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Two Religions, One Century, One Question Bank
The sixth century BCE was the most crowded century in Indian religious history. Along the Ganga plain, a settled farming economy, a new coin-using merchant class and a growing unease with expensive ritual sacrifice produced dozens of teachers offering alternatives. Two of those movements survived: Buddhism, founded by Siddhartha Gautama, and Jainism, reorganised by Vardhamana Mahavira around a much older tradition of twenty-four Tirthankaras.
Examiners return here every single year, for a simple reason: the two lives run in parallel, so almost every fact about one has a matching fact about the other. Birthplace, enlightenment tree, death place, sacred language, three jewels, canon, councils — the paper simply swaps one for the other and waits.
So learn them as pairs, never as two separate lists. A fact you can only recall on its own is a fact you will lose in the exam hall.
1. Under which tree did Vardhamana Mahavira attain Kaivalya, or perfect knowledge?
2. The Third Buddhist Council, at which the Abhidhamma Pitaka was added to the canon, was held at which place?
3. What are the three jewels — the Triratna — of Jainism?
4. Gautama Buddha delivered his first sermon, the Dharmachakra Pravartana, at which place?
5. Which Tirthankara preached the four vows to which Mahavira later added a fifth?
6. In which language were the earliest Jain canonical texts, the Agamas, composed?
7. The Fourth Buddhist Council, after which Buddhism divided into Hinayana and Mahayana, was held under the patronage of which ruler?
8. Gautama Buddha's Mahaparinirvana, or final passing away, took place at which site?