Indian Culture Questions and Answers

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.

Answer: B

The word khayal comes from Arabic. It is the Arabic word khayal, meaning thought, imagination or fancy, which passed through Persian into Urdu and Hindi. The singing style takes its name from it because the style stresses imagination and the singer's freedom to elaborate.

Urdu and Hindi are languages in which the word is used, but they took it from Persian and Arabic. Sanskrit has other words for imagination and does not give this word. The origin of the word is Arabic, which matches the key.

Answer: B

Jagoi is the term for the dance forms of Manipur, and so it belongs to the Manipuri dance. The Manipuri tradition is known for its devotional Raas Leela, the ritual Lai Haraoba festival dances and the Pung (drum) dances, and its gentle, flowing movements are a feature that sets it apart from other Indian classical forms.

Chhau is a mask or martial dance of Odisha, Jharkhand and West Bengal, Bihu is the folk dance of Assam, and Karma is a tribal harvest dance of central and eastern India, so none of these three is a form of Manipuri dance.

Answer: D

Sankaradeva, the 15th to 16th century Assamese saint and reformer, introduced Sattriya, using it in his Ankiya Nat plays performed in the sattras (Vaishnava monasteries) of Assam. It was given classical status by the Sangeet Natak Akademi in 2000.

Vyasa, Madhavacharya and Bhasa are not linked with its origin: Vyasa is the traditional author of the Mahabharata, Madhavacharya was a Dvaita philosopher, and Bhasa was a Sanskrit playwright.

Answer: C

Sopana Sangeetham originated in Kerala. It is devotional temple music sung beside the steps (sopanam) of the sanctum, linked with Kerala temples and traditionally accompanying Kathakali and Kutiyattam performances.

Karnataka, Odisha and Telangana have their own traditions, such as Carnatic, Odissi and folk music, but Sopana Sangeetham is not theirs.

Sopana literally means the steps at the entrance of a sanctum, and the singing is done there as part of temple ritual, with the idakka drum as a common accompaniment.

Answer: B

Dravidian architecture is the style of the South Indian temples, with pyramidal vimana towers and, in later centuries, tall gopuram gateways, as at Thanjavur and Madurai. Buddhist architecture refers to stupas, viharas and chaityas, Mauryan architecture to pillars and the early palace and stupa tradition, and Mughal architecture to tombs, forts and mosques. In the Dravidian temple style the sanctum is topped by a pyramid-shaped tower, the vimana, and the temple compound has a large gateway tower called the gopuram. Examples include the Brihadisvara temple at Thanjavur and the Meenakshi temple at Madurai.

Answer: A

The Guru Gopinath National Museum of Dance is located in Thiruvananthapuram in Kerala, and is named for the Kathakali dancer Guru Gopinath, so Kerala is the answer. It is not located in Karnataka, Madhya Pradesh or Tamil Nadu. The museum is a national centre devoted to the study and display of Indian dance forms, and carries the name of Guru Gopinath, a celebrated dancer who worked to revive Kerala's classical dance traditions.

Answer: C

Ustad Alladiya Khan founded the Jaipur-Atrauli gharana of Hindustani vocal music. Kesarbai Kerkar was one of his best-known disciples, not the founder. Vidyadhar Vyas is associated with the Gwalior and Agra traditions, and Ghulam Ali Khan was a musician of a different lineage. The Jaipur-Atrauli gharana is known for its complex and unusual raga selection and its rhythmic vocal style, and it grew from Alladiya Khan's training in Atrauli and his service at the court of Jaipur.

Answer: D

The Kathak dance form was promoted by the Muslim rulers, in whose courts it developed a new form, with the Mughal period giving it its court character. Shishunaga, Nanda and Haryanka dynasties were ancient dynasties of Magadha and are not credited with this. Kathak began as the dance of temple storytellers in northern India and developed in the courts of the Mughal rulers, where it took on more elaborate footwork and expressive features.