Buddhism, Jainism & other schools

Answer: (c) Both 1 and 2

Coins in the Pali (Buddhist) texts and the silver punch-marked coins found at many sites both belong to the age of the mahajanapadas (c. sixth century BCE). That age saw the Second Urbanisation of the Ganga valley, and coins came into use because trade was growing, so the evidence speaks to both urban life and a shift to money.

• ✓ 1. Punch-marked coins appear alongside the rise of towns and cities in the Ganga valley (c. 600–500 BCE); coinage was a product of the growing urban trade of this period.
• ✓ 2. Named coins such as the kahapana and actual silver punch-marked coins show exchange moving from barter towards payment in money.

Remember · Sixth century BCE: mahajanapadas, Second Urbanisation in the Ganga valley and the first Indian coins, silver punch-marked coins (kahapana in Pali texts).

📘 Read it in NCERT: Class 12 Themes in Indian History, Part I, Ch 2 (practise this chapter) · Class 7 Exploring Society: India and Beyond (Part 1), Ch 4 (practise this chapter) · Class 12 Themes in Indian History, Part I, Ch 2 (practise this chapter)

Question and answer: UPSC's provisional GS Paper I (2026, Series A) — paper ↗ · answer key ↗. Explanation: Minimalist IAS, checked 30 Sept 2026 (how we verify). Permalink · Report an error

Answer: (b) Yaksha (demi-gods)

Jainism holds that an unliberated soul is reborn, according to its karma, in one of four gatis (states): deva (heavenly being), manushya (human), naraka (hell being) and tiryancha (animal or plant). Yaksha is not one of the four; the missing fourth is the hell being.

• ✓ (b) Yaksha is not named among the four gatis. The fourth gati is naraka, birth as a being in the hells.
• ✗ (a) Deva-gati, birth as a heavenly being, is one of the four states.
• ✗ (d) Tiryancha (tiryag-gati) covers animals, plants and earth-, water-, air- and fire-bodied beings, and is one of the four states.

Remember · Jain four gatis: deva (gods), manushya (humans), tiryancha (animals and plants), naraka (hell beings). Only liberation (moksha) ends the cycle.

Question and answer: UPSC's provisional GS Paper I (2026, Series A) — paper ↗ · answer key ↗. Explanation: Minimalist IAS, checked 1 Oct 2026 (how we verify). Permalink · Report an error

Answer: (a) The meditation of the Buddha

Early Buddhist sculptors did not carve the Buddha in human form; they suggested his presence through symbols. An empty seat stood for his meditation (the seat of enlightenment under the tree), the wheel for his first sermon at Sarnath, and the stupa for his mahaparinibbana.

• ✓ (a) The empty seat marks the place where the Buddha sat in meditation and attained enlightenment.
• ✗ (b) The first sermon at Sarnath was shown by the wheel (dhammachakka), not by an empty seat.
• ✗ (c) The mahaparinibbana, the Buddha's final passing away, was represented by the stupa.

Remember · Aniconic symbols: empty seat = meditation/enlightenment; wheel = first sermon; stupa = mahaparinibbana; horse = the great departure.

📘 Read it in NCERT: Class 12 Themes in Indian History, Part I, Ch 4 (practise this chapter) · Class 12 Themes in Indian History, Part I, Ch 4 (practise this chapter)

Question and answer: UPSC's provisional GS Paper I (2026, Series A) — paper ↗ · answer key ↗. Explanation: Minimalist IAS, checked 30 Sept 2026 (how we verify). Permalink · Report an error

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)

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). Permalink · Report an error

Answer: (c) Sarvastivada Vinaya

Sanghabhuti, a monk from Kabul, worked in China in the late 4th century (AD 381–85). The other titles belong to different traditions and periods.

• ✓ (c) UPSC's official key treats this option as correct; we could not confirm the detail from an official source, so we do not explain it here. A Vinaya is the rulebook for those who join the sangha. The Sarvastivada Vinaya was itself translated into Chinese in AD 404 by Punyatara with Kumarajiva, about two decades after Sanghabhuti's years in China.
• ✗ (b) Visuddhimagga is Buddhaghosa's exposition of Theravada teaching, written in Sri Lanka in the 5th century, a Pali work of a later date and a different school.
• ✗ (d) Lalitavistara is a legendary biography of the Buddha, not a commentary on monastic rules.

