KQA Karnataka QuizLingaraj, Naresh Keerthi, Kaustuba Venugopal

Shankar PoLiPoliShankar

& Kampni

2

Identify the gentlemen and what are they talking about?

Q1

• Lakshman Savadi, CC Patil -- former ministers of BJP who were caught watching porn on their mobile phone, inside the assembly

Q2

This person was the first student of a unique experiment in Primary education with an emphasis on outdoor activities, independence, and explorative mindset.

Identify the person and the experiment?

• Ullas Karanth , the Balavana experiment of Shivarama Karanth.

Q3

In 1977 a European style classical building was pulled down as it was “too small” for a growing city like Bangalore. In its place, a larger, more ‘oriental’ building was proposed by TP Issar of the Bangalore Urban Arts Commission. This move was contested keenly by many city architects who were committed to an idiom of modernism. Issar retorted that the proposed ‘oriental’ design was necessary as it would soften the shock of the Charles Correa Tower - which he felt was inappropriate for a street like Ambedkar Veedhi.

•Which building ?

• General Post Office. Charles Correa Tower also known as Visweswraiah Tower

Q4A hassled Mysorean featured in the Time Magazine. Who, and what's going on?

• B.S.Kesavan, father of Mukul Kesavan, segregating the book collection of the national library during the Partition.

Where and what's it about ?Q5

• A stone depiction of a snake shading a pregnant frog. This scene is supposed to have inspired Shankaracarya to choose Shringeri as a site for his monastery.

• X (see picture) remarked ‘Idu Karnataka sangeeta all, idu tamilara sangeeta’; in light of the poor representation of Kannada compositions and artistes in the Rama Seva mandali music festival at Chamarajapet,Bangalore.

• He urged popular musicians Y and Z to bring the Kannada vacanas and haridasa padas into circulation, by singing them in their concerts. Y refused to sing vacanas, claiming that they lacked musical potential. Z was hailed as kannadada rayabhari – ambassador of Kannada for his efforts in taking vachanas and dasara padas to larger audiences.

• Identify X,Y and Z.

Q6

• X – Aa Na Kru or A N Krishnarao • Y – Bhimsen Joshi• Z – Mallikarjun Mansoor

Part of a larger list including footballer Lionel Messi . Indians include, Sania Nehwal, Virat Kohli. What is the list about? Who is the only Kannadiga in the list?

Q7

Herbalife, a global nutrition company has sponsored all these sports persons Paralympics silver medalist Girisha Hosanagara Nagarajegowda

• X is a small, bespectacled man, frail, but despite his years, incurably active and like my wife, incurably talkative. As soon as we arrived, he deposited me in a chair and pointed triumphantly at a blackboard. “Nineteen,” he said, “is your number. Look. It is also mine.” Chalked on the blackboard was a series of dates, the first of which was 1919. “That,” he said, “was the ear of my marriage.” The next date was 1938. “That,” he said, “was the year of your birth. You will notice that 38 is 19 multiplied by two.” I told him that I had been born on the 19th of July. “There,” he said, “you see?”

• The date after this was 1957. “In this year you won the biggest literary award in England,” he told me, “and 57 is 19 multiplied by three.” The date under this was 1976. “In this year we met,” he said triumphantly, “and 76 is 19 multiplied by four.” He therefore clearly supposed our meeting to be one of the most important points in my life. The next date was 1995. “This,” said X , “is 19 multiplied by five, and this will be the acme of your career.”

• By this time I was feeling extremely bemused. “I come from an old Vedic family, and for 60 years I have pursued the science of numerology.” He added, “Apart from the number 19, I was born with the number four.” Excrpts from the book "The Open Eyes, a journey through Karnataka" by Y, illustrations by Mario Miranda.

• X and Y.

.

Q8

• X- Da Ra Bendre, Y - Dom Moraes• Bendre became excessively interested in

numerology in his old age and would belt out such fundaes to anyone he met.

Q9

God ___ ____ with Goradrove cattle with Chokha.cut grass with Samvata,wove garments with Kabir,coloured hide with Ravidassold meat with the butcher Sajana,melted gold with Narahari,carried cow-dung with Janabai,and even became the Mahar messenger of Damaji

-- Translation of Ekanath’s poem

Fill in the blanks

• Baked pots / made pots / stomped clay all acceptable. Rajkumar played Gora in the popular Kannada film Bhakta Kumbara

09-11-1965

Dear friend ,Your kind letter.

