Indian Culture MCQs

Notes:
As per Tamil sources, the father of Tamil literature is ‘Agastaya’.

Notes:
The Saraswati Samman is an annual award for outstanding prose or poetry literary works in any Indian language listed in Schedule VIII of the Constitution of India. It is named after an Indian goddess of learning and is considered to be among the highest literary awards in India.
The Saraswati Samman was instituted in 1991 by the K. K. Birla Foundation. Candidates are selected from literary works published in the previous ten years by a panel that included scholars and former award winner

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Varaha Avatar, the third incarnation among the 10 Dashavatara of Lord Vishnu, is in the form of a Boar. In his third incarnation, Lord Vishnu as Varaha saved the earth from demon Hiranyaksha, thus saving the mankind.

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The Ganga Sagar Mela is a religious festival and second biggest fair of India after Kumbha Mela of India celebrated on Sagardwip (Sagar Island) in West Bengal state of India. The fair is a six-day fair held in the month of January and on the day of Makar Sankranti, a ritual of pilgrims taking bath in holy water and visiting nearby famous Kapil Muni Temple is performed.

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Amir Khusro was a Sufi mystic and a spiritual disciple of Nizamuddin Auliya. He was a poet as well as prolific musician. He is regarded as the “father of qawwali”. He is also credited with enriching Indian classical music by introducing Persian and Arabic elements in it, and was the originator of the khayal and tarana styles of music. Khayal later reached to its zenith during the times of Mohammad Shah Rangila and today is integral part of Hindustani classical music.

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The Abhidhamma Pitaka is a collection of canonical texts in the Theravada Buddhist tradition. Together with the Vinaya Piṭaka and the Sutta Piṭaka it is the Tipiṭaka. It has detailed analysis of the basic natural principles that govern mental and physical processes.

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The state of Gujarat, specifically in the city of Palitana, holds a remarkable distinction of having 838 Jain temples located on a single mountain. Jainism, one of the oldest religions in the world, has a strong community still in India. These temples are a major pilgrimage site for Jains and are a testament to the architectural prowess of ancient artisans.

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“Tower of Silence ” is related to Zorastrians. It is a circular, raised structure built by Zoroastrians for excarnation – that is, for dead bodies to be exposed to carrion birds, usually vultures.

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Shiva Tandava Stotra is sung by Ravana in Ramayana. It is a Sanskrit sloka. Ravana is king of Lanka.

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Guru Angad Dev ji (1504 -1552 AD) was the 2nd Guru of Sikhs, who popularised the use of simplified script, known as  Gurmukhi script, by modifying the old Punjabi characters. It became the medium of writing the Punjabi language in which the hymns of the Gurus are expressed.