Identify the correct statements for early traditions of 'bhakti':
(A) Historians of religion often classify the 'bhakti' tradition into three broad categories.
(B) These traditions are often called saguna (with attributes) and nirguna (without attributes).
(C) The saguna focused on worship of specific deities such as Shiva, Vishnu, and his avatars.
(D) Nirguna bhakti, on the other hand, was worship of an abstract form of god.
Choose the correct answer from the options given below:
Answer & explanation
Correct answer: option 4
The correct answer is Option (4) → (B), (C) and (D) only
(A) Historians of religion often classify the ‘bhakti’ tradition into three broad categories. Incorrect. Historians of religion often classify bhakti traditions into two broad categories, not three: saguna and nirguna.
(B) These traditions are often called saguna (with attributes) and nirguna (without attributes). Correct. The two categories are saguna (with attributes) and nirguna (without attributes).
(C) The saguna focused on worship of specific deities such as Shiva, Vishnu, and his avatars. Correct. Saguna bhakti included traditions that focused on the worship of specific deities such as Shiva, Vishnu and his avatars (incarnations) and forms of the goddess or Devi, often conceived in human form.
(D) Nirguna bhakti, on the other hand, was worship of an abstract form of god. Correct. Nirguna bhakti, on the other hand, was worship of an abstract form of god.
NCERT (2026-27): “2. Poems of Prayer … At a different level, historians of religion often classify bhakti traditions into two broad categories: saguna (with attributes) and nirguna (without attributes). The former included traditions that focused on the worship of specific deities such as Shiva, Vishnu and his avatars (incarnations) and forms of the goddess or Devi, all often conceptualised in anthropomorphic forms. Nirguna bhakti on the other hand was worship of an abstract form of god.…” |