Art & Culture February 2020

CURRENT AFFAIRS
Heritage archaeological sites to be developed

Issue
The government proposes to set up an Indian Institute of Heritage and
Conservation under the Ministry of Culture, and develop five
archaeological sites as “iconic sites”.

Background
The heritage sites with on-site museum are Rakhigarhi (Haryana),
Hastinapur (Uttar Pradesh), Sivsagar (Assam), Dholavira (Gujarat) and
Adichanallur (Tamil Nadu).

Rakhigarhi
Rakhigarhi in Haryana’s Hissar district is one of the most prominent and
largest sites of the Harappan civilisation. It is one among the five known
townships of the Harappan civilisation in the Indian subcontinent.
In one of the excavations, the skeletal remains of a couple were
discovered. Interestingly, of the 62 graves discovered in Rakhigarhi, only
this particular grave consisted of more than one skeletal remains and of
individuals of the opposite sex together.

Hastinapur
Hastinapur finds mention in the Mahabharata and the Puranas. One of the
most significant discoveries made at this site was of the “new ceramic
industry”, which was named the Painted Grey Ware, which as

www.studyiq.com
Art & Culture February 2020
CURRENT AFFAIRS
per the report represented the relics of the early Indo-Aryans.
The sites of Hastinapur, Mathura, Kurukshetra, Barnawa, etc., are
identifiable with those of the same name mentioned in the Mahabharata.
If that be so, the Painted Grey Ware would be associated with the early
settlers on these sites, viz. The Pauravas, Panchalas, etc., who formed a
part of the early Aryan stock in India.

Shivsagar
In Sivasagar, excavations at the Karenghar (Talatalghar) complex
between 2000 and 2003 led to the discovery of buried structures in the
north-western and north-eastern side of the complex.
Among the structural remains found at the site were ceramic
assemblages including vases, vessels, dishes, and bowls, etc. Terracotta
smoking pipes were also found.
Another excavation site in Sivasagar district is the Garhgaon Raja’s
palace. A burnt-brick wall running in north-south orientation was found,
along with the remains of two huge circular wooden posts.

Dholavira
Dholavira in Gujarat is located in the Khadir island of the Rann of Kutch,
and like Rakhigarhi is one of the sites where the remains of the Harappan
civilisation have been found.
Dholavira is unique because remains of a complete water system have
been found here.
The people who lived there for an estimated 1,200 years during the
Harappan civilisation are noted for their water conservation system
using rainwater harvesting techniques in an otherwise parched
landscape.

Adichnallur
Adichnallur lies in the Thoothukudi district of Tamil Nadu. The urn-burial
site was first brought to light during a “haphazard excavation” by a
German archaeologist in 1876.
Over the years, the site has gained attention because of three important
findings: the discovery of an ancient Tamil-Brahmi script on the inside of
an urn containing a full human skeleton, a fragment of a broken
earthenware, and the remains of living quarters.
www.studyiq.com
Art & Culture February 2020
CURRENT AFFAIRS
Scientists to digitally create port city Poompuhar

Issue
The Chola Dynasty port city in Tamil Nadu that vanished from maritime
history around 1,000 years ago will be digitally reconstructed by a team
led by the Department of Science and Technology.

Background
The reconstruction of Poompuhar is part of DST’s Indian Digital Heritage
project. An exhibition of its first project ‘Digital Hampi’ is currently on
display at the National Museum.

