Observe the image and answer the following question.
The painting in the image is from the Nujum al-Ulum of Bijapur. What do the basic structures of the throne in it recall?
Answer & explanation
Correct answer: option 2
The correct answer is Option (2) → Wood-carved doorways and facades of Gujarati homes
Option (1) Margin decoration of Gujarati manuscripts — Incorrect. This is what the stylised plants on either side of the throne recall, not its structure.
Option (2) Wood-carved doorways and facades of Gujarati homes — Correct. The basic structures of the throne recall the wood carved doorways and facades of Gujarati homes.
Option (3) Domes over the arcades of the Deccani Ragamalas — Incorrect. In the Deccani Ragamala paintings, symmetrical architectural domes over the arcades at times take the place of the horizon. They are not what the throne recalls.
Option (4) Flat screens of the Golconda court scenes — Incorrect. Registers of flat screens one above the other belong to the architecture in the earliest Golconda miniatures. They are not what this Bijapur throne recalls.
Note: This topic was not named in the CUET 2026 syllabus, but it was part of the NCERT chapter. In 2025 and 2026, NTA also asked questions on topics in NCERT that the CUET syllabus did not name. So our mocks have questions from every part of the NCERT chapter, to give you enough practice. Read the whole chapter, not only the sub-topics named in the syllabus.
NCERT (2026-27): “Bijapur School of Painting …The Throne of Prosperity is a symbolic diagram of an auspicious throne of seven stages, each supported by different inhabitants — from elephants and tigers to palm trees, through storeys of peacocks and primitive tribes. The basic structures recall the wood carved doorways and facades of Gujarati homes or perhaps remind us of the temples of the Deccan. The colouring of this page is in Islamic Persian tradition, especially, the arabesques on the top of the throne. … The stylised plants on either side of the throne have visual reference to margin decoration in Gujarati manuscript of say early sixteenth century.”
Nujum al-Ulum: The Throne of Prosperity, Bijapur, 1570, The Chester Beatty Library, Dublin, Ireland |
