Which one of the following pairs denoting various forms of ‘Bhakti’ is not correctly matched?
- (a)Saguna : Belief in Gods with attributes
- (b)Nirguna : Belief in Gods without attributes
- (c)Alvars : Believed in devotion of Shakti
- (d)Nayanars : Believed in devotion of Shiva
Correct — C, Alvars : Believed in devotion of Shakti. The Alvars were devotees of Vishnu, not of Shakti. They are the Tamil Vaishnava poet-saints of roughly the sixth to ninth centuries, twelve in number, whose hymns were gathered into the Nalayira Divya Prabandham; the Nayanars are their Shaiva counterparts, sixty-three of them, devoted to Shiva. NCERT's Class 12 history text puts the pairing plainly and also supplies the trap that examiners like: 'the compositions of Andal, a woman Alvar, were widely sung', while the three women among the Nayanars are Karaikkal Ammaiyar, Mangayarkkarasiyar and Isaignaniyar. Shakti worship is a separate strand altogether, the Shakta tradition, and neither of these two Tamil movements belongs to it. The other three pairs are correct as printed. Saguna bhakti is devotion to a god conceived with form and attributes — Rama, Krishna, Shiva in image and story. Nirguna bhakti addresses a formless divine without attributes, the strand of Kabir and Guru Nanak. And the Nayanars are indeed the Shiva devotees.
- (a)Saguna : Belief in Gods with attributes — Correctly matched, so it cannot be the answer to a not-correctly-matched question. Saguna literally means 'with qualities' — worship of a deity with form, name and story.
- (b)Nirguna : Belief in Gods without attributes — Also correctly matched. Nirguna means 'without qualities', the formless divine of Kabir's and Nanak's verse, and the pairing is exactly the counterpart of the saguna one above it.
- (d)Nayanars : Believed in devotion of Shiva — Correct as printed. The sixty-three Nayanars are the Tamil Shaiva saints, and it is precisely because this pair is right that the Alvar pair beside it must be the wrong one.
Devotional religion in the Tamil country from about the sixth century produced two parallel movements of singing saints — the Alvars, immersed in Vishnu, and the Nayanars, devoted to Shiva. Their hymns were sung in Tamil rather than Sanskrit, they travelled between shrines, and they drew followers across caste lines. Later north Indian bhakti is usually sorted along a different axis: saguna devotion to a god with attributes, and nirguna devotion to a formless one.
A not-correctly-matched item is best worked by confirming the pairs you are sure of and letting the remainder fall out. Saguna and nirguna are definitional and cannot be misstated here; the Nayanar-Shiva pair is the one most candidates know. That leaves the Alvars, and the single fact that settles it is that Alvar means one immersed in devotion to Vishnu. The most productive thing to fix in memory alongside it is Andal — she is the one woman among the twelve Alvars, and papers keep using her as bait in Nayanar questions, as the CDS paper of the following session did.
- The Alvars are the twelve Tamil Vaishnava poet-saints; their hymns form the Nalayira Divya Prabandham.
- The Nayanars are the sixty-three Tamil Shaiva saints; their hymns are collected in the Tevaram and the wider Tirumurai.
- Andal is the only woman among the Alvars; the women among the Nayanars are Karaikkal Ammaiyar, Mangayarkkarasiyar and Isaignaniyar.
- Saguna bhakti worships a deity with attributes and form, as in the Rama of Tulsidas or the Krishna of Surdas; nirguna bhakti addresses a formless divine, as in Kabir and Guru Nanak.
- Shakti worship is the Shakta tradition, distinct from both the Vaishnava and Shaiva bhakti movements of the Tamil country.
Three pairs hold; the Alvar-Shakti pairing is the one the paper has broken on purpose.
- Placing Andal among the Nayanars because she is a woman saint; she is an Alvar, and a Vaishnava.
- Reading 'Alvar' as a general word for saint rather than as the specifically Vaishnava term.
- Treating nirguna bhakti as atheism; it rejects form and attribute, not the divine.
As a not-correctly-matched pair item, or as a which-of-these-is-not-a-woman-Nayanar item using Andal as the bait.
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 habit, applied to people rather than to definitions. Three names belong inside the devotional tradition and one sits outside it, exactly as three of the CDS pairs hold and one does not.
Which of the following statements about Saguna bhakti traditions is/are correct? 1. Saguna bhakti traditions focus on the worship of specific deities such as Vishnu or his avatars. 2. In Saguna bhakti traditions, Gods and Goddesses are conceptualised in anthropomorphic forms. Select the correct answer using the code given below:
- (a) 1 only
- (b) 2 only
- (c) Both 1 and 2
- (d) Neither 1 nor 2
Answer(c) Both 1 and 2
The saguna half of the CDS pair, expanded into two statements. Worship of named deities in human form is precisely what 'with attributes' means, so a candidate who has this item has the first option of the CDS question already.
Which one of the following statements about the Bhakti movement is NOT correct ?
- (a) The Bhakti movement avoided traditions that promoted diversity
- (b) In northern India, the Bhakti movement revolved around the worship of Rama and Krishna
- (c) The Bhakti movement relied on the devotion of God, both with and without attributes
- (d) While Tulsidas represented the tradition of devotion with attributes, Sant Kabir followed the path of devotion without attributes
Answer(a) The Bhakti movement avoided traditions that promoted diversity
The same not-correct format on the same movement, and its option (d) states the saguna and nirguna division that the CDS item's first two pairs define.
Who among the following is not a woman Nayanar saint ?
- (a) Karaikkal Ammaiyar
- (b) Mangayarkkarasiyar
- (c) Andal
- (d) Isaignaniyar
Answer(c) Andal
The same distinction asked from the other side, six months later. Andal is an Alvar and therefore a Vaishnava, which is why she cannot be counted among the Shaiva Nayanars.
How many of the following statements about Bhakti poet Namdev is/are correct? 1. He seems to have played a part in transmitting the southern Bhakti to northern India. 2. He was a rigorous monotheist and opposed caste distinctions. 3. He was a devout follower of Kabir. Select the correct answer.
- (a) 1
- (b) 2
- (c) 3
- (d) None
Answer(b) 2
How the southern devotional movement travelled north. Namdev is one of the figures through whom the Tamil bhakti of the Alvars and Nayanars reached the northern traditions the saguna and nirguna labels describe.
- practice — not a real PYQ
The hymns of the Alvars were collected into which one of the following compilations?
- (a)Tevaram
- (b)Nalayira Divya Prabandham
- (c)Kirtana-ghosha
- (d)Abhangas
Answer(b) Nalayira Divya Prabandham — the Vaishnava collection of the Alvars' Tamil hymns; the Tevaram belongs to the Shaiva Nayanars.
- practice — not a real PYQ
Which one of the following saints belongs to the nirguna strand of bhakti?
- (a)Tulsidas
- (b)Surdas
- (c)Kabir
- (d)Mirabai
Answer(c) Kabir — his verse addresses a divine without form or attribute, while Tulsidas, Surdas and Mirabai sing of Rama or Krishna, gods with attributes.