Remember · Sanghabhuti: monk from Kabul, in China AD 381–85. Visuddhimagga is Buddhaghosa's; Lalitavistara a Buddha biography.

📘 Read it in NCERT: Class 12 Themes in Indian History, Part I, Ch 4 (practise this chapter)

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). Permalink · Report an error

Answer: (a) Andhra

Dhanyakataka is the old name of Amaravati, in the Andhra region (present-day Andhra Pradesh). It was the site of the great Amaravati stupa and served as a capital of the Satavahanas.

• ✓ (a) The Andhra Pradesh government's own history of Amaravati says Dhanyakataka–Amaravati was the capital city of the Satavahanas, and NCERT shows Amaravati (Andhra Pradesh) as a major Buddhist site with a famous sculpted stupa.
• ✗ (b) Gandhara lay in the north-west, around Taxila and Peshawar (NCERT), far from Amaravati; it is known for Buddha images based on Greek models.
• ✗ (c) Kalinga is modern-day Odisha (NCERT); it is linked with Ashoka's war, not with Dhanyakataka.
• ✗ (d) Magadha, in present-day Bihar (NCERT), had Rajgir as its early capital; it is not the region of Dhanyakataka.

Remember · Dhanyakataka = Amaravati (Andhra): great Buddhist stupa and Satavahana capital.

📘 Read it in NCERT: Class 12 Themes in Indian History, Part I, Ch 4 (practise this chapter) · Class 12 Themes in Indian History, Part I, Ch 4 (practise this chapter) · Class 7 Exploring Society: India and Beyond (Part 1), Ch 5 (practise this chapter) · Class 12 Themes in Indian History, Part I, Ch 2 (practise this chapter)

Question and answer: UPSC's official GS Paper I (2023, Series A) — paper ↗ · answer key ↗. Explanation: Minimalist IAS, checked 1 Oct 2026 (how we verify). Permalink · Report an error

Answer: (b) Only two

Statements 2 and 3 are correct, and statement 1 is not. Stupas were mounds that held sacred relics and were built as commemorative and votive structures in Buddhism, but NCERT notes the tradition of raising stupas may be older than Buddhism.

• ✗ 1. NCERT says the tradition of erecting stupas may have been pre-Buddhist; it later came to be associated with Buddhism. So the idea is not purely Buddhist in origin.
• ✓ 2. Places were held sacred because relics of the Buddha, such as his bodily remains or objects he used, were buried there, and these mounds were called stupas.
• ✓ 3. In Buddhist tradition stupas were built to honour sacred sites and as offerings. NCERT's art book describes many votive stupas, for example the small rock-cut ones around the hillock at Anakapalli.

Remember · Stupa: a mound holding relics, tied to Buddhism but with possibly pre-Buddhist roots; built as commemorative and votive monuments.

📘 Read it in NCERT: Class 12 Themes in Indian History, Part I, Ch 4 (practise this chapter) · Class 11 An Introduction to Indian Art, Part I, Ch 4 (practise this chapter)

Question and answer: UPSC's official GS Paper I (2023, Series A) — paper ↗ · answer key ↗. Explanation: Minimalist IAS, checked 30 Sept 2026 (how we verify). Permalink · Report an error

Answer: (b) Jainism

The belief that the whole world is animated, so that even stones, rocks and water possess life (jiva), is the central idea of Jainism. It is this idea that makes ahimsa, non-injury to every living thing, the heart of Jaina practice.

• ✓ (b) Jaina teaching holds that souls reside not only in humans, animals and plants but also in earth, water, fire and air bodies; hence the extreme care Jaina monks and nuns take not to harm any form of life.
• ✗ (a) Buddhism also preaches non-violence, but it does not attribute souls to rocks or water; the Buddha in fact denied a permanent soul (anatta) altogether.
• ✗ (c) Shaivism and Vaishnavism are theistic traditions of devotion to Shiva and Vishnu; they do not treat inanimate natural objects as ensouled beings.

Remember · Jainism: the entire world is animated, even stones, rocks and water have life; ahimsa towards all beings follows. Buddhism: no permanent self (anatta).

