MCQs - Life and works of Girish Karnad

1.What was the profession of Girish Karnad?

A. Actor

B. Playwright

C. Musician

D. Politician

Answer: B. Playwright

 

2. Girish Karnad's debut play?

A. Yayati

B. Tughlaq

C. Hayavadana

D. Nagamandala

Answer: A. Yayati

 

3.Which play by Girish Karnad won the Kendra Sahitya Akademi Award  in 1994?

A. Taledanda

B. Hayavadana

C. Tughlaq

D. Yayati

Answer: A. Taledanda

 

4. Girish Karnad was born in which state?

A) Karnataka

B) Maharashtra

C) Tamil Nadu

D) Goa

Answer: B) Maharashtra (Matheran, Bombay Presidency, now in Maharashtra)

 

5. Karnad’s family belonged to which linguistic community?

A) Tamil Iyer

B) Konkani-speaking Chitrapur Saraswat Brahmin

C) Marathi Deshastha Brahmin

D) Kannada Vokkaliga

Answer: B) Konkani-speaking Chitrapur Saraswat Brahmin

 

6. Which university did Karnad attend as a Rhodes Scholar?

A) Cambridge

B) Harvard

C) Oxford (Magdalen College)

D) Yale

Answer: C) Oxford (Magdalen College) (Studied PPE: Philosophy, Politics, Economics)

 

7. Karnad served as the President of which prestigious debating society?

A) Cambridge Union

B) Oxford Union

C) Harvard Debate Council

D) Mumbai Press Club

Answer: B) Oxford Union (1962–63)

 

8. Before becoming a full-time writer, Karnad worked with:

A) British Council

B) Oxford University Press (Chennai)

C) All India Radio

D) The Hindu newspaper

Answer: B) Oxford University Press (Chennai) (1963–70)

 

9. In which year was Girish Karnad awarded the Padma Shri?

A. 1974

B. 1984

C. 1994

D. 2004

Answer: A. 1974

 

10. Which of the following awards has Girish Karnad not received?

A. Sahitya Akademi Award

B. Padma Shri

C. Jnanpith Award

D. Booker Prize

Answer: D. Booker Prize

 

11. Girish Karnad’s play based on the folk tale of the cobra?

A. Yayati

B. Bali: The Sacrifice

C. Nagamandala

D. Tughlaq

Answer: C. Nagamandala

 

12. Which Karnad play uses Yakshagana (folk theatre) and explores mind-body duality?

A. Nagamandala

B. Hayavadana

C. Anjumallige

D. Odakalu Bimba

Answer: B. Hayavadana

 

13. Nagamandala (1988) is based on:

A. A Freudian folk tale about a woman and a cobra

B. The life of Tipu Sultan

C. A historical battle in Vijayanagara

D. A modern Bangalore urban legend

Answer: A. A Freudian folk tale about a woman and a cobra

14. Agni Mattu Male (The Fire and the Rain) adapts a story from:

A. Mahabharata

B. Ramayana (Yavakrita’s tale)

C. Bhagavata Purana

D. Kathasaritsagara

Answer: B. Ramayana

 

15. Karnad’s only English-language play is:

A. Wedding Album

B. The Dreams of Tipu Sultan

C. Boiled Beans on Toast

D. A Heap of Broken Images

Answer: B. The Dreams of Tipu Sultan

 

16. Which Karnad play critiques modern media through a Kannada writer’s English-language success?

A. Odakalu Bimba (A Heap of Broken Images)

B. Maduve Album (Wedding Album)

C. Benda Kaalu on Toast

D. Flowers

Answer: A. Odakalu Bimba

 

17. Karnad’s Samskara (1970) was an adaptation of:

A. U.R. Ananthamurthy’s novel

B. A Panchatantra fable

C. A Yakshagana performance

D. A Jataka tale

Answer: A. U.R. Ananthamurthy’s novel

 

18.Which award did Karnad win in 1999, India’s highest literary honor?

