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History Optional PYQ Master Pack · Model answer

“The political and economic needs of rulers, combined with economic and status needs of the merchant class, together provided the receptive cultural milieu in which Buddhism flourished.” Comment.

  • UPSC 2021
  • Period of Mahajanapadas

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The sixth century BC in the middle Gangetic plains produced an unusually crowded field of heterodox teachers — tradition counts as many as sixty-two contending sects — yet only Buddhism, alongside Jainism, survived as an organised, enduring religion. The reason lies less in doctrine alone than in the fact that Buddhism's ethical positions happened to…

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What the full answer covers

  • Political Needs of Rulers: Kshatriya Assertion against Brahmanical Primacy
  • Economic Needs of Rulers: An Agrarian and Fiscal Dividend
  • Economic Needs of the Merchant Class: Peace as a Precondition for Trade
  • Status Needs of the Merchant Class: Escaping the Varna Ceiling
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