Details
There are exhaustive narrations in works of Sangam Tamil literature to
infer that the city, located 30 km from the existing Poompuhar town in
southern TN, was submerged due to “kadalkol” or rising sea levels.
Despite several studies on Tamil literature, archaeology, history,
epigraphy, underwater exploration and geosciences, the mystery of the
exact location of initial establishment of Poompuhar, its age, later shifts,
along with periods, time-series spatial evolution in the present location at
the mouth of river Cauvery, and the reasons and periods of its extinction,
remain unresolved.
The study involves underwater surveys and photography by remotely
operated vehicles and sea bed drilling, remote sensing-based geodynamic
studies to bring out comprehensive information on the time series
evolution and extinction.

www.studyiq.com
Art & Culture February 2020
CURRENT AFFAIRS
It also involves the visualisation of geodynamic processes of the last
20,000 years like land subsidence, sea-level rise, Cauvery’s migration,
floods, tsunami, cyclones and erosion. The information extracted from the
studies will help digitally reconstruct the life history of Poompuhar.
Initial studies carried out by the Indian Remote Sensing Satellites show
that the city was established initially in the Cauvery Delta-A about 30km
away from the present town around 15,000 years ago.
It shifted further 10 km to the west to Delta-B around 11,000 years ago
and again further 10 km west to Delta-C around 8000 years ago. Finally, it
was re-established at the present location at the mouth of the river
Cauvery around 3,000 years ago.

Notes

www.studyiq.com
Art & Culture February 2020
CURRENT AFFAIRS
Brihadeeswara temple consecration

Issue
The four Main Streets leading to the Sri Brihadeeswara Temple in the Old
Town area are ready to celebrate consecration ceremony.

Details
Brahadeeswara temple
Brihadeeswara Temple, also called Rajarajesvaram or Peruvudaiyār Kōvil,
is a temple dedicated to Shiva located in South bank of Kaveri river in
Thanjavur, Tamil Nadu.
It is one of the largest South Indian temples and an exemplary example of
a fully realized Dravidian architecture. It is called as Dhakshina Meru
(Meru of south).
Built by Tamil king Raja Raja Chola I between 1003 and 1010 AD, the
temple is a part of the UNESCO World Heritage Site known as the "Great
Living Chola Temples", along with the Chola dynasty era Gangaikonda
Cholapuram temple and Airavatesvara temple.
The temple complex includes gopura, the main temple, its massive tower,
inscriptions, frescoes and sculptures predominantly related to Shaivism,
but also of Vaishnavism and Shaktism traditions of Hinduism.
Built out of granite, the vimana tower above the sanctum is one of the
tallest in South India.

www.studyiq.com
Art & Culture February 2020
CURRENT AFFAIRS
Conservation plan for Konark Sun temple

Issue
Ministry of Culture has said that a plan to restore and preserve the nearly
800-year-old Konark Sun Temple in Odisha would be drawn up soon.

Background
A scientific study was carried out by the Roorkee-based Central Building
Research Institute from 2013 till 2018 to ascertain the temple’s structural
stability as well as the status of the filled-in sand.

Details
The 13th Century temple, which is a UNESCO World Heritage Site, had been
filled with sand and sealed by the British authorities in 1903 in order to
stabilise the structure.
Among the potential choices before the government would be to fill in more
sand or to remove all the sand and put in place alternate support.

Konark Sun Temple

Konark Sun Temple is a 13th-century CE Sun temple at Konark near Puri
on the coastline of Odisha.The temple is attributed to king Narasinga Deva I
of the Eastern Ganga Dynasty about 1250 CE.
The structures and elements that have survived are famed for their
intricate artwork, iconography, and themes, including erotic kama and
mithuna scenes.

www.studyiq.com
Art & Culture February 2020
CURRENT AFFAIRS
Also called the Surya Devalaya, it is a classic illustration of the Odisha
style of Architecture or Kalinga Architecture.
This temple was called the "Black Pagoda" in European sailor accounts as
early as 1676 because its great tower appeared black.
The stone temple was made from three types of stone. Chlorite was used
for the door lintel and frames as well as some sculptures. Laterite was
used for the core of the platform and staircases near the foundation.
Khondalite was used for other parts of the temple.
The temple, built from Khondalite rocks, was originally constructed at the
mouth of the river Chandrabhaga, but the waterline has receded since
then. The wheels of the temple are sundials, which can be used to calculate
time accurately to a minute.

