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:

(d) None of the above are epithets of Gautama Buddha

Prelims · Ancient India · 20 questions

Buddhism, Jainism & other schools

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Prelims 2024 · Q54

Medium

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). Permalink ·

Prelims 2024 · Q64

Hard

Sanghabhuti, an Indian Buddhist monk, who travelled to China at the end of the fourth century AD, was the author of a commentary on:

Answer & explanation

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)

Sources

IGNCA, India and China: Beyond and the Within (Lokesh Chandra) ↗ “Sanghabhuti from Kabul translated three works in AD 381-85. In AD 404 Punyatara of Kabul translated the Sarvastivada-vinaya, together with Kumarajiva.”
NCERT Class 12 · Themes in Indian History, Part I, Chapter 4 “The Vinaya Pitaka included rules and regulations for those who joined the sangha or monastic order”
Encyclopaedia Britannica, Visuddhimagga ↗ · reference work “It was written during the reign of the Sri Lankan king Mahanama in the 5th century ce by the great Buddhist commentator Buddhaghosa.”
Encyclopaedia Britannica, Lalitavistara ↗ · reference work “legendary life of the Gautama Buddha, written in a combination of Sanskrit and a vernacular”

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 ·

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