Test: The Religious Movements in the 15th and 16th Centuries- 1 - UPSC MCQ

The correct option is B.
Firdausi order was the branch of Suharawardi order. Shaikh Badruddin Samarkandi was the founder of this order. This order was popular in Bihar. It was popularised by Shaikh Sharfuddin Yahya.

Guru Nanak said that a man was to be honored for his devotion to God and not for his social position. He said– “God knows man’s virtues and inquires not his caste; in the next world there is no caste.”

The correct answer is D as Ramananda was born in Allahabad. He was the worshiper of Lord Ram. Originally, he was a follower of Ramanuja, later he founded his own sect & preached his disciples in Hindi. He strongly believed in 2 ideals, namely:
1. Simplification of Worship.
2. Emancipation of people from traditional caste rule.

The most famous and the earliest biographer of Chaitanya, who wrote Chaitanya Charitamrita, was Krishnadas Kaviraj

A bhakti saint who with great aversion for the Saktas said,”The Saktas and dogs are both brothers, the one is asleep while the other barks“. That saint was Kabir.

The enlightened master, Kabir left his body in Maghar in January 1518, Magh Shukl Ekadashi according to the Hindu calendar in Vikram Samvat 1575. After Kabir's death his tomb was built at Magahar.

Shaikh Nizamuddin Auliya said, “To me, faith and infidelity are the same. What have I to do with any community or religion or sect”

Dadu said, “only those who considered themselves neech (low-born) before God attained salvation”.

Mahdavis, besides following the five pillars of Islam, also follow the seven obligations of sainthood, known as faraiz-e wilaya Muhammadiya. These obligations are: renunciation (tark-e dunya), quest for divine vision (talab didar-e Ilahi), company of truthfuls and ascetics (sohbath-e sadiqan), migration (hijrah), retreat and solitude (uzlath az khalq), absolute dependence on Allah (tawakkul), constant remembrance of Allah (zikr-e Ilahi) and distributing tithe (ushr). Followers of Jaunpuri strictly follow some of these obligations in their day-to-day life. Most of them initiate renunciation in the advanced stage of their lives, after getting retirement from the jobs or by handing over business to their heirs. 
The second Mahdavi caliph, Bandagi Miyan Syed Khundmir and his fukhra disciples (the persons who renounce the world and keep remembering Allah with zikr), faced organised persecution by the regime of Muzaffar at the behest of his court-appointed Mullas and was killed in 1523 along with hundreds of unarmed and peaceful disciples.
 

The Sufi saint and his followers who loved to call themselves Rishis and not Sufis, were the followers of Shaikh Nuruddin Rishi of Kashmir.

Lal Ded known as Laleshwari in other parts of the subcontinent was a Kashmiri mystic of the Kashmir Shaivism school of philosophy. She was a woman saint of medieval India, who was a great Shaivite

Bhakti is one of the recognised paths leading to Moksha or salvation. The notion of salvation could be easily summarized that Salvation in Hinduism is called Moksha and Moksha is attained when an enlightened human being is freed from the endless cycle of death and reincarnation and comes into a state of completeness

“The idea of Bhakti reached India with Christianity” are the words of Max Weber

Bhakti literally means "attachment, participation, fondness for, homage, faith, love, devotion, worship, purity". Bhakti has been well defined in Mahabharata, Puranas & The Shandilya Sutra.

The history of the Bhakti Movement can be traced back to the times of the great reformer Shankracharya, who provided a solid philosophical background to Hinduism.

Adi Shankaracharya is known as the guru of Advaita principle, which is also the theory of one reality known as Brahma.

Madhvacharya, also known as Purnaprajna and Ananda Teertha, was the main proponent of the Dvaita (dualism) school of Vedanta. He referred to his philosophy as Tatvavaada, meaning, "arguments from a realistic point of view".

Adi Shankaracharya was an Indian philosopher and theologian who consolidated the doctrine of Advaita Vedanta. Although he is credited by some with unifying and establishing the main currents of thought in Hinduism, his influence on Hindu intellectual thought has been questioned. He did not raise a common voice against the theory of spiritual non-dualism and world illusion.

All Vaishnava acharyas of the Bhakti movement championed the cause of devotion to a Personal God.

The Bhakti movement started in the 7th Century-8th Century in Kerala and Tamil Nadu. Later it spread to Karnataka, Maharashtra, and it reached North India in the 15th Century. The Bhakti movement reached its peak in the 15th Century and 17th Century. The following people were pioneers of the Bhakti movement in their respective states.

The Nayanars and Alvars were the Tamil poet-saints who played a key role in propagating the Bhakti Movement in Southern India during the 5th-10th Centuries.

The Nayanars were a group of 63 saints devoted to Lord Shiva who lived during the 6th to 8th centuries CE.

The Alwars were Tamil poet-saints of South India who espoused devotion to the Lord Vishnu or his avatar Lord Krishna in their songs of longing, and service.

NIRGUNA is the eternal all-pervading and omnipresent divine consciousness.

SAGUNA is the manifestation of God in form.

Mirabai is a 16th century mystical poet and singer known for her songs of devotion to Krishna, an incarnation of Lord Vishnu, the One who sustains the world. Her bhajans or devotional songs of high literary value are sung all over the country, even today, and her life has been depicted in many poems, songs, dances, films and paintings. Mirabai did not belong to Nirguna School.

Nirguna bhakti is the devotion towards a formless, all-encompassing God. The word ‘nirgun’ means ‘devoid of qualities,’ referring to the lack of physical attributes in God.

It is one of the two forms of devotion prevalent in Hinduism, the other one being Sagun Bhakti which sees God in a physical form. A prominent preacher of Nirgun Bhakti was Saint Kabir, one of the pioneers of the Bhakti movement.

Swami Ramananda was a 14th-century Vaishnava devotional poet-saint, who lived in the Gangetic basin of northern India. His new creed required the followers to chant the name of God faithfully and nothing else.