Indian Culture Questions and Answers

Answer: A

Bardo Chham is a folk dance of the Sherdukpen tribe of Arunachal Pradesh. It is performed at festivals and tells of the victory of good over evil, with dancers wearing masks of animals. Jammu and Kashmir, Kerala and Maharashtra have different folk dances such as Rouf, Theyyam and Lavani, so they are wrong.

Answer: D

Lavani is a popular folk music and dance form of Maharashtra, in which songs are sung to the beat of the dholki. Arunachal Pradesh, Jammu and Kashmir, and Kerala have their own traditions, so Maharashtra is the only state that matches Lavani.

Answer: C

Sattriya is the classical dance of Assam. It grew out of the Vaishnavite monasteries, the sattras, founded by the saint Sankaradeva in the fifteenth and sixteenth centuries, and it was given the status of a classical dance by the Sangeet Natak Akademi in 2000. Uttar Pradesh is the home of Kathak, Kerala of Kathakali and Mohiniyattam, and Andhra Pradesh of Kuchipudi, so those states are not correct. The answer is Assam, option C.

The Sangeet Natak Akademi recognises eight classical dances: Bharatanatyam, Kathak, Kuchipudi, Odissi, Kathakali, Sattriya, Manipuri and Mohiniyattam.

Answer: A

Lotia is a folk music of Rajasthan. It is sung in the month of Chaitra, in a festival in which the women carry pots of water from ponds and wells, as exam reference lists of folk music record, and it is also sung by the farmers at work in the fields. I could not find a scholarly source on it, so this follows the commonly given classification and the key. Bihar and Uttar Pradesh have other folk forms such as Biraha and Kajri, and Manipur has Pung Cholom and Khullang Eshei. The answer is Rajasthan, option A.

Answer: B

Chhau is the masked dance of the regions of Seraikela (Jharkhand), Purulia (West Bengal) and Mayurbhanj (Odisha), so the three styles are known as the Seraikela, Purulia and Mayurbhanj Chhau. Kathakali is a dance-drama of Kerala with elaborate face painting, Kuchipudi is a classical dance of Andhra Pradesh, and Odissi is a classical dance of Odisha that is not performed with masks. Only Chhau matches the three regions named in the question.

Answer: D

The key names Ustad Fateh Ali Khan. The Patiala gharana of Hindustani vocal music is traditionally credited to Fateh Ali Khan and Ali Baksh Khan, who were musicians at the court of Maharaja Narendra Singh of Patiala in the nineteenth century. Ustad Mahmood Khan, Ustad Chajju Khan and Ustad Mamman Khan are not named as its founders in the standard account, so they are the distractors. Both founders are accepted in the sources, and the option offered carries one of them.

Answer: A

A mosaic is a pattern or image made of small regular or irregular pieces of coloured stone, glass or ceramic, held in place by plaster or cement. It is a kind of art that is used on floors and walls. It is not a method of photography, a type of painting or a form of music. A mosaic is made by setting small pieces, called tesserae, into a surface, and the Romans used them for floors in villas. A method of photo art, a painting or music are not mosaics, though a photographic mosaic uses many small images.

Answer: B

Fugdi is the folk dance of Goa. Women form a circle or two rows, clap, sing and sway, and it is performed mainly during the festival of Ganesh Chaturthi and on other celebrations.

Ghoomar is a dance of Rajasthan performed by women in swirling skirts. Rouf is a women's dance of Jammu and Kashmir performed during Ramzan and Eid. Bayalata is a folk theatre form of Karnataka, with open-air performance. Each of the other three therefore belongs to a different region, and only Fugdi is from Goa.

Answer: D

Naatupura Paadalgal means folk songs of the countryside and belongs to Tamil Nadu. These songs were sung by villagers in daily life, at work in the fields, and at festivals and ceremonies, and they have been handed down by word of mouth for generations.

The question asks for a state, and the Tamil name of the form points to Tamil Nadu. Telangana, Andhra Pradesh and Kerala have their own folk traditions with other names, and none of them uses this term for its folk music. The key is Tamil Nadu.

Answer: C

The key gives three. I could not confirm this against a standard text, so treat it as the printed key and not a proven fact. The dhrupad composition is usually taught in four sections: sthayi, antara, sanchari and abhog. Some accounts leave out sanchari and list three, which would match the key.

No option gives four, so three is the nearest available choice. One would not describe a multi-part form, six has no basis that was found, and five is a count not found in the usual accounts. Nothing found shows the key to be wrong, so it is kept.