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Exploring Hinduism: A Quiz on Beliefs, Texts, and History

This quiz explores key concepts, texts, and historical aspects of Hinduism, testing knowledge about its beliefs, practices, and prominent figures.

#Hinduism #Religion #Philosophy #Cultural Studies #Indian History

1 It was only towards the end of the 18th century that the European merchants and colonists referred collectively to the followers of ________ in Hindustan—which geographically referred to most parts of the northern Indian subcontinent—as Hindus.

2 Commonly this swa-dharma or varna is misunderstood as ________, the class identity in Hindu society.

3 What does the following picture show? A young Nepali Hindu devotee during a traditional prayer ceremony at Kathmandu's Durbar Square. The Bhagavad Gītā, a conversation between Lord Krishna and Arjuna before the start of the Kurukshetra war, is one of the foremost Hindu scriptures and is described as a concise guide to Hindu philosophy and beliefs. Sacred Mount Kailash in Tibet is regarded as the spiritual abode of Shiva. A young Nepali Hindu devotee during a traditional prayer ceremony at Kathmandu's Durbar Square.

4 ________ is an important connection for a Hindu to his religious and historical heritage.

5 [13] ________'s commentaries on the Upanishads led to the rise of Advaita Vedanta, the most influential sub-school of Vedanta.

6 The most famous is at the confluence of the Ganga and Yamuna in ________ which is known as "Sangam".

7 [21] This conceptualization of Hinduism has led to establishment of Hindutva as the dominant force in ________ over the last century.

8 Perhaps the most popular Hindu scripture is the ________, depicting a civil war within a family that takes on dimensions of the struggle between dharma and adharma.

9 [11] The ________ are the oldest sacred books of Hinduism and lay the foundation of several schools of Hindu thought.

10 One of the accepted views is that ism was added to Hindu around ________ to denote the culture and religion of the high-caste Brahmans in contrast to other religions.

💡 Interesting Facts

  • during the Mandi Shivaratri Fair held in Mandi, India, Hindu religiosity is the theme that establishes synthesis of the worship by Vishnu and Shiva cults.
  • one of the earliest known references to Karnataka, the name of an Indian state, is found in the ancient Hindu epic Mahabharata.
  • poetry of the Hindu female-saint Bahinabai reflects the compromise between her devotion to husband and patron-god Vithoba.
  • as the result of a deal before the 2000 general election, Paul Bérenger became the first non-Hindu Prime Minister of Mauritius in 2003.
  • according to different versions of his legend, Hindu cattle-god Bir Kuar was killed by either a tigress, seven witches, Mughal soldiers, or his own sister.
  • according to Hindu legend, the yogi Visoba Khechara taught his disciple Namdev the omnipresence of God by magically filling a whole temple with lingas—the symbols of god Shiva (pictured).
  • according to Hindu tradition, donation of a kamandalu in funeral rituals ensures the deceased has ample drinking water in his after-life journey.
  • the Hindu god Shiva is worshipped in form of a navel-shaped lingam at Madhyamaheshwar temple.
  • the Hindu shrine Tungnath (pictured) is closed during winter and a symbolic image of the temple's presiding deity is moved to Mukunath, 19 km (12 mi) away.
  • the defeat of Vijayanagara Empire at the Battle of Talikota in 1565 ended one of the last great Hindu kingdoms in South India.
  • the image of Hindu deity Hanuman (pictured) reportedly came alive and moved when installed at the Hanuman temple in Sarangpur.
  • while the rest of India worships the Hindu wealth-goddess Lakshmi, Bengalis venerate the fearsome goddess Kali (pictured) today on Kali Puja.
  • the September 2008 attacks on Christians in Mangalore started in response to the allegations by Bajrang Dal that the New Life Fellowship Church was indulging in forcible conversion of Hindus.
  • the Mahishya caste is one of the predominant Hindu castes in West Bengal, India.
  • the Vedic Mathematics genre was revived after Hindu Shankaracharya Jagadguru Swami Sri Bharati Krishna Tirthaji Maharaja rediscovered it in the form of sixteen sutras.
  • the Purna-Kalasha (pictured), worshipped by Hindus as the Divine Mother, symbolizes Mother Earth with her water, minerals and vegetation.
  • a version of the traditional Bengali panjika, the Hindu astrological almanac, comes with an interactive CD-ROM.
  • Justice Rana Bhagwandas was the first Hindu to serve as Chief Justice of the Supreme Court of Pakistan.
  • Arumuga Navalar, a Hindu revivalist, also helped translate the Bible into Tamil.
  • Bhudev Mukhopadhyay taught at Hindu, Muslim and Christian schools.
  • Jogendra Nath Mandal was a Hindu politician who served as the first Minister for Law and Labour of the Muslim state of Pakistan.
  • Hindus often worship Krishna as the small child Bala Krishna (pictured), crawling on his hands and knees with a lump of butter in his hands.
  • Hindus believe that god Vishnu falls asleep in the cosmic ocean of milk on the cosmic serpent, for a period of four months on the day of Shayani Ekadashi.
  • Arya Samaj spearheaded the 19th-century cow protection movement, Hindu opposition to Muslim cow sacrifice, leading to violent riots spreading all across India.
  • Hindu pilgrims to Pushkar Lake in Rajasthan, India, considered it lucky to be devoured by the crocodiles there.
  • Palwankar Vithal became the first Dalit cricketer to captain the Hindus team in the Bombay Quadrangular cricket competition, a milestone in the Hindu society's struggle against caste discrimination.
  • Parikrama, an integral part of Hindu ritual, involves walking around a sacred object or place, as Ganesha (statue pictured) walked around Shiva in legend.
  • Swami Rama Tirtha was one of the first Hindu swamis to teach Vedanta in the West.
  • Vijaya Dasa, an 18th century Hindu saint from the Karnataka Haridasa tradition, composed about 25,000 devotional songs in the Kannada language.
  • Siba Singha established Shaktism, a Hindu sect, as the major religion in Assam in the early 18th century.
  • religion in the Western Ganga Dynasty included influences from Jainism and the Hindu sects Shaivism, Vedic Brahminism and Vaishnavism.
  • Prambanan, on Java, is the largest Hindu temple in Indonesia.
  • Rajarsi Janakananda, before becoming the leading disciple of Hindu Guru Paramahansa Yogananda, was a self-made American millionaire named James Jesse Lynn.
  • "Hindu Taliban" is a pejorative term used by some tolerant or "secular" Hindus to describe the supporters of the Hindutva movement.
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