Notes

www.studyiq.com
Art & Culture February 2020
CURRENT AFFAIRS
Radio helps revive dying tribal language

Issue
The Asur community of Jharkhand has been spreading the popularity of
the language within their geographical limits using mobile radio.

Background
The Asur language figures in the list of UNESCO Interactive Atlas of the
World’s Languages in Danger. Of the 32 different tribes recorded in the
State, only four to five tribes, including Santhali, Ho and Kuruk, have
recorded language scripts.

Details
The first transmission of a half-an-hour programme was organised near
Netarhat on January 19. Since then, the pre-recorded radio programmes
have been aired on 16 different occasions.
Radio programmes are based on incidents happening in different parts of
world and also news relating to the community.

Asur tribes
Asur people are a very small Austroasiatic ethnic group living primarily
in the state of Jharkhand, mostly in the Gumla, Lohardaga, Palamu and
Latehar districts.
Asurs are traditionally iron-smelters. They were once hunter gatherers,
having also involved in shifting agriculture. However, majority of them
shifted into agriculture with 91.19 percent enlisted as cultivators.

www.studyiq.com
Art & Culture February 2020
CURRENT AFFAIRS
The Asur religion is a mixture of animism, animatism, naturalism and
ancestral worships. They also believe in black magic like bhut-pret (spirits)
and witchcraft.
Their chief deity is Singbonga. Amongst the other deities are Dharati Mata,
Duari, Patdaraha and Turi Husid.
They celebrate festivals like Sarhul, Karma, Dhanbuni, Kadelta, Rajj karma,
Dasahara Karam.
The Asur follow the rule of monogamy, but in case of barrenness, widower
and widow hood, they follow the rule of bigamy or even Polygamy. Widow
remarriages are permissible.
They are one among the 9 PVTG that are found in Jharkhand. They speak a
language known as ‘Asur language’.
Only 7,000 to 8,000 Asur tribals are left in the community who are well
conversant in the language.

Notes

www.studyiq.com
Art & Culture February 2020
CURRENT AFFAIRS
Dara Shikoh

Issue
The Ministry of Culture recently set up a seven-member panel of the
Archaeological Survey of India (ASI) to locate the grave of the Mughal
prince Dara Shikoh (1615-59).

Background
The panel will use architectural evidence from that time, and also written
history and any other information that can be used as evidence.

Details
The eldest son of Shah Jahan, Dara Shikoh was killed after losing the war
of succession against his brother Aurangzeb.
Dara Shikoh is described as a “liberal Muslim” who tried to find
commonalities between Hindu and Islamic traditions. He translated into
Persian the Bhagavad Gita as well as 52 Upanishads.
Dara Shikoh realised the greatness of the Upanishads and translated them,
which were earlier known only to a few upper caste Hindus.
Some historians argue that if Dara Shikoh had ascended the Mughal
throne instead of Aurangzeb, it could have saved thousands of lives lost in
religious clashes.
According to the Shahjahannama, after Aurangzeb defeated Dara Shikoh,
he brought the latter to Delhi in chains. His head was cut off and sent to
Agra Fort, while his torso was buried in the Humayun’s Tomb complex.

www.studyiq.com
Art & Culture February 2020
CURRENT AFFAIRS
Italian traveller Niccolao Manucci gave a graphic description of the day in
Travels of Manucci, as he was there as a witness to the whole thing. That
is the basis of the thesis.
The Shahjahannama compiled by Muhammad Saleh Kambo has dedicated
at least two pages to the last days of Dara Shikoh, on how he was brutally
murdered and buried somewhere in the complex.
The ASI’s biggest problem is that most graves in the complex have no
names. This will complicate the process further as the exhumation of
graves is not permitted.

Notes

www.studyiq.com
Art & Culture February 2020
CURRENT AFFAIRS
Royal Naval Ratings

Issue
Seventy-four years ago on February 18, 1946, some 1,100 Indian sailors
or ratings of the HMIS Talwar and the Royal Indian Navy (RIN) Signal
School in Bombay declared a hunger strike, triggered by the conditions and
treatment of Indians in the Navy.

