How to effectively study Art & Culture for UPSC?
Number 1 – Read RS Sharma – Old NCERT for Ancient History
Without reading the ancient history part – IVC, Vedic, Mauryan, Buddhism-Jainism, Gupta, battles the kings fought – it gives the most important context required to know the art & culture.
Around 250 odd pages – all the chapters are important.
Chronologically, you can start with Chapter 7 till Chapter 29, then go ahead & read Chapter 1 to 6.
Chapter 7 starts with a more popular option – Harappan Culture.
Whenever you are reading this chapter – try to see the images from the internet. Imprint these ideas in your mind.
Number 2 – Introduction to Indian Art
It gives you specific examples on various arts from these periods – Sculptures, Architecture (including Medieval Temple Architecture which we found tough to solve in UPSC Mains 2022)
Number 3 – Fine Arts Class 12
This one talks about Handicrafts, Paintings – Rajasthani, Murals. Don’t make notes, just highlight important points.
In the first reading – focus on big facts and storyline – not dates. Skim through. Broad outline. Don’t focus on minute details!
2nd reading – insert timelines and important personalities.
For example – if you are studying about Indus Valley Civilization – roughly it started around 2500 years back, where it was located, what was the culture, what trade did they do, and what religion or religious practices did they follow – try to understand these roughly!
You can get an idea of what to read from the Chapters by going through the NCERT Exercises at the end. In fact, you might as well consider going through these questions so as to understand HOW the chapter has to be read.
Refer to the PYQs – this will deduce the most important PYQs. For example – UPSC would ask a lot of questions on terms, Buddhism & Jainism, and location-based questions.
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