Caste
Religion
Philosophy/Sciences
Literature
Wild Card
100

castes are ranked according to their perceived ___ purity

What is 'ritual'?

100

These two partial avatāras of Viṣṇu who feature in the Rāmāyaṇa and Mahābhārata

Who is Rāma? and Who is Kṛṣṇa?

100

The author of the Arthaśāstra

Who is Kautilya?
100

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?

100

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?

200

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)?

200

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?

200

The author of the Sanskrit grammar called the Aṣṭhādhyāyī

Who is Pāṇini?

200
The epics belong to this category of text which is translated as "remembered literature"

What is smṛti?

200
Buddhism and Jainism are considered renunciatory traditions which are also called ____ traditions

śramaṇa

300

The word for caste as a system that includes innumerable caste groupings

What is jāti?

300

The act of propitiating a deity in worship

What is Pūjā?

300

The Carakasaṃhitā is a treatise on this subject

What is Ayurveda?

300

'Authorless' texts, such as the Vedas, belong to this category of literature which is translated as 'heard literature'

What is śruti?

300

In the Jain tradition souls are called

What is jīva?

400

In anthropological terms the practice of restricting marriage to intermarriage within the same caste group 

What is endogamy?

400

The viewing of a deity as a devotional act

What is darśana?

400

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)?

400

This text written by Bharata details a theory of dramatic performance

What is the Nāṭyaśāstra?

400

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?

500

The practice of eating together in a certain social grouping (in the context of caste in order to enforce rules of ritual purity)

commensality

500

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)?

500

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)?

500

The most preeminent rasa known as "the king of rasas," which dominates texts such as Śākuntala is called___

What is śṛṅgāra rasa (the erotic)?

500

The ritual patron (particularly in the context of Vedic sacrifice) is called ____

What is the Yajman?