With reference to ancient India, Gautama Buddha was generally known by which of the following epithets?
- 1.Nayaputta
- 2.Shakyamuni
- 3.Tathagata
Select the correct answer using the code given below:
Answer & explanation
Answer: (b) 2 and 3 only
Shakyamuni ('sage of the Shakya clan') and Tathagata are both titles of the Buddha, but Nayaputta is not: it is the name by which the early Jain texts refer to Mahavira (the Pali Nataputta). So only 2 and 3 are correct.
- ✗ 1. Nayaputta is the epithet found in the earliest Jain texts for Mahavira, the Pali form being Nataputta; Buddhist texts call him Nigantha Nataputta. It is not a title of the Buddha.
- ✓ 2. The Buddha was born in the Sakya (Shakya) clan. Ashoka's Lumbini pillar inscription calls him the Buddha Shakyamuni.
- ✓ 3. NCERT quotes the Mahaparinibbana Sutta, where Ananda speaks of 'the remains of the Tathagata (another name for the Buddha)'.
Remember · Buddha = Shakyamuni, Tathagata. Mahavira = Nayaputta (Pali Nataputta).
📘 Read it in NCERT: Class 12 Themes in Indian History, Part I, Ch 4 (practise this chapter)
Sources
- NCERT Class 12 · Themes in Indian History, Part I, Chapter 4 “with the remains of the Tathagata (another name for the Buddha)?”
- PIB (Ministry of Tourism): In the Footsteps of the Buddha webinar ↗ “commemorates the Emperor's pilgrimage to Lumbini as the Buddha's birthplace, calling him the Buddha Shakyamuni”
- Journal for the Study of Religion 28(1), 2015: Will the real Nigantha Nataputta please stand up? (peer-reviewed, via SciELO South Africa) ↗ · reference work “The epithet that does appear in the earliest stratum of Jain texts is ‘Nāyaputta’, analogous to the Pāli ‘Nātaputta’. … Mahāvīra, known in the Pāli literature as Nigantha Nātaputta”
Question and answer: UPSC's official GS Paper I (2024, Series A) — paper ↗ · answer key ↗. Explanation: Minimalist IAS, checked 1 Oct 2026 (how we verify). ·