Indian Culture Questions and Answers

Answer: A

The answer is Shruti. In Indian music theory a shruti is the smallest audible interval of pitch, the small difference between consecutive pitches within a grama or scale; the traditional count is 22 shrutis in an octave. A svara is a musical note, and the seven svaras are chosen from among the shrutis, so it is a larger unit. Naada means sound or tone in a general sense, and a raga is a melodic framework made from svaras. Only shruti means the unit of small pitch difference described in the question.

Answer: B

Garba is not a classical dance of India: it is a folk dance of Gujarat. The Sangeet Natak Akademi recognises eight classical dances: Bharatanatyam, Kathak, Kuchipudi, Odissi, Kathakali, Sattriya, Manipuri and Mohiniyattam. Manipuri, Bharatanatyam and Kathakali are in the list, so only Garba is not.

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.