UPSC Prelims 2022— Question 95

This question belongs to Art & Culture and tests Ramanuja and Vishishtadvaita. The answer depends on the specific philosophical, religious, architectural or cultural tradition associated with the person or site. UPSC distractors often shift a doctrine, text or monument into a neighbouring tradition. Option A is the keyed answer because The best means of salvation was devotion. is the combination or identification that satisfies the conditions in the question. A useful way to solve the question is to separate the individual propositions from the answer-code combinations. A statement can look broadly reasonable while still being incorrect because it uses an absolute term, assigns a function to the wrong institution, confuses two related concepts, or places a feature in the wrong region or period. The keyed response should therefore be treated as the outcome of checking each proposition rather than as a memory-only exercise. Option A: The best means of salvation was devotion. — this is the correct choice under the final key. It matches the relevant Ramanuja and Vishishtadvaita principle and satisfies the question's wording. Option B: Vedas are eternal, self-existent and wholly authoritative. — this is not the correct choice. It fails the question's test because it does not represent the required combination, institution, location, mechanism or historical association. The distractor is plausible only if a related concept is confused with the one actually asked. Option C: Logical arguments were essential means for the highest bliss. — this is not the correct choice. It fails the question's test because it does not represent the required combination, institution, location, mechanism or historical association. The distractor is plausible only if a related concept is confused with the one actually asked. Option D: Salvation was to be obtained through meditation. — this is not the correct choice. It fails the question's test because it does not represent the required combination, institution, location, mechanism or historical association. The distractor is plausible only if a related concept is confused with the one actually asked. The exam-oriented takeaway is to identify the governing fact first and only then map it to the answer code. This reduces errors caused by choosing an option because one individual statement appears familiar. For database use, the classification and explanation should be read together: the subject gives the broad domain, the topic identifies the recurring UPSC theme, and the subtopic records the precise knowledge point tested. This also makes the question useful for later topic-wise search and revision.