The religious movement in Hinduism of medieval period that accepted inclusion of many fringe groups into main stream and promoted the belief that salvation is attainable by all. It advocated that a personal expression of devotion to God is the way to become at one with Him. But side by side there was something important also brewing underground. This was time of very active interaction among various religious movements that were also getting varying patronage from political setups. Trade and commerce was going great between North and South. South was already well connected with various trade centres in the west as well. All major kingdoms of South were going for longer times unlike those in North. This political stability was a great source of many social developments in south of India including developments on cultural, social and religious fronts.
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| Bhakti Movement |
Cholas extended their influence on some foreign lands also and were keeping their adjoining kingdoms of Cheras, Pallavas and Pandyas on a tight leash. After disintegration of Gupta dynasty in north, all artisans and cultural players have headed south making it much more vibrant than ever before. To sum it up, there was a great sangam of North and South traditions in all spheres.
Bhakti as a form of worship started in Tamil literary circles and soon moved to other Dravidian cousins. It was first time that some new tradition on religious front started from literate and moved on to illiterate sections. The movement of Bhakti soon spread all through the Indian Sub continent fertilizing by worship of Krishna at Mathura and Jagannath Puri via pilgrimages and festivals or celebrations at Temples of all Hindu sects. Along with Bhakti, several other Tamil characteristics of poetry and other forms of literature also came into North. Couple of hundred years back, similar thing has happened when Brahmins took Sanskrit with them when they went down South together with many other Northern characteristics.
Tamil as a language to South was occupying exactly same space as Sanskrit in North, meaning that, poetry; religious text writings and court decrees were using Sanskrit in North and Tamil in South. Tamil poems called Cankum (Assembly or Sangha in Pali language) were getting very popular for their content and literary concepts. Many of these poems were already singing praises for Tirumal (the Vishnu name popular in South), Murukan (son of Shiva) and River Goddess. The theme of these praises was called Akam and Puram. Akam means those relating to inner world of the human heart and Puram means outer visible world. Akam poetry was focused on many emotive subjects like love in union, patiently waiting for better half, anger at infidelity, anxiously waiting for lover and separation from lover, etc.
My idea of touching the subject matter of Akam poems is just to share how unique was the culture of South India vis-a-vis that of North India at that point of time in history. North was fighting for protection against Islamic influence and was high on bravery; mythology and spiritual love while South was focused on Akam and Puram. Akam poetries were mentioning love of several types; going from unwanted love to unachievable love. One of the types of love in these poems was "love while in separation" which is known as 'Virah' in North. This type of love got picked up by Bhakti poets to denote the separateness of the devotee with his Ishta. Virah is known to portray one-side sufferings of the lover as if the lover is unable to come due to his preoccupation in other matters. The emotional bond via these poems was very strong showing anguish of the devotee who felt separated from his God and not because God is not available but because God is busy and preoccupied.
Wandering poets and saints devoted to Shiva and Krishna Vishnu (No Rama as yet, as Rama was never a popular incarnations of Vishnu in South) were singing these poems in devotional modes and attracting popular mood. These were called 'Tevaram' poems
and, by now, developed their own unique distinct style that was different then Cankam poems.
Following the sectarian trends already established, Bhakti movement was focused on Shiva and Vishnu in South and Rama and Krishna dominated Northern movement. Bhakti did no harm or support to sectarian divisions as it impacted all sects equally and coexisted with all of them. On the contrary, Bhakti facilitated, in bridging the sectarian divides and reunited the total Hindu thought. To the credit of Bhakti, it soon got popular among all classes and soon involved even orthodox sections including Kings and other influential power centres of the society. In fact, Bhakti continues to be most important mode and religious expression in modern India.
Bhakti brought a perfect level playing field among all followers as it establishes a direct contact between the seeker and the sought after - there is nothing in between the God and Bhakt. It allowed people to have less abstract and more emotive relationship with their God without any hindrance by any intermediary. Another great revolution was that Bhakti allowed the seeker to seek his Ishta in any form to his own liking without any restriction. Bhakti also allowed the devotee to have a direct physical and visual, a passionate transformative relationship with his choice of God. In other words, devotee was able to establish a direct relationship of near and dear as if in direct relationship with others within his immediate family.
