{"id":86485,"date":"2025-06-01T03:48:45","date_gmt":"2025-06-01T03:48:45","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/exam.pscnotes.com\/mcq\/?p=86485"},"modified":"2025-06-01T03:48:45","modified_gmt":"2025-06-01T03:48:45","slug":"the-sahajiya-cult-which-can-be-traced-back-to-10th-and-11th-centuries","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/exam.pscnotes.com\/mcq\/the-sahajiya-cult-which-can-be-traced-back-to-10th-and-11th-centuries\/","title":{"rendered":"The Sahajiya Cult, which can be traced back to 10th and 11th centuries"},"content":{"rendered":"<p>The Sahajiya Cult, which can be traced back to 10th and 11th centuries, is usually associated with :<\/p>\n<p>[amp_mcq option1=&#8221;early Bhakti traditions&#8221; option2=&#8221;a kind of early Sufism&#8221; option3=&#8221;early Upanishadic philosophy&#8221; option4=&#8221;Buddhism&#8221; correct=&#8221;option4&#8243;]<\/p>\n<div class=\"psc-box-pyq-exam-year-detail\">\n<div class=\"pyq-exam\">\n<div class=\"psc-heading\">This question was previously asked in<\/div>\n<div class=\"psc-title line-ellipsis\">UPSC CDS-2 &#8211; 2023<\/div>\n<\/div>\n<div class=\"pyq-exam-psc-buttons\"><a href=\"\/pyq\/pyq-upsc-cds-2-2023.pdf\" target=\"_blank\" class=\"psc-pdf-button\" rel=\"noopener\">Download PDF<\/a><a href=\"\/pyq-upsc-cds-2-2023\" target=\"_blank\" class=\"psc-attempt-button\" rel=\"noopener\">Attempt Online<\/a><\/div>\n<\/div>\n<section id=\"pyq-correct-answer\">\nThe Sahajiya cult originated from the Sahajayana, a tantric school of Buddhism that developed in Bengal and parts of eastern India around the 8th-11th centuries. It emphasized the attainment of enlightenment through &#8216;sahaja&#8217; (the natural state) and esoteric practices. Elements of Sahajiya also influenced later Vaishnavism in Bengal (Sahajiya Vaishnavism), but its origins are firmly rooted in tantric Buddhism.<br \/>\n<\/section>\n<section id=\"pyq-key-points\">\n&#8211; Sahajayana is considered one of the later stages of Indian Buddhism, evolving from Mahayana and Vajrayana traditions.<br \/>\n&#8211; The Sahajiyas emphasized love, sexuality, and the human body as means to liberation, often challenging conventional social norms and religious rituals.<br \/>\n&#8211; The Charyapada, a collection of mystical poems composed by Mahasiddhas (great accomplished ones), is a key text of the Sahajiya tradition, dating from this period.<br \/>\n<\/section>\n<section id=\"pyq-additional-information\">\nWhile Sahajiya later influenced some aspects of Bhakti traditions (particularly Vaishnavism in Bengal), its historical origin in the 10th-11th centuries is directly linked to the esoteric Buddhist practices of the time. It is distinct from early Bhakti traditions (which were diverse and geographically widespread), Sufism (an Islamic mystical tradition), and early Upanishadic philosophy (which predates it by over a thousand years).<br \/>\n<\/section>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<p>The Sahajiya Cult, which can be traced back to 10th and 11th centuries, is usually associated with : [amp_mcq option1=&#8221;early Bhakti traditions&#8221; option2=&#8221;a kind of early Sufism&#8221; option3=&#8221;early Upanishadic philosophy&#8221; option4=&#8221;Buddhism&#8221; correct=&#8221;option4&#8243;] This question was previously asked in UPSC CDS-2 &#8211; 2023 Download PDFAttempt Online The Sahajiya cult originated from the Sahajayana, a tantric school &#8230; <\/p>\n<p class=\"read-more-container\"><a title=\"The Sahajiya Cult, which can be traced back to 10th and 11th centuries\" class=\"read-more button\" href=\"https:\/\/exam.pscnotes.com\/mcq\/the-sahajiya-cult-which-can-be-traced-back-to-10th-and-11th-centuries\/#more-86485\">Detailed Solution<span class=\"screen-reader-text\">The Sahajiya Cult, which can be traced back to 10th and 11th centuries<\/span><\/a><\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[1088],"tags":[1105,1176,1122],"class_list":["post-86485","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-upsc-cds-2","tag-1105","tag-bhakti-and-sufi-movement","tag-medieval-history-of-india","no-featured-image-padding"],"yoast_head":"<!-- This site is optimized with the Yoast SEO Premium plugin v22.2 (Yoast SEO v23.3) - https:\/\/yoast.com\/wordpress\/plugins\/seo\/ -->\n<title>The Sahajiya Cult, which can be traced back to 10th and 11th centuries<\/title>\n<meta name=\"description\" content=\"The Sahajiya cult originated from the Sahajayana, a tantric school of Buddhism that developed in Bengal and parts of eastern India around the 8th-11th centuries. It emphasized the attainment of enlightenment through &#039;sahaja&#039; (the natural state) and esoteric practices. Elements of Sahajiya also influenced later Vaishnavism in Bengal (Sahajiya Vaishnavism), but its origins are firmly rooted in tantric Buddhism. - Sahajayana is considered one of the later stages of Indian Buddhism, evolving from Mahayana and Vajrayana traditions. - The Sahajiyas emphasized love, sexuality, and the human body as means to liberation, often challenging conventional social norms and religious rituals. - The Charyapada, a collection of mystical poems composed by Mahasiddhas (great accomplished ones), is a key text of the Sahajiya tradition, dating from this period.