The Indian Art Trivia Quiz

Answer: Ellora caves

The Ellora caves are located near Aurangabad, a city in Maharashtra. They are very famous for the magnificent Kailash Temple which is made up of a single cut-rock. Besides there are gorgeously intricate carvings of deities - from the Hindu pantheon, from the list of Buddhist Bodhisattva and from among the Jain Thirthankaras.

Not far away are the Ajanta caves comprising the beautiful murals and frescoes. These are the most well-known of all. Lying at a distance of ten kilometers from the Indian port city of Mumbai on an island in the Arabian Sea are the Elephanta caves.

They are famous for the Trimurti statue of Shiva, Vishnu and Brahma and for the wall sculptures depicting the Kailash mountain.

Answer: Aurangzeb

Aurangzeb or Alamgir was an orthodox Muslim Mughal emperor. He did not encourage art as it was against the Koran to depict pictures of animals or human beings. That is why no such pictures are ever depicted on Mughal buildings; there are just geometrical patterns or calligraphic verses from the Koran.

However, his predecessors were connoisseurs of art. Akbar, for instance, encouraged different forms of art and miniature painting flourished under his reign.

Answer: Sarnath, Gandhara

During the reigns of the Kushana, Satvahana and Maurya dynasties, two schools of sculpture developed, namely:
1. Sarnath School
2. Gandhara School
The Sarnath school was famous for the heads of Buddha it created and also the famous emblem of the Lion Capital of Ashoka which is the national emblem of India.
The Gandhara school developed on the Pakistan frontier, where the population comprised of the Greco-Bactrians,the Sakas and the Indo-Parthians. Hence Greek influence can be seen in the statues of Buddha created here. The most famous sculpture created here is that of a seated Buddha on one side of whom stands Herakles, the legendary Greek hero who has replaced the Bodhisattva Vajrapani.

Answer: Raja Ravi Verma

Raja Ravi Verma was born in 1848 in the Travancore Kingdom of Kerala. He created oil paintings combining Indian elements with the realistic effects introduced by the Colonialists. He created multiple paintings depicting scenes from the Indian scriptures.

His paintings included "Damayanti and the Swan", "Saraswati", "Lakshmi", "Victory of Indrajit", "Shakuntala" among other. He often depicted Indian women in saris, as he found them beautiful, especially Malayalam women. He was often called "an artist among princes and a prince among artists".

He won the first prize at the Vienna Art Exhibition, too.

Answer: no

The tribal Indian art form of Madhubani, also called Mithila, comes from the Indian state of Bihar. These paintings are famous for the depiction of Hindu deities adorned with jewels and holding a diverse variety of weapons, as well as for the intricate borders with floral patterns.

Answer: Abanindranath Tagore

Abanindranath Tagore was one of the most famous Indian artists. He established the Bengal School of Art. This school was particularly against Raja Ravi Verma's style of painting, since he painted Hindu deities realistic, which, they believed was a wrong method of depiction. Abanindranath Tagore was particularly influenced by the murals at the Ajanta Caves, the Mughal Miniature Paintings, as well as the Japanese artists who came to India to begin the Asian Art Movement.

His famous paintings include "My Mother" and "Bharata Mata".

Other artists from the Bengal Art School include Chittoprasad, Nandalal Bose, Jamini Roy, and Rabindranath Tagore himself.

Answer: Amrita Shergill

Amrita Shergill is one of India's most notable women painters, who has often been called India's Frieda Kahlo. She was born in Budapest, Hungary. Her famous paintings included "The Three Girls", "Bride's Toilet", "Young Girls", and paintings of elephants and camels. She inspired many future women artists, too. She died young at the age of twenty-eight.

Answer: Tanjore Painting

Tanjore Painting or Thanjavur Painting comes from the imperial town of Thanjavur in Tamil Nadu. It is famous for the use of gold-foil for painting as well as semi-precious and precious stones. Colors are generally natural-dyes, formed by minerals, vegetables and flowers. They were often done on the walls of the palaces of the Chola kingdom.

Answer: Maqbool Fida Hussain

Maqbool Fida Hussain, or simply M.F. Hussain, became a legendary Indian artist. He attended the Sir J.J. School of Art in Mumbai. He was also called the Picasso of India. He painted scenes from Hindu myths and legends, and the paintings of Mother-India among others. He died in June, 2011 at the age of ninety-five in London.

Answer: True

The Kalighat form of painting comes from the metropolitan city of Kolkata. This type of painting was made by the artisans called "patuas" who lived near the Kalighat temple, which is a major shrine of the Hindu Goddess Kali. These paintings were made to symbolize the problems in the life of the common man.

They often involved scenes depicting life under the colonial rule, the life of the peasants, daily thefts and murders, and pictures of deities and gods. The paintings have figures which are perfectly flat and not rounded which does not give them a realistic affect. Also the figures have a thick black outline about them.