Mahabharata, Tamil Literature & Computing History Quiz

Vyasa (also called Ved Vyasa or Krishna Dvaipayana) was Satyavati's first son, born before her marriage to Shantanu. He later compiled the Vedas and authored the Mahabharata. After Vyasa, Satyavati had two sons with Shantanu: Chitrangada and Vichitravirya.

Urvashi was the apsara (celestial nymph) who fell in love with Arjuna when he visited Indraloka (the realm of Indra) during his exile. According to the Mahabharata, she was infatuated with Arjuna but cursed him when he initially rejected her advances, causing him to live as a eunuch for a year.

In the Mahabharata, Yudhisthira's master weapon was a spear (often referred to as a divine spear). Each Pandava brother had a signature weapon: Arjuna had Gandiva (bow), Bhima had a mace, but Yudhisthira's primary divine weapon was a spear, not a sword, mace, or plough.

Kurinji Pattu by Kapilar is an ancient Tamil Sangam literature work that contains the names of 99 flowers associated with the Kurinji (mountain) region. The movie 'Poovellam Ketupar' references these 99 flowers, which are catalogued in this classical Tamil poetic work about the mountain landscape and its flora.

In the Mahabharata, during the Pandavas' exile, they lived in Ekchakra disguised as Brahmins. Bhima killed the rakshasa Bakasura who had been terrorizing the village, demanding food and human sacrifices. This was one of Bhima's first major demonstrations of his strength.

Jarasangha (also spelled Jarasandha) was the powerful king of Magadha, not Maghadh as written. He was a key antagonist in the Mahabharata who was eventually killed by Bhima in a wrestling match during the Pandavas' Rajasuya sacrifice. Mathura, Gandhar, and Kampilya were kingdoms of other rulers.

As part of their education under Guru Drona, the Pandavas were sent to capture Drupada, the king of Panchala. This was their gurudakshina (teacher's fee). Arjuna successfully captured Drupada, fulfilling Drona's condition. Jayadratha, Virata, and Shalya were kings they encountered in different contexts.

David Bradley, an IBM engineer, invented the Ctrl-Alt-Delete command in 1983 as a quick way to reboot a PC. He famously joked that Microsoft made it famous by including it in Windows and having Bill Gates reference it in presentations. The other options are not related to this invention.

David Packard, co-founder of Hewlett-Packard (HP), served as U.S. Deputy Secretary of Defense under President Nixon from 1969 to 1971. The other options are tech figures but did not hold this specific government position: Wozniak co-founded Apple, Brin co-founded Google, and Watson led IBM.

During the Pandavas' incognito exile (agyatvasa), Draupadi adopted the name Sairandri, meaning a maidservant or female attendant. She served as a hairdresser to Queen Sudeshna of Virata. Panchali, Krishna, and Sakhee are other names or titles for her but not her disguise name.

Thirikadugam (medicine) is a classical Tamil Siddha formulation containing sukku (dry ginger), milagu (pepper), and thippili (long pepper). Kadugu (mustard) is not part of this traditional medicine composition. The text notes it cures diseases and the poem metaphorically 'cures the mind.'

Gordon Teal at Texas Instruments built the first working silicon transistor in 1954. He was motivated by silicon's superior temperature stability compared to germanium. Haggerty, Kraus, and Kilby were TI colleagues but Kilby invented the integrated circuit, not the silicon transistor.

Ashvatthama, son of Drona, killed the five sons of Draupadi (Upapandavas) while they were sleeping at night during the aftermath of the Kurukshetra war. This was an act of revenge against the Pandavas. Shalya, Kripacharya, and Kritavarma were other warriors who fought on the Kaurava side but didn't commit this specific act.

Parashurama was Karna's guru in the art of warfare. When Karna lied about his birth to learn Brahmastra, Parashurama cursed him that when he most needs his martial skills (including Brahmastra), they would fail him. This curse played a crucial role in the Kurukshetra war.

From the Kaurava side, only three warriors survived the Kurukshetra war: Kripacharya (the unarmed teacher), Ashvatthama (son of Drona, who escaped with his life), and Kritavarma (the Yadava ally). Jayadrath was killed by Arjuna to avenge Abhimanyu's death. This is well-documented in the Mahabharata.

Douglas Engelbart invented the computer mouse in 1964 at Stanford Research Institute. He held numerous patents related to human-computer interaction and is most famously remembered for the mouse, despite his broader contributions to computing technology.

After Dronacharya's death on the 15th day of the Kurukshetra war, Duryodhana appointed Karna as the supreme commander of the Kaurava forces. Karna led the army for two days (days 15-16) until he was killed by Arjuna. Ashvatthama took command only after Karna's death.

In Thirukkural, Chapter 80 'Kurippu arithal' (Forgetting - not forgetting favors/wrongdoings) appears twice in the text - once in the section on Domestic Virtues (aram) and again in the section on Political Virtues (porul). This is the only chapter that repeats in the entire work, making it unique.

The Devaram (Thevaram) corpus consists of hymns composed by the three Nayanmars: Appar, Sundarar, and Gnanasambandar (Sambandar). Manikavasagar, though a great Saivite saint, wrote Tiruvasagam and Tirukovaiyar, which are separate works not included in the Devaram collection.