Question map
Consider the following statements : 1. Saint Nimbarka was a contemporary of Akbar. 2. Saint Kabir was greatly influenced by Shaikh Ahmad Sirhindi. Which of the statements given above is/are correct?
Explanation
The correct answer is option D – neither statement is correct.
**Statement 1 is incorrect:** Saint Nimbarka was not a contemporary of Akbar. While the exact dates of Nimbarka's life are debated, most scholars place him in the 11th-13th centuries, well before Akbar's reign (1556-1605). This makes it chronologically impossible for them to be contemporaries.
**Statement 2 is incorrect:** Kabir lived in the fourteenth-fifteenth centuries[1], while Shaikh Ahmad Sirhindi died in 1624[2]. Since Kabir preceded Sirhindi by approximately 100-150 years, it would have been impossible for Kabir to be influenced by Sirhindi. The chronology is reversed – Kabir died before Sirhindi was even born.
Both statements contain fundamental chronological errors, making option D (Neither 1 nor 2) the correct answer.
Sources- [1] https://ncert.nic.in/textbook/pdf/lehs202.pdf
- [2] https://ncert.nic.in/textbook/pdf/lehs202.pdf
PROVENANCE & STUDY PATTERN
Full viewThis is a classic 'Timeline Trap' disguised as a culture question. You don't need deep biographical details; you only need the 'Century Tag' for each personality. If the gap between two figures is >50 years or the order is reversed, the statement is false. Stop memorizing philosophies in isolation; map them to the ruling dynasty of their time.
This question can be broken into the following sub-statements. Tap a statement sentence to jump into its detailed analysis.
Gives Akbar's reign dates (1556–1605) and summarizes his long rule — establishes the precise time window to compare with any figure's life.
A student could look up Nimbarka's traditionally ascribed dates and see if they overlap with 1556–1605 to judge contemporaneity.
Explicitly states the length of Akbar's reign and that it lasted almost 50 years (1556 to 1605), reinforcing the temporal window.
Use these fixed years as a reference interval when checking external biographical dates for Nimbarka.
Notes Akbar's birth year (1542) and that he was crowned as a teenager — gives additional anchor points (birth and early reign) within the same mid-16th century period.
Compare Nimbarka's birth/active years against both Akbar's birth (1542) and accession (1556) to assess possible overlap.
Mentions dated events in Akbar's religious policy (Ibadat Khana established in 1575) — provides specific years of Akbar's activities useful for finer comparisons.
If a source gives Nimbarka's activity around a specific year, check whether that year falls within Akbar's recorded events (e.g., 1575).
Records later military activity and Akbar's death in 1605, providing the terminal point of the time window for contemporaneity.
Use the 1605 end-point to test whether Nimbarka's life or activity continued into or overlapped with the late 16th/early 17th century.
- States Kabir's approximate period of life as c. fourteenth–fifteenth centuries, placing him well before Sirhindi.
- If Kabir lived in the 14th–15th centuries, he could not have been influenced by a 17th-century figure.
- Identifies Shaikh Ahmad Sirhindi as a noted seventeenth-century Naqshbandi who died in 1624, confirming his later date.
- Shows Sirhindi belongs to a later century than Kabir, making direct influence on Kabir chronologically implausible.
- Lists Shaikh Ahmad Sirhindi among teachers associated with the c.1600-1700 timeframe, reinforcing his 17th-century placement.
- Provides an explicit temporal contrast between Kabir's era and Sirhindi's era.
Gives Kabir's approximate era (c. fourteenth–fifteenth centuries) and notes the difficulty of reconstructing his life from later sources.
A student can combine this chronology with Sirhindi's birth date (1564) to note a likely temporal gap making direct influence improbable.
Reiterates Kabir as a fifteenth-century Bhakti figure whose poetry spread orally across north India.
Use this to reinforce that Kabir's active period predates Sirhindi, so any claimed 'great influence' would require evidence of later transmission rather than direct contact.
Identifies Shaikh Ahmad Sirhindi as a noted seventeenth-century Naqshbandi whose Maktubat (letters) date to that period.
A student can use Sirhindi's seventeenth-century writings to argue he came after Kabir and thus could not have directly influenced Kabir's original compositions.
Notes many hagiographies of Kabir were composed from the seventeenth century onwards, about 200 years after his lifetime.
This suggests later reinterpretations of Kabir could reflect seventeenth-century ideas (including those of figures like Sirhindi), so apparent similarities might be retroactive claims rather than original influence.
States Kabir probably learned from regional religious figures (Ramananda, a Sufi Shaikh Taqi) and engaged with Sufi traditions of his time.
A student could contrast the local fifteenth-century Sufi milieu that shaped Kabir with the later Naqshbandi context of Sirhindi to assess whether influence is plausible or whether similarities arise from broader Sufi/Bhakti currents.
- [THE VERDICT]: Sitter (if Chronology is clear) / Trap (if relying on rote memorization). Source: Themes in Indian History II (NCERT) clearly separates Kabir (14th-15th c.) and Sirhindi (17th c.).
- [THE CONCEPTUAL TRIGGER]: Bhakti-Sufi Movement Chronology. Specifically, distinguishing the Early Wave (Sultanate era) from the Later Wave (Mughal era).
- [THE HORIZONTAL EXPANSION]: Memorize these 'Time-Brackets': 1. Nimbarka: 12th/13th Century (Pre-Mughal, contemporary of Ramanuja/Madhva). 2. Kabir: ~1440–1518 (Lodi Era). 3. Guru Nanak: 1469–1539 (Babur/Humayun). 4. Tulsidas: 1532–1623 (Contemporary of Akbar/Jahangir). 5. Shaikh Ahmad Sirhindi: 1564–1624 (Jahangir's era, Naqshbandi reaction).
