Bhakti movement
The Bhakti movement was a significant religious movement in medieval Hinduism that sought to bring religious reforms to all strata of society by adopting the method of devotion to achieve salvation. Originating in Tamilakam during the 6th century CE, it gained prominence through the poems and teachings of the Vaishnava Alvars and Shaiva Nayanars in early medieval South India, before spreading northwards. It swept over east and north India from the 15th century onwards, reaching its zenith between the 15th and 17th century CE.
The Bhakti movement regionally developed around different Hindu gods and goddesses, and some sub-sects were Vaishnavism, Shaivism, Shaktism, and Smartism. The Bhakti movement preached using the local languages so that the message reached the masses. The movement was inspired by many poet-saints, who championed a wide range of philosophical positions ranging from theistic dualism of Dvaita to absolute monism of Advaita Vedanta.
The movement has traditionally been considered an influential social reformation in Hinduism, as it provided an individual-focused alternative path to spirituality, regardless of one's birth or gender. Contemporary scholars question whether the Bhakti movement was ever a reform or rebellion of any kind. They suggest that the Bhakti movement was a revival, reworking, and recontextualisation of ancient Vedic traditions.
Terminology
The Sanskrit word bhakti is derived from the root, which means "divide, share, partake, participate, to belong to". The word also means "attachment, devotion to, fondness for, homage, faith or love, worship, piety to something as a spiritual, religious principle or means of salvation".Bhakti, in contrast, is spiritual, a love for and devotion towards religious concepts or principles, that engages both emotion and intellect. The connotation of love in this context is not one of uncritical emotion but committed engagement. The Bhakti movement in Hinduism refers to ideas and engagement that emerged in the medieval era on love and devotion to religious concepts built around one or more gods and goddesses. The Bhakti movement preached against the caste system and used local languages and so the message reached the masses. One who practices bhakti is called a bhakta.
Textual roots
Ancient Indian texts, dated to the 1st millennium BCE, such as the Śvetāśvatara Upaniṣad, the Kaṭha Upaniṣad, and the Bhagavad Gita mention Bhakti.''Śvetāśvatara Upaniṣad''
The last of three epilogue verses of the Śvetāśvatara Upaniṣad, 6.23, uses the word Bhakti as follows,This verse is notable for the use of the word Bhakti, and has been widely cited as among the earliest mentions of "the love of God". Scholars have debated whether this phrase is authentic or later insertion into the Upanishad, and whether the terms "Bhakti" and "God" meant the same in this ancient text as they do in the medieval and modern era Bhakti traditions found in India. Max Muller states that the word Bhakti appears in only one verse of the epilogue at its end, may have been a later insertion and may not be theistic as the word was later used in much Sandilya Sutras.
Grierson, as well as Carus, note that the first epilogue verse 6.21 is also notable for its use of the word Deva Prasada, but add that Deva in the epilogue of the Śvetāśvatara Upaniṣad refers to "pantheistic Brahman" and the closing credit to sage Śvetāśvatara in verse 6.21 can mean "gift or grace of his Soul".
Doris Srinivasan states that the Upanishad is a treatise on theism, but it creatively embeds a variety of divine images, an inclusive language that allows "three Vedic definitions for a personal deity". The Upanishad includes verses wherein God can be identified with the Supreme in Vedanta monistic theosophy, verses that support the dualistic view of Samkhya doctrines, as well as the synthetic novelty of triple Brahman where a triune exists as the divine soul, individual soul and nature.
Tsuchida writes that the Upanishad syncretically combines monistic ideas of the Upanishads and the self-development ideas of Yoga with personification of the deity Rudra. Hiriyanna interprets the text to be introducing "personal theism" in the form of Shiva Bhakti, with a shift to monotheism but in the henotheistic context where the individual is encouraged to discover his own definition and sense of God.
''Bhagavad Gita''
The Bhagavad Gita, a post-Vedic scripture composed in 5th to 2nd century BCE, introduces bhakti marga as one of three ways to spiritual freedom and release, the other two being karma marga and jnana marga.In verses 6.31 through 6.47 of the Bhagavad Gita, Krishna describes bhakti yoga and loving devotion as one of the several paths to the highest spiritual attainments.
''Devi Mahatmya''
The Devi Mahatmya embodies bhakti through three stories about the goddess Devi. In these narratives, devotion is vividly portrayed as the gods turn to Devi in times of crisis, emphasizing bhakti's central role in seeking divine aid and protection. The text prescribes rituals like recitation and worship to honor Devi, emphasizing that her Mahatmya should be recited "with bhakti" on specific days of each lunar fortnight and especially during the annual "great offering" held in autumn, known today as Durga puja.History
Initial development in Tamil lands
The Bhakti movement originated in Tamilakam during the seventh to eighth century CE, and remained influential in South India for some time. In the second millennium, a second wave of bhakti spread northwards through Karnataka and gained wide acceptance in fifteenth-century Assam, Bengal and northern India.According to Brockington, the initial Tamil Bhakti movement was characterized by "a personal relationship between the deity and the devotee", and "fervent emotional experience in response to divine grace". The Bhakti movement in Tamil Nadu was composed of two main parallel groups: Shaivas and Vaishnavas. The Vaishnava Alvars and Shaiva Nayanars lived between 5th and 9th century CE. They promoted love of a personal God first and foremost which is also expressed by love of one's fellow human beings. They also wrote and sang hymns of praise to their God, and came from numerous social classes, even shudras. These poet saints became the backbone of the Sri Vaishnava and Shaiva Siddhanta traditions.
