The Influence of Bhakti Movement on Indian Society

There is a writer who counts each ray of sunlight diminishing from his surroundings and as the dawn strikes, he is left in complete darkness. Still his intellectual, spiritual and dharmic energy is well lit like the brightest of lamps with purity, positivity and beauty of his unquestionable devotion that he proudly writes from his hauntingly dark prison cell,“Tum Rakshak Kahu Ko Darna” which means “one need not have any fear under your protection.”

 These pious lines are from the verse written by Tulsidas Ji in reverence to everyone’s protector Lord Hanuman. He wrote it in the 16th century when Akbar, the supremo of the Mughal Dynasty was at power. The momentum of the 7th-8th century born Bhakti Movement ripened further and reached its epitome with revered saints and writers like Tulsidas Ji whose “Hanuman Chalisa” of approximately 1600 AD has water down like a legacy that now people in the year of 2024, chant his verse exuberantly in praise of Lord Hanuman.  

Beginnings after the End!!!!

Bhakti Movements had its roots in South India between 7th to 8th century AD when hagiographies of the Alvars and Nayanars and the Pulaiyar and the Panars, breathed into life,a revival which became “sakshi” of the continuing knowledge tradition of the civilisation of Bharatvarsha.Professor Kapil Kapoor of Jawaharlal Nehru University (JNU) refers to Bhaktimargi’s rise as the reaction to the material skepticism which had engulfed the mind of Bharat’s sanatani hindu at that point of time. 

Material skepticism combines the idea of a skeptic who denies the external world with a materialist who affirms its reality. As per him, 36 Lakh people died in just 2 days of the Mahabharata war and just like after the destruction caused by World War in Europe had made great poets like William Butler Yeats to write thought provoking lines like“Things fall apart; the center cannot hold;Mere anarchy is loosed upon the world,”The people of the tropical subcontinent were similarly shocked with the anarchy and destruction which was left for them to encounter when the Mahabharata war was over. 

This led people to stop valuing the importance of Vedas and later after a few generations when no one was left to interpret it correctly, Vedas became opaque to the general reader or follower of Hinduism. Even today in our households, we find Katha Puranas more easily than the Vedas. Apart from opaqueness, also by the very nature and law of language that it changes with time, the shlokas mentioned in the Vedas also get lost in translations.

Diverse backgrounds: 

 

Alvars and Nayanars belonged to different social backgrounds like potters, “untouchable”

workers, peasants, hunters, soldiers, brahmanas and chiefs.

 

Regional traditions:  

Ramanuja, born in Tamil Nadu in the eleventh century, was deeply influenced by the Alvars and his doctrine greatly inspired the new strand of bhakti which developed in north India subsequently. Virashaiva movement was initiated by Basavanna and his companions like Allama Prabhu and Akkamahadevi. This movement began in Karnataka in the mid-twelfth century. From the 13th to 15th centuries, a great number of saint-poets also flourished in Maharashtra ,whose songs in colloquial Marathi still continue to inspire people. 

The most important among them were Dnyaneshwar (Gyaneshwar), Namdev, Eknath and Tukaram as well as women like Sakhubai. Varkari sect and the family of Chokhamela,

who belonged to the “untouchable” Mahar caste is also found imbued with the regional bhakti traditions which surfaced in Maharashtra. Even though different regional cultures developed, the hue of hinduism deeply devoted in their Bhakti played a huge role in unifying the society and the country at large. 

Literature

Tevaram and Tiruvacakam: 2 sets of compilations of songs by Nayanars and Alvars have songs compiled in the Divya Prabandham.

 Women

The Lamp of Hinduism stood erected amidst the storm of invasions thanks to women like Akki Mahadevi, a rich woman from Udatal, 12th century who wrote poems as part of her Shiva Bhakti. Some poignant names are also Sahajo Bai,Sant Toral and Divalibai and Gaurabai of Gujarat. Bahina Bai of a poor family in Maharashtra wrote an autobiography and is as per sources the only married Saint whose poems became a landmark for Marathi bhakti culture. Mirabai was married into the family of Sisodia Rajputs but she declared that the only “purush” for her is Shri Krishna. Being a disciple of Saint Ravidas, she wrote deep and emotive poems, professing her love for Shri Krishna. 

Philosophy

From the theistic dualism of Dvaita to absolute monism of Advaita Vedanta, Bhakti saints dealt with various aspects of the divinity. Some Bhakti saints are also seen parallel with the thoughts of Immanuel Kant. 

Bhakti and its secular undertones: Influencing multiple younger generations of the Indian Society

Yogis and Bhaktis are states of ‘consciousness’ which are very different from the ‘ecstasy’ states of the Sufi. School students in India are taught about Bhakti saints and Sufi mystics in the same chapter of their history textbooks but as per Sandeep Balkrishnan’s book “ Invaders and Infidels part 2”, Alauddin Khilji garnered Devagiri’s local intelligence from Sufi saints to loot, plunder and make attempts on the genocide of kafirs.‘Ekam’ or oneness of hindu dharma is the qualitative rationale of all gods and goddesses for being one. 

 Whereas Sufi’s have the quantitative notion for this same oneness in the form of monotheism. Another instance is regarding Lalla, a Kashmiri yogini and bhakti woman saint who prayed to Lord Shiva is wrongly shown meeting Shah Hamdan of Iran and her associations with Sufi lore are unauthentic. 

To conclude, Bhakti Movement in India covered a labyrinth of aspects from including people from diverse backgrounds like the best known among the Nyanars were Appar, Sambandar, Sundarar and Manikkavasagar and the stalwarts among Alvars were Periyalvar, his daughter Andal, Tondaradippodi Alvar and Nammalvar. Also it included women, regional cultures, saints and common man’s language and unquestionable belief in God.