📘 Read it in NCERT: Class 12 Themes in Indian History, Part I, Ch 4 (practise this chapter)

Question and answer: UPSC's official GS Paper I (2023, Series A) — paper ↗ · answer key ↗. Explanation: Minimalist IAS, checked 30 Sept 2026 (how we verify). Permalink · Report an error

Answer: (b) Only two

Pairs 2 and 3 are correct; pair 1 is not. Besnagar is known for the Heliodorus pillar set up in honour of Vasudeva (a Vaishnava monument), not for a Shaivite cave shrine.

• ✗ 1. Besnagar, near Vidisha, is famed for the Khamb Baba (Heliodorus) pillar, raised as a Garuda pillar in honour of Vasudeva. It is a Vaishnava monument, not a Shaivite cave shrine.
• ✓ 2. Bhaja, in Maharashtra, is one of the Buddhist rock-cut cave sites of western India dating from the second century BCE onwards, with a chaitya hall.
• ✓ 3. Sittanavasal in Pudukkottai district, Tamil Nadu, has a Jain cave monastery of the seventh century with painted walls and ceilings.

Remember · Besnagar: Heliodorus (Garuda) pillar for Vasudeva. Bhaja: Buddhist caves and chaitya hall, Maharashtra. Sittanavasal: Jain cave shrine with paintings, Tamil Nadu.

📘 Read it in NCERT: Class 11 Knowledge Traditions and Practices of India, Part I, Ch 4 (practise this chapter) · Class 11 Knowledge Traditions and Practices of India, Part I, Ch 4 (practise this chapter)

Question and answer: UPSC's official GS Paper I (2023, Series A) — paper ↗ · answer key ↗. Explanation: Minimalist IAS, checked 30 Sept 2026 (how we verify). Permalink · Report an error

Answer: (b) 2 and 4 only

Parishishtaparvan and the Trishashtilakshana Mahapurana are Jaina works. Avadanashataka (a collection of avadanas) is Buddhist. UPSC's key gives only 2 and 4 as Jaina.

• ✗ 1. UPSC's official key treats this statement as incorrect; we could not confirm the detail from an official source, so we do not explain it here.
• ✓ 2. Parishishtaparvan is a Jaina work: IGNOU's study material lists it among the Jain scriptures known as the Parvas.
• ✗ 3. Avadanashataka means 'a hundred avadanas'. Avadanas are Buddhist stories, centred on the Buddha's explanations of a person's worthy deeds in a previous life, so this is a Buddhist work.
• ✓ 4. The Mahapurana is a Jaina work; NCERT names it among the manuscript works portraying Jain subjects.

Remember · Jaina: Parishishtaparvan and the Mahapurana. Buddhist: Avadanashataka (a collection of avadanas).

📘 Read it in NCERT: Class 12 An Introduction to Indian Art, Part II, Ch 1 (practise this chapter) · Class 11 An Introduction to Indian Art, Part I, Ch 4 (practise this chapter)

Question and answer: UPSC's official GS Paper I (2022, Series A) — paper ↗ · answer key ↗. Explanation: Minimalist IAS, checked 1 Oct 2026 (how we verify). Permalink · Report an error

Answer: (c) Only two pairs

Two pairs are correct: Dignaga was a Buddhist logician and Nathamuni a Vaishnava (Shrivaishnava) teacher. Aryadeva was a Buddhist, a disciple of Nagarjuna, not a Jaina.

• ✗ 1. Aryadeva was a Mahayana Buddhist philosopher, the disciple of Nagarjuna, who with him is credited with founding the Madhyamaka school; he was not a Jaina.
• ✓ 2. Dignaga (c. 480-540 CE) was a Buddhist logician whose Pramanasamuccaya laid the foundations of Buddhist logic.
• ✓ 3. Nathamuni (10th century), the first acharya of the Shrivaishnava sect, gathered the hymns of the Alvars and had them sung in Vaishnava temples.

Remember · Aryadeva: Buddhist (Madhyamaka, Nagarjuna's disciple). Dignaga: Buddhist logic. Nathamuni: Shrivaishnava, collected the Alvars' hymns.

Question and answer: UPSC's official GS Paper I (2022, Series A) — paper ↗ · answer key ↗. Explanation: Minimalist IAS, checked 1 Oct 2026 (how we verify). Permalink · Report an error

Answer: (b) 2 and 3 only

The first split in the Buddhist order was between the Sthaviravadins (Theravadins, 'followers of the elders') and the Mahasanghikas. The Mahasanghikas saw the Buddha as supramundane (lokottara), a view that paved the way for Mahayana; their best-known subsect was the Lokottaravada.

