What was included in the process of the 'integration of cults' in Bhakti-tradition? Identify correct statements:
(A) The process of disseminating Brahmanical ideas.
(B) The composition, compilation and preservation of Puranic texts in simple Sanskrit verse, meant for women and Shudras.
(C) A continuous dialogue between-"great" Sanskritic Puranic traditions and "little" traditions throughout the land.
(D) Instances of integrations are not evident among goddess cults.
Choose the correct answer from the options given below:
Answer & explanation
Correct answer: option 2
The correct answer is Option (2) → (A), (B) and (C) only
(A) The process of disseminating Brahmanical ideas. Correct. Historians see at least two processes in the integration of cults; one was a process of disseminating Brahmanical ideas.
(B) The composition, compilation and preservation of Puranic texts in simple Sanskrit verse, meant for women and Shudras. Correct. This is how that first process worked: Puranic texts in simple Sanskrit verse were explicitly meant to be accessible to women and Shudras, who were generally excluded from Vedic learning.
(C) A continuous dialogue between-“great” Sanskritic Puranic traditions and “little” traditions throughout the land. Correct. In the second process, Brahmanas accepted and reworked the beliefs of other social groups; many beliefs and practices were shaped through a continuous dialogue between “great” and “little” traditions, as at Puri, where the local deity was identified as Jagannatha, a form of Vishnu.
(D) Instances of integrations are not evident among goddess cults. Incorrect. Such instances of integration are evident amongst goddess cults as well. Local goddesses, often worshipped as a stone smeared with ochre, were given an identity as the wife of a principal male deity — Lakshmi, the wife of Vishnu, or Parvati, the wife of Shiva.
NCERT (2026-27): “1.1 The integration of cults … Historians who have tried to understand these developments suggest that there were at least two processes at work. One was a process of disseminating Brahmanical ideas. This is exemplified by the composition, compilation and preservation of Puranic texts in simple Sanskrit verse, explicitly meant to be accessible to women and Shudras, who were generally excluded from Vedic learning. At the same time, there was a second process at work – that of the Brahmanas accepting and reworking the beliefs and practices of these and other social categories. In fact, many beliefs and practices were shaped through a continuous dialogue between what sociologists have described as ‘great’ Sanskritic Puranic traditions and ‘little’ traditions throughout the land.… …Such instances of integration are evident amongst goddess cults as well. Worship of the goddess, often simply in the form of a stone smeared with ochre, was evidently widespread. These local deities were often incorporated within the Puranic framework by providing them with an identity as a wife of the principal male deities – sometimes they were equated with Lakshmi, the wife of Vishnu, in other instances, with Parvati, the wife of Shiva.” |