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Match the individual caste with a description of it. 

The Bhagavad Gita which is a section of the Mahabharata details a struggle among the decedents of the King Bharata.  In the Bhagavad Gita a warrior Arjuna encounters the incarnation of the god Vishnu as Krishna. 

Match the following terms with what they mean about the nature of God or Brahman.

Most religions of antiquity are characterized by Polytheism.  What is Polytheism?

There are two categories of written texts in Early Hinduism.  One category are those scriptures that were revealed to the early rishis or sages. The name for these mean “What is heard,” and it was orally recited by priests for centuries before being written down. The other category is literature formed after this and passed down in written form. The name of these mean “What is remembered,” and sometimes are explaining the previous category.  What are the two names of these categories. 

_______ is a practice or discipline that may involve a philosophical system and mental concentration as well as physical postures and exercises. And this is different than  _______ which is an esoteric school which emerged around the fifth century and focused on a number of controversial practices, some being sexual. 

What two major things does Kirshna teach Arjuna in The Bhagavad Gita? 

Match the three major thinkers of Vedanta with the name of their approach. 

As discussed in our first class the word “Religion” is thought to be derived from the Latin verb religare, “to bind” or even the verb relegere, “to go over again.” 

A group of people who spoke a Eurasian language group came to the Indian subcontinent around 2000 BCE.  Early Hindu texts are written in Sanskrit from this language group.  What is the name of this family of languages?