Bhakti & Sufi movements

Answer: (a) The best means of salvation was devotion.

Ramanuja taught that devotion (bhakti) to Vishnu, with surrender to Him, is the best way to reach salvation. His school, vishishtadvaita, is a devotional form of Vedanta.

• ✓ (a) NCERT: according to Ramanuja the best means of attaining salvation was intense devotion to Vishnu, whose grace lets the devotee reach the bliss of union with Him.
• ✗ (c) The route of knowledge and reasoning about Brahman is Shankara's advaita, which Ramanuja challenged; his own path stressed bhakti and surrender.
• ✗ (d) Ramanuja's texts as summarised in NCERT stress bhakti and surrender to the divine, not meditation, as the path to liberation.

Remember · Ramanuja (11th century, Tamil Nadu): vishishtadvaita, Vishnu-bhakti and surrender as the way to salvation, in contrast to Shankara's advaita and path of knowledge.

📘 Read it in NCERT: Class 7 Exploring Society: India and Beyond (Part 2), Ch 4 (practise this chapter)

Question and answer: UPSC's official GS Paper I (2022, Series A) — paper ↗ · answer key ↗. Explanation: Minimalist IAS, checked 30 Sept 2026 (how we verify). Permalink · Report an error

Answer: (d) Neither 1 nor 2

Both statements get the chronology wrong. Nimbarka is placed in the 12th century (some scholars date him as late as the 14th), long before Akbar (reigned 1556–1605). Kabir (c. 14th–15th centuries) died long before the Naqshbandi Shaikh Ahmad Sirhindi (d. 1624) was active, so Sirhindi could not have influenced him.

• ✗ 1. Nimbarka, the Vaishnava teacher devoted to Krishna and Radha, is placed in the 12th century after Ramanuja, or by some scholars around the 14th century; either way he lived at least two centuries before Akbar's reign (1556–1605).
• ✗ 2. Kabir belongs to the 14th–15th centuries; Shaikh Ahmad Sirhindi was a 17th-century Naqshbandi sufi whose orthodox views are usually contrasted with Akbar's.

Remember · Chronology: Nimbarka (12th c., some say 14th) → Kabir (14th–15th c.) → Akbar (1556–1605) → Shaikh Ahmad Sirhindi (Naqshbandi, d. 1624).

📘 Read it in NCERT: Class 12 Themes in Indian History, Part II, Ch 2 (practise this chapter) · Class 12 Themes in Indian History, Part II, Ch 2 (practise this chapter) · Class 12 Themes in Indian History, Part II, 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) 2 and 4 only

Tyagaraja created new ragas, and Annamacharya's kirtanas praise Lord Venkateswara of Tirumala, so 2 and 4 are correct. The two composers are separated by about three centuries.

• ✗ 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. The Ministry of Culture's CCRT notes that later composers like Tyagaraja invented many beautiful ragas, following the scheme of 72 melakartas.
• ✗ 3. Annamacharya belongs to the Tallapaka composers of the 15th century. Tyagaraja was one of the Musical Trinity born between 1750 and 1850, so they lived centuries apart.
• ✓ 4. Annamacharya of Tallapaka composed over thirty-two thousand devotional sankeerthanas on Lord Venkateswara of Tirumala, his family deity.

Remember · Tyagaraja: Trinity of Carnatic music, new ragas. Annamacharya (15th century, Tallapaka): sankeerthanas on Venkateswara of Tirumala.

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) Both 1 and 2

Both groups stood outside the Brahmanical ritual order. The Tamil Siddhas (Sittars) were a monotheistic, mystical movement within Tamil Shaivism that criticised conventional ritual; the Lingayats (Virashaivas) of Karnataka rejected caste hierarchy and, as NCERT records, questioned rebirth.

• ✓ 1. The Sittars or Siddhas of the Tamil region were a monotheistic, mystical movement within Shaivism. Like other Siddha and Nath groups, they criticised conventional ritual and the social order and looked to a formless Ultimate Reality, which is why UPSC's key treats the statement as correct.
• ✓ 2. NCERT records that the Lingayats challenged the idea of caste and the 'pollution' attributed to some groups, and also questioned the theory of rebirth, which won them followers among the marginalised.

Remember · Lingayats/Virashaivas: Basavanna (1106-68), Karnataka; worship Shiva as linga, reject caste and rebirth, bury the dead. Tamil Siddhas (Sittars): monotheistic, mystical, critics of ritual.

📘 Read it in NCERT: Class 12 Themes in Indian History, Part II, Ch 2 (practise this chapter)

Question and answer: UPSC's official GS Paper I (2016, Series A) — paper ↗ · answer key ↗. Explanation: Minimalist IAS, checked 1 Oct 2026 (how we verify). Permalink · Report an error