Post-Mauryan Period:
Que. “Utpanna dravide bhakthi, Karnate vriddhimagata I Sthita kinchit maharashtre gurjare jirnatam gata II.” (Padmapurana) Account for the emergence of bhakti in Dravida desa. [UPSC CSE-2018]
Introduction:
Bhakti word is derived from sanskrit word Bhaj which means to share or participate. The bhakta is one who shares or participates in the divine.
The given statement is taken from the Bhagavata Mahatmyam of the Padma Purana. It mentions that bhakti was born in Dravida desa, grew up in Karnataka, flourished in Maharashtra and became old in Gujarat.
Emergence of the Bhakti movement in Dravida desa:
(1) The bhakti movement began in the Tamil region around the 6th and 7th century AD and achieved a great deal of popularity through the poems of the Alvars and Nayanars, the Vaishnavite and Shaivite poets. Alvar and Nayanar saints gave a new emphasis and expression to Vaishnava and Shaiva devotionalism, one that was deeply rooted in the Tamil land, language, and ethos.
(2) Roots of South Indian bhakti: The Sangam period had ended around the 2nd and 3rd centuries CE. Very little records remain of the period between the 3rd and 6th centuries CE.
Historians believe that this period marked an important transition in the region. The Kalabhra kings ruled Tamil Nadu between the 3rd and the 7th century CE and the reason we know so little of this period from Tamil literary sources could be because the Kalabhras were great patrons of Buddhism and Jainism.
This led to a great influx of Buddhist and Jain monks from the Deccan into Tamil Nadu. The Bhakti movement was a grassroot led reaction to this.
The Bhakti cult in the Tamil region began as a reaction against the growing influence of Buddhism and Jainism.
The roots of South Indian bhakti can be traced to certain features in late Sangam poetry, as well as to certain elements in the Paripatal and Pattuppattu.
Tirumurukarruppatai: In a poem called the Tirumurukarruppatai (The Guide to Lord Murugan) which refers to the god Murugan, there is also a tendency to describe Murugan as living in specific places, the devotee being urged to visit the shrines there.
Tanippatal: From the point of view of formal structure, the ancestry of bhakti poetry can be traced to the tanippatal, the single bardic stanzas found among both akam and puram poems.
Patan: Patan poems (heroic poems) and bhakti songs both have an intense, personal tone. In the context of bhakti, however, the focus shifts from the king to the god, praising the latter and beseeching him to bestow deliverance on his devotee.
(3) Led by poet saints who propagated the back to the soil’ movement, the narrative in their works reflected a clear shift.
Sangam poetry refer less to religion than to social customs and traditions. In contrast, the poetry of the Bhakti movement have as their main theme religion and god.
The poet saints would go from village to village singing and extolling the virtues of Shiva and Vishnu. Their poems, sung in the common man’s Tamil, gave them a great following among the masses. The poet saints drew their followers from every section of society, cutting across caste, gender and other hierarchies.
They carried their message of love and personal devotion to God throughout south India by using the local languages.
(4) The saiva Nayanar saints and vaishnava Alvar saints spread the doctrine of bhakti among different sections of the society irrespective of caste and sex during the period between the seventh and the tenth century. Some of these saints came from the “lower” castes and some were women. They all existed in different time periods and came from different social backgrounds. These poets created a formidable body of literature that firmly established itself in the popular canon.
(5) Unlike the early northern sects as the Bhagavatas and Pashupatas, in the South, there was a clear process of institutional development, according to which: The Alvars came to be revered as the foreparents of the Sri Vaishnava community, and the Nayanars as the source of inspiration for adherents to the Shaiva Siddhanta theological system.
(6) The leadership of the Sri Vaishnava fold came to be firmly the province of brahmans, while Shaiva Sidhanta leadership was exercised primarily by Vellalas.
(7) On both the Vaishnavite and Shaivite sides, such institutionalization was accompanied by some determined hagiographical work. Not only were the poems of the twelve Alvars and the sixty-three Nayanars collected, but the lives of the saints themselves were given canonical form.
