castes are ranked according to their perceived ___ purity
What is 'ritual'?
These two partial avatāras of Viṣṇu who feature in the Rāmāyaṇa and Mahābhārata
Who is Rāma? and Who is Kṛṣṇa?
The author of the Arthaśāstra
myth of origin, myth of recreation, ages of Manu, genealogies of gods and sages, genealogies of human protagonists are the 5 features of this category of literature
What are the purāṇas?
The idea that the soul (ātman) and the universal principle (brahman) are one in the same can be found in this category of Vedic texts
What are the Upaniṣads?
Varṇa (which is best left untranslated) and is first articulated in the Puruṣa-sūkta of the Ṛgveda, includes these four social groupings
What are Brahmans (priest); Kṣatriyas (warriors); Vaiśyas (merchants/agriculturists); śūdras (laborers)?
The Bhagavad Gītā is the earliest text which encourages this kind of worship (performed through devotional acts rather than the performance of ritual-sacrifices)
What is bhakti?
The author of the Sanskrit grammar called the Aṣṭhādhyāyī
Who is Pāṇini?
What is smṛti?
śramaṇa
The word for caste as a system that includes innumerable caste groupings
What is jāti?
The act of propitiating a deity in worship
What is Pūjā?
The Carakasaṃhitā is a treatise on this subject
What is Ayurveda?
'Authorless' texts, such as the Vedas, belong to this category of literature which is translated as 'heard literature'
What is śruti?
In the Jain tradition souls are called
What is jīva?
In anthropological terms the practice of restricting marriage to intermarriage within the same caste group
What is endogamy?
The viewing of a deity as a devotional act
What is darśana?
The Sāṃkhya philosophical school, which proposes a kind of evolutionary theory consists of these two elements: consciousness and matter. In Sanskrit these are called ___ and ____.
What is Puruṣa (conscioussness) and Prakṛti (matter)?
This text written by Bharata details a theory of dramatic performance
What is the Nāṭyaśāstra?
The name of the site where the elaborate network of painted caves. These caves depict buddhist themes and were patronized in part by the Vākāṭakas.
What is Ajanta?
The practice of eating together in a certain social grouping (in the context of caste in order to enforce rules of ritual purity)
commensality
In this type of buddhism practitioners aim to become bodhisattvas and are born again and again to help the rest of the beings in the world attain nirvāṇa
What is Mahāyāna (the great vehicle)?
In Sāṃkhya all animate and inanimate things are governed by these 3 guṇas (qualities)
What are sattva (light/intelligence), rajas (energy/activity), tamas (inertia/darkness)?
The most preeminent rasa known as "the king of rasas," which dominates texts such as Śākuntala is called___
What is śṛṅgāra rasa (the erotic)?
The ritual patron (particularly in the context of Vedic sacrifice) is called ____
What is the Yajman?