Hinduism | Edexcel A-Level Religious Studies (9RS0)

Hinduism

210 questions
16 subtopics
Paper 4: the study of one religion of six
Paper 4

One of the six Paper 4 options.

Sanatana dharma and the cycle of rebirth, Brahman and the avatars, the Vedic corpus and how its authority is argued about, the four yogas, the Vedanta schools, and Hinduism under colonial rule and in the modern world.

Sample questions from Hinduism

Answer each one closed book first, then open the answer.

Debates about Scriptural Authority

What did Dayananda Saraswati argue about scriptural authority?

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That only the Vedas are authoritative and later texts and practices that depart from them should be discarded.
Debates about Scriptural Authority

What is the significance of the Vedas being described as apaurusheya?

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They are held not to be of human authorship, which places them beyond correction by human reason.
Debates about Yoga

Why is there disagreement about whether the four yogas are alternatives or stages?

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Some read them as separate paths suited to different temperaments, others as a sequence in which devotion and action prepare for knowledge.
Debates about Yoga

How do defenders answer the charge that modern yoga is inauthentic?

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That the tradition has always adapted, and that physical practice can still lead a person towards the disciplines it came from.
Feminist and Liberationist Approaches

What resource within the tradition do feminist thinkers appeal to?

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The goddess traditions and the centrality of shakti as feminine divine power.
Feminist and Liberationist Approaches

What position did B R Ambedkar take on Hinduism?

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That caste could not be reformed out of it, and he converted to Buddhism in 1956.

The 16 subtopics

One subtopic is one session. Work down the list.

Subtopic	What it covers	Questions
Sanatana Dharma, Karma and the Cycle of Rebirth	Recall questions on Sanatana Dharma and rta, karma and its three kinds, motive and freedom, samsara and rebirth, the subtle body, the accounts of moksha, death rites and the ancestors, and Zaehner's view of Hinduism.	19
Brahman, the Avatars and the Goddess	Recall questions on nirguna and saguna Brahman, Lipner's banyan tree and Sivananda on the one and the many, Vishnu's avatars, Krishna and ISKCON, Rama and his dharma, and Shakti and the Goddess.	18
Dharma, Ahimsa, the Aims of Life and the Gunas	Recall questions on the two levels of dharma, ahimsa and karma, Bilimoria on Indian ethics, the four aims of life and vairagya, the four ashramas, and the three gunas and their qualities.	14
The Origins of Hinduism and Vedic Religion	Recall questions on the Indus valley evidence, the Aryan migration debate, Vedic ritual and deities, and the shift to the Upanishads.	13
Shruti, Smriti and the Vedic Corpus	Recall questions on the distinction between heard and remembered scripture, the four Vedas, the Upanishads, and the epics.	9
Debates about Scriptural Authority	Recall questions on the variety of Hindu scripture, shruti as timeless and apaurusheya, Vedic authority as a test of orthodoxy, Brockington on continuity and diversity, O'Flaherty on myth, and Dayananda Saraswati's return to the Vedas.	12
Varnashrama-dharma, Varna and Jati	Recall questions on the four varnas and the ashramas, the difference between varna and jati, and modern debate about caste.	13
The Four Yogas	Recall questions on the meaning of yoga, karma yoga and ordinary work, jnana yoga and its link to raja yoga, bhakti yoga as open to all, hatha yoga and its Western development, and whether the four are one path.	10
Debates about Yoga	Recall questions on whether the yogas are alternatives or stages, Patanjali's eightfold path, and the criticism of yoga's modern export.	11
Colonial Rule, Reform Movements and Key Figures	Recall questions on colonial pressures and secularisation, the Brahmo Samaj, Arya Samaj and Ramakrishna Mission, Neo-Vedanta and Hindutva, and Ram Mohan Roy, Ramakrishna, Dayananda Saraswati and Gandhi.	19
Hindu Renaissance, Nationalism and Hinduism Abroad	Recall questions on the Hindu renaissance, Neo-Vedanta and Hindutva, inclusivism and tolerance, Gandhi's non-violence and swaraj, modern science, whether Hinduism is one religion, and its representation abroad.	9
Shankara and Ramanuja: Contexts and Key Beliefs	Recall questions on Advaita and Vishishtadvaita, maya, the relation of atman to Brahman in each, and the role of devotion.	14
Bhakti, the Gita and Assessing the Two Systems	Recall questions on Shankara and Ramanuja on bhakti and liberation, their readings of the Bhagavad Gita, their influence on later devotion, the cases for and against Advaita and Vishishtadvaita, and Bowes, Hopkins and Smart.	17
Pluralism, Diversity and Hindu Migration	Recall questions on Hinduism as a plurality of traditions, religious pluralism, Hindutva as exclusivism, Hindu inclusivism, practice in a multicultural society, migration, Hinduism in the United Kingdom, and diaspora unity.	8
Equality, Caste and Gender in Hinduism	Recall questions on Hindu grounds for equality and for hierarchy, caste discrimination, harijan and Dalit, legal change on caste, positions on women's status, Saivism, the pativrata ideal, brahmacarya, and changing gender roles.	12
Feminist and Liberationist Approaches	Recall questions on equality across Hindu traditions, feminist and liberationist approaches, Hardy on Tamil devotion and Flood on Hinduism, feminist appeals to the tradition, the Dalit critique, Ambedkar, and liberationist readings of dharma.	12

Hinduism is 210 of the 1,694 questions in the guide.Get the guide, £8

How the guide is worked

Answering a question from memory stores it far better than reading the answer again. The guide runs that as a fixed procedure on one subtopic at a time, about twenty minutes a session.

Step 1 · Closed book
Cover the answers. Work through one subtopic and write down what you can. Leave blanks where you have nothing.
Step 2 · Open book
Go back to the top. Read each printed answer and write it out in full, including the ones you had right.
Step 3 · Closed book again
Same questions, same order, from memory. The gap between pass one and pass three is the session result.

Read the full method, the return schedule and the research behind it.