🔆 Important Religious & Philosophical Terms 📍 Religious Concepts ✅ Ziarat – Place of pilgrimage. ✅ Hagiography – Sacred biography. ✅ Dana – Donation or votive offering. ✅ Yajna – Sacrificial ritual. ✅ Moksha – Liberation from the cycle of rebirth. 📍 Philosophical & Theological Beliefs ✅ Monolatry – Belief in a supreme god while acknowledging other gods. ✅ Monotheism – Belief in only one god. ✅ Henotheism – Worship of multiple deities, but one is supreme at a given time. This Rig Vedic concept (coined by Max Müller) describes how different gods are praised as the highest in different hymns. ✅ Astika Schools – Philosophies that accept Vedic authority (e.g., Nyaya, Samkhya). ✅ Nastika Schools – Reject Vedic authority (e.g., Buddhism, Jainism, Charvaka). 📍 Ancient Sects & Schools ✅ Ajivikas – Ancient sect linked to Makkhali Gosala. ✅ Charvaka – Atheistic materialist philosophy (Lokayata). ✅ Samana – Renunciant, seeker of truth. ✅ Charana – Vedic school of study. 📍 Hindu Cosmology & Mythology ✅ Kalpa – One Brahma day (4.32 billion years). ✅ Kaliyuga – The fourth and final age of the aeon. ✅ Yakshas – Deities of water, fertility, and forests. ✅ Nagas/Naginis – Male & female serpent deities. 📍 Societal Practices & Rituals ✅ Samskaras – Rituals marking life’s important stages. ✅ Sapindas – Relatives governed by marriage & inheritance laws. ✅ Dakshina – Sacrificial fee given to priests. ✅ Niyoga – Ancient practice where a widow cohabits with her brother-in-law to bear children. ✅ Viragal – Hero stone, especially in Tamil Nadu. #history #history #prelims_facts #prelims #ancient Join @CSE_EXAM @Upsc_4_history