Which one of the following statements about the Bhakti Movement in South India is NOT correct?
- (a)The Nalayira Divyaprabandham was also known as the Tamil Veda
- (b)Andal was an Alvar
- (c)Karaikkal Ammaiyar was a devotee of Vishnu
- (d)Metal images of the saints Appar and Sundarar were made and then consecrated in a Shiva temple
Correct — C, Karaikkal Ammaiyar was a devotee of Vishnu. Karaikkal Ammaiyar was a devotee of Shiva and one of the sixty-three Nayanars — one of only three women among them. Her story is the one about renouncing beauty; having been recognised as a goddess by her husband, she asked Shiva to take away her form and give her the gaunt shape of a ghoul so that she could sit at his feet. Everything about her belongs to the Shaiva stream, and the option moves her into the Vaishnava one. The other three statements are accurate as they stand.
- (a)The Nalayira Divyaprabandham was also known as the Tamil Veda — Correct as stated. The compilation of four thousand Tamil hymns of the twelve Alvars was described as the Tamil Veda and was recited in temples as the Sanskrit Vedas were.
- (b)Andal was an Alvar — Correct as stated. Andal is the woman among the twelve Alvars, a devotee of Vishnu, and her Tiruppavai is still sung during the month of Margazhi.
- (d)Metal images of the saints Appar and Sundarar were made and then consecrated in a Shiva temple — Correct as stated. Bronze images of Nayanar saints, Appar and Sundarar among them, were cast and installed in Shiva temples and carried in procession, which is how the saints themselves became objects of devotion.
The Tamil devotional movement between roughly the sixth and the ninth centuries ran in two parallel streams. The Alvars, twelve in number, were devotees of Vishnu, and their hymns were gathered into the Nalayira Divyaprabandham. The Nayanars, sixty-three in number, were devotees of Shiva, and their hymns make up the Tevaram and the wider Tirumurai. Both composed in Tamil rather than Sanskrit, both drew saints from a range of social backgrounds, and both were critical of the ritual authority the Vedic tradition claimed.
Every item on this topic is decided by one pairing — Alvar with Vishnu, Nayanar with Shiva — and by knowing which saints and which texts sit on each side. Andal and Nammalvar and the Divyaprabandham are Vaishnava; Karaikkal Ammaiyar, Appar, Sambandar, Sundarar and the Tevaram are Shaiva. The women saints are worth holding separately, because they are asked about often: Andal on the Vaishnava side, and Karaikkal Ammaiyar as one of the three women among the Nayanars. The bronze images in option (d) are the link to art history — the metal-casting tradition of the Tamil country produced images of the saints as well as of the deities, and processional bronzes of both are among the best known Indian sculptures anywhere.
- The twelve Alvars were devotees of Vishnu; the sixty-three Nayanars were devotees of Shiva.
- The Nalayira Divyaprabandham collects four thousand Tamil hymns of the Alvars and was called the Tamil Veda.
- The Tevaram and the wider Tirumurai collect the hymns of the Nayanars.
- Karaikkal Ammaiyar was one of three women among the Nayanars; Andal is the woman among the Alvars.
- Bronze images of Nayanar saints such as Appar and Sundarar were consecrated in Shiva temples and taken in procession.
Sort every name into one of the two columns first, and items on this topic answer themselves.
- Swapping the Alvar and Nayanar pairings; only one of them is Vaishnava.
- Assuming a woman saint of the Tamil country must be Andal.
- Reading the Tamil Veda as a translation of the Sanskrit Vedas rather than as a Tamil devotional corpus given comparable status.
Bhakti items are built by moving one saint or one text across the Shaiva and Vaishnava line, so check the deity attached to every name before checking anything else.
Among the following, who was not a proponent of bhakti cult ?
- (a) Nagarjuna
- (b) Tukaram
- (c) Tyagaraja
- (d) Vallabhacharya
Answer(a) Nagarjuna
The same sorting problem one level up. There the misplaced name is a Buddhist philosopher among devotional saints; here it is a Shaiva saint moved into the Vaishnava column.
Consider the following statements about the Lingayats: 1. They bury their dead 2. They are great believers in the caste system, especially in the theory of purity and pollution 3. They are against child marriage and favour widow remarriage Which of the statements given above is/are correct?
- (a) 1 and 2
- (b) 1 only
- (c) 2 and 3
- (d) 1 and 3
Answer(d) 1 and 3
The same movement a few centuries later and further west, and it appears four questions on in this very paper. The Virashaivas of the Kannada country carried the devotional challenge to ritual authority into practice, rejecting caste and changing funeral and marriage custom.
- practice — not a real PYQ
The hymns of the Alvars are collected in which one of the following?
- (a)Tevaram
- (b)Nalayira Divyaprabandham
- (c)Periya Puranam
- (d)Tirukkural
Answer(b) Nalayira Divyaprabandham — the Tevaram belongs to the Nayanars, and the Periya Puranam narrates their lives.
- practice — not a real PYQ
Karaikkal Ammaiyar is counted among which group of devotional saints?
- (a)The Alvars
- (b)The Nayanars
- (c)The Virashaivas
- (d)The Siddhas
Answer(b) The Nayanars — she is one of the three women among the sixty-three Shaiva saints.