Ultimate India Quiz Book

Derek O'Brien

Description

The perfect blend of entertainment and education . . . Commemorating sixty years of India's independence and reflecting India's many facets, this definitive volume packs in 3000 questions in sixty chapters, testing the answering skills of any quiz-lover. Each chapter contains fifty questions on a range of subjects from ancient, medieval and modern India to alternative medicine, and fairs and festivals, Indian cricket, Indian diaspora, Hindi and regional films to science, traditional sport and youth affairs, travel, the Ramayana and the Mahabharata. Put your knowledge of India to the ultimate test with this valuable volume for facts, figures, events, history, literature, politics, and much more.

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Informations

• Publié par: Penguin Books Ltd
• Date de parution: 17 juillet 2007
• Nombre de lectures: 0
• EAN13: 9789351183440
• Langue: English

Extrait

Derek O Brien

The Ultimate India Quiz Book

PENGUIN BOOKS
Contents
About the Author
Dedication
Ancient India
Bhasha and Lipi
Birds, Beasts and Trees
Bollywood
A Brush with India
Business Maharajas
Cinemascope
The Constitution
Cricket
Culinary Delights
Dance Like an Indian
Doordarshan and Akashvani
The Dream Merchants
Father of the Nation
Festival and Fairs
Foreign Relations
From Ayurveda to Yoga
Getting from Here to There
The Great Indian Elections
Green is Clean
Handmade Wonders
Health Watch
Heritage Sites
How the Country is Run
Hundred Per Cent Literacy
Incredible India
India and the World
India s Neighbours
The Indian Diaspora
Indian Railways
Indian Writing in English
Indian Writing in the Languages
Jai Jawan
Jai Kisan
The Lay of the Land
The Mahabharata
Making Music
Marvels of Architecture
Media Talk
Medieval India
Modern India
Money Matters
National Parks
National Symbols and National Days
Natural Resources
Politics and Politicians
Preserving the Past
The Ramayana
Reach Out and Touch
Religion
Science
SC/ST
Sportsworld
States and Union Territories
Stepping Out in Style
The Struggle for Independence
Them and Us
We Honour Those
The Woman Citizen
Young Initiatives, Traditional Sports
Answers
Copyright
PENGUIN BOOKS
THE ULTIMATE INDIA QUIZ BOOK
Derek O Brien is Asia s best-known quizmaster. He is the host of the country s longest-running corporate quiz show, The Brand Equity Quiz , as well The Cadbury Bournvita Quiz Contest , the longest-running knowledge game show on Indian television. He is also the editor of the best-selling The Penguin India Reference Yearbook , and the author of more than twenty-five quiz and reference books published by Penguin. Derek and his team of more than seventy associates have been working closely with teachers and students for more than a decade now to make knowledge available in a fun and interesting way. Derek now also hosts quizzes in the Middle East and the US.
DEREK O BRIEN AND ASSOCIATES RESEARCH TEAM
Shalini Chaudhury Nayan Chaudhury Amit Ghosh Anik Ghosal Anustup Haldar and Debkumar Mitra
Ancient India
Decades ago, Amrapali, a film about a famous courtesan, was released. Some viewers, of the view that the women of Amrapali s time were not seen in public in skimpy clothing, were offended by the film s portrayal of the protagonist. Few of us went back to our history books to find out what courtesans did wear!
1 . Which Chola king was the first Indian ruler to take his army overseas?
2 . The bank of which river was the site of the second urbanization in India?
3 . Shilbhadra was the head of which university of ancient India?
4 . Which collection of stories with morals, about animals, was written during the Gupta period?
5 . Which Buddhist scholar is famous for his Visuddhi-Magga (Way to Purity), a summary of current Buddhist doctrines?
6 . Which sect of ancient India was intially known as Nirgrantha?
7 . During the rule of the Haryanka dynasty, which ancient city was the capital of Magadha?
8 . Which work of Varahamihira discussed the five schools of astronomy, of which two reflected a close knowledge of Hellenistic astronomy?
9 . To the Greeks, which Mauryan king was known as Amitrochates-perhaps a Greek transcription of the Sanskrit amitraghata , destroyer of foes?
10 . Which historical chronicle of early India was written in 1148 in Sanskrit verse by the Kashmiri Brahmin, Kalhana?
11 . In the tenth century, which dynasty was established by Taila after he had overthrown the Rashtrakutas?
12 . Chand Bardai was the court poet of which king who ruled Ajmer and Delhi from 1165 to 1192?
13 . Which university in ancient India was established by King Dharampal of Bengal in response to a supposed decline in the quality of scholarship at Nalanda?
14 . Which school of ancient Indian philosophy drew on what were enumerated as the twenty-five principles which gave rise to creation?
15 . In the Mauryan period, which form of tax was paid in labour?
16 . Fo Kuo Chi is a famous record of which pilgrim s journeys?
17 . The present form of which text is the work of Vishnugupta, from around the third century AD ?
18 . Which Buddhist text records a dialogue between Menander and a monk, Nagasena, who introduced him to the Buddhist doctrine?
19 . Which port in south India was named Kulottungacholapattinam, after a Chola king?
