History, Art & Culture CA UPSC 2020 Set- 2

Table of Contents

Q) What are Malra, Changthangi, Chegu & Chyangara a type of?

Goat
Dance
Plateau
Rabbit

Bureau of Indian Standards (BIS) will set up Pashmina testing centre in Leh.

Pashmina is a ﬁne type of Kashmiri wool,
It is used to make shawl & scarfs
This unique variety of wool is obtained from four distinct breeds of Kashmiri goats
Malra from Kargil area
Changthangi from Changthang Plateau
Chegu from Himachal Pradesh
Chyangara (or Nepalese Pashmina goat) from Nepal

Q) Consider the following statements about Nagar Kirtan procession

People of all faith were present in the procession
It started from Nankana Sahib district of Punjab province of Pakistan
It culminated at the Golden Temple (Harmandir Sahib) in Amritsar

Options :

A & B are correct
Only A is correct
Only B is correct
B & C are incorrect

First time after partition, ‘Nagar Kirtan‘ carrying Guru Granth Sahib arrived from Pakistan to India
Nagar Kirtan is a religious procession.
It culminated at Sultanpur Lodhi in Kapurthala district of Punjab in India after passing through various
It started from Gurdwara Nankana Sahib which is birthplace of Guru Nanak Dev
This procession by devotees was to mark 550th birth anniversary celebrations of Guru Nanak Dev Ji, founder of Sikhism.
The event was organized by Shiromani Gurdwara Prabandhak Committee (SGPC), an apex religious body of the Sikhs.

Q) Check the list of temples

A. Sharda Peeth Temple

B. Shawala Teja Singh Temple

C. Panj Tirath

Which of the following temples is not present in Pakistan

A & B
Only A
Only C
None

Pakistan opened 1000-year-old Shawala Teja Singh temple in Punjab for worship after 72 years.
The Shawala Teja Singh temple is located in Sialkot district, some 100-km from Lahore, is more than 1,000 years old.
Decision to reopen temple was issued by Pakistan Prime Minister Imran Khan.
Shawala Teja Singh temple is an ancient Hindu temple which was built by Sardar Teja Singh.
It is dedicated to Hindu deity Shiva, in Sialkot in Punjab province of Pakistan. Pilgrims climb a steep staircase to reach temple.
The temple was partially damaged during attacks on temples here in reaction to Babri Mosque in 1992.
A majority of the Indus Valley inscriptions were written logographically (by using word signs) and not by using phonograms (speech sounds units)
The paper, titled “Interrogating Indus inscription to unravel their mechanism of meaning conveyance“, points out that the inscriptions can be compared to the structured messages found on stamps, coupons, tokens and currency coins of modern times.
Discovered from nearly 4,000 ancient inscribed objects, including seals, tablets, ivory rods, pottery shards, , the Indus inscriptions are one of the most enigmatic legacies of the Indus Valley civilization which have not been deciphered due to the absence of bilingual texts, extreme brevity of the inscriptions, and ignorance about the language(s) encoded by the Indus script.
We must focus on understanding how Indus inscriptions conveyed meanings, rather than on deciphering what they conveyed.
The inscribed seals and tablets were used in some administrative operation that controlled the commercial transactions prevalent in the trade-savvy settlements of the ancient Indus Valley civilisation.
These inscriptions can be compared to the messages found on stamps, coupons, tokens and currency coins of modern times, where we expect formulaic texts that encode certain type of information in some pre-deﬁned ways, rather than freely composed narrative.

Arab ki Sarai Baoli ::

Baolis or step-wells refer to man-made water tanks. The main purpose of baoli is water conservation and groundwater recharge.
Arab ki Sarai Baoli is being revived by Archaeological Survey of India (ASI) and Agha Khan Trust for Culture (AKTC) with the support of German Embassy.
Arab Ki Sarai Baoli was built in the 1560s by Hamida Banu Begum, who was wife (chief consort) of Mughal emperor Humayan, to accommodate 300 Arabs whom she had brought from Mecca.
It is situated within the premise of Humayun’s Tomb Complex, Delhi. It is a unique ‘L’ shaped baoli.
This 16th-century structure is signiﬁcant from the historical point of view as the walled enclosure stands within the Humayun’s Tomb, a UNESCO world heritage site.
The regrading of earth within the Arab ki Sarai Baoli would allow the rainwater to collect within the Baoli with a catchment area of 1.5 lakh liters.

Ek Bharat Vijayi Bharat :-

Kanyakumari-based Vivekanand Kendra and its state units launched a year-long nation-wide contact programme to spread the messages of Swami Vivekananda.
The mass contact programme coincided with the 50^thfoundation year of Vivekanand Rock Memorial in Kanyakumari and will be launched on 1^st
The programme focussed on spreading the messages of Swami Vivekananda, making people aware of the inspiring story of Vivekanand Rock Memorial and the activities of Vivekanand Kendra.