My book in question called A .What wonder that it does not win a prize! What wonder if it won one! Since you have taken it rather seriously, let me add that the little book contains a series of metrical lubrications on life and destiny in a semi-mocking vein. It was first published in 1943, in a cheap unpretentious form, and I did not either seek or expect any tremendous reception for it. The idea of competitive prizes for literature is basically absurd. My whole nature raises in revolt against it. Valmiki and Vyasa and Potana and Tyagaraja are our ideals. Did they compete for anybody's favors?

I was a Government-nominated member of the Central executive of the Sahitya Akka Dummy of Delhi for 3 or 4 years, and then I resigned from it out of disgust. When in it, I protested against the proposal of annual rewards to writers. That would demoralize writers, creates bad blood, and bring falsehood into the book-world. I protested also against the Madras scheme of national poets for every year. C.R. scrapped it when he took charge as chief minister.

……………………………………………..............Where are you going to find judges whose competence may not be questioned and whose vote will be convincing to others? The best way in which a Government or _______can help literature materially is for it to buy a thousand copies of a book of merit and distribute the copies among schools etc. Competitive prizes bear the odor of politics.

Affectionately yours

Q10 An elderly Kannada statesman’s letter dated 1965 to the editor of Hindu. Identify A

• DVG’s letter to Mr Ranganathan, editor of the newspaper Hindu responding to his outrage -- at him not winning Jnanapeetha.

Q11Minimalist Kannada poster of which film ?

• Bhakta Kanakadasa. • Kanakadasa is the only one who passed the

test as he didn’t eat the banana saying there is no place where God isn’t present.

Connect

1

Q12

• Inspired by Bierces Devil’s dictionary Na Kasturi wrote Anartha Kosha that was serialized in the popular Kannada humor magazine Koravanji. Sample this anartha

• Agasa: Bandeyannu odeyalu batteyannu balasuvava

Q13

Fill in the banks

A

BC

• A: Hemavathi• B: Harangi• C: Kabini

Many people consider this incomplete work to be a

classic in Karnataka’s History. This work was the first

to critically assess the role of Wodeyars in the

making of modern Mysore. Among other things, this

work drew attention to Wodeyars supplying infantry

to the British to assist them in quashing Kittur

Chennamma.

Identify the author who died in Menasinahadya in

Chikamagalur district in 2005 ?

Q14

• Saketh Rajan, Mysore University and IIMC gold medalist turned Naxalite

• This sketch of an Indian royal was made when he visited London mid 1800s. His turbulent life was subject of a critically acclaimed Kannada Novel which in turn was adapted for TV by M S Sathyu. MP Dananjaya Kumar urged the Lok Sabha to stop the telecasting of this TV serial Antim Raja in response to mounting protests from his constituents. Identify the personality.

Q15

• Chikkaveerarajendra by Masti Venkatesha Iyengar

• The ‘myriad mindedness’ of this person has inspired a proverb in Kannada which loosely translates to ‘there may be a herb unbrowsed by the goat, but there is no field that X hasn’t tried his hand at’.

Ramachandra Guha suggested in a 1995 Kolkata newspaper article that X bore comparison with Rabindranath Tagore, and called this the bravest act of his (own) writing career. Who?

Q16

• Shivarama Karanth

This feast of first fruits is a harvest festival, celebrated in the Margashira month, when the Sun enters Scorpio. It is marked by much song, dance, wining and dining. The name of this seven day festival is said to be derived from the local phrase for ‘new rice’.

Which festival ?

Q17

• Huttari

• Pudi+Ari new rice

• Pliny the Elder called this place Nitrias in his book The Natural History, and Ptolomey referred to it as Nitra.

• What place? and what is the probable logic behind naming it so?

Q18

• Mangalore. Name possibly comes from Netravati river, the main source of water for the town.

• Although this theory (Nitra/Nitrias from Netravati) is widely accepted, some, like Tulu historian Ravi Mundkur, believe "Netravati" itself could have come from "Nettara" and hence Nitrias could also have been derived from it. Only once Sanskrit began taking roots in the region, people might have corrupted "Nettara" from the native tongue to sound like the more familiar Sanskrit word "Netra".

A type of ashtanga yoga focusing on the correct alignment of the body, making use of straps, wooden blocks, and other objects as aids to achieving the correct postures.