\" \/>\n<meta name=\"robots\" content=\"index, follow, max-snippet:-1, max-image-preview:large, max-video-preview:-1\" \/>\n<link rel=\"canonical\" href=\"https:\/\/exam.pscnotes.com\/mcq\/the-sahajiya-cult-which-can-be-traced-back-to-10th-and-11th-centuries\/\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:locale\" content=\"en_US\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:type\" content=\"article\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:title\" content=\"The Sahajiya Cult, which can be traced back to 10th and 11th centuries\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:description\" content=\"The Sahajiya cult originated from the Sahajayana, a tantric school of Buddhism that developed in Bengal and parts of eastern India around the 8th-11th centuries. It emphasized the attainment of enlightenment through &#039;sahaja&#039; (the natural state) and esoteric practices. Elements of Sahajiya also influenced later Vaishnavism in Bengal (Sahajiya Vaishnavism), but its origins are firmly rooted in tantric Buddhism. - Sahajayana is considered one of the later stages of Indian Buddhism, evolving from Mahayana and Vajrayana traditions. - The Sahajiyas emphasized love, sexuality, and the human body as means to liberation, often challenging conventional social norms and religious rituals. - The Charyapada, a collection of mystical poems composed by Mahasiddhas (great accomplished ones), is a key text of the Sahajiya tradition, dating from this period.\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:url\" content=\"https:\/\/exam.pscnotes.com\/mcq\/the-sahajiya-cult-which-can-be-traced-back-to-10th-and-11th-centuries\/\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:site_name\" content=\"MCQ and Quiz for Exams\" \/>\n<meta property=\"article:published_time\" content=\"2025-06-01T03:48:45+00:00\" \/>\n<meta name=\"author\" content=\"rawan239\" \/>\n<meta name=\"twitter:card\" content=\"summary_large_image\" \/>\n<meta name=\"twitter:label1\" content=\"Written by\" \/>\n\t<meta name=\"twitter:data1\" content=\"rawan239\" \/>\n\t<meta name=\"twitter:label2\" content=\"Est. reading time\" \/>\n\t<meta name=\"twitter:data2\" content=\"1 minute\" \/>\n<!-- \/ Yoast SEO Premium plugin. -->","yoast_head_json":{"title":"The Sahajiya Cult, which can be traced back to 10th and 11th centuries","description":"The Sahajiya cult originated from the Sahajayana, a tantric school of Buddhism that developed in Bengal and parts of eastern India around the 8th-11th centuries. It emphasized the attainment of enlightenment through 'sahaja' (the natural state) and esoteric practices. Elements of Sahajiya also influenced later Vaishnavism in Bengal (Sahajiya Vaishnavism), but its origins are firmly rooted in tantric Buddhism. - Sahajayana is considered one of the later stages of Indian Buddhism, evolving from Mahayana and Vajrayana traditions. - The Sahajiyas emphasized love, sexuality, and the human body as means to liberation, often challenging conventional social norms and religious rituals. - The Charyapada, a collection of mystical poems composed by Mahasiddhas (great accomplished ones), is a key text of the Sahajiya tradition, dating from this period.","robots":{"index":"index","follow":"follow","max-snippet":"max-snippet:-1","max-image-preview":"max-image-preview:large","max-video-preview":"max-video-preview:-1"},"canonical":"https:\/\/exam.pscnotes.com\/mcq\/the-sahajiya-cult-which-can-be-traced-back-to-10th-and-11th-centuries\/","og_locale":"en_US","og_type":"article","og_title":"The Sahajiya Cult, which can be traced back to 10th and 11th centuries","og_description":"The Sahajiya cult originated from the Sahajayana, a tantric school of Buddhism that developed in Bengal and parts of eastern India around the 8th-11th centuries. It emphasized the attainment of enlightenment through 'sahaja' (the natural state) and esoteric practices. Elements of Sahajiya also influenced later Vaishnavism in Bengal (Sahajiya Vaishnavism), but its origins are firmly rooted in tantric Buddhism. - Sahajayana is considered one of the later stages of Indian Buddhism, evolving from Mahayana and Vajrayana traditions. - The Sahajiyas emphasized love, sexuality, and the human body as means to liberation, often challenging conventional social norms and religious rituals. - The Charyapada, a collection of mystical poems composed by Mahasiddhas (great accomplished ones), is a key text