1. What is the Sanskrit word that means “spirit,” “person,” “self” or “consciousness,” and “deity” and also describes the primordial being from whose body the universe was created?

2. What is the oldest of the sacred books of Hinduism, composed in an ancient form of Sanskrit about 1500 BCE?

3. What is the term for each of the 10 books into which the Rigveda is divided?

4. Which Hindu goddess is described as the inventor of spoken and written Sanskrit?

5. Which genre of Vedic text speculates about the ontological connection between humanity and the cosmos?

6. In Sanskrit, what word, translated as “self” or “breath,” describes one of the most basic concepts in Hinduism: the universal self, identical with the eternal core of the personality that after death either transmigrates to a new life or attains release from the bonds of existence?

7. In the Upanishads, what is considered the supreme existence or absolute reality?

8. Which epic poem describes the development of Hinduism and is regarded by Hindus as both a text about moral law and a history?

9. Who is traditionally regarded as the writer of the Ramayana, an epic Hindu poem consisting of some 24,000 couplets divided into seven books?

10. What is the name of the commander of the monkey army mentioned in the Ramayana?

11. Which Hindu deity wears a crescent moon and the Ganges River as decorations in his hair and a garland of skulls and a serpent around his neck?

12. What is the term for an incarnation of a deity in human or animal form?

13. Which Hindu deity’s name is translated as “The Pervader”?

14. Which Hindu deity is worshipped as the eighth incarnation of the Hindu god Vishnu and also as a supreme god in his own right?

15. Which figure is the elephant-headed Hindu god of beginnings?

16. Which figure is the Hindu goddess of wealth and good fortune?

17. Which Hindu deity is the personification of divine authority, the ruler of the sky realm, and the upholder of cosmic and moral law?

18. Which Hindu goddess is the destroyer of evil forces?

19. Which benevolent goddess, also called Uma, is the wife of the Hindu god Shiva?

20. Who is the fire-god of Hinduism?