• ✗ 1. The Sthaviravadins are the Theravada line, the older tradition (Britannica: 'followers of the Way of the Elders'); NCERT notes that Mahayana supporters called this older tradition Hinayana. So the Sthaviravadins do not belong to Mahayana.
• ✓ 2. The Mahasanghika school split into several subsects, the best known being the Lokottaravada, named after its belief in a supramundane Buddha.
• ✓ 3. By treating the Buddha as a transcendent being rather than only a human teacher, the Mahasanghikas became precursors of Mahayana, in which the Buddha came to be worshipped as a saviour.

Remember · First schism (Second Council, Vaishali): Sthaviravadins (Theravada) vs Mahasanghikas. Mahasanghikas → Lokottaravada; their supramundane Buddha idea led towards Mahayana.

📘 Read it in NCERT: Class 12 Themes in Indian History, Part I, Ch 4 (practise this chapter) · Class 12 Themes in Indian History, Part I, Ch 4 (practise this chapter) · Class 7 Exploring Society: India and Beyond (Part 2), Ch 2 (practise this chapter) · Class 7 Exploring Society: India and Beyond (Part 2), Ch 2 (practise this chapter)

Question and answer: UPSC's official GS Paper I (2020, Series A) — paper ↗ · answer key ↗. Explanation: Minimalist IAS, checked 1 Oct 2026 (how we verify). Permalink · Report an error

Answer: (a) Ashoka

The inscription is Ashoka's Rock Edict XII. In it he urges restraint in speech: no praising one's own sect or running down others, because that harms one's own sect most and every sect deserves honour.

• ✓ (a) Ashoka's rock edicts advise respect for all sects; Rock Edict XII says a person who extols his own sect and disparages others out of attachment to it injures his own sect very severely. His Dhamma officers were also appointed to work among all sects.
• ✗ (b) Samudragupta (Gupta period) is known for conquests recorded in the Allahabad pillar inscription, not for edicts advising subjects on sectarian restraint.
• ✗ (c) Harshavardhana patronised several faiths, but no such edict is associated with him.
• ✗ (d) Krishnadeva Raya of Vijayanagara (16th century) is known for the Telugu poem Amuktamalyada and for his patronage of temples and scholars, not for edicts advising subjects on sectarian restraint.

Remember · Ashoka's Rock Edict XII: praising your own sect and blaming others harms your own sect; all sects should be honoured. Tolerance was a core part of his Dhamma.

📘 Read it in NCERT: Class 7 Exploring Society: India and Beyond (Part 1), Ch 5 (practise this chapter)

Question and answer: UPSC's official GS Paper I (2020, Series A) — paper ↗ · answer key ↗. Explanation: Minimalist IAS, checked 30 Sept 2026 (how we verify). Permalink · Report an error

Answer: (c) Perfections whose attainment led to the Bodhisattva path

Paramitas are the perfections, or transcendental virtues, that Mahayana Buddhism says a bodhisattva (a Buddha-to-be) practises on the path to enlightenment. 'Paramita' means 'perfection', as in Prajnaparamita, the 'Perfection of Wisdom'.

• ✗ (a) The earliest Dharmashastra texts in sutra style are the Dharmasutras, which NCERT says were compiled from about 500 BCE; they have nothing to do with the word paramita.
• ✗ (b) Schools that reject the authority of the Vedas are called nastika schools (NCERT lists the Carvaka, Bauddha and Jaina among them); paramita is a Buddhist ethical-spiritual term, not a school.
• ✓ (c) The Perfection of Wisdom (Prajnaparamita) is one such perfection, and Mahayana treats these perfections as the practice of bodhisattvas, who are compassionate beings working to help others.
• ✗ (d) Merchant guilds of early medieval South India are a different subject altogether; paramitas are Buddhist virtues, not guilds.

Remember · Paramita = perfection. In Mahayana Buddhism the paramitas (generosity, morality, patience, effort, meditation, wisdom, etc.) are the virtues perfected along the bodhisattva path.

