Who were the 'Shamans'?
Answer & explanation
Correct answer: option 2
The correct answer is Option (2) → Men and Women who claim magical and healing powers.
Shamans are men and women who claim magical and healing powers, as well as an ability to communicate with the other world.
NCERT (2026-27): “11.2 Problems of interpretation … Let us look, for instance, at the ‘proto-Shiva’ seals. The earliest religious text, the Rigveda (compiled c. 1500-1000 BCE) mentions a god named Rudra, which is a name used for Shiva in later Puranic traditions (in the first millennium CE ; see also Chapter 4). However, unlike Shiva, Rudra in the Rigveda is neither depicted as Pashupati (lord of animals in general and cattle in particular), nor as a yogi. In other words, this depiction does not match the description of Rudra in the Rigveda. Is this, then, possibly a shaman as some scholars have suggested?… Shamans are men and women who claim magical and healing powers, as well as an ability to communicate with the other world.” |