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
Correct answer
Explanation
The correct answer is D, the tenth mandala. 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. The tenth mandala is one of the latest parts of the Rigveda, which is why historians argue that the varna order hardened only towards the end of the early Vedic period.
Option A, the third mandala, is where the Gayatri Mantra appears, addressed to the sun god Savitri. Option B, the seventh mandala, records the Battle of Ten Kings. Option C, the ninth mandala, is devoted entirely to Soma. Because papers ask about all four of these mandalas, the safest way to remember them is as a set: three for Gayatri, seven for Dasarajna, nine for Soma and ten for Purusha Sukta.
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 →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 →In the Rigveda, which river is described as the naditama, the holiest of rivers?
- A.Ganga
- B.Sindhu
- C.Saraswati
- D.Yamuna
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The Rigveda praises it as the naditama, the best or holiest of rivers, and treats it as a goddess as well as a stream.
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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