Art & Culture - GS questions based on daily current affairs

ANSWER: Gujarat

Explanation:

• Tangaliya is a 700-year-old indigenous weave of Gujarat which employs an exquisite technique of weaving, using raw wool yarn.
• Tangaliya a dotted woven textile of Surendranagar district, Saurashtra is found only in Gujarat.
• It is usually worn as a wraparound skirt by the women of the Bharwad shephered community.
• Tangalia designs are used for preparing Shawl, Dupatta, Dress material and products of Home décor & accessories such as bedsheets, pillow covers etc.
• The patterns formed during weaving process to create design in dots for floral and geometrical motifs by using cotton or woolen yarn.
• The shawls are woven in pit looms at homes and knot a contrast color thread with the warp, which are woven into the textile to create the effect of raised dots, which have become the signature style of the textile. Besides dots, several, geometric patterns are also created.
• A Tangaliya Shawl is a handwoven, GI protected shawl and textile made by the Dangasia community from Schedule Caste in Gujarat, India.
• In 2007, with the help of National Institute of Fashion Technology (NIFT), in Gandhinagar, the Tangaliya Hastkala Association (Tangaliya Handicraft Association) was formed, which included 226 Tangaliya weavers from five villages as members.
• Over the subsequent years, NIFT conducted workshops for skill building, quality control and design development.
• Eventually, the Tangaliya Hastkala Association (THA) received GI registration status.
• These days, the textile is used for dupatta, dress material and home furnishing products like bedsheets and pillow covers.
• Instead of traditional cotton or sheep wool yarn, merino wool and eri silk are used.

ANSWER: Mahabharata

Explanation:
For the first time in the history of radio, one of the longest epics of India, 'Mahabharata' is being broadcasted on All India Radio.

'Mahabharata' produced by B. R. Chopra in late 80s will be broadcast from Monday to Friday on 70 primary channels of Hindi Zone.

The famed teleserial 'Mahabharata has been divided into 140 episodes and duration has been kept at 30 minutes for radio broadcast. The program will continue till 30th June 2017.

It will also be live streamed on allindiaradio.gov.in through FM Gold, Delhi.

ANSWER: 14th April

Explanation:
Lauding the contribution of Dr. B R Ambedkar in water resources management of the country Union Minister for Water Resources, River Development and Ganga Rejuvenation Sushri Uma Bharti has announced that his birth day 14th April will be celebrated as “Water Day”.

Ambedkar was a pioneer in the field of developing multi-purpose projects for independent India.

He had, in fact, been the moving spirit behind the Damodar Valley, Hirakud and other projects", said the Central Water Commission (CWC) in its research paper which was brought out on the occasion of the Ambedkar's 125th birth anniversary in April 2016.

The research paper also recalled how he had helped in evolving "a new water and power policy during 1942-46 to utilise the water resources of the country to the best advantage of everybody.

ANSWER: 9^th Sikh Guru

Explanation:
Guru Tegh Bahadur, revered as the ninth Nanak, was the ninth of ten Gurus of the Sikh religion.

Guru Tegh Bahadur continued in the spirit of the first guru, Nanak; his 115 poetic hymns are in the text Guru Granth Sahib.

Guru Tegh Bahadur resisted the forced conversions of Kashmiri Pandits to Islam, and was publicly beheaded in 1675 on the orders of Mughal emperor Aurangzeb in Delhi for refusing to convert to Islam.

Gurudwara Sis Ganj Sahib and Gurdwara Rakab Ganj Sahib in Delhi mark the places of execution and cremation of the Guru's body.

ANSWER: Kashmiri

Explanation:
The Kashmiri language has been facing decline in J&K because of the usage of Urdu over Kashmiri.

Kashmiri is written mostly in Nastaliq script but also in the more ancient Sharda script, and in Devanagari script.

The MHRD is planning to constitute a National Council for Promotion of Kashmiri Language with Devanagri and Sharda as its script. This was opposed by many in literary community for ignoring the Nastaliq script.

Sharda evolved from the Brahmi script and is an ancient Western Himalayan script. It was the popular script in the region. This was until the arrival of Nastaliq script which came with Islam.