About Vivekananda Rock Memorial :-

It is a monument in Kanyakumari, Tamil Nadu at the Tri-junction of Indian ocean, Bay of Bengal and Arabian sea.
It was built in 1970 in honour of Swami Vivekananda who is said to have attained enlightenment on the rock where he meditated in 1892. The memorial consists of two main structures, the Vivekananda Mandapam and the Shripada Mandapam. The design of the mandapa incorporates di”erent styles of temple architecture from all over India.
The architect of this memorial was Shri Eknath Ranade.

The recent excavation carried out by ASI at Maharashtra’s Phupgaon has revealed evidence of an Iron Age settlement in the Vidarbha region.

The excavation at the site was taken up between December 2018 and March 2019.
ASI took up survey in the region between Chandur Bazar to Dariyapur of Purna basin at Phupgaon, Amravati district of Maharashtra.
Chronologically, the site could be placed between 7th Century BCE and 4th Century BCE.
The site is situated in the vast meander of the river Purna, a major tributary of Tapi, which used to be a perennial river, but at present is completely dried-up due to the dam construction in the upper stream.
A total of 9 trenches were taken for excavations, which brought to light the house remains and other associated features like hearth, post-holes, and artifacts. The excavation indicates the presence of sedentary (permanent) settlement, belonging to the Iron Age of Vidarbha.
The excavation also exposed antiquities like beads of agate-carnelian, jasper, quartz and agate were collected in large quantity. Iron, Copper objects have also been collected from all the trenches. A large number of gra ti marks had been observed on the potsherds.
The Archaeological Survey of India unearthed traces of a 2,500-year-old settlement in Maharashtra’s Vidarbha district, including a bead manufacturing unit, iron equipment, pottery, hearths, storage bins and carbonised fruits and animal remains .
What makes the ﬁndings signiﬁcant is that this is the ﬁrst indication of any habitation in Western Vidarbha. The site has been dated between 400 and 800BC
Earlier excavations at various sites at Eastern Vidarbha have conclusively proved habitation during the Iron Age.
This excavation at Vidarbha’s Phupgaon in the Western region along the Poorna river, a tributary of the Tapti river, has provided possible answers to whether there were settlement in the Eastern side of the Poorna Valley
This also provides answers to the question whether early settlers along the Poorna river crossed it to live on the other side
Beads of semi-precious stones like carnelians, quartz, chalcedony, chert, agate and lapis-lazuli were found at the site.
A deposit of later stage Iron Age objects, such as glass bangles, moulds and querns belonging to the Early Historic period. Iron equipments like pestles, chisels, sickles, nails, axes, daggers, knives; copper objects such as bangles, rings, blade and terracotta spindles whorls and hopscotches have been found.
Di”erent ﬂoors with storage bin platforms with a thick plastering of burnt clay with grass and straw impressions, seven cooking hearths, and circular structures with postholes have also been found.
Unlike other Iron Age sites such as Hastinapur, Phupgaon points at a homogenous cultural sequence of Early Iron Age period.
Pottery consisting of bowls, dishes and small, globular pots made of red slipped ware, red burnished ware, black-and-red ware, black burnished ware and micaceous redware have been unearthed.
In addition to that, charred macro-remains, including wood charcoal, fruits and seeds and animals remains have been found.
The animal remains point at the existence of animals like cow, bu”alo, sheep, goat, pig, dog, Nilgai, spotted deer, Sambar, blackbuck, wild pig, hare, porcupine, mongoose, ﬁeld rat, peafowl, common crane, common teal, duck, three species of turtles and freshwater molluscan shells.
Weapons got better in late iron age many kingdoms sprouted up.
Early iron age – crude weapons and loosely organised kingdoms.

Mamallapuram :-

Mamallapuram, also called Mahabalipuram or Seven Pagodas, is a town that lies along the Coromandel Coast of the Bay of Bengal, 60 km south of Chennai.
The town’s religious centre was founded by a 7th-century Hindu Pallava King—Narasimhavarman, also known as Mamalla—for whom the town was named.
Narasimhavarman 1 had defeated Chalukya king Pulakesin 2 in battle of Vatapi (Badami).
It contains many surviving 7^th– and 8^th-century Pallava temples and monuments, chief of which are the sculptured rock relief popularly known as “Arjuna’s Penance,” or “Descent of the Ganges,” a series of sculptured cave temples, and a Shiva temple on the seashore.
The town’s Five Rathas, or monolithic temples, are the remnants of seven temples, for which the town was known as Seven Pagodas.
The entire assemblage collectively was designated a UNESCO World Heritage Site in 1984.