The theme of India’s G20 Presidency ‘Vasudhaiva Kutumbakam’ or ‘One Earth-One Family-One Future’ is drawn from the
- (a)Maha Purana
- (b)Maha Upanishad
- (c)Rig Veda
- (d)Smriti
Correct — B, Maha Upanishad. The verse 'ayam nijah paro veti ganana laghuchetasam, udaracharitanam tu vasudhaiva kutumbakam' — this is mine and that a stranger is the reckoning of the small-minded, but to the large-hearted the whole earth is a family — appears in chapter 6 of the Maha Upanishad, at verses 71 to 73. India took the phrase as the theme of its G20 presidency, which ran from December 2022 to November 2023 and culminated in the New Delhi summit of September 2023, and rendered it in English as 'One Earth-One Family-One Future'. The paper was taken in February 2023, in the middle of that presidency.
- (a)Maha Purana — The line does not originate in a Purana. The Bhagavata Purana does echo the sentiment, and later writing quotes it approvingly, but the source text named in the standard accounts is the Maha Upanishad.
- (c)Rig Veda — The commonest wrong answer, because the Rig Veda is the default guess for any ancient Sanskrit line. The Rig Veda is the source of other famous mottoes — 'Ekam sat vipra bahudha vadanti' is from it — but not of this one.
- (d)Smriti — Smriti is a class of texts rather than a single work, covering the Dharmashastras, the epics and the Puranas. The Upanishads belong to the other class, Shruti, which is exactly the distinction this option is testing.
Sanskrit literature is divided into Shruti, what was heard — the Vedic Samhitas, Brahmanas, Aranyakas and Upanishads — and Smriti, what was remembered, which covers the Dharmashastras, the epics and the Puranas. The Maha Upanishad is one of the later Upanishads, associated with the Sama Veda, and it is from its sixth chapter that the phrase Vasudhaiva Kutumbakam comes. Independent India has repeatedly drawn its official mottoes from this body of texts.
Two things make the item answerable without having read the text. First, the Shruti and Smriti distinction disposes of option (d) at once, because a named Upanishad and an unnamed class of texts are not comparable answers. Second, the pattern of Indian state mottoes is worth memorising as a set: 'Satyameva Jayate' below the State Emblem comes from the Mundaka Upanishad, 'Yogah karmasu kaushalam' from the Bhagavad Gita, and 'Vasudhaiva Kutumbakam' from the Maha Upanishad — three Upanishadic or Gita sources, none of them Rig Vedic, which is why the Rig Veda option is a trap rather than a near miss. One honest footnote on the G20 story: the general reference accounts record that the Sanskrit phrase itself did not appear in most official G20 documents, since Sanskrit is not among the six official languages of the United Nations, and only the English rendering was carried.
- The verse containing 'vasudhaiva kutumbakam' appears in chapter 6 of the Maha Upanishad, verses 71 to 73.
- India's G20 presidency ran from 1 December 2022 to 30 November 2023, with the leaders' summit held in New Delhi in September 2023.
- The presidency's theme was rendered in English as 'One Earth-One Family-One Future'.
- The G20 logo unveiled in November 2022 is a lotus with seven petals, read as the seven continents and the seven notes of music.
- 'Satyameva Jayate', India's national motto, comes from a different Upanishad — the Mundaka.
Three famous mottoes, three different texts, and not one of them Rig Vedic.
- Answering Rig Veda for any famous Sanskrit line.
- Treating Smriti as if it were a single text.
- Confusing the Maha Upanishad, the source of this phrase, with the Mundaka Upanishad, the source of the national motto.
As a phrase-to-text item, usually attached to a current event that has put the phrase in the news.
The national motto of India, ‘Satyameva Jayate’ inscribed below the Emblem of India is taken from
- (a) Katha Upanishad
- (b) Chandogya Upanishad
- (c) Aitareya Upanishad
- (d) Mundaka Upanishad
Answer(d) Mundaka Upanishad
The same question about a different motto, and the one that shows why the Upanishads have to be held separately in the memory rather than as a single block. There the four options are all Upanishads; here the trap is a Purana and a Veda.
Consider the following statements: 1. There are no parables in Upanishads. 2. Upanishads were composed earlier than the Puranas. Which of the statements given above is/are correct?
- (a) 1 only
- (b) 2 only
- (c) Both 1 and 2
- (d) Neither 1 nor 2
Answer(b) 2 only
Fixes the chronology this item leans on. The Upanishads come before the Puranas, which is one reason a verse of this kind is looked for in an Upanishad rather than in a Purana.
- practice — not a real PYQ
India's G20 presidency ran through which of the following periods?
- (a)December 2021 to November 2022
- (b)December 2022 to November 2023
- (c)January 2023 to December 2023
- (d)September 2023 to August 2024
Answer(b) December 2022 to November 2023 — the leaders' summit was held in New Delhi in September 2023.
- practice — not a real PYQ
The national motto 'Satyameva Jayate', inscribed below the State Emblem of India, is drawn from
- (a)Maha Upanishad
- (b)Mundaka Upanishad
- (c)Chandogya Upanishad
- (d)Katha Upanishad
Answer(b) Mundaka Upanishad — a different Upanishad from the one that gives us Vasudhaiva Kutumbakam.