Details
The morning after February 18, somewhere between 10,000-20,000
sailors joined the strike, as did shore establishments in Karachi, Madras,
Calcutta, Mandapam, Visakhapatnam, and the Andaman Islands.
While the immediate trigger was the demand for better food and working
conditions, the agitation soon turned into a wider demand for
independence from British rule.
The protesting sailors demanded the release of all political prisoners
including those from Netaji Subhas Chandra Bose’s Indian National Army
(INA), action against the commander for ill-treatment and using insulting
language, revision of pay and allowances to put RIN employees on a par
with their counterparts in the Royal Navy, demobilisation of RIN personnel
with provisions for peacetime employment, release of Indian forces
stationed in Indonesia, and better treatment of subordinates by their
officers.

www.studyiq.com
Art & Culture February 2020
CURRENT AFFAIRS
One of the triggers for the RIN strike was the arrest of a rating, BC Dutt,
who had scrawled “Quit India” on the HMIS Talwar. The day after the strike
began, the ratings went around Bombay in lorries, waving the Congress
flag, and getting into scraps with Europeans and policemen who tried to
confront them.
Soon, ordinary people joined the ratings, and life came to a virtual
standstill in both Bombay and Calcutta. There were meetings, processions,
strikes, and hartals.
In Bombay, labourers participated in a general strike called by the
Communist Party of India and the Bombay Students’ Union. In many cities
across India, students boycotted classes in solidarity.
The RIN revolt remains a legend today. It was an event that strengthened
further the determination among all sections of the Indian people to see
the end of British rule.
Deep solidarity and amity among religious groups was in evidence, which
appeared to run counter to the rapidly spreading atmosphere of
commuanal hatred and animosity.
Notes

www.studyiq.com
Art & Culture February 2020
CURRENT AFFAIRS
World Mother Language day

Issue
February 21 was International Mother Language Day. It has been
observed since 1999 to promote linguistic and cultural diversity and
multilingualism, according to the UN.

Background
UNESCO declared International Mother Language Day in 1999, to
commemorate a 1952 protest against West Pakistan’s imposition of Urdu
as the official language of East Pakistan (present-day Bangladesh).

Details
Of the world’s 6,000 languages, 43% are estimated as endangered. On the
other hand, just 10 languages account for as many as 4.8 billion speakers,
over 60% of the world population.
Globally, English remains the most widely spoken language with 1.13 billion
speakers in 2019, followed by Mandarin with 1.17 billion. Hindi is third
with 615 million speakers while Bengali is seventh with 265 million.
In India, Hindi is the most spoken language with over 528 million speakers
in 2011, as per the Census. Bengali had 97.2 million speakers in 2011,
followed by Marathi (83 million), while other languages with over 50 million
speakers are Telugu (81 million), Tamil (69 million), Gujarati (55.5 million)
and Urdu (50.8 million).

www.studyiq.com
Art & Culture February 2020
CURRENT AFFAIRS
Percentage trends from 1991 to 2011 underline the growth of the most
widely spoken language, Hindi, which was spoken by 39.29% of the Indian
population in 1991, and whose share grew to 43.63% in 2011. For other
languages in India’s top 12, the 2011 percentage share has fallen when
compared to that in 1991.

Notes

www.studyiq.com
Art & Culture February 2020
CURRENT AFFAIRS
Yakshagana

Issue
Women are entering Yakshagana, an art form where women artists are
miniscule. There are far fewer women Yakshagana artistes compared to
men. At one time, this traditional art form was forbidden for women.

