[Mission 2023] INSIGHTS STATIC QUIZ, 28 June 2022 – Art and Culture

Solution: a)

• Akbar ordered one of his close friends and courtiers, Abul Fazl, to write a history of his reign. Abul Fazl wrote a three volume history of Akbar’s reign titled, Akbar Nama.
• The first volume dealt with Akbar’s ancestors and the second volume recorded the events of Akbar’s reign.
• The third volume is the Ain-I Akbari. It deals with Akbar’s administration, household, army, the revenues and geography of his empire. It also provides rich details about the traditions and culture of the people living in India.
• The most interesting aspect about the Ain-i Akbari is its rich statistical details about things as diverse as crops, yields, prices, wages and revenues.

Solution: c)

Amukthamalyada describes the story of wedding of the Hindu Lord Vishnu and Andal the Tamil Alvar poet and daughter of Periyalvar, at Srirangam.

• It is basically an epic poem in Telugu composed by Krishnadevaraya of the Vijayanagara dynasty.
• Krishnadevaraya was a great patron of arts and a great scholar himself.

Solution: c)

• The granite rocks of Karnataka and Andhra Pradesh provided suitable canvases to the Neolithic man for his paintings.
• There are several such sites but more famous among them are Kupgallu, Piklihal and Tekkalkota.
• Three types of paintings have been reported from here– paintings in white, paintings in red ochre over a white background and paintings in red ochre.

Solution: b)

The themes of the paintings are the events from the life of the Buddha, the Jatakas and the Avadanas. Some paintings such as Simhala Avadana, Mahajanaka Jataka and Vidhurpundita Jataka cover the entire wall of the cave.

The other important paintings are the famous Padmapani and Vajrapani. Figures in these caves are painted with considerable naturalism and there is no over-stylisation.

Solution: d)

• Warli painting derives its name from a small tribe inhabiting the remote, tribal regions of Maharashtra.
• These are decorative paintings on floors and walls of ‘gond’ and ‘kol’ tribes’ homes and places of worship. Trees, birds, men and women collaborate to create a composite whole in a Warli painting.
• These paintings are made mostly by the women as part of their routine at auspicious celebrations.

• Subjects are drawn with simple and local materials like white colour and rice paste and local vegetable glue on a plain contrasting background, made in a geometric pattern like squares, triangles and circles.
• Dots and crooked lines are the units of these compositions. Flora and fauna and people’s day-to-day life also form a part of the painting.
• The paintings are expanded by adding subject after subject in a spiralling manner. The rhythm of the Warli way of life is beautifully captured in simple images.
• Marriage is the most recurring theme of Warli paintings.
• Men and women dancing in circles (Tarapa Dance), during various celebrations, is another theme typical to the Warli paintings.
• A musician playing a native instrument is usually found in the middle of such spirals (Tarapa). Flora and fauna are also depicted in these paintings.