20 . The great stupa at Peshawar is rated as the greatest contribution of which king to Buddhist monumental architecture?
21 . Which early Indian medical text primarily focusses on surgery?
22 . In the Vedic texts, which metal is referred to as shyama?
23 . Which dynasty of north India ruled Magadha from 684 BC to 424 BC ?
24 . The exploits of which Chalukya king are referred to in the Aihole inscription?
25 . Which ancient city mentioned in the Mahabharata is thought to have been located where Delhi now stands?
26 . In the seventh century, which Chinese traveller visited India during the reign of Harshavardhana?
27 . Which famous work in Sanskrit grammar, attributed to Patanjali, is a commentary on the celebrated Ashtadhyayi of Panini?
28 . Which ancient north Indian city was called Kanogiza by Ptolemy?
29 . Who was sent as an ambassador by Seleucus I of Syria to the court of Sandrocottus of India?
30 . In ancient India, to which of the chaturashramas were the Sudras entitled?
31 . Which ancient centre of learning was situated about twenty miles west of Rawalpindi?
32 . Which Gupta king was the son of the Lichhavi princess, Kumaradevi?
33 . Which king is credited with having written the three plays, Ratnavali , Priyadarshika and Nagananda ?
34 . The battle of the river Hydapses was a battle fought by Alexander against Purushottama (Porus). Hydapses is the ancient Greek name of which modern-day river?
35 . Between the first century BC and the seventh century AD , which style of Buddhist visual art was developed in what is now north-western Pakistan and eastern Afghanistan?
36 . Which among the five rivers of Punjab was known as Parushni in the Vedic period?
37 . In the Bhabru edict which king declared his faith in the three jewels of Buddhism?
38 . Which event in the Mahabharata acted as a time-maker and caused the end of Dwaparayuga and commencement of Kaliyuga?
39 . Which play of Vishakhadatta is based on the Mauryan overthrow of the Nanda king?
40 . Which Tamil epic poem was written by Ilango Atikal, a Jain monk?
41 . Which precious stone sourced from Afghanisthan was used to obtain the blue colour in the Ajanta cave paintings?
42 . Which group of people referred to the Indus Valley as Meluha?
43 . Which quasi-philosophical Indian school of materialists, who rejected the notion of an afterworld, the authority of the sacred scriptures, the Vedas, and the immortality of the self, flourished around sixth century BC ?
44 . Which leading mathematician of the twelfth century used in his works, particularly Lilavati and Bijaganita , the decimal system?
45 . How many Mahajanapadas existed in the age of Buddha?
46 . Who is the author of Neetisataka ?
47 . From his campaign in Khvarazm, Mahmud brought back with him which scholar of central Asia, who was ordered to spend ten years in India?
48 . Which of the four Vedas contain 1,028 hymns?
49 . According to the Jaina Kalpasutra , which Tirthankara was the son of Ashvasena, the ruler of Varanasi?
50 . Which Pallava ruler assumed the title Vatapikonda, the conqueror of Vatapi, after occupying the Chalukyan capital?
Bhasha and Lipi
For an anthropologist, Papua New Guinea is a morgue of mother tongues. In much of the rest of the world, languages die almost every month; the tsunami of 2004 brought to extinction several languages from the Andaman and Nicobar islands.
One reads of international efforts to save vanishing tribes and their mother tongues. A robot may be able to learn Hindi, but would it ever write a Madhushala?
1 . Which language came to be used as a Buddhist canonical language because Buddha opposed the use of Sanskrit?
2 . Which member of the north Dravidian sub-family of languages is spoken by nearly 1.8 million people of the Oraon tribe of the Chhota Nagpur plateau?
3 . The currently used script of which language first appeared in 1778 when Charles Wilkins developed methods of printing in it?
4 . The script of which Indian language is also known as the saraphi (banker s), vaiasai (merchant s) or mahajani (trader s) script?
5 . Which script, widely used in India, was modelled on the Landa alphabet during the sixteenth century by Guru Angad?
6 . Which dialect of Hindi is spoken around Mathura, and much of its literature in the language deals with Krishna?
7 . In the late-eighteenth and early-nineteenth centuries, which language was strongly promoted by John Borthwick Gilchrist who wrote a dictionary and a number of grammars in the language and served as the first president of Fort William College in Calcutta?
8 . The Lepchas of Sikkim have their own script, but most of their ancient literary works, called namthars, have been found recorded in which script?
9 . In which Indian language would you come across a peculiar tradition of chronicles written in prose, called buranjis?
10 . The standard dialect of which language is Vicholi?
11 . Which is the most spoken among the north Munda group of languages?
12 . The Tolkappiyam , written around 200 BC , is considered a defining work in the poetics and grammar of which language?
13 . The name of which Indian language has been derived from words meaning a part of Mother Earth ?
14 . Which is the oldest surviving example of the tabulations of rules of Sanskrit grammar?
15 . In which Union territory is Bengali one of the principal languages?
16 . In the early-thirteenth century, which script began to develop f