This relationship could look at God as a parent as happened in case of Dhruv and Prahlad. It could be a relationship of Lord taken as a master as Hanuman denotes his relations with Rama. It could be a relationship of equals like what was there between Arjuna and Krishna. Another form was where the devotee considered lord as his/her child. The example of such relationship is the character of Yashoda. It could be where Lord is taken as husband. This is well exemplified by the characters of Sita and Rukmani. And finally, the relationship could be as between lovers and beloveds like Radha and Mira.
So depending on one's own attitude, one could look at his God as a friend, guide, lover, child, hero or any other relation. This, I think was the most remarkable introduction of Bhakti and a reason as to why it became so popular throughout the Hindu thought. I don t recall any other religious system parallel to this aspect of Bhakti in the whole world.
The first person of Bhakti movement in North is Sant Ramananda from Varanasi who was a disciple of Ramanujacharya. He started popularizing that simplest way to seek salvation is simply by chanting Rama's name. Nothing would have been easier for the simple population struggling in their daily life of survival. Around the same time, another sant named Vallabhachrya spread for Krishna as a way of salvation. His doctrine of "salvation only with the God's grace" made Bhakti the easy way of seeking that grace. Chaitanya Mahaprabhu (1486-1534) is another great name for philosophizing the Bhakti by evolving his unique "Achintya Bheda Abheda" doctrine meaning inconceivable simultaneous oneness and separateness. It was a combo of monism and dualism that continues to be popular even among people from outside the Hindu religion. The same doctrine is followed by ISKCON's Hare Rama Hare Krishna movement.
There is another popular division of Bhakti movement popular among Vaishnavites in North India based on a matrix of Nirguna and Saguna Gods vs. Rama and Krishna. Under Nirguna, there are two streams; one following Knowledge and other following Love. Kabir is identified with Nirguna Knowledge stream. He was against idol worship or Rama Krishna divide. His God was like Vedic God. The Nirguna Love stream was represented by Jaysi. The Saguna branch also got divided into Rama and Krishna where Rama was represented by Tulsi while Krishna was represented by Surdas and Mira. We can briefly look at some of the great contributors of Bhakti Movement in North India which virtually empowered the entire grassroots masses spiritually cutting across class, caste, region, and language barriers of Hinduism probably for the very first time.
Emergence of Chaitanya Mahaprabhu and Tulsidas (1532-1623) are the rare bright spots about Hinduism in later Mughal period. Chaitanya was a born Brahmin, very learned in Sanskrit and was a great poet who specialized in the pain of separation of Radha from his beloved Krishna. This separation was way different from Sita's separation from Rama while she was under captivity. At his young age of twenty one, Chaitanya's father passed away and he got inspired to renounce the world. But public did not let him renounce. He saw people worshipping Krishna by singing and chanting. Soon he started retelling Krishna's acts particularly his love play with Gopis. Chaitanya was invited to Puri where he got settled. He was taken as Krishna and Radha both living in one body. But this was not something very unique, as Tantra followers have been taking Shiva and Shakti in single body for long time.
Chaitanya worked a lot for popularizing his new form of Virah. His followers were called Goswamins. He is also credited for converting back Orissa's Governor and also converted many Pathans to Hinduism. It is to the credit of Chaitanya that Bhakti was no more extra suited to women who could be God's lover or mother, which were certainly the most intimate relationships. But with Radha and Krishna being in a single body, it allowed even men folks to experience the same intimacy with their God.
Tulsidas came out as an architect of North India Vaishnavism from a person who could never move away from his dedication to Shiva. He was known to be close to Mughal courts near Banaras and claimed that the power of Rama's name will liberate even Muslims. He wrote the famous 'Ramcharitmanas' (lake of deeds of Lord Rama) in Vernacular Awadhi as against Sanskrit which was the convention. Even orthodox Brahmins were up against him for such an attempt. But easy language and Bhakti laced characterization of Rama ended up becoming very popular among the masses throughout North India. So much so that today most people look at "Ramcharitmanas" as the Ramayana little realizing that the theology approach of the two books are quite apart from each other.
