Satish Chandra Test: Cultural Development In India - UPSC MCQ

• The great epics (Mahakavya), the Ramayana (1500 BC) and the Mahabharata (1000 BC), are the repositories of the ethnic memory of the Indian people. Valmiki, the poet of the Ramayana, is known as Adikavi (first among the poets) and the story of Rama is occasionally referred to in the Mahabharata.
• But both these epics were composed over a long passage of time not by one poet, but by many poets, for the purpose of oral transmission by singers and storytellers. Both are epics of the people and as such, reflect the ethos and the psyche of a group of people not only in a given temporal frame, but also have a universal human context.
• The Ramayana tells us about how a man can achieve divineness, as Rama achieves divinity through righteous action.
• It also tells us about how to achieve the fourfold objectives (Purushartha) of human life, Dharma (righteousness, or loosely, religion), Artha (worldly achievement, mainly wealth and prosperity), Kama (fulfilment of all desires) and Moksha (liberation). Inwardly, it is a quest to know oneself.

• Vega is the tendency to move in a straight line.
• Abhighat means impact.
• Nodan is the force due to continuous pressure.
• Sanskara means persistent tendency.

• Statement 1: Visistadvaita is one of the most popular schools of the Vedanta school of Hindu philosophy. Vedanta literally means the end of the Vedas. VishishtAdvaita is a non-dualistic school of Vedanta philosophy. It is non-dualism of the qualified whole, in which Brahman alone exists, but is characterized by multiplicity. It can be described as qualified monism or qualified non-dualism or attributive monism. It is a school of Vedanta philosophy which believes in all diversity subsuming to an underlying unity.
• Statement 2: In Hindu philosophy, turiya or caturiya, chaturtha, is pure consciousness. Scientists described it as a hypo-metabolic state of ‘restful alertness.’ Turiya is the background that underlies and transcends the three common states of consciousness. The states of consciousness are: waking consciousness, dreaming, and dreamless sleep.
• Statements 3 and 4: The characteristic position of all the different Bhedabheda Vedanta schools is that the individual self (jivatman) is both different and not different from the ultimate reality known as Brahman. Bhedabheda reconciles the positions of two other major schools of Vedanta. The Advaita (Non-dual) Vedanta that claims that the individual self is completely identical to Brahman, and the Dvaita (Dualist) Vedanta that teaches complete difference between the individual self and Brahman. Badarayana’s Brahma Sutra (c. 4th century CE) may also have been written from a Bhedabheda Vedantic viewpoint.

• Samkhya is strongly dualist. Samkhya philosophy regards the universe as consisting of two realities: Puru§a (consciousness) and prakriti (matter). Jiva (a living being) is that state in which purusa is bonded to prakriti in some form.
• This fusion, state the Samkhya scholars, led to the emergence of buddhi (‘spiritual awareness’) and ahankara (individualised ego consciousness, ‘I maker’).
• The universe is described by this school as one created by Purusha-Prakriti entities infused with various permutations and combinations of variously enumerated elements, senses, feelings, activity and mind.
• During the state of imbalance, one or more constituents overwhelm the others, creating a form of bondage particularly of the mind. The end of this imbalance, bondage is called liberation or moksha by the Samkhya school of Hinduism.
• The existence of God or Supreme Being is not directly asserted nor considered relevant by the Samkhya philosophers. Samkhya denies the final cause of Ishvara (God). While the Samkhya school of Hinduism considers the Vedas as a reliable source of knowledge, it is an atheistic philosophy.

Charvakas is a materialistic school. It is also known as Lokayata school. They do not believe in any God or other natural forces and also reject Vedas and its rituals.

Vedic age is considered to be the base for Hindu Philosophy. All the literary compilations during the Vedic period such as vedas, Upanishads and so on contain Hindu philosophy like the varna system, Purushartha, Ashramas and many more.

Mimamsa basically means critical investigation or enquiry. It is the school of Hindu philosophy which examines the Vedas. MImamsa in Sanskrit means consideration, reflection, discussion and examination. They use perception, postulation, inference, comparison and analogy for examination.

Different schools of Indian philosophy hold different means to liberation. The Mimansa School developed and emphasized karma-kanda, or the study of ritual actions, using the four early Vedas, while the Vedanta schools developed and emphasized jnana-kanda, the study of knowledge and spirituality, using the later parts of Vedas like the Upani§ads. The core tenets of Purva Mimansa are ritualism, anti-asceticism and anti-mysticism. The central aim of the school is elucidation of the nature of dharma, understood as a set ritual obligations and prerogatives to be performed properly.

• Mimamsa is a Sanskrit word that means ‘reflection’ or ‘critical investigation’. It is also the name of one of six orthodox (astika) schools of Hinduism. The school is known for its philosophical theories into the nature of Dharma based on hermeneutics of the Vedas.
• The school was influential and foundational to Vedanta school of Hinduism, with the difference that the MImamsa school developed and emphasised karma-kanda (study of ritual actions, early parts of Vedas), while the Vedanta school developed and emphasised jnana-kanda (study of knowledge and spirituality, later parts of Vedas).
• The classical MImamsa school is sometimes referred to as Purva-Mimamsa or Karma-Mimamsa.

• In its metaphysics, the Nyaya School is closer to the Vaisheshika school of Hinduism than others. It holds that human suffering results from mistakes/ defects produced by activity under wrong knowledge (notions and ignorance).
• Moksha (liberation), it states, is gained through right knowledge. This premise led Nyaya to concern itself with epistemology that is the reliable means to gain correct knowledge and to remove wrong notions.
• False knowledge is not merely ignorance to Naiyayikas, it includes delusion. Correct knowledge is discovering and overcoming one’s delusions and understanding the true nature of soul, self and reality.