Details
Yakshagana is a traditional Indian theatre form, developed in Dakshina
Kannada, Udupi, Uttara Kannada, Shimoga and western parts of
Chikmagalur districts, in the state of Karnataka and in Kasaragod district
in Kerala that combines dance, music, dialogue, costume, make-up, and
stage techniques with a unique style and form.
It is believed to have evolved from pre-classical music and theatre during
the period of the Bhakti movement. It is sometimes simply called "Aata" or
ā a ("the play" in Tulu Language).
This theatre style is mainly found in coastal regions of Karnataka in
various forms. Towards the south from Udupi to Kasaragod of Tulu Nadu
region, the form of Yakshagana called as 'Badagu thittu' and towards north
upto Uttara Canara it's called 'Thenku Thittu'.
Both of these forms equally played all over the region. Yakshagana is
traditionally presented from dusk to dawn. Its stories are drawn from
Ramayana, Mahabharata, Bhagavata and other epics from both Hindu and
Jain and other ancient Indic traditions.

www.studyiq.com
Art & Culture February 2020
CURRENT AFFAIRS
A typical Yakshagana performance consists of background music played
by a group of musicians (known as the himmela) and a dance and dialogue
group (known as the mummela), who together enact poetic epics on stage.
The himmela is made up of a lead singer (bhagawatha)—who also directs
the production—and is referred to as the "first actor" (modalane vesha).
Additional himmela members are players of traditional musical
instruments, such as the maddale (hand drum), the pungi (pipe), the
harmonium (organ), and the chande (loud drums).
The music is based on ragas, which are characterised by rhythmic
patterns called mattu and tala (or musical meter in Western music).
Yakshagana in its present form is believed to have been strongly
influenced by the Vaishnava Bhakti movement. Yakshagana was first
introduced in Udupi by Madhvacharya's disciple Naraharitirtha.
Naraharitirtha was the minister in the Kalinga Kingdom. He also was the
founder of Kuchipudi.

Notes

www.studyiq.com
Art & Culture February 2020
CURRENT AFFAIRS
Ancient city in Haryana’s Sirsa

Issue
A mound in Sirsa indistinguishable from the dusty background of most
Haryana small towns could hold clues to the ancient city of ‘Sarishika’.

Background
Falling on the old route to Takshashila, the 6th-5th century BC city found
mention in the Mahabharata, Panini’s Ashtadhyayi and the Buddhist text
Divyavadana.

Details
Before the Archaeological Survey of India (ASI) can confirm the historicity
of the site, it has to convince the nearly 50,000 people living on the
identified 82 acres to move.
There is also a dispute over the size of the protected area, with surveys by
the ASI and government departments such as Revenue and Archaeology
and Museums coming up with different figures.
The government is said to be trying to see if the ASI can take the parts of
Ther that are heavily inhabited out of the protected zone.
The ASI found numerous antiquarian remains, ranging from the Gupta to
the Mughal period in three months of excavation, but needs more time to
verify the facts.
Following an affidavit to court regarding the area for protection, a joint
survey conducted by the ASI and Haryana’s Archaeological and Museums
Department too had put the Ther area at 82 acres.

www.studyiq.com
 defence EXAMS

All Defence Sashastra CDS Exam

Exams Seema Ba
Rs.58,000 Rs.17,000 Rs.34,000
Rs.28,000 Click Rs.11,000 Click Rs.17,975 Click
Here Here Here
Rs.20,000 Rs.6,000 Rs.12,000

AFCAT Indian Coast CAPF (A.C.)

Guard Exams
Rs.18,000 Rs.18,000 Rs.34,000
Rs.9,500 Click Rs.8,200 Click Rs.17,500 Click
Here Here Here
Rs.6,500 Rs.6,500 Rs.12,500

NDA Exam SERVICE DRDO- Paper 1

SELECTION BOARD
Rs.22,000 Rs.27,000 Rs.17,000
Rs.11,500 Click Rs.13,500 Click Rs.8,700 Click
Here Here Here
Rs.8,500 Rs.8,500 Rs.6,000

Airforce Group Airforce Group X Airforce Group Y

X & Y Combo Exam Exam
Rs.23,000 Rs.18,000 Rs.18,000
Rs.12,000 Click Rs.10,000 Click Rs.10,000 Click
Here Here Here
Rs.8,500 Rs.6,500 Rs.6,500