Vedic Period Questions and Answers – Page 2

The Rigvedic economy was predominantly pastoral, and cattle represented its principal form of wealth. Agriculture was known and practiced, but it became more extensive and central during the Later Vedic period.

The Rigveda mentions the takshan, a skilled carpenter who made chariots, wooden implements and household objects. Modern occupations such as printer, banker in the modern sense and engineer are not the appropriate Rigvedic answer.

Rigvedic social divisions were comparatively flexible and more closely associated with occupation or function. In the Later Vedic period the varna order became increasingly hereditary and rigid, making birth a stronger determinant of status.

The Jabala Upanishad is conventionally credited with the earliest clear statement of all four ashramas: brahmacharya, grihastha, vanaprastha and sannyasa.

The Katha Upanishad contains the celebrated dialogue in which Nachiketa questions Yama about death, the Self and immortality. The other Upanishads in the options are associated with different teachings and dialogues.

Correct answer: (C) Isha Upanishad. Its second mantra teaches that a person may wish to live a full life while performing prescribed action, because action performed in the proper spirit does not bind the doer. This is treated as an early Upanishadic basis of nishkama karma, later developed systematically in the Bhagavad Gita as karma-yoga. The Chhandogya is famous for Tat Tvam Asi, the Katha for the Yama–Nachiketa dialogue, and the Mundaka for higher and lower knowledge and Satyameva Jayate.

The Brihadaranyaka Upanishad gives an early and influential account of karma, death and rebirth. The Katha Upanishad focuses on the Yama–Nachiketa dialogue, while the Isha and other Upanishads emphasise different teachings.

The doctrine of moksha or liberation receives its first sustained philosophical treatment in the Upanishads, where knowledge of Brahman and Atman is presented as the way beyond the cycle of birth and death.

In the Later Vedic period Prajapati gained prominence as the supreme creator, while Indra had been the dominant warrior deity of the Rigvedic period. Vishnu and Rudra also rose in importance, but Prajapati is the standard answer to this formulation.

Indra is the most prominent deity of the Rigveda and is called Purandara, the destroyer of forts. Agni is the sacrificial fire and divine messenger, Varuna guards rita, and Soma is both a sacred drink and a deified power.