UPSC Static Quiz – Art and Culture : 31 July 2024

Solution: c)

The site has a fortified citadel, a middle town and a lower town with walls made of sandstone or limestone instead of mud bricks in many other Harappan sites.

Archaeologists cites a cascading series of water reservoirs, outer fortification, two multi-purpose grounds — one of which was used for festivities and as a marketplace — nine gates with unique designs, and funerary architecture featuring tumulus — hemispherical structures like the Buddhist Stupas— as some of the unique features of the Dholavira site.

While unlike graves at other IVC sites, no mortal remains of humans have been discovered at Dholavira. 

Remains of a copper smelter indicate of Harappans, who lived in Dholavira, knew metallurgy. It is believed that traders of Dholavira used to source copper ore from present-day Rajasthan and Oman and UAE and export finished products. It was also a hub of manufacturing jewellery made of shells and semi-precious stones, like agate and used to export timber.

Solution: a)

The world-famous Kesaria Buddha stupa is located in east Champaran district of Bihar.

The stupa, located about 110 km from the State capital Patna, has a circumference of almost 400 feet and stands at a height of about 104 feet. The first construction of the nationally protected stupa is dated to the 3rd century BCE.

It is regarded as the largest Buddhist stupa in the world.

The original Kesaria stupa is said to date back to the time of emperor Ashoka (circa 250 BCE) as the remains of an Ashokan pillar was discovered there.

The ASI has declared it a protected monument of national importance.

The local call the stupa “devalaya” meaning “house of gods”.

However, a larger part of the stupa is yet to be developed as it remains under thick vegetation.

Solution: a)

Archaeological Survey of India (ASI) had discovered remains of an ancient temple dating back to the Gupta period (5th century) in a village in Uttar Pradesh’s Etah district. The stairs of the temple had ‘shankhalipi’ inscriptions, which were deciphered by the archaeologists as saying, ‘Sri Mahendraditya’, the title of Kumaragupta I of the Gupta dynasty.

As per the ASI, the stairs led to a structural temple built during the Gupta period. The other structural temples from the Gupta age— Dashavatara Temple (Deogarh) and Bhitargaon Temple (Kanpur Dehat).

In the 5th century, Kumaragupta I ruled for 40 years over north-central India. The Guptas built structural temples, distinctly different from the ancient rock-cut temples.

Solution: d)

Shankhalipi or “shell-script” is a term used by scholars to describe ornate spiral characters assumed to be Brahmi derivatives that look like conch shells or shankhas. They are found in inscriptions across north-central India and date to between the 4th and 8th centuries.

Both Shankhalipi and Brahmi are stylised scripts used primarily for names and signatures.

The script was discovered in 1836 on a brass trident in Uttarakhand’s Barahat by English scholar James Prinsep, who was the founding editor of the Journal of the Asiatic Society of Bengal.

Prominent sites with shell inscriptions include the Mundeshwari Temple in Bihar, the Udayagiri Caves in Madhya Pradesh, Mansar in Maharashtra and some of the cave sites of Gujarat and Maharashtra. In fact, shell inscriptions are also reported in Indonesia’s Java and Borneo.

Shankhalipi is found to be engraved on temple pillars, columns and rock surfaces.

Solution: a)

At the Kushinagar International Airport in Uttar Pradesh, one of the murals depicts ‘Arahat Bhikkhu’ Mahinda, son of Emperor Ashoka delivering the message of the Buddha to King Devanampiyatissa of Sri Lanka. The other shows the arrival of ‘Theri Bhikkhuni’ Sanghamitta, the daughter of the Emperor, in Sri Lanka, bearing a sapling of the ‘sacred Bodhi tree’ under which Siddhārtha Gautama is believed to have obtained enlightenment.

Arahat Mahinda was a Buddhist monk depicted in Buddhist sources as bringing Buddhism to Sri Lanka.

Saṅghamittā was the eldest daughter of Emperor Ashoka.