Indian Heritage, Art & Culture by Madhukar Kumar Bhagat is mainly written for Civil Services Preliminary & Main Examination. If you are an UPSC Aspirant then you can't avoid the fact that you have to devote some hours from your study to Indian Art & Culture also as there will be a lot questions waiting for you in Prelims and in Main General Studies Paper 1 too. Today, in this post, we are going to review this book by GKP (Access Publishing). Following are the key details that you must know before buying this text:
Edition: 2nd, 2019
Binding: Paperback
Genre: UPSC & Competitive Exams
Price: 435
Price: 435
Pages: 354
Print: Colour Format
Publisher: GK Publications
Our Rating:
Our Rating:
Contents of the Book
By keeping in mind the syllabus of Civil Services Examinations this book is presented to us in 4 Parts, has 25 chapters in total including the first one which gives you insight about the topic asked in the exam itself. Along with the 25 chapters there are 3 appendices in the book which basically provides you practice material for the exam. Now let's have a look on topics that are covered in the book partwise:
Chapter 1: Indian Heritage, Art & Culture- How to Approach the topic
Part 1: Art & Culture in Ancient India
- Chapter 2: The Indus Valley Civilization & Harappan Culture
- Chapter 3: Hinduism
- Chapter 4: Buddhism
- Chapter 5: Jainism
- Chapter 6: Art, Architecture, Sculpture, Literature & Performing Arts in Ancient India
Part 2: Art & Culture in Medieval India
- Chapter 7: Temples & Architecture in Ancient & Medieval India
- Chapter 8: Bhakti Movement & Sufism
- Chapter 9: Architecture in Medieval Age Palaces, Forts & Other Monuments
- Chapter 10: Medieval India- Other Art Forms: Indian Paintings
- Chapter 11: Medieval India-Other Art Forms: Bronze Sculptures
- Chapter 12: Literature in Medieval India
- Chapter 13: Music in Medieval India
Part 3: Art & Culture in Modern India
- Chapter 14: Socio-Religious Reforms & Reformers in India
- Chapter 15: Paintings in Modern India
- Chapter 16: Music in Modern India
- Chapter 17: Dances in Modern India
- Chapter 18: Indian Textiles
- Chapter 19: Handicrafts in India
- Chapter 20: Languages & Literature of Modern India
- Chapter 21: Religions in Modern India
- Chapter 22: Modern Indian Architecture
- Chapter 23: Indian Theatre & Cinema
- Chapter 24: Other Elements of Indian Culture
- Chapter 25: Cultural Heritage & UNESCO
Part 4: Appendices
- Appendix 1: Practice Questions for Prelims
- Appendix 2: Previous Year Prelims Questions on Indian Heritage & Culture
- Appendix 3: Model Questions for the Main Examinations
Image: Glimpse of the Book
Book Outline & Content Review
- Chapter 1 of this book covers a lot of crucial things which gives you a roadmap of this topic for UPSC such as, it consists: What to Study ?, Topicwise distribution of Questions in Prelims, Important topics for Prelims, The Main Examination & the topic of Art & Culture: An Analysis, Syllabus of Mains, The Approach of Study for Mains you should carry on & Last but not the least Questions of Past Years in Mains.
- The Book is Multicolour Edition and a Visual Spectacle as it covers a lot of imagery materials like colourful and clear maps, splendid pictures relevant to the topic, Tables for better grasping and quick learning of the facts and so on.
- Content Organisation in the book seems very justified. For Example, Usually in most books Jainism & Buddhism are found in one single chapter but in this book there is a separation between two. Thus it prevents confusion and overlapping of two topics as it is evident that both the religions have many things in common.
- If we talk about the Language of the book then this book is easily readable i.e. it does not contain complicated words that will push you towards google for searching the meaning of tough words. Hence this book prevents you from distraction.
- At the end of every chapter there is a column 'Important Topics to Focus On' which reminds you what topics you should cover especially.
- Part 4 of this book has 3 appendices which are extremely useful for the reader as these appendices cover questions for practice. First Appendix has 165 questions in total with answers and Selected Explanation of some questions. While the Second Appendix consists yearwise Prelims questions from 2001 to present. Third Appendix gives you model questions for Main Examination.
Overall, This book is good enough for Prelims and it is extremely useful for State PCS Examinations like of UPPSC, MPPSC, etc. But if UPSC Main Examination is on consideration then we think this book is slightly less comprehensive in comparison with Nitin Singhania. This book is very informative but not illustrative. So have to buy or not, is totally depends upon you and your study requirement. You can easily cover the syllabus of State PCS and other such general level competitions in which questions from Indian Art & Culture are asked. For general reading, this book is best and quite interesting.
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