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Indian Aesthetics — Sanskrit Poetics — GK Questions with Answers

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29 questions
  1. The Natyashastra was written by —
    1. Bhamaha
    2. Bharata
    3. Vamana
    4. Kuntaka
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    Answer: (B) Bharata

    Bharata Muni, the founder of the rasa school.

  2. Which school holds that "style is the soul of poetry"?
    1. Alamkara
    2. Riti
    3. Dhvani
    4. Vakrokti
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    Answer: (B) Riti

    The Riti school of Vamana — ritir atma kavyasya.

  3. Dhvanyaloka was written by —
    1. Abhinavagupta
    2. Anandavardhana
    3. Mammata
    4. Kshemendra
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    Answer: (B) Anandavardhana

    Anandavardhana, 9th century; Abhinavagupta wrote the Locana commentary on it.

  4. The founder of the vakrokti school is —
    1. Bhamaha
    2. Kuntaka
    3. Dandin
    4. Udbhata
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    Answer: (B) Kuntaka

    Kuntaka, in the Vakroktijivita.

  5. Auchityavicharacharcha was composed by —
    1. Kshemendra
    2. Rajashekhara
    3. Bhoja
    4. Jagannatha
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    Answer: (A) Kshemendra

    Kshemendra, who made propriety the life of rasa.

  6. How many rasas does Bharata enumerate in the Natyashastra?
    1. six
    2. eight
    3. nine
    4. ten
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    Answer: (B) eight

    Bharata names eight. Shanta, the ninth, was established later by Abhinavagupta.

  7. The sthayi bhava of karuna rasa is —
    1. rati
    2. shoka
    3. krodha
    4. jugupsa
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    Answer: (B) shoka

    Shoka, sorrow, is the permanent emotion behind the pathetic rasa.

  8. The permanent emotion underlying vira rasa is —
    1. krodha
    2. utsaha
    3. vismaya
    4. bhaya
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    Answer: (B) utsaha

    Utsaha — energy or enthusiasm.

  9. How many vyabhichari bhavas are there?
    1. 8
    2. 16
    3. 33
    4. 49
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    Answer: (C) 33

    Thirty-three transitory states; with 8 sthayi and 8 sattvika they make 49 bhavas in all.

  10. "Romancha" as a sattvika bhava means —
    1. trembling
    2. perspiration
    3. horripilation
    4. fainting
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    Answer: (C) horripilation

    Horripilation — the hair standing on end.

  1. Which rasa was added to Bharata’s list by later theorists?
    1. Adbhuta
    2. Bibhatsa
    3. Shanta
    4. Raudra
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    Answer: (C) Shanta

    Shanta rasa, the peaceful, established by Abhinavagupta as the highest.

  2. Abhinavagupta’s commentary on the Natyashastra is called —
    1. Locana
    2. Abhinavabharati
    3. Dhvanyaloka
    4. Kavyaprakasha
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    Answer: (B) Abhinavabharati

    Abhinavabharati. The Locana is his commentary on the Dhvanyaloka.

  3. "Sadharanikarana" means —
    1. imitation
    2. generalisation
    3. suggestion
    4. ornamentation
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    Answer: (B) generalisation

    The generalisation of emotion, by which private feeling becomes universal and enjoyable.

  4. Whose theory of rasa is called abhivyakti-vada?
    1. Bhatta Lollata
    2. Shri Shankuka
    3. Bhatta Nayaka
    4. Abhinavagupta
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    Answer: (D) Abhinavagupta

    Abhinavagupta’s theory of manifestation, which became the accepted view.

  5. "Rupaka" corresponds to the English figure —
    1. simile
    2. metaphor
    3. hyperbole
    4. pun
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    Answer: (B) metaphor

    Rupaka = metaphor; upama = simile.

  6. "Shlesha" as an alamkara means —
    1. alliteration
    2. pun
    3. paradox
    4. simile
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    Answer: (B) pun

    A pun — one word carrying two meanings at once.

  7. Which riti is described as sweet, soft and lucid, and held to be the best?
    1. Gaudi
    2. Vaidarbhi
    3. Panchali
    4. Lati
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    Answer: (B) Vaidarbhi

    Vaidarbhi, preferred by both Dandin and Vamana.

  8. Dandin enumerates how many gunas?
    1. three
    2. five
    3. eight
    4. ten
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    Answer: (D) ten

    Ten in the Kavyadarsha; Mammata later reduced them to three.

  9. The three gunas retained by Mammata are —
    1. shlesha, samata, kanti
    2. madhurya, ojas, prasada
    3. ojas, kanti, udarata
    4. prasada, samadhi, arthavyakti
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    Answer: (B) madhurya, ojas, prasada

    Madhurya (sweetness), ojas (vigour) and prasada (lucidity).

  10. The power of a word that gives the literal meaning is —
    1. lakshana
    2. abhidha
    3. vyanjana
    4. tatparya
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    Answer: (B) abhidha

    Abhidha is denotation; lakshana is indication; vyanjana is suggestion.

  1. The suggested sense of a word is produced by —
    1. abhidha
    2. lakshana
    3. vyanjana
    4. anumana
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    Answer: (C) vyanjana

    Vyanjana, the power of suggestion, which yields the vyangyartha.

  2. The highest grade of poetry for Anandavardhana is —
    1. chitra-kavya
    2. gunibhuta-vyangya
    3. dhvani-kavya
    4. alamkara-kavya
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    Answer: (C) dhvani-kavya

    Dhvani-kavya, where the suggested sense predominates.

  3. "Chitra-kavya" is —
    1. the highest kind of poetry
    2. the middling kind
    3. the lowest kind, mere word-play
    4. poetry about painting
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    Answer: (C) the lowest kind, mere word-play

    It is adhama — the lowest, mere verbal picture-making.

  4. Which kind of dhvani does Anandavardhana rank highest?
    1. vastu-dhvani
    2. alamkara-dhvani
    3. rasa-dhvani
    4. shabda-dhvani
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    Answer: (C) rasa-dhvani

    Rasa-dhvani — which is how the dhvani school absorbs the rasa school.

  5. The Kavyaprakasha was written by —
    1. Mammata
    2. Vishwanatha
    3. Jagannatha
    4. Rajashekhara
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    Answer: (A) Mammata

    Mammata — the standard textbook of Sanskrit poetics.

  6. According to Mammata, poetry instructs —
    1. like a master
    2. like a friend
    3. like a beloved wife
    4. like a teacher
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    Answer: (C) like a beloved wife

    The Vedas command like a master, history advises like a friend, poetry persuades like a beloved wife.

  7. Sahityadarpana defines poetry as a sentence whose soul is —
    1. dhvani
    2. rasa
    3. alamkara
    4. riti
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    Answer: (B) rasa

    Vishwanatha: vakyam rasatmakam kavyam.

  8. Which Sanskrit concept is closest to the Russian Formalist idea of defamiliarisation?
    1. rasa
    2. dhvani
    3. vakrokti
    4. auchitya
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    Answer: (C) vakrokti

    Vakrokti — oblique speech that makes the ordinary strange.

  9. Kshemendra’s auchitya corresponds most closely to which Western term?
    1. catharsis
    2. decorum
    3. sublime
    4. mimesis
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    Answer: (B) decorum

    Horace’s decorum — fitness and propriety of every element.

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