SSC CGL 2024 Tier-I · 23 September 2024, Shift 2 · General Awareness · Question 3 of 100

Text as printed on a candidate's response sheet for this shift; answer per SSC's tentative key as marked on that sheet. Solution last reviewed 10 September 2026.

Where this paper and its answers come from

SSC does not publish CGL question papers or a public answer key. The questions and options here are reproduced as printed on a candidate's own response sheet for this shift — the Commission's text, unchanged. Each answer is SSC's tentative key as marked on that sheet; SSC allowed challenges to it and never publishes a final key. The solutions are written by UnlockIAS.

With reference of Ajivikas, consider the following statements. a) Makkhali Gosala was the prominent teacher of this sect. b) Ajivikas believed in fatalism. Which of the above statements is/are correct?

(a)Both a and b
(b)Neither a or b
(c)Only b
(d)Only a

Answer

Why

Correct — A. Both statements hold.

Makkhali Gosala is named in Buddhist and Jain sources as the leading teacher of the Ajivika sect, a contemporary of the Buddha and Mahavira.

The Ajivika doctrine is niyati, destiny. Every event is fixed in advance, so effort and karma alter nothing, and that is fatalism in the ordinary sense. Statement (b) therefore stands as written.

Why the others are wrong

(b)
Neither a or b — This denies both. Makkhali Gosala is the Ajivika teacher the early texts actually name, and niyati, fixed destiny, is the doctrine that defines the sect, so neither denial survives.
(c)
Only b — This drops Makkhali Gosala. He is the teacher the sources attach to the Ajivikas, so statement (a) cannot be rejected while statement (b) is accepted.
(d)
Only a — This drops fatalism. Niyati, the Ajivika belief that every event is already settled, is precisely fatalism, so statement (b) is as sound as statement (a).

Concept

India's sixth-century-BCE ferment threw up several heterodox schools that rejected Vedic ritual and Brahmanical authority — Buddhism, Jainism, the Charvakas and the Ajivikas.

The Ajivikas are the school of niyati: birth, suffering and release are already fixed, so austerity earns nothing and moral effort changes nothing. That is what makes fatalism the right label for statement (b).

Their patronage leaves an archaeological trail. Ashoka dedicated rock-cut caves in the Barabar Hills of Bihar to Ajivika ascetics.

The stem's wording, including 'With reference of Ajivikas' and the choice 'Neither a or b', is reproduced as the paper prints it. Judge each statement on its own before pairing them.

Key facts

Makkhali Gosala was the best-known Ajivika teacher and a contemporary of Mahavira and the Buddha.
Niyati, the Ajivika doctrine of predetermined destiny, denies that human effort alters outcomes.
Ashoka dedicated rock-cut caves in the Barabar Hills of Bihar to Ajivika ascetics.

Study next

Heterodox schools of the sixth century BCE and what each deniedBarabar and Nagarjuni cave inscriptions and their royal donorsJain doctrine of karma set against Ajivika niyati

Common traps

Attaching fatalism to the Charvakas, who are materialists rather than determinists
Assuming a two-statement item must contain one false statement

The heterodox-sects block recurs across shifts. 19 Sep 2024, 09:00, General Awareness Q.24 asks under which dynasty Buddhism split into Hinayana and Mahayana at the fourth council.

Related PYQs

No directly related past PYQ was found.