The historical sources of the Bhakti - Sufi traditions included the following:

(a) A variety of religious structures
(b) Textual traditions including the Puranas
(c) Compositions attributed to poet saints
(d) Hagiographies of saints
(e) The official records of the British

Choose the correct answer from the options given below:

(a), (b), (c), (d) only

The correct answer is Option (3) → (a), (b), (c), (d) only

Given options:

(a) A variety of religious structures
(b) Textual traditions including the Puranas
(c) Compositions attributed to poet saints
(d) Hagiographies of saints
(e) The official records of the British

Explanation:

By the mid-first millennium CE the landscape of the subcontinent was dotted with a variety of religious structures – stupas, monasteries, temples. If these typified certain religious beliefs and practices, others have been reconstructed from textual traditions, including the Puranas, many of which received their present shape around the same time, and yet others remain only faintly visible in textual and visual records. New textual sources available from this period include compositions attributed to poet-saints, most of whom expressed themselves orally in regional languages used by ordinary people. These compositions, which were often set to music, were compiled by disciples or devotees, generally after the death of the poet-saint. What is more, these traditions were fluid – generations of devotees tended to elaborate on the original message, and occasionally modified or even abandoned some of the ideas that appeared problematic or irrelevant in different political, social or cultural contexts. Using these sources thus poses a challenge to historians. Historians also draw on hagiographies or biographies of saints written by their followers (or members of their religious sect). These may not be literally accurate, but allow a glimpse into the ways in which devotees perceived the lives of these pathbreaking women and men.