Indian Culture Questions and Answers

Answer: C

Garia Puja is celebrated to worship Lord Garia, the deity of prosperity.

Garia (Baba Garia) is worshipped by the Tripuri and other tribal communities of Tripura in April, after the Bengali new year, for prosperity, a good harvest and the well-being of the family and livestock. It is one of the state's main festivals, with the Garia dance performed around a bamboo pole that represents the deity.

Durga, Shiva and Vishnu are Hindu deities with festivals of their own, but the festival named after Garia honours Garia himself.

Answer: D

It was Lord Cornwallis.

He reorganised the police in Bengal in 1793, dividing the districts into thanas of about 400 square miles under a daroga and taking policing away from the zamindars. He is also remembered for the Permanent Settlement and the separation of revenue from judicial functions.

Answer: C

They were built by the Pallavas.

Narasimhavarman I and his successors carved the rathas and mandapas at Mahabalipuram in the seventh century and built the Shore Temple about 700. The Europeans called them pagodas.

Answer: A

Chorten relates to Buddhism.

It is the Tibetan word for a stupa, a reliquary monument whose five parts represent the elements - earth, water, fire, air and space. They are found throughout Ladakh, Sikkim and the Himalayan belt.

Answer: D

Karnataka confers it.

The Basava Sri award commemorates Basavanna, the twelfth-century social reformer and founder of the Lingayat tradition, whose vachanas rejected caste and ritual.

Answer: B

They were built by the Pratiharas.

The Gurjara-Pratiharas raised the Hindu and Jain temples at Osian near Jodhpur between the eighth and eleventh centuries, among the earliest surviving temple groups in western India.

Answer: A

They are Pallava.

Mahendravarman I began the rock-cut mandapas, Narasimhavarman I cut the rathas at Mahabalipuram, and Rajasimha built the structural Shore Temple and the Kailasanatha at Kanchipuram - the whole progression from cave to free-standing temple in about a century.

Answer: D

It was instituted in 1969.

The Dadasaheb Phalke Award was created in the centenary year of the birth of Dhundiraj Govind Phalke, who made India's first full-length feature in 1913. Devika Rani was the first recipient.

Answer: B

He was a Carnatic vocalist.

M. Balamuralikrishna sang, composed in seventy-two melakarta ragas, created ragas of his own and played the viola and mridangam. He received the Padma Vibhushan and gave his first full concert at eight.

Answer: A

It was Sarat Chandra Chattopadhyay.

Devdas, written in 1900 and published in 1917, tells of Devdas, Paro and Chandramukhi. It has been filmed more than a dozen times in several languages.