The Warkari sect of Maharashtra is centred on the temple of Vithoba at
- A.Pandharpur
- B.Nashik
- C.Shirdi
- D.Kolhapur
Correct answer
Explanation
The correct answer is A, Pandharpur, on the Bhima river in Solapur district, where Vithoba or Vitthal, a form of Vishnu, is enshrined; Warkaris walk there in the great pilgrimage procession called the wari, carrying the palanquins of their saints, and the sect produced Jnaneshwar, Namdev, Eknath and Tukaram with their Marathi abhanga songs. Option B is wrong because Nashik on the Godavari is a Kumbh Mela site and the location of the Trimbakeshwar Jyotirlinga, a Shaiva centre. Option C is wrong because Shirdi is associated with Sai Baba, a nineteenth and twentieth century figure outside the Warkari tradition. Option D is wrong because Kolhapur is famous for the Mahalakshmi temple, an important Shakta shrine, which makes it the sectarian trap in this question. Pair Pandharpur with Vithoba and the Warkaris.
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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