RAS question
The Buddhist concept of 'Pratityasamutpada' means:
Correct answer: (C) Dependent Origination.
Pratityasamutpada means dependent origination, the Buddhist doctrine that suffering arises through an interlinked chain of causes and conditions.
Explanation
Pratityasamutpada, also given as paticca-samuppada, is the Buddhist law or chain of dependent origination. Britannica describes it as a fundamental Buddhist concept explaining the causes of dukkha and the sequence that carries a being through rebirth, old age and death. The standard account is a chain of 12 nidanas: ignorance, formations, consciousness, name-and-form, the six sense bases, contact, feeling, craving, clinging, becoming, birth, and aging/death. This is why option C is the precise answer: the term does not name suffering itself, or a separate doctrine such as non-self or impermanence, but the causal structure through which suffering and continued existence are explained.
Why the other options are wrong
- (A) Non-self is Anatta, a different Buddhist doctrine about the absence of a permanent self, not the causal chain called Pratityasamutpada.
- (B) Suffering is Dukkha; Pratityasamutpada explains the causes and arising of suffering rather than naming suffering itself.
- (D) Impermanence is Anicca, whereas Pratityasamutpada refers specifically to dependent origination through linked causes and conditions.
Concept
This tests core Buddhist philosophical terms in Ancient Indian History. RAS repeatedly asks such concepts because they distinguish doctrinal vocabulary, not just dynasties or events.