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Quiz: Stories and Literature

Test your understanding of Chapter 14. Choose the best answer, then click Show Answer to check.

Question 1

What is the Bhagavad Gita?

  1. A separate epic that tells the story of Rama's exile
  2. A collection of Buddhist animal fables in Pali
  3. A section of about 700 verses inside the Mahabharata
  4. A book of Urdu ghazals written in Mughal Delhi
Show Answer

The correct answer is C. The Bhagavad Gita is a conversation between Krishna and Arjuna found in the sixth book of the Mahabharata. It is not a separate Rama story. That is the Ramayana.

Concept Tested: Bhagavad Gita Bloom's Level: Remember

Question 2

Which poet is honored as the national poet of Pakistan?

  1. Allama Iqbal
  2. Kazi Nazrul Islam
  3. Rabindranath Tagore
  4. Kabir
Show Answer

The correct answer is A. Allama Iqbal (1877 to 1938), born in Sialkot, is Pakistan's national poet, and his birthday is a public holiday there. Kazi Nazrul Islam is the national poet of Bangladesh, a common mix-up because both wrote in the early 1900s.

Concept Tested: Allama Iqbal Bloom's Level: Remember

Question 3

What is the Arabic version of the Panchatantra called?

  1. Ramakien
  2. Shah Jo Risalo
  3. Kakawin Ramayana
  4. Kalila wa Dimna
Show Answer

The correct answer is D. Ibn al-Muqaffa translated the fables into Arabic around 750 CE as Kalila wa Dimna, named after two jackals. The Ramakien and the Kakawin Ramayana are tellings of the Ramayana in Thailand and Java, not of the Panchatantra.

Concept Tested: Panchatantra Bloom's Level: Remember

Question 4

Why do scholars say there are many "tellings" of the Ramayana rather than one original and many copies?

  1. Because Valmiki's Sanskrit text was lost and no one knows what it said
  2. Because the story lived for centuries in performance and was retold in many languages for different audiences
  3. Because every telling was written by the same poet at different times in his life
  4. Because the Ramayana was first written in English and later translated
Show Answer

The correct answer is B. Through oral tradition and later retellings in Tamil, Bangla, Awadhi, Nepali, Thai, Javanese and more, each telling became a real performance of the story for its own audience. Valmiki's text survives, so A is wrong. It is one telling among many.

Concept Tested: Ramayana Bloom's Level: Understand

Question 5

What is the difference between akam and puram poems in Sangam Literature?

  1. Akam poems are in Sanskrit; puram poems are in Tamil
  2. Akam poems are religious hymns; puram poems are comic stories
  3. Akam poems are about love and inner feelings; puram poems are about public life, such as war and kings
  4. Akam poems were written down; puram poems were only spoken
Show Answer

The correct answer is C. "Akam" means inner and covers love, and "puram" means outer and covers public life. Both kinds are Tamil, so A is wrong.

Concept Tested: Sangam Literature Bloom's Level: Understand

Question 6

Which statement best describes the Akbar and Birbal Tales?

  1. They are folk tales about a real courtier of Emperor Akbar, and most of them spread centuries after he lived
  2. They are a Sanskrit epic composed before the Mughal Empire existed
  3. They were written by Birbal himself as a record of his life at court
  4. They are Buddhist stories about the Buddha's earlier lives
Show Answer

The correct answer is A. Birbal (1528 to 1586) was a real member of Akbar's court, but most of the funny tales about him spread later, mainly in the 1800s. They are folk tales, not a record Birbal wrote.

Concept Tested: Akbar and Birbal Tales Bloom's Level: Understand

Question 7

At a club story night, a member reads a poem whose couplets each end with the same repeated phrase, and each couplet makes sense on its own. Which form is she most likely reading?

  1. A Jataka tale
  2. A ghazal
  3. An epic
  4. A frame story
Show Answer

The correct answer is B. A ghazal is built from separate two-line couplets that share a rhyme and a repeated ending phrase. Mirza Ghalib is its most famous Urdu master. An epic is a long continuous narrative, not a set of stand-alone couplets.

Concept Tested: Mirza Ghalib Bloom's Level: Apply

Question 8

Zara wants to add a South Asian work written in English to her club's reading list, from a writer born in what is now Bangladesh. Which work fits best?

  1. "Bidrohi" by Kazi Nazrul Islam
  2. "Toba Tek Singh" by Saadat Hasan Manto
  3. Gitanjali in its original Bengali
  4. "Sultana's Dream" by Rokeya Sakhawat Hossain
Show Answer

The correct answer is D. Rokeya Sakhawat Hossain, born in Rangpur in today's Bangladesh, published "Sultana's Dream" in English in 1905. "Bidrohi" is a Bangla poem and "Toba Tek Singh" is an Urdu story, so they don't meet the English requirement.

Concept Tested: South Asian English Writing Bloom's Level: Apply

Question 9

Amrita Pritam's 1947 Punjabi poem calls on Waris Shah, who wrote Heer in 1766. What does this link best show about Partition Literature?

  1. That Partition writers mostly ignored older literature
  2. That Punjabi literature only began after 1947
  3. That writers used a classic shared on both sides of the new border to mourn the splitting of one land and culture
  4. That Partition poems were mainly about romantic love, like Heer
Show Answer

The correct answer is C. By calling on the poet of a classic loved across Punjab, Pritam treated the divided land as having one shared literature and asked its old poet to witness the suffering. The poem is about Partition's suffering, not romance, so D is wrong.

Concept Tested: Partition Literature Bloom's Level: Analyze

Question 10

Tagore wrote India's and Bangladesh's anthems, and one of Iqbal's early Urdu songs is still sung in India. What does this pattern best suggest?

  1. That only Indian poets are remembered outside their home countries
  2. That poets' work can belong to several countries, because their lives began before the borders of 1947 and 1971 were drawn
  3. That national poets are chosen at random
  4. That poetry has little to do with national identity
Show Answer

The correct answer is B. Tagore, Nazrul and Iqbal were all born in British India, so their work crosses today's borders even though each is honored as a national symbol. Iqbal is Pakistan's national poet yet his song is popular in India, which shows A is wrong.

Concept Tested: Rabindranath Tagore Bloom's Level: Analyze