Indian Culture MCQs

Notes:
The Ganga Sagar Mela is a religious festival and second biggest fair of India after Kumbha Mela of India celebrated on Sagardwip (Sagar Island) in West Bengal state of India. The fair is a six-day fair held in the month of January and on the day of Makar Sankranti, a ritual of pilgrims taking bath in holy water and visiting nearby famous Kapil Muni Temple is performed.

Notes:
Bhagvatgita belongs to Bhishma parva. There are total in 18 parvas in Mahabharata.

Notes:
There are eight limbs of ashtanga yoga viz. yama, niyama, asana, pranayama, pratyahara, dharana, dhyana and samadhi.

Notes:
The first recipients of the Bharat Ratna were politician C. Rajagopalachari, philosopher Sarvepalli Radhakrishnan, and scientist C. V. Raman, who was honoured on 2nd January, 1954. Since then, the award has been bestowed on 45 individuals, including 12 who were awarded posthumously.

Notes:
• Ab’ul Hasan Yamin ud-Din Khusrau is better known as Amir Khusrow Dehlavi. He was a Sufi musician, poet and scholar from India.
• Kabir was a 15th-century Indian mystic poet and saint, whose writings, according to some scholars, influenced Hinduism’s Bhakti movement.
• Shaikh Abu al-Fazal ibn Mubarak is also known as Abul Fazal. It was the Grand vizier of the Mughal emperor Akbar and author of the Akbarnama.
• Tukaram is also referred to as Sant Tukaram. He was a 17th-century Hindu poet and sant of the Bhakti movement in Maharashtra.

Notes:
Satyameva Jayate is a part of a mantra from the ancient Indian scripture Mundaka Upanishad. Following the independence of India, it was adopted as the national motto of India in 26 January 1950. It is inscribed in script at the base of the Lion Capital of Ashoka and forms an integral part of the national emblem.

Notes:
Devadasis were a common feature in almost all the major brahmanical temples. The devadasi or temple women was one, who was a dancer and one who is associated with temple, either by having some kind of regular service function in a temple or because her primary social identity is defined with reference to a temple. Devadasi is a girl “dedicated” to worship and service of a deity or a temple for the rest of her life. They were considered the human wife of Lord Jagannath.

Notes:
Ardeshir Irani released Alam Ara, the first Indian talkie, on 14 March 1931. Irani later produced the first south Indian talkie film Kalidas directed by H. M. Reddy released on 31 October 1931.

Notes:
Thisam Phanit festival is celebrated by the Naga tribes of Manipur, India. The festival is a cultural practice that honors the dead and is observed for 12 days at the end of January. The festival is meant to promote peace and harmony among the Nagas and to uphold Naga cultural identity.
The Nagas are an umbrella term for several indigenous communities in Northeast India and Upper Burma. They reside in the Indian states of Nagaland, Manipur, Assam, and Arunachal Pradesh, and also in Myanmar.

Notes:
Sumitranandan Pant, who won the Jnanpith Award in 1968 is known as one of the greatest poets of the Chhayavaadi school of Hindi literature.