[Mission 2022] QUIZ – 2022: INSIGHTS STATIC QUIZ, 28 February 2022 – Ancient & Medieval India + Art & Culture

Solution: b)

The Jataka tales are a voluminous body of literature native to India concerning the previous births of Gautama Buddha in both human and animal form. The future Buddha may appear as a king, an outcast, a god, an elephant—but, in whatever form, he exhibits some virtue that the tale thereby inculcates.

In Theravada Buddhism, the Jatakas are a textual division of the Pali Canon, included in the Khuddaka Nikaya of the Sutta Pitaka. The term Jataka may also refer to a traditional commentary on this book.

Many stupas in northern India are said to mark locations from the Jataka tales; the Chinese pilgrim Xuanzang reported several of these.

Solution: a)

The murals of the Chola age bring out diverse emotions on many faces, a feature rarely seen in Indian art. The majestic temple of Brihadishvara in Thanjavur is an example of the great wealth and power of the Chola Empire.

Most the paintings are massive and animated, which brings alive the greatness of the Lord who destroys evil and ensures peace. These paintings also depict a barely visible Dakshinamurthi (Shiva as God of knowledge) beneath a banyan tree on which monkeys are playing. The paintings of Lord Shiva can be seen in the heart of the temple, which are protected by gigantic walls of stone.

Chola Paintings included humans and plants also.

Solution: b)

Krishna Deva Raya, though a Vaishnavaite, he respected all religions. He was a great patron of literature and art and he was known as Andhra Bhoja.

Eight eminent scholars known as Ashtadiggajas were at his royal court. Allasani Peddanna was the greatest and he was called Andhrakavita Pitamaga. His important works include Manucharitam and Harikathasaram.

Pingali Suranna and Tenali Ramakrishna were other important scholars. Krishna Deva Raya himself authored a Telugu work, Amukthamalyadha and Sanskrit works, Jambavati Kalyanam and Ushaparinayam.

Solution: a)

Varahamihira’s main work is the book Pañcasiddhāntikā (“[Treatise] on the Five [Astronomical] Canons”), which gives us information about older Indian texts which are now lost. The work is a treatise on mathematical astronomy and it summarises five earlier astronomical treatises by five authors, namely the Surya Siddhanta, Romaka Siddhanta, Paulisa Siddhanta, Vasishtha Siddhanta and Paitamaha Siddhanta.

Varahamihira improved the accuracy of the sine tables of Aryabhata.

Solution: c)

The Natya Shashtra is a notable ancient treatise influencing dance, music and literary traditions in India.

It asserts that entertainment is a desired effect of performance arts but not the primary goal, and that the primary goal is to transport the individual in the audience into another parallel reality, full of wonder, where he experiences the essence of his own consciousness, and reflects on spiritual and moral questions.

This is similar to the Sufi’s views on music, chanting and its spiritual potential to connect with the divine.