UPSC IAS Prelims 2021: Important Questions on Art & Culture - Topic 9 (Literary Arts)

Explanation: 

National Hispanic Heritage Month is an annual event honours the history, culture and contributions of American citizens whose ancestors hailed from Spain, Mexico, the Caribbean and Central and South America.

Explanation:

Sama Veda comprises of 6,000 ragas and raginis or musical notes.

Yajur entails sacrifice or worship. This Veda is related with resources and mantras of different sacrifices. It gives directions for the performance of the yajnas. It has both poetic and prose versions. Being a treatise on rituals, it is the most popular of the four Vedas. 

Explanation:

After creation of the four Vedas, other works known as the Brahmanas were developed. These books gave a thorough explanation of Vedic rituals and instructions and deal with the science of sacrifice. The latter portions of the Brahmanas were called the Aranyakas while the final parts of the Aranyakas are metaphysical books named Upanishads which belong to the later stage of the Brahmana literature. 

Explanation:

The tallest figure in the sphere of epic poetry is Kalidasa (between A.D. 380-A.D. 415). He wrote two great epics, Kumarasambhava (the birth of Kumar), and Raghuvamsa (the dynasty of the Raghus). In the Kavya tradition, more care is bestowed on the form, such as the style, figure of speech, conceits, descriptions, etc., and the story-theme is push.

Explanation:

Prakrit is well known for Gathasaptashati (700 verses) by Hala (300 A.D.), the best example of erotic literature. It is a compilation of 700 verses along with his own contribution of 44 poems. 

Explanation:

Thiruvalluvar is fondly referred to as Valluvar by Tamils was born during 4th -5th century CE. Early classical Tamil literature is known as Sangam literature meaning ‘fraternity’.

Explanation

Sarat Chandra Chatterjee (1876-1938) was one of the most popular Bengali novelists, whose popularity continues unabated even today, not only among Bengali readers, but also among people in other parts of India, by means of the numerous translations of his books, which are available in various Indian languages. His pet theme was the man-woman relationship, and he was well known for his portrayal of women, their sufferings and their often unspoken love. He was both a Gandhian and a socialist.

Explanation:

Krishnadevaraya (1509-1529), the greatest of the Vijayanagara emperors, was a poet of

great merit. His work Amukta Malyada is regarded as an excellent prabandha in Telugu

literature. 

Explanation:

The Kushana kings patronised Sanskrit scholars. Ashvaghosha wrote the Buddhacharitra

which is the biography of the Buddha. He also wrote Saundarananda, which is a fine

example of Sanskrit poetry.

Among the great poets and play writers of the Gupta period was

Harisena. He wrote poems praising the valour of Samudra Gupta. It is inscribed

on Allahabad pillar.

Explanation:

The Mahabharata, was written by Ved Vyas. Originally, it was written in Sanskrit and contained 8800 verses and was called “Jaya” or the collection dealing with victory. These were raised to 24,000 and came to be known as Bharata, named after one of the earliest Vedic tribes. The final compilation brought the verses to 100,000, which came to be known as the Mahabharata or the Satasahasri Samhita.