(8) Relationship between the god and the devotee: In Shaiva bhakti, the relationship between the god and his devotee was often expressed as analogous to that between master and slave. In Alvar bhakti, the relationship between the devotee and Mayon or Mal (Krishna) was often expressed in terms of the lover-beloved relationship. In some instances, the mother-child relationship was also invoked.
(9) The male saints were not recluses or ascetics. They lived their lives as a part of society and most of them were married. The South Indian bhakti saints were critical of Buddhists and Jains who enjoyed a privileged status at the courts of South Indian kings at that time. Later, Acharyas like Shankaracharya, Ramanuja, Madhavacharya etc further contributed in the bhakti movement.
Grew up in Karnataka:
(1) In the Kannada region, the movement begun by Basavanna (1105-68) in the 12th century. Like the Alvars and Nayanars, the Virashaiva saints of Karnataka (twelfth century) included outcastes and women, and at least initially their fundamental institutions were defined in counter structural terms as well.
(2) The Virashaivas insisted that the only true temples are those inside human beings. In consequence, a set of institutions centering on temples and their priests was abjured. In the course of time the Virashaiva teaching centers (mathas) and the ascetics who gathered there came to assume many of the functions of a temple, but elements of the stringent Virashaiva message continued to set the community apart.
(3) In the hagiographical accounts that grew up around the Virashaiva saints (e.g., Shunyasampadane, fifteenth century), one finds an emphasis on the transcendent value of work, which is foreign to earlier Tamil teaching.
(4) The Bhakti movement in this region produced a rich vein of literature that came to be known as Vachana sahitya composed by Basava himself as well as his disciples (Akkamahadevi, Allama Prabhu, Devara Dasimayya and others). Consisting of pithy aphorisms, these Vachanas conveyed in unambiguous terms certain astute observations on spiritual and social matters.
(5) Basavanna, the fount of the movement in Karnataka, was a minister of King Bijjala. He used his considerable powers to initiate programmes of social reform and saw his verses as extending his message to the masses.
(6) As a social movement, the Bhakti movement in Karnataka challenged caste hierarchy, emphasized the individual’s direct connection to god and the possibility of salvation for all through good deeds and simple living.
(7) As a literary movement, it liberated poetry from singing the praises of kings and introduced spiritual themes. From a style point of view, it introduced simple and accessible styles like vachanas (in Kannada) and other forms in various languages to literature and ended the hegemony of Sanskrit metrical forms.
Flourished in Maharashtra:
(1) In neighbouring Maharashtra, the Bhakti movement began in the late 13th century. Here, the most significant of whom were Vaishnavite rather than Shaivite, have come to be associated by means of a literary and festival tradition focused on a particular sacred site, the temple of Vithoba (Vishnu) at Pandharpur.
(2) Its proponents were known as the Varkaris. Among its most popular figures were Jnanadev (1275-96), Namdev (1270-50), Tukaram (1608-50) and Chokhamela, an outcaste Mahar, who have left behind many verses that embody the essence of Bhakti. All levels of society have always participated in the semiannual pilgrimage to Pandharpur.
Became old in Gujarat:
(1) Earlier, Swami Chakradhara was another major figure of the Bhakti movement, born in Gujarat in 1194 A.D. He established the Manhubhava Vaishnavite sect which spread to Maharashtra as well.
(2) Narasi Mehta of Gujarat (15th-century) popularised Vaishnava cult in Gujarat. He is acclaimed as its Adi Kavi.
(3) The devotional songs of Mira Bai (16th century) also deeply attracted the Gujarati people.
(4) By the time the Bhakti movement spread in Gujarat, it had spread all over the continent.
Conclusion:
Thus, the Bhakti movement which began from the Tamil regions gradually spread all over the continent. From the 13th to the 17th centuries, a large number of poets flourished in northern India, who were all Bhakti figures of considerable importance.
