Art & Culture — Glossary

The Ajanta Caves are a group of thirty rock-cut Buddhist cave monuments near Aurangabad, Maharashtra, renowned for mural paintings and sculpture dating from the 2nd century BCE to the 5th century CE.

Akbar (1542–1605) was the third Mughal emperor whose reign (1556–1605) consolidated the empire across northern India through military conquest, administrative reform, and a policy of religious conciliation.

The Alvars were twelve Tamil poet-saints of South India (6th–9th centuries CE) who propagated Vaishnava bhakti through devotional hymns dedicated to Vishnu and his avatars.

The āmalaka is the ribbed, cushion-like stone disc crowning the śikhara of a Nāgara temple, named for its resemblance to the amla (myrobalan) fruit.

Amir Khusrau (1253–1325) was a Persian-language poet, musician, and scholar of the Delhi Sultanate, celebrated as a pioneer of Indo-Persian literature and Hindavi vernacular verse.

The Archaeological Survey of India is the central agency under the Ministry of Culture responsible for archaeological research and the protection and conservation of India's monuments and antiquities.

Bengal is the historic eastern region of the Indian subcontinent, now divided between the Indian state of West Bengal and the independent nation of Bangladesh.

Bharatanatyam is a classical solo dance form of Tamil Nadu, codified from the temple traditions of the devadāsis and grounded in Bharata's Nāṭyaśāstra.

Carnatic (Karnāṭaka saṅgīta) is the classical music tradition of peninsular South India, codified around devotional composition, rāga and tāḷa, and dominated by vocal kṛti form.

Chaitanya Mahaprabhu (1486–1534) was a Bengali Vaishnava saint and reformer who founded the Gaudiya Vaishnava devotional tradition centred on ecstatic worship of Krishna.

The Chishtī is a Sufi order (silsila) of Islamic mysticism, introduced into India by Khwāja Muʿīn al-Dīn Chishtī at Ajmer in the late twelfth century.

Dīn-i-Ilāhī was a syncretic ethical-religious order founded by Mughal emperor Akbar in 1582 that fused selected tenets of Islam, Hinduism, Zoroastrianism, Jainism and Christianity around loyalty to the emperor.

Durga Puja in Kolkata is the annual autumnal festival venerating goddess Durga, inscribed by UNESCO in 2021 on the Representative List of Intangible Cultural Heritage of Humanity.

Guru Nanak (1469–1539) was the founder of Sikhism and the first of the ten Sikh Gurus, who preached monotheism, equality, and devotional service in fifteenth–sixteenth century Punjab.

A high-yield retention list is a curated set of frequently-tested, high-return facts and concepts that a candidate consolidates for rapid revision before competitive examinations.

Hindustani is the colloquial North Indian lingua franca, blending Khari Boli grammar with Persian-Arabic and Sanskrit vocabulary, written in both Nastaliq and Devanagari scripts.

The Indian Council for Cultural Relations is an autonomous body under India's Ministry of External Affairs, founded in 1950, that conducts the country's cultural diplomacy abroad.

Jahangir was the fourth Mughal emperor, who reigned from 1605 to 1627, succeeding Akbar and presiding over a golden age of Mughal painting and the first English diplomatic mission.

Kabir was a fifteenth-century North Indian mystic poet-saint of the Bhakti movement whose verses rejected ritualism, caste, and sectarianism in both Hinduism and Islam.

Kathak is one of India's eight classical dance forms, originating in North India, characterised by intricate footwork, rapid pirouettes, and narrative storytelling.

Kathakali is a classical dance-drama of Kerala that enacts stories from the Hindu epics through stylised gestures, elaborate makeup, and percussion-driven music.

Kauṭilya was the ancient Indian statesman and political theorist, traditionally identified as Chandragupta Maurya's chief minister and author of the Arthaśāstra treatise on statecraft.

Kuchipudi is a classical Indian dance-drama tradition from Andhra Pradesh, recognised by the Sangeet Natak Akademi as one of India's eight classical dance forms.

Kūṭiyāṭṭam is a Sanskrit theatre tradition of Kerala, performed in temple theatres, recognised by UNESCO in 2001 as a Masterpiece of the Oral and Intangible Heritage of Humanity.

Madhva (1238–1317 CE) was a Kannada philosopher-saint who founded Dvaita (dualist) Vedānta, asserting an eternal, absolute distinction between God, souls, and matter.

Manipuri is one of the eight classical dance forms of India, originating in Manipur, characterised by gentle, fluid movement and devotional Vaishnavite themes centred on Radha and Krishna.

Mīrābāī was a sixteenth-century Rajput princess and Bhakti poet-saint who composed Krishna-devotional padas in Rajasthani-Braj, rejecting caste and gender hierarchy.

Mohiniyattam is a classical solo dance form of Kerala, performed by women in the lāsya style, characterised by graceful, swaying body movements that mimic the gentle motion of palm fronds.

Namdev (c. 1270–1350) was a Marathi Bhakti saint-poet and Varkari devotee of Vithoba whose abhangas shaped devotional traditions across Maharashtra and northern India.

The Naqshbandi is a major Sufi order (silsila) of Sunni Islam, distinguished by its silent dhikr, sober orthodoxy, and adherence to the Sharia.

Odissi is a classical dance form of Odisha, recognised by the Sangeet Natak Akademi, characterised by the tribhanga posture and chauka stance, rooted in temple worship of Lord Jagannath at Puri.

Rabindranath Tagore (1861–1941) was a Bengali polymath, poet and Nobel laureate whose writings furnished the national anthems of both India and Bangladesh.

A rāga is the melodic framework of Indian classical music, a structured arrangement of notes governed by ascending and descending scales and characteristic phrases that evokes a specific mood.

The Sangeet Natak Akademi is India's national academy for music, dance and drama, established in 1953 as an autonomous body under the Union Ministry of Culture.

Sattriya is a classical dance form of Assam, originating in the Vaishnavite monasteries (sattras) founded by Srimanta Sankardeva, recognised as classical by the Sangeet Natak Akademi in 2000.

Shah Jahan (1592–1666) was the fifth Mughal emperor, reigning from 1628 to 1658, whose era marked the zenith of Mughal architecture and prosperity.

Tāla is the cyclical metric framework of Indian classical music, organising rhythm into a fixed, repeating cycle of beats grouped into measured sections.