Nayanars were devotees of _____.
Answer & explanation
Correct answer: option 4
The correct answer is Option (4) → Shiva
The Nayanars (literally, leaders who were devotees of Shiva) led some of the earliest bhakti movements (c. sixth century) along with the Alvars, and travelled from place to place singing hymns in Tamil.
Note: A same/similar question was asked in CUET (UG) in the papers below.
| 2026 | 2025 | 2024 | 2023 | 2022 |
| – | 03-06 S2 | 19-07 S1* | – | – |
* A similar question.
NCERT (2026-27): “2. Poems of Prayer Early Traditions of Bhakti … 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.… 2.1 The Alvars and Nayanars of Tamil Nadu … Some of the earliest bhakti movements (c. sixth century) were led by the Alvars (literally, those who are ‘immersed’ in devotion to Vishnu) and Nayanars (literally, leaders who were devotees of Shiva). They travelled from place to place singing hymns in Tamil in praise of their gods.…” |