What (noun/adjective) term is this the (incongruous) Oxford dictionary entry for?

Q19

• Iyengar

This work was based on the authors’ PhD research in Egypt when he chanced upon letters written in 1130s between -- Abraham Ben Yiju, a Jewish merchant living in Mangalore and Khalaf ibn Ishaq an Egyptian trader. The work reconstructs a fictionalized history of BenYiju and his slaves Ashu and Bomma, providing valuable insights on 12th century coastal Karnataka.

Identify the work and the author

Q20

• Amitav Ghosh, In an antique land

In 1951, the tenants of the village A in Sagara taluk,Shimoga protested, among other things, against the unjust measure used by landlords to calculate rent paid in kind. This was the first movement of its kind in post independent India. Initially the movement was restricted to tenants, from lower-caste Deewar community. Later the movement was backed by the socialist party and attracted supporters from many student bodies all over the state. Among the many students involved in this event, as many as four went on to become chief ministers of Karnataka. Identify A

Q21

• Kagodu (Kagodu Satyagraha)

X always bought Y in batches of seven. So fond was Y of its esteemed customer (X) that its executives coined a term "doing a Z” (Z being the name of a place associated with X) which meant to sell seven at the same time. Even today the term is in use in company parlance. X, Y, Z?

Q22

• Krishna Raja Wodeyar IV, Rolls Royce, Doing a Mysore

• In 1930s Sir Mirza Ismail noted in a report: – People will wash themselves with __A_ soap, dry

themselves with __B_ towels, clothe themselves in ____C__ silks, ride ____D___ horses, drink ___E__ coffee with ____F___ sugar, furnish their houses with ____G___ furniture, light them with ___H____ lamps and write letters on ____I___ paper”

– Fill in all blanks. (No points for partially correct answers)

Q23

• Mysore. A-I

Q24Selection of a 1780s treaty with the British brokered by Tirumal and Narayan Row. Fill in the blanks.

• Hyder.

• Derived from the Sanskrit name for bell metal, this is the name of a musical instrument, the associated musical genre and dance form. The songs are generally dedicated to the deity Mahadeswara of the hill.

• Identify.

Q25

• Kamsale pada, kamsale kuNita/nrtya. kamsa

Variously known to botanists as Dolichos lablab and Lablab purpureus, this legume is adored in Karnataka for its distinctive fragrance, which is at best an acquired taste. It is also the subject of an apocryphal song of Purandara dasa –

“_____ ____ beku ” Which can be interpreted as ‘He alone must protect us’ or as a demand

for the legume in question.

Identify/ fill in the blanks.

Q26

• Avare kai beku / AvarE kaaya beku [Avare kaalu also acceptable]

• These women belong to the X tribe and hail from town Y in Bellary district. In 2010 their craftwork became the 28th product in state to receive GI tag. X,Y?

Q27

• Lambani, Sandur,

This 11th century Veerasaiva poet from Sonnalige (todays Sholapur in Maharashtra) was a mason. To this day, there are functional ponds and canals in many parts of Karnataka and Maharashtra, said to have been made by him. A firm believer of Kayaka, was won over to Allama’s path of devotion, he sang –

Because I aimed at tanks, canals and temples,I found You,Like one who trips on a stone to find a brilliant treasure,I thought god could be contained in sculpture,My ignorance was the very pit of darkness, rent apart by the grace of

Prabhu Deva,I was reborn brighter, O lord of the faultless jasmines.

Identify the mason-poet, who gave his name to a Kannadiga currently in the news.

Q28

Siddharama, Siddharameswara, Siddharamayya.

CM Siddharamiah

_________ Prabhu (15th -16th C.E)(Avatar of Balarama)

Bhagavan _____________ (1897-1961) (Author of Chidakasha Gita)

Swami ________________(1978 - _____)Author of ‘Open the door and let the breeze in’

Q29

• Nityananda

A famously litigious artist sued the Ramakrishna Mission for Re 1, when this reproduction of his painting appeared in the 1935 Durga Puja special issue of their Bengali periodical Udbodhan . Who was the person and why did he sue?

Q30

• K. Venkatappa,

• The print was laterally inverted from the original and Venkatappa felt “Not just aesthetic principles had been violated” but religious senibilities , for the reproduction showed rama giving the ring with left hand and wearing the sacred thread on the right.