Nastaliq script is a cursive script and is being used since past five centuries and most of the Kashmiri literature is in this script.

It is a Arabo-Persian calligraphy script that is a combination of the nakshi and taliq styles, featuring elongated horizontal strokes and exaggerated rounded forms.

ANSWER: Instrument playing people

Explanation:

• The dhak/dhaak is a huge membranophone instrument from South Asia.
• Drum beats are an integral part of Durga Puja.
• People playing Dhaaks are called Dhaakis.
• The shapes differ from the almost cylindrical to the barrel.
• It suspended from the neck, tied to the waist and kept on the lap or the ground, and usually played with wooden sticks. The left side is coated to give it a heavier sound.

ANSWER: Only 2

Explanation:

• Koodiyattam, with a known history of around 1,000 years, is no longer the sole preserve of the Brahminical chakyar clans.
• Between 1949 and 1965, it underwent some radical changes.
• It was brought out of Kerala’s temples by Paimkulam Rama Chakyar, and its teaching moved to an institution called Kalamandalam, where it acquired students and practitioners from other castes as well.
• In the temples of Kerala, however, even today the chakyar has monopoly over the right to perform koodiyattam (adyantara koothu). And only the six remaining chakyar families have the right to act in the plays offered as ritual.
• Traditionally, the main musical instruments used in Koodiyattam are mizhavu, kuzhitalam, etakka, kurumkuzhal, and sankhu.
• Mizhavu, the most prominent of these, is a percussion instrument that is played by a person of the Ambalavas Nambiar caste, accompanied by Nangyaramma playing the kuzhithalam (a type of cymbal).

ANSWER: A play

Explanation:

• Mantrankam is the third act of Bhasa’s celebrated Sanskrit play Pratijna Yougandharayan , written sometime between 2 and 3 AD.
• It is spread over just half a dozen pages but the chakyar or performer with his artistry and talent, spins it into a labyrinthine narrative packed in equal parts with philosophy, political wisdom, statecraft, ribaldry, even some scatology.
• It is an entire 41-day enactment.
• It is a fascinating mix of the sacred and the profane, religious and secular, folk wisdom and dialectics, and a hard play to master even for veterans. Mostly, today, the play is performed in an abbreviated version over five or at most ten days.
• Mastering Mantrankam is considered the peak of a chakyar’s skills. Anyone who can acquire this vaakchaturyam (wordskill) is believed to be good enough to play any other role. And the only way to master it is through observation of the great masters at work.

ANSWER: Bhasa

Explanation:

• Bhasa’s celebrated Sanskrit play Pratijna Yougandharayan was written sometime between 2 and 3 AD.
• Many of Bhasa's plays are staged in Koodiyattams even now, like parts of Pratijna-Yaugandharayana, Abhisheka-nataka etc.
• His most famous plays Pratijna-Yaugandharayana (the vow of Yaugandharayana) and Swapna-vasavadatta (Swapnavasavadatta) (Vasavadatta in the dream) are based on the legends that had grown around the legendary King Udayana, probably a contemporary of the Buddha.
• The first play tells the story of how the king Udayana married the princess Vasavadatta (his first wife).The second play tells the story of how the king Udayana, with the help of his loyal minister Yaugandharayana, later married the princess Padmavati, a daughter of the king of Magadha, and thus made this king his ally rather than enemy.

ANSWER: Naropa festival

Explanation:

• A grand spiritual gathering that happens once in 12 years and is referred to as the “Kumbh Mela of the Himalayas” has begun in Ladakh’s biggest monastery, Hemis, to commemorate the millennial birth anniversary of the scholar saint Naropa.<.li>
• The month-long mega congregation, also known as Naropa festival, started with spiritual leader Gyalwang Drukpa’s grand welcome. Drukpa is the spiritual head of the Buddhist Drukpa Lineage based in the Himalayas.
• Revered as the reincarnation of Naropa, Drukpa leader donned the six bone secret ornaments of the scholar-saint at the Naro palace to grant the Grand Chakrasamvara Empowerment.
• Discussing the importance of the six ornaments which includes crown, earrings, necklace, seralkha, bangle and anklet, the chairperson of the organising committee, Thuksey Rinpoche said, “It represents the inner spirituality developed qualities”.