Q 01/05

Which foods do observant Jains refuse because each one is believed to house countless tiny souls in a single body?

A) Lentils and beans

B) Root vegetables

C) Rice and wheat

D) Milk and yoghurt

Answer · why

B) Root vegetables

Root vegetables such as potatoes, onions, garlic and carrots are ruled out, so Jain cooks in Gujarat and Rajasthan built whole cuisines without them.

Q 02/05

In the parable Jains use to show that truth has many sides, which animal do blind men describe by touch?

A) An elephant

B) A camel

C) A crocodile

D) A tiger

Answer · why

A) An elephant

An elephant seems like a thick snake to the man holding the trunk, a fan to the one at the ear and a pillar to the one at the leg.

Q 03/05

Which leader of India's independence movement called the Jain poet Shrimad Rajchandra his guide in spiritual crisis?

A) Jawaharlal Nehru

B) Subhas Chandra Bose

C) Mahatma Gandhi

D) Vallabhbhai Patel

Answer · why

C) Mahatma Gandhi

Mahatma Gandhi met the poet in Mumbai in 1891 and kept writing to him from South Africa, where he was advised to be patient and to study Hinduism deep...

Q 04/05

Many observant Jains will not eat after which daily moment, a practice meant to spare tiny organisms from harm?

A) Sunrise

B) Midday

C) Midnight

D) Sunset

Answer · why

D) Sunset

Sunset is the cut-off in a practice called chauvihar, and strict Jains filter their drinking water for the same reason.

Q 05/05

What do Jain monks and nuns carry so that they crush no insects where they walk or sit?

A) A soft broom

B) A palm-leaf fan

C) A brass bell

D) A wooden rattle

Answer · why

A) A soft broom

A soft broom is among the few things an ascetic may keep, and some orders make theirs from peacock feathers that the birds have shed naturally.