With which religion is Kalika Purana associated?

Question

UnlockIAS · Accepted Answer

The commission's key credits D, Jainism — so option (d) is what MPPSC treated as correct for scoring. On the scholarly record, however, the Kalika Purana is not a Jain work: it is a Shakta Upapurana, a text of goddess-worship composed around the 10th-11th century CE and associated with the Kamarupa (Assam) region, devoted to the Goddess in her forms (Kali, Kamakhya, Sati/Parvati). By its content it belongs to Shaktism — option (b). Record the credited answer as the commission's, but carry the accurate association: Kalika Purana ↔ Shaktism.

Why the other options are wrong — (a) Vaishnavism centres on Vishnu and his avatars; the Kalika Purana is a Goddess-centred text, not a Vaishnava one.  (b) On the scholarly record this is actually the correct tradition — the Kalika Purana is a Shakta Upapurana devoted to the Goddess — even though the commission's key did not credit it here.  (c) The Kalika Purana is a Puranic Hindu text, not part of the Buddhist canon.

Concept: The Puranas are a large body of Hindu religious literature. Beyond the eighteen Mahapuranas there are many Upapuranas (secondary Puranas), each usually leaning to a sectarian tradition — Vaishnava (Vishnu), Shaiva (Shiva) or Shakta (the Goddess). The Kalika Purana is a Shakta Upapurana, best known for describing the worship of the goddess Kamakhya in Assam.

State PCS 2018 Q19 — History PYQ with Answer

State PCS 2018 Q19 — History PYQ with Answer