Art & Culture Test 7

Solution: b

Nandikeshvara (5th century-4th century BC) was the great theorist on stage-craft of ancient India. He was the author of the Abhinaya Darpana (“The Mirror of Gesture”), a famous treatise on dance.

Solution: c

As per Abhinaya Darpan, Nandikeshwara’s famous treatise on dance, an act has been broken into three basic elements:

• Nritta – It refers to the basic dance steps, performed rhythmically but devoid of any expression or mood.
• Natya – It means dramatic representations and refers to the story that is elaborated through the dance recital.
• Nritya – Nritya refers to the sentiment and the emotions evoked through dance. It includes the mime and the different methods of expression including mudras in the dance.

Solution: d

The origins of Bharatanatyam can be traced back to ‘Sadir’ – the solo dance performance of the temple dancers or ‘devadasis’ in Tamil Nadu. It was also referred to as ‘Dashiattam’.

With the decline of the Devadasi system, the art too became nearly extinct. However, the efforts of E. Krishna Iyer, a prominent freedom fighter, revived this dance form.

Solution: c

Garba – Garba is a popular folk dance of Gujarat, held at the time of Navaratra. Garba actually refers to “Garbha deep” – an earthern pot with holes, in which a lamp is lit and women dance around it in circular movements with rhythmic clapping.

Mohiniattam – Mohiniattam is an Indian classical dance form that evolved in the state of Kerala.

Mohiniattam adheres to the Lasya type that showcases a more graceful, gentle and feminine form of dancing.

(‘Mohini’ meaning beautiful woman and ‘attam’ means dance), it is essentially a solo dance performance by women.

Yakshagana – It is perhaps the oldest theatre traditions, which is prevalent till date in the regions of Andhra Pradesh and Karnataka.

It originated in the royals courts of the Vijaynagar empire and was performed by a particular community known as Jakkula Varu.

Solution: a

Bharatnatyam is often referred to as the ‘fire dance’, as it is the manifestation of fire in the human body. Most of the movements in Bharatnatyam resemble to that of a dancing flame.

Solution: c

The historical roots of Hindustani and Carnatic music types belong to the Bharata’s Natyasastra. The first work that clarified and elaborated on the subject of musicology was Natyashastra.

Solution: b

Statement 1 – Musical instruments like seven-holed flute and Ravanahatha, have been recovered from the sites of Indus Valley Civilization.

Statement 2 – The Jaimini Brahmana speaks collectively of dance and music.

Statement 3 – Dhrupad is pure music without distraction of words.

Solution: b

Kirana Gharana have had a long line of great singers but the most famous are Pandit Bhimsen Joshi and Gangubai Hangal.

Solution: a

Dhrupadis one of the oldest and grandest forms of Hindustani classical music and finds it mention even in Natyashastra (200 BC–200 AD).

The name is derived from ‘dhruva’ and ‘pada,’ which means that it denotes both verse form of the poetry and the style in which it is sung. Although Dhrupad consolidated its position as a classical form of music in the 13th century, it reached its zenith in the court of Emperor Akbar.

Solution: c

The seven swaras together are called Saptak or Sargam.

The emotions which are evoked through the singing and playing of instruments are called Rasas.

The rhythmic grouping of beats are called Tala.

A system of classification of the ragas in different groups are called Thaat.

Solution: b)

• Madhubani which means ‘forest of honey’, is a style of folk painting old enough to find mention in some of the ancient Indian texts like Ramayana. It is also known as Mithila, for its origin in the Mithila region in Bihar.
• Instead of contemporary brushes, objects like twigs, matchsticks and even fingers are used to create the paintings.
• Since the paintings have been confined to a limited geographical range, the themes as well as the style are more or less, the same.
• Madhubani is now found on apparel, paper, canvas, and other products, which boast of designs inspired by Hindu deities such as Krishna, Rama, Lakshmi, Shiva, Durga, Saraswati, all of whom have been painted in Madhubani since ancient times.

Solution: a)

• Unlike Mughal painting which is primarily secular, the art of painting in Central India, Rajasthani and the Pahari region etc. is deeply rooted in the Indian traditions, taking inspiration from Indian epics, religious texts like the Puranas, love poems in Sanskrit and other Indian languages, Indian folk-lore and works on musical themes.
• The cults of Vaishnavism, Saivism and Sakti exercised tremendous influence on the pictorial art of these places. It did not develop as anti-Sanskrit movement.

Solution: a)

• Emperor Akbar was keenly interested in the art of painting and architecture.
• The Mughal style is marked by supple naturalism based on close observation of nature and fine and delicate drawing. It is of a high aesthetic merit. It is primarily aristocratic and secular.

Solution: c)

• It is a folk theatre of Jammu and Kashmir. It involves contemporary social satire or even mythical stories. It is secular in outlook, although it is performed by Muslims. It has music, dance and drama.

Solution: c)

• The craft of the Thatheras of Jandiala Guru constitutes the traditional technique of manufacturing brass and copper utensils in Punjab.
• This is an oral tradition that is passed on to generations of the ‘Thathera’ community. The metals are heated and moulded into thin plates with curved shapes.
• It is recommended for medicinal purposes in several Ayurveda texts. It was patronized and encouraged by Maharaja Ranjit Singh in the 19th century.
• The utensils are of wide variety like those used in household and community kitchens (langar) of Sikh Gurudwaras.

Solution: a)

• Shruti describes the sacred texts comprising the central canon of Hinduism viz. Vedas, Brahmanas, Aranyakas, & Upanishads.
• Smiriti literally means “that which is remembered,” and it is entire body of the post Vedic

Classical Sanskrit literature. It comprises Vedanga, Shad darsana, Puranas, Itihasa, Upveda, Tantras, Agamas, Upangs. There is another post Vedic class of Sanskrit literature called Epics which includes Ramayana and Mahabharta.

• However, there is not a distinct divide between Shruti and Smriti. Both Shruti and Smriti can be represented as a continuum, with some texts more canonical than others.

Solution: c)

• The poems belonging to the Sangam literature were composed by Tamil poets, both men and women, from various professions and classes of society.
• Sangam Poems falls into two categories: the ‘inner field’ (Agam), and the ‘outer field'(Puram) as described even in the first available Tamil grammar, the Tolkappiyam.
• The ‘inner field’ topics refer to personal or human aspects, such as love and sexual relationships, and are dealt with in a metaphorical and abstract manner.
• The ‘outer field’ topics discuss all other aspects of hum

Solution: a)

• According to Jain doctrine, the universe and its constituents—soul, matter, space, time, and principles of motion—have always existed. All the constituents and actions are governed by universalnatural laws.

Solution: a)

• Todi should be performed in the late morning.
• Raga Bhopali should be sung after sunset.
• Bhimpalasi should be sung in late Afternoon.
• Raga Darbari is played deep into the night, considered to be one of the more difficult to master. Raga Darbari is a raga in the Kanada family, which is thought to have originated in Carnatic music and brought into North Indian music by Miyan Tansen, the 16th-century composer in Emperor Akbar’s court.

Solution: b)

• The main architectural features of Odisha temples are classified in three orders, i.e., rekhapida, pidhadeul and khakra.
• The temples of Odisha constitute a distinct substyle within the nagara order. In general, here the shikhara, called deul in Odisha, is vertical almost until the top when it suddenly curves sharply inwards.
• Deuls (part of the word pidhadeul) are preceded, as usual, by mandapas called jagamohana in Odisha.