Art & Culture

Correct answer: (C) Ajmer — Kubbatul Islam

Quwwat-ul-Islam (Kubbatul Islam) Mosque is in Delhi, not Ajmer; Ajmer is famous for the Adhai Din Ka Jhonpra, so the Ajmer pair does not match.

Correct answer: (B) Abanindranath Tagore

The iconic image of 'Bharat Mata' (1905) was painted by Abanindranath Tagore, founder of the Bengal School of Art.

Correct answer: (D) Santoor

Pandit Shiv Kumar Sharma, who died in 2022, was the maestro who established the santoor as a classical concert instrument.

Correct answer: (A) Tamilnadu

Pongal is the main harvest festival of Tamil Nadu, celebrated in mid-January.

Correct answer: (D) Mukunda Das

The patriotic song 'Ban eshechhe mora gange' was composed by Mukunda Das, the 'Charan Kabi' (bard) of Bengal, whose jatra songs roused mass feeling during the 1905 anti-Partition Swadeshi movement.

Correct answer: (B) Pather Dabi

Sarat Chandra Chattopadhyay's novel 'Pather Dabi' openly reflected the revolutionary independence struggle; it was banned by the British government for its nationalist content.

Correct answer: (D) Krishnadeva Raya

Amuktamalyada, a Telugu epic poem, was written by Krishnadeva Raya, the greatest ruler of the Vijayanagara Empire, who was himself a noted scholar-poet.

Correct answer: (C) Abu Rihan Alberuni

Abu Rihan Alberuni, the Persian scholar who accompanied Mahmud of Ghazni, mentioned Khajuraho (as capital of the Chandela rulers) in his 11th-century CE writings. Ibn Battuta came much later, in the 14th century.

Correct answer: (A) Aung San Suu Kyi

'Letters from Burma' is a collection of essays by Myanmar's pro-democracy leader Aung San Suu Kyi, originally written for a Japanese newspaper, describing life and politics under military rule in Burma.

Correct answer: (C) Tulsidas

Ramcharitmanas, the Awadhi retelling of the Ramayana, was composed by the 16th-century saint-poet Tulsidas. Joydev wrote the Gita Govinda; Harisena and Harshavardhana are unrelated to it.

Correct answer: (D) Dinabandhu Mitra

Dinabandhu Mitra wrote the play 'Nil Darpan' (1860), exposing the oppression of indigo planters on Bengali peasants; it was later translated into English and published by Rev. James Long.

Correct answer: (A) Arunachalam Muruganantham

'Padman' (2018) was based on the true story of Arunachalam Muruganantham of Tamil Nadu, who invented a low-cost sanitary pad machine to make menstrual hygiene affordable for rural women.