Hinduism Trivia
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120 free Hinduism trivia questions with answers — trivia quiz, new questions added Oct 2026.
This Hinduism trivia quiz covers the world's third-largest religion from its Vedic roots to its 1.2 billion followers today. It begins with the scriptures (the four Vedas, the Upanishads, the Mahabharata and Ramayana, the 700-verse Bhagavad Gita, the Puranas), the core ideas (dharma, karma, samsara, moksha, atman and Brahman, the four purusharthas and the four ashramas) and the four major denominations of Vaishnavism, Shaivism, Shaktism and Smartism. Then it turns to the gods and their stories: the Trimurti of Brahma, Vishnu and Shiva, Vishnu's ten avatars including Rama and Krishna, elephant-headed Ganesha, Lakshmi, Saraswati, Durga, Kali and Hanuman. There are also questions on practice and culture: puja and aarti, temple styles, the sacred syllable Om, the tilaka, the four paths of yoga, the festivals of Diwali, Holi, Navaratri and Ganesh Chaturthi, pilgrimage to Varanasi and the Kumbh Mela, the sacred cow, vegetarianism, the Hindu calendar, and modern figures like Vivekananda. Some questions suit anyone who has celebrated Diwali with friends; others will test lifelong students of the tradition. Every answer has been checked against primary sources, chiefly the Wikipedia articles on Hinduism and its deities, texts and festivals, and each explanation adds one further detail. If you enjoy this, try our Buddhism quiz too.
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Q 01Around 2020, roughly how many followers did Hinduism have, the world's third-largest religion?
1.17 billion
Estimates around 2020 put Hinduism at roughly 1.17 billion adherents, about 15 percent of humanity, behind only Christianity and Islam.
Q 02What term, meaning 'eternal law', have Hindus used since the 19th century to describe their religion?
Sanatana Dharma
Sanatana Dharma, 'the eternal dharma', was taken up by 19th-century Hindus as a self-description; the word 'Hindu' itself began as an exonym, a name given by outsiders.
Q 03Hindu texts are classified into Shruti and Smriti. What do the two words literally mean?
'Heard' and 'remembered'
Shruti, chiefly the Vedas, is regarded as revealed to the rishis and carries the highest authority.
Q 04How many Vedas are there?
Four
There are Four Vedas, each arranged into Samhitas (hymns), Brahmanas, Aranyakas and Upanishads; their oldest layers date from the second millennium BCE.
Q 05Which is the oldest known Vedic Sanskrit text, composed mostly between about 1500 and 1000 BCE?
Rigveda
The Rigveda, 1,028 hymns arranged in ten mandalas, is the oldest Vedic text and among the oldest surviving works in any Indo-European language.
Q 06How many Muktika Upanishads are there, of which 10 to 13 are counted as Principal Upanishads?
108
The Muktika canon lists 108 Upanishads, of which the Principal ones such as the Brihadaranyaka and Chandogya are the oldest, dating from the first millennium BCE.
Q 07The Bhagavad Gita is an integral part of which epic?
Mahabharata
The Gita forms part of the Bhishma Parva, the sixth book of the Mahabharata, and is set on the battlefield on the eve of the Kurukshetra War.
Q 08Which Pandava prince hesitates to fight and receives Krishna's teaching in the Bhagavad Gita?
Arjuna
Arjuna, the third Pandava, lays down his bow at Kurukshetra rather than kill his kinsmen; Krishna urges him to do his duty as a warrior.
Q 09How many verses does the Bhagavad Gita traditionally contain?
700
Some old manuscripts may have had 745, but 700 is the accepted standard.
Q 10The Ramayana is traditionally attributed to which sage?
Valmiki
Valmiki, honoured as the 'adi kavi' or first poet, is credited with the Sanskrit Ramayana of nearly 24,000 verses in seven kandas; Tulsidas's Ramcharitmanas is a later Awadhi retelling.
Q 11Rama, hero of the Ramayana, is which numbered avatar of Vishnu?
Seventh
Rama is the Seventh of Vishnu's ten principal avatars, coming after Parashurama; he was prince of Ayodhya and spent fourteen years in forest exile with Sita and Lakshmana.
Q 12Who kidnaps Sita in the Ramayana?
Ravana, king of Lanka
Ravana, king of Lanka, carried Sita off to his island in a flying chariot after luring Rama away with a golden deer; Hanuman later found her in the Ashoka grove.
Q 13What are the four purusharthas, the proper aims of human life?
Dharma, artha, kama and moksha
Q 21Which reformer is regarded as founder of the Smarta tradition and its Advaita Vedanta philosophy?