The Alvars, which literally means "those immersed in God", were Vaishnava poet-saints who sang praises of Vishnu as they traveled from one place to another. They established temple sites such as Srirangam, and spread ideas about Vaishnavism. Various poems were compiled as Alvar Arulicheyalgal or Divya Prabandham, developed into an influential scripture for the Vaishnavas. The Bhagavata Purana's references to the South Indian Alvar saints, along with its emphasis on bhakti, have led many scholars to give it South Indian origins though some scholars question whether that evidence excludes the possibility that Bhakti movement had parallel developments in other parts of India.
Like the Alvars, the Shaiva Nayanars were Bhakti poet saints. The Tirumurai, a compilation of hymns on Shiva by sixty-three Nayanar poet-saints, developed into an influential scripture in Shaivism. The poets' itinerant lifestyle helped create temple and pilgrimage sites and spread spiritual ideas built around Shiva. Early Tamil-Shiva Bhakti poets influenced Hindu texts that came to be revered all over India.
Spread throughout India in the 2nd millennium
The influence of the Tamil bhakti saints and those of later northern Bhakti leaders ultimately helped spread bhakti poetry and ideas throughout all the Indian subcontinent by the 18th century CE. However, outside of the Tamil speaking regions, the Bhakti movement arrived much later, mostly in the second millennium.For example, in Kannada-speaking regions, the Bhakti movement arrived in the 12th century, with the emergence of Basava and his Shaivite Lingayatism, which were known for their total rejection of caste distinctions and the authority of the Vedas, their promotion of the religious equality of women, and their focus on worshipping a small lingam, which they always carried around their necks, as opposed to images in temples run by elite priesthoods. Another important Kannada figure in the Bhakti movement was Madhvacharya, a great and prolific scholar of Vedanta, who promoted the theology of dualism.
Similarly, the Bhakti movement in Odisha also began in the 12th century. It included various scholars including Jayadeva, and it had become a mass movement by the 14th century. Figures like Balarama Dasa, Achyutananda, Jasobanta Dasa, Ananta Dasa and Jagannatha Dasa preached Bhakti through public sankirtans across Odisha. Jagannath was and remains the center of the Odisha Bhakti movement.
The Bhakti movements also spread to the north later, particularly during the flowering of northern Bhakti yoga of the 15th and the 16th centuries. Perhaps the earliest of the northern bhakti figures was Nimbārkāchārya, a Brahmin from Andhra Pradesh who moved to Vrindavan. He defended a similar theology to Ramanuja, which he called Bhedābheda. Other important northern bhaktas include Nāmdev, Rāmānanda, and Eknath.
Another important development was the rise of the Sant Mat movement, which drew from Nath tradition and Vaishnavism. Kabir was a saint known for Hindi poetry that expressed a rejection of external religion in favor of inner experience. After his death, his followers founded the Kabir panth. A similar movement sharing the same Sant Mat Bhakti background that drew on both Hinduism and Islam, was founded by the Guru Nānak, the first Guru of Sikhism.
In Bengal, the most famous composer of Vaishnava devotional songs was Candīdās. He was celebrated in the popular Bengali Vaishnava-Sahajiya movement. One the most influential of the northern Hindu Bhakti traditions was the Krishnaite Gaudiya Vaishnavism of Chaitanya Mahaprabhu in Bengal. Chaitanya eventually came to be seen by the Bengali Vaishnavas as an avatara of Krishna himself. Another important leader of northern Vaishnava Bhakti was Vallabhacharya Mahaprabhu who founded the Pushtimarg tradition in Braj.
Some scholars state that the Bhakti movement's rapid spread in India in the 2nd millennium was in part a response to the arrival of Islam and subsequent Islamic rule in India and Hindu-Muslim conflicts. That view is contested by some scholars, with Rekha Pande stating that singing ecstatic Bhakti hymns in local language had been a tradition in South India before Muhammad was born. According to Pande, the psychological impact of Muslim conquests may have initially contributed to community-style Bhakti by Hindus. However, other scholars state that Muslim invasions, the conquests of Hindu Bhakti temples in South India and the seizure and the melting of musical instruments such as cymbals from local people were part responsible for the later relocation or demise of singing Bhakti traditions in the 18th century.
According to Wendy Doniger, the nature of the Bhakti movement may have been affected by the daily practices to "surrender to God" of Islam when it arrived in India. In turn, that influenced devotional practices in Islam such as Sufism, and other religions in India from the 15th century onwards, such as Sikhism, Christianity, and Jainism.
Klaus Witz, in contrast, traces the history and nature of the Bhakti movement to the Upanishadic and the Vedanta foundations of Hinduism. He writes that in virtually every Bhakti movement poet, "the Upanishadic teachings form an all-pervasive substratum, if not a basis. We have here a state of affairs that has no parallel in the West. Supreme Wisdom, which can be taken as basically non-theistic and as an independent wisdom tradition, appears fused with the highest level of bhakti and with the highest level of God-realization."