- [THE STRATEGIC METACOGNITION]: Do not just study 'What they taught'. Study 'When they lived'. Create a mental grid: 12th c. (Acharyas) → 15th c. (Sants/Nanak/Kabir) → 16th c. (Tulsidas/Surdas/Akbar) → 17th c. (Sirhindi/Ramdas). If the grid doesn't match, eliminate.
Defines the chronological window required to judge whether any individual lived during Akbar's lifetime.
High-yield: many UPSC questions ask whether personalities, movements or texts were contemporary with a ruler; mastering ruler reign-dates allows quick elimination or confirmation. Connects to chronology, political history and cultural interactions; enables questions that match life-spans or events to specific reigns.
- Exploring Society:India and Beyond ,Social Science, Class VIII . NCERT(Revised ed 2025) > Chapter 2: Reshaping India’s Political Map > What is jauhar? > p. 40
- History , class XI (Tamilnadu state board 2024 ed.) > Chapter 14: The Mughal Empire > Akbar's Military Conquests > p. 206
Provides mid-reign dated events that serve as anchors to test possible interaction or contemporaneity with Akbar.
High-yield: using dated institutional or event milestones helps narrow the timeframe for assessing contemporaneity and interaction; links political chronology with religious and intellectual history and supports argumentation in mains answers and source-based questions.
- History , class XI (Tamilnadu state board 2024 ed.) > Chapter 14: The Mughal Empire > Akbar's Religious Policy > p. 207
Documents that Akbar hosted and engaged with scholars and religious representatives, creating contexts where a saint could plausibly appear during his reign.
Important for UPSC: clarifies the nature of state-religion interactions and patronage patterns; helps frame questions about syncretism, religious policy and cultural exchange; useful in essays and polity-culture linkage answers.
- History , class XI (Tamilnadu state board 2024 ed.) > Chapter 14: The Mughal Empire > Akbar's Religious Policy > p. 207
- History , class XI (Tamilnadu state board 2024 ed.) > Chapter 14: The Mughal Empire > Literature > p. 219
- Exploring Society:India and Beyond ,Social Science, Class VIII . NCERT(Revised ed 2025) > Chapter 2: Reshaping India’s Political Map > What is jauhar? > p. 40
Establishing influence requires comparing lifespans and chronological order of figures to determine possible direct contact or impact.
High-yield for UPSC because many questions ask if one personality could have influenced another; mastering chronological logic avoids anachronistic claims and links to periodisation, source criticism, and causation in history. This skill helps answer questions on cultural transmission, intellectual lineages, and cause-effect in historical narratives.
- THEMES IN INDIAN HISTORY PART II, History CLASS XII (NCERT 2025 ed.) > Chapter 6: Bhakti-Sufi Traditions > 8.1 Weaving a divine fabric: Kabir > p. 161
- THEMES IN INDIAN HISTORY PART II, History CLASS XII (NCERT 2025 ed.) > Chapter 6: Bhakti-Sufi Traditions > The One Lord > p. 162
- THEMES IN INDIAN HISTORY PART II, History CLASS XII (NCERT 2025 ed.) > Chapter 6: Bhakti-Sufi Traditions > Varieties of sources used to reconstruct the history of sufi traditions > p. 166
Kabir's outlook emerged within dialogues between Bhakti and Sufi traditions and such interactions shape claims of influence among religious figures.
Important for questions on medieval religious movements, communal interactions, and cultural synthesis; helps connect literary sources, social base of saints, and comparative study of devotional movements across regions. Useful for both history mains and ethics/GS papers examining inter-religious influences.
- THEMES IN INDIAN HISTORY PART II, History CLASS XII (NCERT 2025 ed.) > Chapter 6: Bhakti-Sufi Traditions > 8.1 Weaving a divine fabric: Kabir > p. 161
- History , class XI (Tamilnadu state board 2024 ed.) > Chapter 13: Cultural Syncretism: Bhakti Movement in India > Kabir > p. 193
- THEMES IN INDIAN HISTORY PART II, History CLASS XII (NCERT 2025 ed.) > Chapter 6: Bhakti-Sufi Traditions > The One Lord > p. 162
Reconstructing a saint's life depends on later compilations, different textual traditions, and hagiographical claims, which can distort direct influence assertions.
Critical for source-based questions and historiography: recognizing when later texts can create retroactive links or claims of influence. Mastery aides evaluation of reliability, origin of traditions, and how to weigh polemical or sectarian claims in essays and mains answers.
- THEMES IN INDIAN HISTORY PART II, History CLASS XII (NCERT 2025 ed.) > Chapter 6: Bhakti-Sufi Traditions > 8.1 Weaving a divine fabric: Kabir > p. 161
- THEMES IN INDIAN HISTORY PART II, History CLASS XII (NCERT 2025 ed.) > Chapter 6: Bhakti-Sufi Traditions > The One Lord > p. 162
Tulsidas (author of Ramcharitmanas) WAS a contemporary of Akbar, but they likely never met. Another potential question: 'Saint Dadu Dayal was a contemporary of Akbar' (True, he preached in Rajasthan during Akbar's reign).
The 'Grandfather Paradox'. Shaikh Ahmad Sirhindi (born 1564) is a 17th-century figure known for opposing Akbar's policies. Kabir (died ~1518) belongs to the 15th century. A dead man (Kabir) cannot be influenced by a man born 40 years later (Sirhindi). Use 'Birth Year Logic' to kill the statement immediately.
Link Religious Chronology to Political Stability (Mains GS1). The 'Nirguna' saints (Kabir, Nanak) emerged during the political fragmentation of the Lodi/Sultanate era (questioning authority). The 'Saguna' revival (Tulsidas) coincided with Mughal consolidation under Akbar (seeking order/devotion).