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:
Answer & explanation
Correct answer: option 3
The correct answer is Option (3) → (a), (b), (c), (d) only
(a) A variety of religious structures Correct. By the mid-first millennium CE the landscape was dotted with religious structures – stupas, monasteries, temples – which tell historians about religious beliefs and practices.
(b) Textual traditions including the Puranas Correct. Other beliefs and practices have been reconstructed from textual traditions, including the Puranas.
(c) Compositions attributed to poet saints Correct. The new textual sources of the period include compositions attributed to poet-saints, compiled by their disciples or devotees.
(d) Hagiographies of saints Correct. Historians also draw on hagiographies, or biographies of saints written by their followers.
(e) The official records of the British Incorrect. The bhakti and sufi traditions are traced from about the eighth to the eighteenth century through what the devotees themselves built, composed and wrote; the records of British officials belong to colonial rule, which came later.
NCERT (2026-27): “Changes in Religious Beliefs and Devotional Texts … 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 path-breaking women and men.…” |