Who propounded the philosophy of Advaita or non-dualism?
- A.Ramanujacharya
- B.Madhvacharya
- C.Shankaracharya
- D.Vallabhacharya
Correct answer
Explanation
The correct answer is C, Shankaracharya. Writing in the eighth century, he argued that Brahman alone is real, that the individual soul is not different from Brahman, and that the world as ordinarily perceived is the work of maya; this is Advaita, non-dualism. Option A, Ramanujacharya, taught Vishishtadvaita or qualified non-dualism in the eleventh and twelfth centuries, in which souls and matter are real attributes of one supreme being, and he made devotion to Vishnu central. Option B, Madhvacharya, taught Dvaita or dualism, holding that God and the soul are eternally distinct. Option D, Vallabhacharya, taught Shuddhadvaita, pure non-dualism, and founded the Pushtimarg school of Krishna devotion to which Surdas belonged. Nimbarka, with his Dvaitadvaita, completes the set of five acharyas that examiners ask students to match.
Read the full article: Bhakti and Sufi Movements: Saints, Orders and Ideas
Practice Questions
View allIn the context of Sufi tradition, the term 'khanqah' stood for:
- A.the Hell
- B.a graveyard
- C.a hospice
- D.the Heaven
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A khanqah was the hospice or lodge where a Sufi master lived with his disciples, taught, held assemblies of devotional music and fed whoever came to the door, whatever their faith or caste.
Read the full explanation →Which Sufi saint was called 'Mahbub-i-Ilahi'?
- A.Khwaja Moinuddin Chishti
- B.Baba Farid
- C.Qutubuddin Bakhtiyar Kaki
- D.Shaikh Nizamuddin Auliya
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Mahbub-i-Ilahi means the beloved of God, and it is the title by which this Chishti master of Delhi has been known for seven centuries.
Read the full explanation →Amir Khosrow was a royal poet and a disciple of which of the following Sufi saints?
- A.Fariduddin Ganjshakar
- B.Syed Muhammad Nizamuddin Auliya
- C.Shaikh Salim Chisti
- D.Muhammad Maharavi
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Amir Khusrau served as a poet at the courts of several Delhi Sultans, but his spiritual allegiance was to Nizamuddin Auliya, and he was buried beside his master.
Read the full explanation →Which Sikh Guru gave the idea of the Gurmukhi script?
- A.Guru Angad Dev
- B.Guru Amar Das
- C.Guru Ram Das
- D.Guru Nanak Dev
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The second Guru standardised and popularised Gurmukhi, the script in which the hymns of the Gurus were written down, and this made it possible to preserve the teaching of the movement in the language its followers actually spoke.
Read the full explanation →The Alvar saints of the Tamil country were devotees of which deity?
- A.Shiva
- B.Vishnu
- C.Surya
- D.Shakti
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The Alvars were the twelve Vaishnava saint-poets of the Tamil country, active roughly between the sixth and the ninth centuries, whose hymns were later gathered as the Divya Prabandham and sung in temples.
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