[Mission 2024] STATIC QUIZ, 30 December 2023 – Art and Culture

Solution: a)

Cow, camel, horse and lion were not depicted on seals. Unicorn (bull) was the animal most commonly represented on the seals.

Solution: c)

Option 3 is incorrect.

Ashokan inscriptions comprise of major rock edicts, minor rock edicts and pillar edicts. Different languages like Prakrit, Greek, Aramaic and different scripts like Brahmi, Kharoshti were used. The most widely used script was Brahmi. Kharoshti was widely used in the inscriptions found in modern-day Pakistan. Greek and Aramaic was used in inscriptions found in Afghanistan – for example, the bilingual Greek-Aramaic inscription found in Kandahar.

Solution: b)

The Kailasha or Kailashanatha temple is the largest of the rock-cut Hindu temples at the Ellora Caves, Maharashtra. A megalith carved from a rock cliff face, it is considered one of the most remarkable cave temples in the world because of its size, architecture and sculptural treatment, and “the climax of the rock-cut phase of Indian architecture”.

The Kailasa temple (Cave 16) is the largest of the 34 Buddhist, Jain and Hindu cave temples and monasteries known collectively as the Ellora Caves.

Most of the excavation of the temple is generally attributed to the eighth century Rashtrakuta king Krishna I, with some elements completed later. The temple architecture shows traces of Pallava and Chalukya styles built by Kannadiga kings.

Solution: b)

The birth of the Musical Trinity – Tyagaraja, Muthuswami Dikshitar and Syama Sastri – at Tiruvarur between the years 1750 to 1850 A.D. ushered in an era of dynamic development in Carnatic music.

The Trinity were not only contemporaries among themselves but, also contemporaries of great composers of Western Music, as Beethoven, Mozart, Wagner and Haydn.

It was the ‘Golden Age’ of music throughout the world. Carnatic music reached its pinnacle of artistic excellence during this period.

Solution: d)

The Vaisheshika school believes in the physicality of the Universe and is considered to be the realistic and objective philosophy that governs the universe. The Kanada who also wrote the basic text governing the Vaisheshika philosophy is often considered the founder of this school.

They argue that everything in the universe was created by the five main elements: fire, air, water, earth and ether (sky). These material elements are also called Dravya.

As this school has a very scientific approach, they also developed the atomic theory, i.e. all material objects are made of atoms.

This school was also responsible for the beginning of physics in Indian subcontinent. They are considered to be the propounder of the mechanical process of formation of this Universe.