Hindu Traditions: Comprehension Questions

In what year was the British partition of Bengal?

• a. 1905

• b. 1947

• c. 2000

• d. 1947

What percentage of the world's Hindus live in India?

• a. 75%

• b. 85%

• c. 95%

• d. 99%

What is understood as the reality that transcends all personal names?

• a. Brahman

• b. Atman

• c. Dharmashastras

• d. Vedas

What contain hundreds of narratives about divine manifestations and form the basis of a varied religious expressions through ritual, pilgrimage, music, and dance?

• a. The Vedas

• b. The Upanishads

• c. The Dharmashastras

• d. The Puranas

What do the Upanishads consider the end of and date largely from the eighth to the sixth centuries BCE?

• a. The Vedas

• b. The Dharmashastras

• c. The Ramayana and the Mahabharata

• d. The Puranas

What were composed in the centuries before the common era and focused on moral and social duties of individuals based on their place in the society and their station in life?

• a. The Vedas

• b. The Upanishads

• c. The Dharmashastras

• d. The Puranas

What grew more significant as its scope both expanded and contracted during the struggle for independence from Britain?

• a. Hindu identity

• b. Brahman

• c. Atman

• d. Vedas

What has resulted in a rich variety of religious practices, a diverse region of many peoples and languages, and various forms of worship through the many manifestations and images of the divine?

• a. The intricate blend of Aryan, Dravidian, and various tribal cultures

• b. The concept of Hinduism as a world religion

• c. The many divine figures in Hinduism

• d. The radical one-ness expressed through the concept of Brahman

What are the earliest literary sources of the Hindu tradition?

• a. The Upanishads

• b. The Dharmashastras

• c. The Ramayana and the Mahabharata

• d. The Vedas

What emerged only in the 19th century colonial context via processes much debated in scholarship over the past three decades?

• a. The concept of Hinduism as a world religion

• b. The radical one-ness expressed through the concept of Brahman

• c. The many divine figures in Hinduism

• d. The intricate blend of Aryan, Dravidian, and various tribal cultures