite temples such as the Kandariya Mahadeva, Vaishnavite ones such as the Lakshmana, and a Jain group in the eastern cluster.

Answer: A

It belongs to the Kishangarh school.

Nihal Chand painted it about 1750 under Raja Sawant Singh, and the elongated face with the arched brow, half-closed eye and pointed chin became the signature of the school. India issued a stamp of it in 1973.

Answer: B

It is a place of worship for Zoroastrians.

The fire temple, or agiary, keeps a sacred fire burning perpetually as the symbol of Ahura Mazda's purity and light. Fires of the highest grade have burned continuously for centuries; the one at Udvada in Gujarat since the eighth.

Answer: B

There are 101.

The traditional repertoire of Kathakali attakathas numbers 101 stories, drawn mostly from the Mahabharata, Ramayana and Bhagavata, though only some thirty are regularly staged today.

Answer: C

It was Sri Narayana Guru.

The Kerala reformer, born into the Ezhava community, consecrated a Shiva temple at Aruvippuram in 1888 in defiance of the rule that only Brahmins might do so, and founded the SNDP Yogam. His slogan was one caste, one religion, one God for man.

Answer: A

It originated in Assam.

Sattriya was created by Sankaradeva in the fifteenth century as part of the worship in the sattras, the Vaishnava monasteries of Assam, and was danced there by monks. It was recognised as a classical form by the Sangeet Natak Akademi in 2000.

Answer: B

It is Garba.

Danced in concentric circles around a perforated earthen lamp, the garbo, during Navratri, it honours the goddess. Nautanki belongs to the Hindi belt, Kathakali to Kerala and Bhangra to Punjab.

Answer: D

They are Badrinath, Rameswaram, Puri and Dwarka.

Adi Shankara is traditionally credited with establishing these four as the Char Dham, one in each direction of the country. The Chhota Char Dham of Uttarakhand - Badrinath, Kedarnath, Gangotri and Yamunotri - is a separate circuit.

Answer: C

It is in Odisha.

European sailors called the Konark sun temple the Black Pagoda, both for the dark colour of its stone and because it served as a landmark distinct from the white-plastered Jagannath temple at Puri, which they called the White Pagoda.

Answer: A

It is mainly a festival of Assam.

Bohag Bihu, or Rongali Bihu, marks the Assamese new year in mid-April and the beginning of the sowing season, and is celebrated with the husori and the Bihu dance. Two other Bihus fall in October and January.