Read the passage and answer the question:
The Therigatha
This unique Buddhist text, part of the Sutta Pitaka, is a collection of verses composed by bhikkhunis. It provides an insight into women's social and spiritual experiences. Punna, a dasi or slave woman, went to the river each morning to fetch water for her master's household. There she would daily see a Brahmana performing bathing rituals. One morning she spoke to him. The following are verses composed by Punna, recording her conversation with the Brahmana:
I am a water carrier:
Even in the cold
I have always gone down to the water
frightened of punishment
Or the angry words of high-class women.
So what are you afraid of Brahmana,
That makes you go down to the water
(Though) your limbs shake with the bitter cold?
The Brahmana replied:
I am doing good to prevent evil;
anyone young or old
Who has done something bad
is freed by washing in water.
Punna said:
Whoever told you
You are freed from evil by washing in the water?...
In that case all the frogs and turtles
Would go to heaven, and so would the water snakes
and crocodiles!
(Instead) Don't do that thing,
the fear of which
leads you to the water.
Stop now Brahmana!
Save your skin from the cold...
Punna's message to the Brahmana was:
Answer & explanation
Correct answer: option 3
The correct answer is Option (3) → To leave the fear
Punna sees the Brahmana bathing in the river even in the bitter cold and asks what he is afraid of. He replies that anyone who has done something bad is freed by washing in water. Punna mocks the belief: then all the frogs, turtles, water snakes and crocodiles would go to heaven. Her advice is “Don’t do that thing, the fear of which leads you to the water” – give up the wrong deed, and the fear, and the cold bath, are no longer needed.
Option (1) To follow Buddhism — Incorrect. Punna’s verses are preserved in a Buddhist text, the Therigatha, but in these lines she does not ask the Brahmana to become a Buddhist. She questions only his belief in bathing rituals.
Option (2) To renounce the world — Incorrect. She does not ask him to give up the world. She asks him to give up the deed he is afraid of and to save his skin from the cold.
Option (3) To leave the fear — Correct. The Brahmana goes down to the water out of fear of evil. Punna tells him to stop doing the thing whose fear drives him there, so that he has nothing to fear.
Option (4) To persuade others to join sangha — Incorrect. The sangha does not come into the verses at all; the talk is between Punna and one Brahmana about his ritual bath.
NCERT: Themes in Indian History Part I — Chapter 4: Thinkers, Beliefs and Buildings (2026-27)
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