Indian Mythology Quiz — 7 Free Questions

Question 1

As which animal does Vishnu support Mount Mandara on his back so that it can be used as a churning-rod during the churning of the ocean of milk?

Question 2

Through which contest, played with loaded dice by the cunning Shakuni on Duryodhana's behalf, do the Pandavas lose their kingdom, their freedom and their wife, triggering thirteen years of exile?

Question 3

Which brahmin master of arms, teacher of both the Kaurava and Pandava princes, demands the thumb of the tribal youth Ekalavya as a teacher's fee?

Question 4

Which earth goddess is rescued from the cosmic ocean by the boar avatar of Vishnu and becomes his consort, and is named in the Ramayana as the mother of Sita?

Question 5

Which boy sage, destined to die at sixteen, is saved when he clings to a Shiva lingam and Shiva emerges to drive off Yama, earning Shiva the name Kalantaka, 'ender of death'?

Question 6

In which of the four world-ages, said to have begun around the time of Krishna's departure from the earth, does Hindu tradition place the present day?

Question 7

Which Purana, also called the Srimad Bhagavatam, is the principal scripture of Krishna devotion and gives the fullest account of his childhood in Vrindavan?

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About Indian Mythology

How well do you know Indian mythology -- the gods and goddesses, the ten descents of Vishnu, the Ramayana and the Mahabharata, the Puranic tales of creation and the end of the world, and the stories that Buddhists, Jains and regional traditions tell? This quiz has one hundred and twenty-five questions in five packs of twenty-five, written the way people search: who is the elephant-headed god, what are the ten avatars of Vishnu, why does the moon wax and wane, how does Rama's army reach Lanka, how long is the Mahabharata.

The answer is always one of four choices of the same kind, and the question never gives it away. A short note after each answer adds the source, the setting and the background, told in an even-handed way.

The first pack covers the major gods: the Trimurti of Brahma, Vishnu and Shiva; the Goddess as Durga, Kali, Lakshmi, Saraswati and Parvati; Ganesha and Kartikeya and Hanuman; and the Vedic deities Indra, Agni, Yama, Surya, Varuna and Kubera, down to the nine planetary gods. The second pack is Vishnu's ten avatars and the tales around them, from the fish and the tortoise and the churning of the ocean to Narasimha, Vamana, Parashurama and the future Kalki. The third pack is the Ramayana, from Valmiki and the exile to the golden deer, Ravana, Hanuman's leap, the bridge to Lanka, and the return to Ayodhya. The fourth pack is the Mahabharata and the Bhagavad Gita, from Bhishma's vow and the game of dice to Karna, Abhimanyu, the eighteen-day war and the final journey to the mountains. The fifth pack covers the Puranas and cosmology: Mount Meru and the world-ages, the seven sages, Daksha's sacrifice and the Shakti Pithas, the descent of the Ganga, Shiva as the pillar of fire and as Nataraja, and the myths of the Jatakas, the Jain Tirthankaras and folk deities such as Ayyappan and Jagannath.

About a sixth of the questions carry a photograph of a temple, festival or sacred place tied to the question, chosen so it does not give the answer away. Every fact has been checked against standard sources.