RAS question
The Nagari (Madhyamika) inscription is one of the earliest references to which worship practice in Rajasthan?
Correct answer: (A) Worship of Sankarshana and Vasudeva (Bhagavata cult).
The Nagari (Madhyamika) evidence points to the worship of Sankarshana and Vasudeva, marking an early Bhagavata or Vaishnava tradition in Rajasthan.
Explanation
The Ghosundi inscription from near Nagari, also known as Madhyamika, is important because it records worship connected with Sankarshana and Vasudeva rather than a later or unrelated cult. The Archaeological Survey of India, Jodhpur Circle page describes Nagari near Chittor and states that the old temple there was constructed for the worship of Sankarshana and Vasudeva, with their figures placed inside an open temple where regular worship was performed. It also identifies the site as the earliest Vaishnava temple of Rajasthan and notes second-century BCE Vaishnavite inscriptions. The standard reading of the Ghosundi evidence is that it is among the early records for the Bhagavata or Vaishnava stream in Rajasthan.
Why the other options are wrong
- (B) Sun worship is not supported by the Nagari material cited here, which specifically links the old temple and inscriptions with Sankarshana, Vasudeva and Vaishnava worship.
- (C) Buddhist evidence is not the point of this inscription question; Buddhist evidence belongs at Bairath, while the Nagari material discusses Sankarshana-Vasudeva worship.
- (D) Shiva worship is not what the Nagari evidence records here, and such evidence belongs to later inscriptions rather than this early reference.
Concept
This tests early religious movements in ancient Rajasthan, especially how inscriptional evidence is used to trace the Bhagavata-Vaishnava tradition. It recurs in RAS because Nagari/Madhyamika links archaeology, epigraphy and Rajasthan's early cultural history in one examinable site.