History Optional PYQ Master Pack · Model answer
‘The Advaita doctrine of Shankara cut at the very root of Bhaktivada.’ Do you agree?
- UPSC 2016
- Cultural Traditions in India, 750-1200
Advaita Vedanta, systematised by Adi Shankara (traditionally dated to the early 8th century CE), teaches that the individual self (atman) and the impersonal, attributeless (nirguna) Brahman are one, and that liberation (moksha) comes only through jnana — the intuitive realisation of this identity. Bhaktivada, by contrast, makes loving surrender to a personal, qualified (saguna) God…
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What the full answer covers
- The Philosophical Case for the Charge
- Complicating the Charge: Shankara's Own Devotional Practice
- The Historical Career of Bhakti After Shankara
- Bhakti Already in Motion: The Alvars and Nayanars
- The Acharya Reaction: Ramanuja, Madhva and Theistic Vedanta
- Resolving the Tension
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