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Person

Mahavira

Asked 5 times across 3 UPSC exams over 9 years (2014–2023), peaking in 2023.
5
PYQs
3
Exams
3
Years active
2014–2023
Span
2023
Peak
4/5
Answers
📅 Full chronological timeline →

Key insights

  • Most tested in CSE — 2 of 5 PYQs
  • Most asked in 2023
  • Recurs across 3 years (2014–2023)

How it travelled across exams

First appearance in each exam — the same idea, reframed.
CDS 2014 CAPF 2023

How the concept evolved

114
117
123
Long-running — most appearances (3 of 5) predate 2016, and it still returns.

Related concepts

Ideas UPSC tests alongside this one — keep exploring.

Sample questions

You've seen the pattern — here are a few of the actual PYQs.
CAPF2023

Consider the following statements with reference to Jainism

  1. Vardhamana Mahavira attained Kaivalyajnana outside the town of Jrimbhikagrama, on the banks of river Rijupalika and in the field of a householder named Samaga
  2. The state when the Karma particles actually begin to flow towards the Jiva to bind it is known as Asrava

Which of the statements given above is/are correct ?

  1. A 1 only
  2. B 2 only
  3. C Both 1 and 2 ✓
  4. D Neither 1 nor 2
✓ Correct answer: (C)
Art & Culture › Religion & Philosophy
CDS2017

Which of the following statements with regard to the heterodox sect between sixth and fourth century BC are correct?

  1. The Jain ideas were already being circulated in the seventh century BC by Parshva
  2. Although Buddhism, and to a lesser extent Jainism, took account of the changes in material life and reacted against orthodoxy, neither of these sought to abolish the caste system
  3. The first female disciple of Mahavira is said to have been a captured slave woman
  4. Buddha held that nuns could attain spiritual liberation just like a monk and granted them an equal status in the mendicant order

Select the correct answer using the code given below.

  1. A 3 and 4 only ✓
  2. B 1, 2 and 3 only
  3. C 1, 2 and 4 only
  4. D 3 and 4 only
✓ Correct answer: (A)
History › Ancient India
CDS2014

Consider the following statements

  1. The Jains believed that Mahavira had twenty-three predecessors
  2. Parshvanatha was twenty-third Tirthankara
  3. Rishava was immediate successor of Mahavira

Which of the statements given above is/are correct?

  1. A 1 and 2 ✓
  2. B 2 and 3
  3. C 1 only
  4. D 3 only
✓ Correct answer: (A)
History › Ancient India

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