A. Padma Vibhushan

B. Sahitya Akademi Award

C. Jnanpith Award

D. Dadasaheb Phalke Award

Answer: C. Jnanpith Award

 

19. Karnad acted in which iconic TV series based on R.K. Narayan’s work?

A. Malgudi Days (as Swami’s father)

B. Buniyaad

C. Chanakya

D. Tamas

Answer: A. Malgudi Days

 

20. Rakshasa Tangadi (2018) dramatizes which historical battle?

A. Battle of Plassey

B. Battle of Talikota (1565)

C. Battle of Haldighati

D. Third Anglo-Mysore War

Answer: B. Battle of Talikota

 

21. Karnad narrated the audiobook of which Indian president’s autobiography?

A. Pranab Mukherjee

B. A.P.J. Abdul Kalam’s Wings of Fire

C. R. Venkataraman

D. K.R. Narayanan

Answer: B. A.P.J. Abdul Kalam’s Wings of Fire

 

22. Girish Karnad’s play based on Mahabharata?

A. Taledanda

B. Bali: The Sacrifice

C. Yayati

D. Naga-Mandala

Answer: C. Yayati

 

23. Girish Karnad’s play based on the life of 12th-century social reformer Basavanna and Veerashaiva movement?

A. Taledanda

B. Yayati

C. Hayavadana

D. Tale-Danda

Answer: D. Tale-Danda

 

24. Which of Karnad’s plays is an allegory of Nehruvian idealism, that was based on the life of Mughal emperor?

A. Taledanda

B. Bali

C. Rakta Kalyana

D. Tughlaq

Answer: D. Tughlaq

 

25.Which of the following plays by Girish Karnad is based on the myth of the transposed heads?

A. Naga-Mandala

B. Hayavadana

C. Tughlaq

D. Taledanda

Answer: B. Hayavadana

 

26.What was the name of the autobiography written by Girish Karnad?

A. Aadaadtha Manushya

B. Surangini

C. Dakshinayan

D. Anjumallige

Answer: A. Aadaadtha Manushya

 

27. Karnad served as the director of which prestigious institute (1974–75)?

A. National School of Drama

B. Film and Television Institute of India (FTII)

C. Sangeet Natak Akademi

D. Nehru Centre

Answer: B. Film and Television Institute of India (FTII)

 

28. Which folk theatre form did Karnad use in Hayavadana (1971)?

A) Kathakali

B) Yakshagana

C) Bhavai

D) Tamasha

Answer: B) Yakshagana

 

29. Karnad directed which Hindi film adaptation of a 4th-century Sanskrit play?

A) Utsav (based on Mrichchakatika)

B) Mirch Masala

C) Mandi

D) Junoon

Answer: A) Utsav (1984, based on Mrichchakatika by Shudraka)

 

30. He served as Chairman of which national arts academy?

A) Sahitya Akademi

B) Sangeet Natak Akademi

C) Lalit Kala Akademi

D) National School of Drama

Answer: B) Sangeet Natak Akademi (1988–93)

 

31. Karnad was the Minister of Culture at which Indian diplomatic mission?

A) Indian Embassy, Washington

B) Indian High Commission, London

C) Indian Consulate, New York

D) Permanent Mission of India to the UN

Answer: B) Indian High Commission, London (2000–03)

 

32. Karnad hosted which science program on Doordarshan?

A) Discovery of India

B) Turning Point

C) Beyond 2000

D) Science Today

Answer: B) Turning Point (1991)

 

33. Karnad’s Benda Kaalu on Toast (2012) is set in:

A) Mumbai

B) Bengaluru

C) Delhi

D) Hyderabad

Answer: B) Bengaluru

 

34. Girish Karnad was born in which year?

A) 1936

B) 1938

C) 1940

D) 1942

Answer: B) 1938 (19 May 1938, Matheran, Maharashtra)

 

35. In which year did Girish Karnad pass away?

A) 2017

B) 2019

C) 2020

D) 2021

Answer: B) 2019 (10 June 2019, Bengaluru, Karnataka)

 

36. His mother, Krishnabai, was a:

A) Schoolteacher

B) Nurse and cook (widow remarried under Arya Samaj)

C) Classical dancer

D) Government officer

Answer: B) Nurse and cook (She remarried Dr. Raghunath Karnad after her first husband’s death)

 

37. Karnad’s early schooling was in which language?

A) Kannada

B) Marathi

C) English

D) Konkani

Answer: B) Marathi (Later shifted to Kannada after moving to Sirsi/Dharwad)

 

38. Where did Karnad complete his Bachelor’s degree?

A) University of Mumbai

B) Karnataka University, Dharwad

C) University of Delhi

D) University of Madras

Answer: B) Karnataka University, Dharwad (BA in Mathematics & Statistics, 1958)

 

39 His father, Dr. Raghunath Karnad, worked in:

A) Indian Railways

B) Bombay Medical Services

C) Indian Administrative Service (IAS)

D) University of Oxford

Answer: B) Bombay Medical Services

 

40. Karnad’s family moved to Karnataka when he was:

A) 5 years old

B) 14 years old

C) 20 years old

D) Born in Karnataka

Answer: B) 14 years old