Bhanu Datta’s Rasamanjari was a favourite text of Rajasthani painters. Consider the following statements about it:
(A) It classifies heroes and heroines according to their age as baal, taruna and praudha.
(B) It classifies heroines by emotional states such as padmini, chitrini, shankhini and hastini.
(C) Its author was a Maithil Brahmin who lived in Bihar.
(D) It was composed in Brajbhasha at the court of Orchha.
Choose the correct answer from the options given below:
Answer & explanation
Correct answer: option 2
The correct answer is Option (2) → (A) and (C) only
(A) It classifies heroes and heroines according to their age as baal, taruna and praudha. — Correct. Rasamanjari groups nayakas and nayikas by age into these three.
(B) It classifies heroines by emotional states such as padmini, chitrini, shankhini and hastini. — Incorrect. Padmini, chitrini, shankhini and hastini are physiognomic traits of appearance. The emotional states are khandita, vasaksajja, abhisarika and utka.
(C) Its author was a Maithil Brahmin who lived in Bihar. — Correct. Bhanu Datta was a Maithil Brahmin who lived in Bihar.
(D) It was composed in Brajbhasha at the court of Orchha. — Incorrect. Rasamanjari is written in Sanskrit. Brajbhasha and Orchha belong to Keshav Das’s Rasikapriya.
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): “Themes of Paintings – An Overview …Bhanu Datta, a Maithil Brahmin who lived in Bihar in the fourteenth century, composed another favourite text of artists, Rasamanjari, interpreted as the ‘Bouquet of Delight’. Written in Sanskrit, the text is a treatise on rasa and deals with the classification of heroes (nayakas) and heroines (nayikas) in accordance with their age — baal, taruna and praudha; physiognomic traits of appearance, such as padmini, chitrini, shankhini, hastini, etc., and emotional states, such as khandita, vasaksajja, abhisarika, utka, etc.” “Themes of Paintings – An Overview …Composed in Brajbhasha by Keshav Das, the court poet of Raja Madhukar Shah of Orchha in 1591, Rasikapriya explores various emotive states, such as love, togetherness, jilt, jealousy, quarrel and its aftermath, separation, anger, etc., that are common between lovers represented through the characters of Radha and Krishna.” |