📘 Read it in NCERT: Class 12 An Introduction to Indian Art, Part II, Ch 1 (practise this chapter) · Class 12 Themes in Indian History, Part I, Ch 4 (practise this chapter) · Class 12 Themes in Indian History, Part I, Ch 3 (practise this chapter) · Class 11 Knowledge Traditions and Practices of India, Part I, Ch 2 (practise this chapter)

Question and answer: UPSC's official GS Paper I (2020, Series A) — paper ↗ · answer key ↗. Explanation: Minimalist IAS, checked 1 Oct 2026 (how we verify). Permalink · Report an error

Answer: (b) 1 and 3 only

A parivrajaka is a wandering renunciant and an upasaka is a lay follower of Buddhism, so pairs 1 and 3 are correct. A shramana is an ascetic who strives for spiritual goals, not a priest of high status.

• ✓ 1. NCERT says the renunciants who chose to live as ascetics and wanderers rather than householders were called parivrajaka (wanderer), among other terms.
• ✗ 2. NCERT gives the meaning of shramana as one who strives, that is, an ascetic seeker outside the householder's life. It does not mean a priest of high status.
• ✓ 3. An upasaka is a lay devotee of the Buddha, that is, a Buddhist who is not a member of a monastic order.

Remember · Parivrajaka = wandering renunciant. Shramana = ascetic who strives (not a priest). Upasaka = lay follower of Buddhism, not a monk.

📘 Read it in NCERT: Class 9 Understanding Society: India and Beyond, Ch 5 (practise this chapter)

Question and answer: UPSC's official GS Paper I (2020, Series A) — paper ↗ · answer key ↗. Explanation: Minimalist IAS, checked 1 Oct 2026 (how we verify). Permalink · Report an error

Answer: (d) 1, 2 and 3

From about the first century CE, Mahayana turned the Buddha from a human teacher into a saviour figure, made the compassionate Bodhisattva the ideal to follow, and gave the worship of images of the Buddha and Bodhisattvas a central place. All three are Mahayana features.

• ✓ 1. Early Buddhism saw the Buddha as a human who won nibbana by his own effort; Mahayana came to regard him as a saviour who could ensure salvation, in effect deifying him.
• ✓ 2. The Bodhisattva ideal developed in Mahayana: compassionate beings who used their merit to help others rather than to attain nibbana for themselves.
• ✓ 3. Worship of images of the Buddha and Bodhisattvas, with its attendant rituals, became an important part of the Mahayana tradition.

Remember · Mahayana ('great vehicle'): Buddha as saviour, Bodhisattva ideal, image worship; followers of the older way called themselves Theravadins.

📘 Read it in NCERT: Class 12 Themes in Indian History, Part I, Ch 4 (practise this chapter) · Class 12 Themes in Indian History, Part I, Ch 4 (practise this chapter)

Question and answer: UPSC's official GS Paper I (2019, Series A) — paper ↗ · answer key ↗. Explanation: Minimalist IAS, checked 30 Sept 2026 (how we verify). Permalink · Report an error

Answer: (b) Jainism

The Sthanakvasi (also spelt Sthanakavasi) are a Jain sect, a modern subsect of the Shvetambara ("white-clad") branch of Jainism. They pray and perform religious duties in a sthanak (a monks' meeting hall) rather than a temple, and they reject image worship.

• ✓ (b) Sthanakvasi is a subsect of the Shvetambara branch of Jainism, a reformist sect that criticised image worship and the temple cult. IGNOU traces the reform to about the 15th century, while Britannica dates the subsect's founding to the 17th century by Lava of Surat, who belonged to an earlier sect that also rejected idol worship.
• ✗ (a) Buddhism is a separate religion; the sthanak (monks' meeting hall) and the rejection of image worship belong to Jain practice.
• ✗ (c) Vaishnavism is a Hindu tradition centred on Vishnu, and Sthanakvasi is not one of its sects.
• ✗ (d) Shaivism is a Hindu tradition centred on Shiva, and Sthanakvasi is not one of its sects.

Remember · Sthanakvasi = a Jain (Shvetambara) reformist sect that rejects idol worship and prays in a sthanak, not a temple.

