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
Correct answer
Explanation
The correct answer is C, the Atharvaveda, which calls the sabha and the samiti the two daughters of Prajapati. The phrase is quoted so often in examinations because it fixes both the names of the assemblies and the text they are described in.
Option A, the Rigveda, does mention the sabha, the samiti and the older vidatha, but not this description. Option B, the Samaveda, is a book of melodies and has nothing to say about political institutions. Option D, the Satapatha Brahmana, is the largest Brahmana, attached to the Yajurveda, and deals mainly with ritual and with legends such as the story of the flood; it belongs to the later Vedic period when the assemblies were already losing their power. Keep the distinction clear: the sabha was the smaller council of elders and the samiti the larger assembly of the whole people.
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
Show answer
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 →In the Rigveda, which river is described as the naditama, the holiest of rivers?
- A.Ganga
- B.Sindhu
- C.Saraswati
- D.Yamuna
Show answer
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 →