In the Shakta tradition, how many Mahavidyas are counted?
- A.Seven
- B.Eight
- C.Ten
- D.Twelve
Correct answer
Explanation
The correct answer is C, ten. The Dasha Mahavidyas are the ten great forms of the goddess in Tantric Shaktism, the list beginning with Kali and Tara and including Tripura Sundari, Bhuvaneshvari, Bhairavi, Chhinnamasta, Dhumavati, Bagalamukhi, Matangi and Kamala. Option A is wrong, though seven is tempting because of the seven Matrikas, the mother goddesses carved in groups on temple walls, and because the Durga Saptashati has seven hundred verses. Option B is wrong because eight belongs to other sets, such as the Ashtavinayaka temples of Ganesha in Maharashtra and the eight Vasus. Option D is wrong because twelve belongs to the Jyotirlingas of Shiva and the Alvars of Vaishnavism. Keep the counts separate: ten Mahavidyas, twelve Jyotirlingas, twelve Alvars and sixty-three Nayanars. The Mahavidyas are worshipped mainly in the Tantric stream of Shaktism, and each has her own mantra, yantra and iconography, which is why the set of ten is fixed and often asked.
Read the full article: Sects of Hinduism: Shaiva, Vaishnava and Shakta
Practice Questions
View allThe Pashupata sect, the oldest known organised school of Shaivism, is traditionally associated with which teacher?
- A.Lakulisha
- B.Vasugupta
- C.Basavanna
- D.Abhinavagupta
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The correct answer is A, Lakulisha, who is held in Pashupata tradition to be an incarnation of Shiva and is shown in sculpture holding a club, the lakula from which his name comes; the Pashupata school is the earliest Shaiva order for which texts and inscriptions survive.
Read the full explanation →The Heliodorus pillar at Besnagar near Vidisha was erected in honour of which deity?
- A.Shiva
- B.Vasudeva
- C.Surya
- D.Indra
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The pillar was set up by Heliodorus, the Greek ambassador of the Indo-Greek king Antialcidas at the court of a local ruler, and its Brahmi inscription calls it a Garuda pillar raised in honour of Vasudeva, the god of gods; it is the standard epigraphic proof that Bhagavatism, the early…
Read the full explanation →The sixty-three Shaiva saints of Tamil Nadu, whose devotional hymns form the Tevaram, are known as
- A.Alvars
- B.Nayanars
- C.Siddhars
- D.Acharyas
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The sixty-three Nayanars sang in Tamil to Shiva between roughly the sixth and ninth centuries; the hymns of the three greatest, Appar, Sambandar and Sundarar, make up the Tevaram, which forms the first seven books of the twelve-book Tirumurai canon, while Sekkizhar's Periya Puranam, the twelfth book, tells their lives.
Read the full explanation →The collection of four thousand Tamil verses composed by the Alvars is called
- A.Tirumurai
- B.Nalayira Divya Prabandham
- C.Periya Puranam
- D.Tiruvachakam
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The correct answer is B, the Nalayira Divya Prabandham, whose very name means the divine collection of four thousand, compiled from the hymns of the twelve Alvars and treated in Sri Vaishnavism as the Tamil Veda, recited in temple worship alongside Sanskrit scripture.
Read the full explanation →Who was the only woman among the twelve Alvars?
- A.Akka Mahadevi
- B.Andal
- C.Karaikkal Ammaiyar
- D.Mirabai
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The correct answer is B, Andal, the only woman among the twelve Alvars, whose Tiruppavai and Nachiyar Tirumozhi are sung in Vaishnava temples, especially in the month of Margazhi, and who is worshipped at Srivilliputhur.
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