Question and answer: UPSC's official GS Paper I (2018, Series A) — paper ↗ · answer key ↗. Explanation: Minimalist IAS, checked 1 Oct 2026 (how we verify). Permalink · Report an error

Answer: (c) Maitreya

Maitreya ("the loving one") is the future Buddha of Buddhist tradition, the only bodhisattva venerated by both Hinayana and Mahayana followers (IGNCA). Avalokiteshvara, Lokeshvara and Padmapani are named as bodhisattva figures or forms in the sources, not as the Buddha still to come.

• ✓ (c) The Indira Gandhi National Centre for the Arts describes Maitreya as the future Buddha and the only bodhisattva venerated by both Hinayana and Mahayana followers.
• ✗ (a) Avalokiteshvara is the most popular Mahayana bodhisattva, known for his compassion for all beings; he vowed not to enter nirvana until all beings are freed from suffering.
• ✗ (b) Lokesvara appears in the Sadhanamala as a name for forms of the compassionate bodhisattvas, listed by IGNCA in its account of Avalokitesvara, who vowed not to enter nirvana until all beings are freed from suffering. It is not a name for the Buddha of the future, who is Maitreya.
• ✗ (d) Padmapani is another bodhisattva image of the Buddhist pantheon, listed by NCERT among the sculpted Bodhisattvas; it is not the future Buddha.

Remember · Maitreya = the Buddha of the future; Avalokiteshvara (with Lokeshvara forms and Padmapani) = bodhisattva figures of compassion.

📘 Read it in NCERT: Class 11 An Introduction to Indian Art, Part I, Ch 4 (practise this chapter)

Question and answer: UPSC's official GS Paper I (2018, Series A) — paper ↗ · answer key ↗. Explanation: Minimalist IAS, checked 1 Oct 2026 (how we verify). Permalink · Report an error

Answer: (b) 2 only

Sautrantika and Sammitiya were schools of Buddhism, not Jainism, so statement 1 is wrong. Sarvastivadins held that the basic factors of existence (dharmas) are lasting realities even though they show up only momentarily in the world, so statement 2 is correct.

• ✗ 1. NCERT calls Sautrantika a philosophical sect of Hinayana Buddhism, and IGNOU places Sarvastivada in the same early Buddhist tradition. Sammitiya is likewise an early Buddhist school. Sautrantika arose around the 2nd century BCE as an offshoot of the Sarvastivada, and Sammitiya (also spelt Sammatiya) taught a distinctive theory of the ‘person’ (pudgala). Neither is a Jain sect.
• ✓ 2. Sarvastivadins treated everything in the empirical world as impermanent but maintained that the underlying dharma factors are eternally existing realities. Sautrantikas rejected this and held that dharmas exist only momentarily.

Remember · Sarvastivada, Sautrantika and Sammitiya are early Buddhist schools. Sarvastivadins said dharmas are enduring realities; Sautrantikas said they are only momentary.

📘 Read it in NCERT: Class 11 Knowledge Traditions and Practices of India, Part I, Ch 2 (practise this chapter)

Question and answer: UPSC's official GS Paper I (2017, Series A) — paper ↗ · answer key ↗. Explanation: Minimalist IAS, checked 1 Oct 2026 (how we verify). Permalink · Report an error

Answer: (b) 2 and 3 only

A Bodhisattva is a deeply compassionate being who uses his accumulated merit to help others reach liberation instead of taking nibbana for himself, so statements 2 and 3 are correct. This idea belongs to Mahayana Buddhism, not to the tradition Mahayanists called Hinayana, so statement 1 is wrong.

• ✗ 1. The concept of the Bodhisatta (Bodhisattva) developed with the Mahayana school, the 'great vehicle'. Its followers used the name Hinayana, the 'lesser vehicle', for the older tradition.
• ✓ 2. Bodhisattas are described as deeply compassionate beings who gather merit through their efforts.
• ✓ 3. They use that merit not to attain nibbana and leave the world, but to help others.

Remember · Bodhisattva: a compassionate being who delays his own nirvana to help others; the ideal is central to Mahayana, and 'Hinayana' was Mahayana's name for the older school.

📘 Read it in NCERT: Class 12 Themes in Indian History, Part I, Ch 4 (practise this chapter) · Class 12 Themes in Indian History, Part I, Ch 4 (practise this chapter)

Question and answer: UPSC's official GS Paper I (2016, Series A) — paper ↗ · answer key ↗. Explanation: Minimalist IAS, checked 30 Sept 2026 (how we verify). Permalink · Report an error