Ramcharitmanas is associated with the beginning of the tradition of Ramlila, the dramatic enactment of the text on nine days before Dashara every year. Ramlila had blown open the story to masses like no other text in history can be compared with.
The blind saint and poet Surdas is well known for his devotional songs in praise of Lord Krishna. He is reported to have compiled over one hundred thousand songs of which only around eight thousands have survived under the famous "Sur Sagar". He wrote in Hindi and Brij and was greatly acclaimed in his times. Even Emperor Akbar was said to be his patron. Surdas is certainly a pioneer of fuelling Bhakti movement in Hindi heartland. Mira is another great name for promoting Bhakti like never before. Her father was from the Rathore clan of Jodhpur who died defending against Babur. She got married to the son of Rana Sanga of Chittor but never was interested in the physical spouse as she was completely devoted to her Lord Krishna. Mira is credited with over 1300 songs in Rajasthani and Brij dialects which have since been published worldwide for their contents of spiritual realization through passionate praise of Ishta which leads the devotee to a situation where one forgets all desires of the worldly attachments. Her love for Krishna overflew into ecstasy that led her to sing and dance in any setting, an approach which is so much visible with many Krishna devotees to this day.
Around the same time, we also have Guru Ravidass (1450-1520) who was born in Punjab to a Chammar family and grew to become a great socio-religious reformer, thinker, humanist, poet and a traveller par excellence. Many of his devotional compositions are also included in Guru Granth Sahib. Mira also took him as her guru. Then there was Rahim Khan, one of the nine jewels of Akbar Durbar who was a Muslim but a great devotee of Lord Krishna and composed a lot of poetry to show his dedication to Krishna. He also translated 'Baburnama' in Persian for wider spread of its message. The new form of writing called 'Doha' is attributed to Rahim which packed a lot of punch in sending across the message contained in the writing.
Last but not the least; we can talk about Raskhan (born in 1548) who again was a born Muslim but a great follower of Lord Krishna. He learned Hindu religion from Goswami Vitthalnath at Vrindavan which remained his city for rest of his life until his death in 1628. Son of a wealthy Jagirdar with Pathan background, he was a scholar of both Hindi and Persian and is accredited for translating "Bhagavata Purana" into Persian. Bulk of his poetry was around the Lilas. Besides many other contributors, he deserves the credit for popularizing 'Bal Lila', 'Chirharan Lila', 'Kunj Lila', 'Ras Lila', 'Panghat Lila'. Besides bulk of his works on Krishna, Raskhan also composed some poems for Lord Shankar and Goddess Ganga.
Thus Bhakti period resulted in a mass of devotional literature, music and arts which gave India a renewed spiritual impetus. Thus, the development of Bhakti as a major form of Hindu practice has left an indelible stamp on the faith. It is to the credit of Bhakti movement that spiritual quest could reach to each and every individual; the barriers built over the years of class, caste, sect, region and gender were all got broken by Bhakti as it traversed all social boundaries and unnecessary rituals requiring help of priests and all.
In addition to other benefits, one additional benefit coming out of popularity of Bhakti was that it diverted the anger of many Hindus away from Muslims. Most of the reformers of Bhakti period commented on religious discord among practices both with Hindus and Muslims and their teachings did contributed towards reduction of bitterness between the two religions. It also resulted in heart change for many kings of this period who started looking at their subjects in more sympathetic ways and changed their policies to help them.
The last most important benefit of Bhakti to Hinduism was that it almost stopped conversions from Hinduism to Islam in particular. Bhakti brought in Hinduism a feeling of brotherhood like never before and the idea of direct access with the godhead had everlasting impacts specially on low caste Hindus who were rapidly giving up hope of their salvation were increasingly getting drawn towards Islam. In a way, later Bhakti teachers had taken over the role of social reformers and Bhakti provided them the magic wand to push back such people back to Hinduism.
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