Introduction

• An important landmark in the cultural history of medieval India was the silent revolution in the society known as the Bhakti Movement. The term ‘Bhakti’ symbolises ‘devotion or passionate love for the Divine’. Its meaning has, however, evolved with time, along with the concept of Bhakti itself.
  • Since the times of the Indo-Aryans and the sacred texts, i.e., the Vedas, the meaning of Bhakti as a tradition has varied. The Vedic period, with its focused image of the rishi or the seer (a visionary figure who was able to communicate with and about the various gods of the Vedic pantheon through a complex system of rituals; Moksha could be attained through the precise performance of these rituals), did contain the seeds of the Bhakti movement, but it was clearly not the true depiction.
• This process of ‘adoration of a personal god’ started during the course of the 6th century BCE, with the rise of the heterodox movements of Buddhism and Jainism. For instance, under Mahayana Buddhism, the worship of the Buddha started in his avalokita (gracious) form. The worship of Vishnu too started around the same time, which was popularised to a great extent by the Gupta kings, who supported the pantheon of gods (Vishnu, the cosmic king; Shiva, the great yogi and ascetic; and his feminine counterpart, Shakti, or divine energy) through the worship of divine images (puja), the Puranas (mythological compositions about the gods). The Gupta kings also built temples dedicated to these gods and patronised the various devotional groups.
• However, what is known today as the Bhakti Movement had its genesis in southern India in the 7th and 12th century CE. It was in south India that Bhakti grew from a religious tradition to a popular movement, based on notions of religious equality and broad-based social participation. It is characterised by the writings of its poet-saints, the Shaivaite Nayannars and the Vaishnavaite Alvars, who preached the Bhakti movement under the Pallavas, Pandyas, and the Cholas. They disregarded the austerities preached by the Jains and the Buddhists and preached that personal devotion to god was the only means of salvation.
• They extolled passionate devotional love for the Divine and stressed on the fact that Moksha (liberation from the cycle of rebirth) could be attained not by following rules, regulations, or social order, but through simple devotion to the Divine.
• The Bhakti saints usually emerged from lower castes, preached a religion which was non–ritualistic and open to all without any distinction of caste or creed, encouraged women to join in the gatherings, and taught in the local vernacular languages. These ideas of Bhakti were carried to the north by scholars as well as by saints.