UPSC 2022 GS-I · 10 marks · 150 words

How will you explain that medieval Indian temple sculptures represent the social life of those days?

What “Explain” demands

set out how or why something works, with the mechanism made explicit.

The characteristic failure: stating that it works without showing how.

What a top answer must contain

These are the checkable specifics from the marking standard for this question — the actual case, committee, datum or thinker, not an instruction to “give examples”.

Sculpture as social document: dancers/musicians (Khajuraho), wrestlers and processions (Hoysala friezes), market and farm scenes on Konark's wheel medallions
Dress, coiffure and ornament datable from panels; occupational depiction — potters, hunters, soldiers, teachers
Temple as social hub mirrored: devadasis, guilds and donors corroborated by Chola epigraphy
Method note for the top band: elite-commissioned art read alongside inscriptions, not alone

The band thresholds and the pre-scored sample answers behind this standard stay private — they are the calibration your copy is placed against.

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How will you explain that medieval Indian temple sculptures represent the social life of those days?

What a top answer must contain

Now write it, and find out what you actually scored

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