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You all might have heard about and obviously seen the famous ‘nataraja’, a statue of dancing lord shiva. Originally, this statue was recovered as a 10th century bronze sculpture of the chola dynasty. There are such thousands of arts, paintings, architecture , music, symbols, festivals, dance forms and so many other cultural aspects, trying to rejuvenate the story of our ancient, medieval and modern india. These remnants try to bring alive the heritage of our india. This art and culture by default, is embedded in the genetic makeup of indians. And to understand india in an efficient way, one must be aware of its art, culture and heritage. This is the sole reason behind this subject as a significant component of upsc. As a matter of fact, 26 questions have been asked between 2014–2018 upsc prelims. Now, you can definitely estimate the importance of this subject in civil services examination

Let us have a look on how to study art & culture for upsc. Firstly, you should be aware of the syllabus and the trend analysis. For example, this subject had huge weightage in the past 5 years, as compared to other sub-parts of history like ancient, medieval and post independence india. Secondly, you must go through the previous year papers. These two are the essentials. After this, we need to talk about sources. Well, there are thousands of sources, in forms of online video such as that on UPSCCONNECT, or written materials or youtube videos.You can choose any of them. But be wise in your selection and choose only the best online coaching for ias or good video lectures for upsc. Apart from these sources, you should go through the old ncert books of ancient and medieval india from art & culture perspective. You can also go through class 11th introduction to fine arts ncert, visit the ccrt website for any detail information and may go through the nios material on art & culture. Many specialist recommend nitin singhania notes also. However, these are optionals. And the best method would be to go through the ncert and video lectures only. Prepare your notes well from these sources, keeping the syllabus in mind. Apart from these sources, the most significant part is reading judiciously the ‘art & culture’ section of ‘the hindu’, or any other newspaper. Current affairs have become the core of upsc. Several questions are asked by linking it to the current affairs. For example, in one of the recent upsc papers, it was asked that bani thani painting belongs to which school of art? The answer was kishangarh school of art. And interestingly, this topic was earlier mentioned in a news article. So, current affairs are of utmost significance. Never miss them. Moreover, if we decode the syllabus, then we might come to an inference that the mains syllabus of indian heritage and culture talks about art forms, literature and architecture from ancient to modern times. Basically, art forms are of three types, visual arts like architecture, paintings, sculptures ,performing arts like dance, music, puppetry and literary arts like vedic, sanskrit, sangam literatures. The visual arts include paintings, which consist of murals, miniature etc., architecture includes the harappan /indus valley, the buddhist, temples, indo-islamic, the mughal architecture and modern architectures etc. Taking this as an example, we can decode the whole syllabus of art & culture, and make it much easier to study. This decoding procedure can be done with ease by going through previous year papers thoroughly. This analysis would save your time. And provide a focused direction to your preparation. Gather your information from all the sources, and sum up into one. Try to co-relate all the topics studied from all the sources. 

If you want all content at one place,go for UPSCCONNECT — Best Online Coaching for UPSC video courses and study hassle free.

Nothing is impossible in this world. So is cracking upsc. Only systematic, organised, smart and consistent study can sail you through this toughest examination. Keep your eyes and mind open, from next time you visit any historical monument, or see any piece of art. Until and unless you are aware of your surroundings, you cannot clear this exam just by rote learning. Wishing you good luck for future!