SSC Stenographer 12th Nov 2021 Shift-1

Read the given passage and answer the questions that follow.

Blue Pottery is widely recognised as a traditional craft of Jaipur, though it is Turko-Persian in origin. The name ‘blue pottery’ comes from the eye-catching cobalt blue dye used to colour the pottery. It is relatively unusual as a type of luxury Indian pottery as most Indian types are functional and though often highly decorated, relatively low prestige wares. Jaipur blue pottery, is glazed and low-fired. No clay is used: the ‘dough’ for the pottery is prepared by mixing quartz stone powder, powdered glass, fuller’s earth, borax, gum and water.

Some of this pottery is semi-transparent and mostly decorated with bird and animal motifs. Being fired at very low temperature makes them fragile. The range of items is primarily decorative, such as vases, coasters, small bowls, boxes for trinkets. The colour palette is restricted to blue derived from the cobalt oxide, green from the copper oxide and white, though other non-conventional colours, such as yellow and brown, are sometimes included. The use of blue glaze on pottery is an imported technique, first developed by artisans who combined Chinese glazing technology with Persian decorative arts. This technique traveled east to India with early Turkic conquests in the 14th century. During its infancy, it was used to make tiles to decorate mosques, tombs and palaces in Central Asia. Later, following their conquests and arrival in India, the Mughals began using them in India. Gradually the blue glaze technique grew beyond an architectural accessory to Indian potters. From there, the technique traveled to the plains of Delhi and in the 17th century went to Jaipur.

Other accounts of the craft state that blue pottery came to Jaipur in the early 19th century under the ruler Sawai Ram Singh Il. The Jaipur king had sent local artisans to Delhi to be trained in the craft. However, by the 1950s, blue pottery had all but vanished from Jaipur, when it was re-introduced through the efforts of the muralist and painter Kripal Singh Shekhawat, with the support of patrons such as Kamladevi Chattopadhaya and Rajmata Gayatri Devi.

Read the given passage and answer the questions that follow.

Florence Nightingale came from a rich family and was very pretty. In her family, young girls usually spent their time going to parties until they married rich young men. But Florence found parties boring and she wanted to be a nurse. So, she went to study nursing in a hospital in Germany. Then she was in charge of a nursing home for women in London. Soon she was asked to go to Crimea to take charge of the wounded soldiers there. Finally, when she was 30, her parents accepted her decision.