of the Sahajiya tradition, dating from this period.","og_url":"https:\/\/exam.pscnotes.com\/mcq\/the-sahajiya-cult-which-can-be-traced-back-to-10th-and-11th-centuries\/","og_site_name":"MCQ and Quiz for Exams","article_published_time":"2025-06-01T03:48:45+00:00","author":"rawan239","twitter_card":"summary_large_image","twitter_misc":{"Written by":"rawan239","Est. reading time":"1 minute"},"schema":{"@context":"https:\/\/schema.org","@graph":[{"@type":"WebPage","@id":"https:\/\/exam.pscnotes.com\/mcq\/the-sahajiya-cult-which-can-be-traced-back-to-10th-and-11th-centuries\/","url":"https:\/\/exam.pscnotes.com\/mcq\/the-sahajiya-cult-which-can-be-traced-back-to-10th-and-11th-centuries\/","name":"The Sahajiya Cult, which can be traced back to 10th and 11th centuries","isPartOf":{"@id":"https:\/\/exam.pscnotes.com\/mcq\/#website"},"datePublished":"2025-06-01T03:48:45+00:00","dateModified":"2025-06-01T03:48:45+00:00","author":{"@id":"https:\/\/exam.pscnotes.com\/mcq\/#\/schema\/person\/5807dafeb27d2ec82344d6cbd6c3d209"},"description":"The Sahajiya cult originated from the Sahajayana, a tantric school of Buddhism that developed in Bengal and parts of eastern India around the 8th-11th centuries. It emphasized the attainment of enlightenment through 'sahaja' (the natural state) and esoteric practices. Elements of Sahajiya also influenced later Vaishnavism in Bengal (Sahajiya Vaishnavism), but its origins are firmly rooted in tantric Buddhism. - Sahajayana is considered one of the later stages of Indian Buddhism, evolving from Mahayana and Vajrayana traditions. - The Sahajiyas emphasized love, sexuality, and the human body as means to liberation, often challenging conventional social norms and religious rituals. - The Charyapada, a collection of mystical poems composed by Mahasiddhas (great accomplished ones), is a key text of the Sahajiya tradition, dating from this period.","breadcrumb":{"@id":"https:\/\/exam.pscnotes.com\/mcq\/the-sahajiya-cult-which-can-be-traced-back-to-10th-and-11th-centuries\/#breadcrumb"},"inLanguage":"en-US","potentialAction":[{"@type":"ReadAction","target":["https:\/\/exam.pscnotes.com\/mcq\/the-sahajiya-cult-which-can-be-traced-back-to-10th-and-11th-centuries\/"]}]},{"@type":"BreadcrumbList","@id":"https:\/\/exam.pscnotes.com\/mcq\/the-sahajiya-cult-which-can-be-traced-back-to-10th-and-11th-centuries\/#breadcrumb","itemListElement":[{"@type":"ListItem","position":1,"name":"Home","item":"https:\/\/exam.pscnotes.com\/mcq\/"},{"@type":"ListItem","position":2,"name":"UPSC CDS-2","item":"https:\/\/exam.pscnotes.com\/mcq\/category\/upsc-cds-2\/"},{"@type":"ListItem","position":3,"name":"The Sahajiya Cult, which can be traced back to 10th and 11th centuries"}]},{"@type":"WebSite","@id":"https:\/\/exam.pscnotes.com\/mcq\/#website","url":"https:\/\/exam.pscnotes.com\/mcq\/","name":"MCQ and Quiz for Exams","description":"","potentialAction":[{"@type":"SearchAction","target":{"@type":"EntryPoint","urlTemplate":"https:\/\/exam.pscnotes.com\/mcq\/?s={search_term_string}"},"query-input":"required name=search_term_string"}],"inLanguage":"en-US"},{"@type":"Person","@id":"https:\/\/exam.pscnotes.com\/mcq\/#\/schema\/person\/5807dafeb27d2ec82344d6cbd6c3d209","name":"rawan239","image":{"@type":"ImageObject","inLanguage":"en-US","@id":"https:\/\/exam.pscnotes.com\/mcq\/#\/schema\/person\/image\/","url":"https:\/\/secure.gravatar.com\/avatar\/761a7274f9cce048fa5b921221e7934820d74514df93ef195a9d22af0c1c9001?s=96&d=mm&r=g","contentUrl":"https:\/\/secure.gravatar.com\/avatar\/761a7274f9cce048fa5b921221e7934820d74514df93ef195a9d22af0c1c9001?s=96&d=mm&r=g","caption":"rawan239"},"sameAs":["https:\/\/exam.pscnotes.com"],"url":"https:\/\/exam.pscnotes.com\/mcq\/author\/rawan239\/"}]}},"amp_enabled":true,"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/exam.pscnotes.com\/mcq\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/86485","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/exam.pscnotes.com\/mcq\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/exam.pscnotes.com\/mcq\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/exam.pscnotes.com\/mcq\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/exam.pscnotes.com\/mcq\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=86485"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/exam.pscnotes.com\/mcq\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/86485\/revisions"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/exam.pscnotes.com\/mcq\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=86485"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/exam.pscnotes.com\/mcq\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=86485"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/exam.pscnotes.com\/mcq\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=86485"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}