QUIZ – 2020: INSIGHTS STATIC , 23 June 2021 – Art and Culture

Solution: c)

Hampi:

• It was the last capital of the last great Hindu Kingdom of Vijayanagar. In 1336 CE, the Vijayanagara Empire arose from the ruins of the Kampili kingdom. It grew into one of the famed Hindu empires of South India that ruled for over 200 years.
• It was a part of the Mauryan Empire back in the third century BC.
• It is a UNESCO World Heritage site
• Its name is derived from Pampa which is the old name of the Tungabhadra River on whose banks the city is built.
• The site used to be multi-religious and multi-ethnic; it included Hindu and Jain monuments next to each other.
• It has been described by UNESCO as an “austere, grandiose site” of more than 1,600 surviving remains of the last great Hindu kingdom in South India.
• The buildings here predominantly followed South Indian Hindu arts and architecture dating to the Aihole-Pattadakal styles, but the Hampi builders also used elements of Indo-Islamic architecture in the Lotus Mahal, the public bath and the elephant stables.

Solution: b)

Ambubachi Mela

• The festival symbolises the fertility cult of goddess Kamakhya, held at Kamakhya temple, Assam.
• There is no idol in the temple, the goddess is worshipped in the form of a yoni-like stone over which a natural spring flows.
• Also known as Siddha Kubjika, the goddess is a Hindu tantric goddess of desire who evolved in the Himalayan hills. She is also identified as Kali and Maha Tripura.
• The festival is also known as ‘Mahakumbh of the East’ as it draws lakhs of devotees from all over the world.
• Ambubachi Mela serves as an occasion to promote awareness on menstrual hygiene.

Solution: c)

Bagh cave paintings

• Representing an extension to the Ajanta school, Bagh caves in Madhya Pradesh with their exquisite work rank quite close to the actual Ajanta caves in terms of their design, execution and decoration.
• The main difference is that the figures are more tightly modeled, have stronger outline, and are earthlier and more human. Cave no. 4, known as Rang Mahal, has beautiful murals on the walls depicting Buddhist and Jataka tales, just like those in Ajanta.
• Although scanty and decayed now, these paintings depict religious themes in the light of contemporary lifestyle of people, thus are more secular in nature.

Solution: d)

• Ragamala Paintings are a series of illustrative paintings from medieval India based on Ragamala or the ‘Garland of Ragas’, depicting various Indian musical Ragas. They stand as a classical example of the amalgamation of art, poetry and classical music in medieval India.
• Ragamala paintings were created in most Indian schools of painting, starting in the 16th and 17th centuries and are today named accordingly, as Pahari Ragamala, Rajasthan or Rajput Ragamala, Deccan Ragamala, and Mughal Ragamala.
• In these painting, each raga is personified by a colour describing the story of a hero and heroine (nayaka and nayika) in a particular mood. it also elucidates the season and the time of day and night in which a particular raga is to be sung.
• Moreover, many paintings also demarcate the specific Hindu deities attached with the raga, like Bhairava or Bhairavi to Shiva, Sri to Devi etc.
• The six principal ragas present in the Ragamala are Bhairava, Deepak, Sri, Malkaush, Megha and Hindola.

Solution: d)

The Bhamala Buddha Parinirvana in Pakistan’s Khyber Pakhtunkhwa province, which dates back to the 2nd century AD, is considered the oldest statue of its kind in the world.

Source