Adi Shankara
Adi Shankara, the 8th-century philosopher, systematised Advaita Vedanta and is credited with the Smarta panchayatana practice of worshipping five deities on an equal footing.
Q 22In the Trimurti, which god is the creator, which the preserver and which the destroyer?
Brahma, Vishnu, Shiva
Brahma, Vishnu, Shiva are respectively creator, preserver and destroyer; in practice Brahma has very few temples, the Pushkar shrine in Rajasthan being the best known.
Q 23Vishnu is depicted sleeping on the coils of which serpent in the ocean of milk?
Shesha
Dharma, artha, kama and moksha — duty, prosperity, pleasure and liberation — are the purusharthas; dharma is held to be the foremost of them.
Q 14What does the word karma literally mean?
Action or deed
Karma literally means Action or deed, from the Sanskrit root kri, 'to do'; the doctrine holds that good and bad actions bring consequences in this life or the next.
Q 15What is the Hindu term for the cycle of birth, life, death and rebirth?
Samsara
Samsara, literally 'wandering through', is the cycle of rebirth driven by one's deeds; release from it, moksha, is the final aim of Hindu life.
Q 16In Advaita Vedanta, the individual Self (atman) is held to be identical with what?
Brahman, the ultimate reality
Advaita ('non-dual') teaches that atman is Brahman, the ultimate reality, and that their apparent difference is ignorance; dualist Dvaita instead sees Brahman as a Supreme Being separate from individual Selves.
Q 17What term for devotion to one god while accepting others is sometimes applied to Hinduism?
Henotheistic
Henotheistic is the label Max Müller applied to the Vedic pattern of praising one god at a time as supreme without denying the others; the hymns honour many deities yet hint at one Truth.
Q 18What is the innermost sanctum of a Hindu temple, housing the main image, called?
Garbhagriha
The Garbhagriha, literally 'womb chamber', is the small, usually windowless inner shrine where the temple's principal murti is installed; worshippers approach it through the mandapa hall.
Q 19Which denomination of Hinduism has the most followers, around two-thirds of Hindus?
Vaishnavism
Vaishnavism, devotion to Vishnu and his avatars, is the largest tradition: a 2010 estimate by Johnson and Grim put it at about 641 million Hindus, with Shaivism a distant second.
Q 20Shaktism, goddess worship of Devi as cosmic mother, is especially common in which region of India?
Northeastern and eastern states like Assam and Bengal
Shaktism is strongest in the Northeastern and eastern states like Assam and Bengal, home to the Kamakhya temple near Guwahati and Kolkata's Durga Puja, which ends with idols immersed in rivers.
Shesha, also called Ananta ('endless'), is the many-headed serpent on whose coils Vishnu reclines as Anantashayana, with Lakshmi at his feet; the name Shesha means 'that which remains'.
Q 24What is the collective name for the ten primary avatars of Vishnu?
Dashavatara
Dashavatara ('ten avatars') names the ten principal descents of Vishnu, from the fish Matsya to Kalki, the horseman yet to come; regional lists vary over the later entries.
Q 25Krishna is worshipped as which numbered avatar of Vishnu?
Eighth
Krishna is the Eighth avatar in the standard list; born in Mathura to Devaki and Vasudeva, he was raised by Nanda and Yashoda in Gokul, beyond the reach of King Kamsa.
Q 26Which of these iconographic attributes belongs to Shiva?
A third eye on his forehead
Shiva bears A third eye on his forehead, whose opening is said to have reduced the god of desire to ash; he also wears a crescent moon and the serpent Vasuki.
Q 27In what aniconic form is Shiva usually worshipped?
The lingam
The lingam, a smooth cylindrical pillar usually set in a yoni base, is the aniconic form of Shiva found in the sanctum of most Shiva temples, including the twelve Jyotirlingas.
Q 28Brahma's several heads represent what?
The Vedas
Brahma's heads are said to represent The Vedas, one reciting each; he rides a hamsa, a swan or goose, and sits on a lotus.
Q 29Ganesha is readily identified by what?
His elephant head and four arms
His elephant head and four arms make Ganesha unmistakable; the Shiva Purana tells how Shiva beheaded the boy and replaced the head with an elephant's. He is the remover of obstacles.
Q 30Lakshmi is revered chiefly as the goddess of what?
Fortune and wealth
Lakshmi is the goddess of Fortune and wealth, shown seated on a lotus with gold coins pouring from her hand; she is Vishnu's consort and is worshipped especially at Diwali.