Indian Culture MCQs

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Baul are a group of mystic minstrels from Bengal. Bauls constitute both a syncretic religious sect and a musical tradition. Bauls are a very heterogeneous group, with many sects, but their membership mainly consists of Vaishnava Hindus and Sufi Muslims. They can often be identified by their distinctive clothes and musical instruments. Not much is known of their origin. Lalon Fakir is regarded as the most important poet-practitioner of the Baul tradition. Baul music had a great influence on Rabindranath Tagore’s poetry and on his music (Rabindra Sangeet). Though Bauls comprise only a small fraction of the Bengali population, their influence on the culture of Bengal is considerable. In 2005, the Baul tradition was included in the list of “Masterpieces of the Oral and Intangible Heritage of Humanity” by UNESCO.

Notes:
Nataraja is a depiction of lord shiva. As the Lord of Dance, Nataraja, Shiva performs the Ananda Tandava (dance of bliss), the dance .The “Nataraja bronzes” is the Chola Nataraja artworks are mostly in copper, and a few are in brass. A great area innovation within the arts of the Chola period was in the field of metalwork, particularly in bronze sculpture.

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The Sant Kabir Award is conferred by Government of India every year on outstanding weavers who have made valuable contribution in keeping alive the handloom heritage and also for dedication in building up linkages between the past, present and future through dissemination of knowledge on traditional skills and designs.

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Śāradā is a script of the Brahmic family of scripts, developed around the 8th century. It was used for writing Sanskrit and Kashmiri. The Gurmukhī script was developed from Śāradā by Guru Angad. Originally more widespread, its use became later restricted to Kashmir, and it is now rarely used except by the Kashmiri Pandit community for ceremonial purposes. There are several variants of Śāradā Scripts such as Takkari or Tankari which is the parent of the Dogri script, Kului script (Kullu in Himachal Pradesh), Chameali Script (in Chamba Himachal Pradesh), Sindhi, Bania of Punjab etc.

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Saint Surdas ji was an ardent devotee of Lord Krishna and Radha, known for his devotional songs dedicated to Lord Krishna. He composed Sur Sagar (Ocean of Melody), Sur Saravali and Sahitya Ratna. He was blind from birth belong to saguna school of Bhakti Kal.

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Srinatha was the author of ‘Harivilasam’. He was a well-known 15th-century Telugu poet and was respected as Kavi Sarvabhouma (King of poets) wrote many on the subjects of history and mythology.

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Kovai Kora cotton is a blend of silk and cotton and Kora another product that is found more in the Sirumugai area of Tamil Nadu.  This art is mostly practised by people belonging to the Devanga community, who are involved mostly in weaving Kovai Kora cotton saris and they are the pioneers also in making the product. It received GI status in 2014.

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Rekha Deula, Pidha Deula and Khakhara Deula are three distinct types of temples associated to Kalinga architecture.

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Principle of Advita was propounded by Adi Shankaracharya. Following are the features of this Advaita philosophy:• According to this principle there is no difference between soul & universe i.e both are intermingled• The doctrine says that there is no difference between the Atman and the Brahman. The individual soul is not different from Brahman. Hence, its name Advaita meaning non-duality• The basic theme of Advaita is that the one unchanging entity alone is real, while changing entities do not have absolute existenceThe world is Maya or illusion and only the Self is real. A person who realises this attains moksha (liberation of the soul)

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The temple was used as a navigational point by European sailors. They referred to it as the ‘Black Pagoda’ due to its dark color and its magnetic power that drew ships into the shore and caused shipwrecks. Black Pagoda is a massive conception of artistic magnificence and engineering dexterity.