In the Rigveda, which river is described as the naditama, the holiest of rivers?
- A.Ganga
- B.Sindhu
- C.Saraswati
- D.Yamuna
Correct answer
Explanation
The correct answer is C, the Saraswati. The Rigveda praises it as the naditama, the best or holiest of rivers, and treats it as a goddess as well as a stream. It is believed to have dried up later, which is why it does not carry the same importance in the texts of the following centuries.
Option B, the Sindhu, is a strong distractor because it is the river mentioned most often in the Rigveda, but frequency and sanctity are two different questions and papers deliberately place the two together. Option A, the Ganga, is mentioned only once, in the tenth mandala, and option D, the Yamuna, three times; their rarity is itself the evidence that the early Vedic people lived in the north-west and moved east only later. Remember the pair: Sindhu most mentioned, Saraswati most praised.
Read the full article: Vedic Age: Rigveda, Society and Later Vedic Changes
Practice Questions
View allWhich Veda is considered the origin of Indian classical music?
- A.Rigveda
- B.Samaveda
- C.Yajurveda
- D.Atharvaveda
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Its verses are largely borrowed from the Rigveda but are arranged to be sung to fixed melodies during sacrifices, and those melodies are the earliest record of musical notation in India, which is why the Samaveda is called the root of Indian classical music.
Read the full explanation →The Battle of Ten Kings, the Dasarajna, was fought on the banks of which river?
- A.Vitasta
- B.Shutudri
- C.Parushni
- D.Asikni
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The seventh mandala of the Rigveda describes how Sudas, the king of the Bharata tribe, defeated a confederacy of ten tribes on its banks, and the battle is the clearest political event recorded in the whole of Rigvedic literature.
Read the full explanation →The Purusha Sukta, the hymn that first mentions the four varnas, occurs in which mandala of the Rigveda?
- A.Third mandala
- B.Seventh mandala
- C.Ninth mandala
- D.Tenth mandala
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The Purusha Sukta describes the sacrifice of the cosmic being from whose parts the brahmana, kshatriya, vaishya and shudra are said to have come, and it is the first statement of the fourfold varna order.
Read the full explanation →Which god is invoked in the largest number of hymns in the Rigveda?
- A.Agni
- B.Indra
- C.Varuna
- D.Prajapati
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He is the god of rain and of war, called Purandara, the breaker of forts, and the largest number of Rigvedic hymns is addressed to him, which matches a people whose life turned on rainfall and on cattle raids.
Read the full explanation →The sabha and the samiti are described as the twin daughters of Prajapati in which text?
- A.Rigveda
- B.Samaveda
- C.Atharvaveda
- D.Satapatha Brahmana
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The phrase is quoted so often in examinations because it fixes both the names of the assemblies and the text they are described in.
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