UWR C7: Indian Religious History Quiz

Who claimed that Indian religious history began around the middle of the second millennium BC?

• Jawaharlal Nehru

• Radhakrishnan

• Max Müller

• Gregory L. Possehl

What is the earliest scripture of the Hindu tradition mentioned in the text?

• Mahayana

• Ramayana

• Rig Veda

• Bhakti

According to the text, what was the Aryan focus on sacrifice replaced by?

• Rituals and ceremonies

• Personal devotion to individual gods

• Conversion to other religions

• Political power struggles

What significant attention was given in the 1920s regarding Hindu traditions?

• The decline of the caste system

• The conversion of oral traditions into written texts

• The spread of Hinduism to the West

• The construction of new temples

What does the term "Hinduism" refer to according to most Indians within India, as mentioned in the text?

• The religion of the Aryans

• The religion of indigenous peoples

• A new world-renouncing religion

• The British interpretation of Indian beliefs

What was the aim of religion according to the beliefs that saw everything as part of an original being or essence, known as Brahman?

• To achieve material wealth and power

• To break the bonds of karma and enter into union with either God or the gods, or to be absorbed into the Void

• To establish a political empire

• To promote social and cultural reforms

Which new religions emerged around a thousand years after the transition to permanent Indian society, embracing philosophical reflection and the renunciation of life?

• Christianity and Islam

• Jainism and Buddhism

• Sikhism and Zoroastrianism

• Confucianism and Taoism

Between AD 700 and 1200, what flourished due to popular discontent with an abstract and impersonal religious quest?

• Atheistic movements

• Bhakti or devotional movements

• Political movements

• Economic reform movements

What was ideally suited for incorporation into this outpouring of personal piety?

• The Upanishads and Vedas

• The Mahayana and Ramayana

• The Bible and the Quran

• The I Ching and the Book of the Dead

What significant event changed Indian religious history in the eighth century AD?

• The establishment of the British East India Company

• The spread of Christianity by British missionaries

• Islamic invaders began a series of incursions into the country

• The widespread conversion to Christianity