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Bhakti and Sufi movements
The Bhakti movement of medivel India was a wide spread movement that
embraced the whole of India for several centuries.
The saints of the Bhakti movement advocated Bhakti or devotion to God as a
means of attaining salvation.
It main objectives were to reform the Hindu religion and foster friendly relations
between the Hindu Muslim communities.
The preachers of this movement belonged to different places and different times.
Bhakti Cult in South India:
Saivism and Vaishanavism revived and gained great impetus through the Bhakti
cult during the pallava, chola and pandya period by the Nayanmars and the
Alwars.
Bhakti arose first in South India.
Ramananda spread it to the north.
Kabir made if popular among the masses.
Nayanmars:
There were 63 Nayanmars who popularized the fame of siva and Saivism.
The most famous among them were appar, sundarar, Thirugana Sambandar and
Manikavasagar.
Appar was born around 600 A.D in South Arcot district.
Initially he was a follower of Jainism due to the influence of his sister
Thilagavathiyar he become a devotee of Lord shiva.
He composed 49,000 hymns ( Pathigams ) and only 311 hymns are available.
Manikavasagar was firm in his faith of worship of one supreme God and declared
that the way to reach God was love and not rituals.
His work is called Tiruvasagam .
Sambandhar is said to have sung about 16000 devotional pathigams of which only
384 pathigams are available.
Sundaramoorthy Nayanar was born during the last decades of the 8th century A.D
in south Arcot district.
He composed 38000 pathigams of which only 100 pathigams are available.
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The most popular works of this period are sekhizar’s “Periyapuranam”, Devaram
and Thiruvasagam .
These hymns are great devotional philosophical and literary works
Thevaram consists of the hymns by the three Nayanmars. Appar
( Thirunavukkarasar) Sambandar ( Thirugananasambandar ) and Sundarar.
Together these constitute the seven of the twelve saiva Thirumurais.
The Eight Thirumurai consists of the hymns of manikavasakar.
Among them Gnanasambandar, Appar and Sundaram ( Often called “the trio” )
It consists of 12 books and 11 of them were assembled by Nambi.
The 12th book is Sekkizhar’s periyapuranam
Alwars:
The glory of Lord Vishnu were sung by 12 Alwars.
The most famous among the Alwars were Nammalwar, Perialwar and Andal
Nadamuni compiled the 4000 hymns sung by the Alwars and named it as Nalayira
Divya prabhandam.
Andal the only female Alwar.
Three muthal Alwars : Poigai Alwar, Bhoothathu Alwar, Pei Alwar.
Early history of the Bhakthi Movement:
One of the earlier exponents of the Bhakthi movement of South India was
Sankaracharya.
He was born at Kaladi in kerala.
He preached Advaita philosophy or the worship of one God ( Monotheism).
He said Brahma or the supreme spirit is alone real.
Sankaracharya taught his followers to love truth, respect reason and realize the
purpose of life.
Exponents of the movements:
Ramanuja:
Ramanuja a great exponent of the Bhakti movement, was born at sriperumbudur.
He was a great vaishanavite leader of the 12th century A.D
He taught that salvation lies only in devotion to God.
He invited the downtrodden to embrace Vaishnavism.
His philosophy known as Vishistadvaita.
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Ramanuja articulated ideas of social equality and condemned caste - based
restrictions on entering the temples.
He established centres to spread his doctrine of devotion, Srivaishnavism, to God
Vishnu and his consort lakshmi.
In the 16th and 17th centuries, Vaishnavism spread across India.
The Vadakalai Vaishnaism originally flourished around kanchipuram.
Which was a popular centre for Sanskrit learning.
Thenkalai vaishnavism centred on srirangam.
Vadakalai sect focused on vedic literature, which is written in Sanskrit.
The Thenkalai sect stressed the importance or Divya Prabandhams written by the
12 alwars in tamil.
Ramananda:
Ramananda was the follower of Ramanuja.
He believed in the existence of God.
He saw humanity as one large family and all men as brothers.
His dispels came from all religions and castes.
He started preaching in the language of the people.
Ramananda was born at prayag ( Allahabad ) and received his higher education in
hindu religious philosophy at Banaras joined the school of Ramanuja as a preache.
He visited the holy places of North India and preached vaishnavism.
He preached equality before God.
He rejected caste system particularly the supremacy of Brahmins as the sole
custodians of Hindu religion.
His twelve disciples included Ravidas, Kabir, and two women.
His followers were divided into conservative and radical schools.
Vallabhacharya:
He was the devotee of Krishna who taught that an individual could attain salvation
through Bhakthi.
Basava:
He was the founder of Virasaivism.
His followers were known as virasaivas or Lingayats.
They challenged the idea of caste and theory of rebirth.
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Bhakthi cult in North India:
Chaitanya:
He was born in Bengal in 1485 A.D.
He propagated Krishna cult.
He believed that one can realize the presence of God only through love and
devotion.
He popularized the practice of group devotional singing accompanied by ecstatic
dancing.
His movement became popular in Bengal and Orissa.
Kabir:
The follower of Ramananda was the first to preach Hindu - Muslim unity.
Kabir is regarded as the greatest of the mystic saints.
His followers are called kabir panthis
His teachings have been collected in a book called Bijaka.
His poems particularly dohas had a great appeal to the common man.
He said that Ram and Rahim were the same.
He preached against idol worship and caste system.
According to the popular Tazkirah - i - Auliya- i - Hindi ( Lives of musim saints ).
He was a disciple of the muslim Sufi Shaikh Taqi.
His poetry is still recited across large parts of India.
Guru Nanak:
Guru Nanak another well - Known saint of the Bhakthi movement was the founder
of Sikism.
He was a disciple of Kabir.
He was born in 1469 A.D at Talwandi near Lahore.
He preached unity of God, good will and co - operation among Hindus and
muslims.
He advocated truth honesty, kindness and condemned orthodox beliefs and
idolatry or idol worship.
The saint with the biggest institutional influence was Guru Nanak.
Over two centuries, under the Leadership of its ten Gurus, Sikism expanded
swiftly in the Punjab region winning numerous adherents
Guru Govind singh was the last Guru.
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After him the Granth sahib was considered the guru.
While the teachings of Guru Nanak is the Adi Granth.
The Guru Granth sahib, part from the feaching of its other gurus, in corporates the
writings of many Bhakthi poets and sufi saints such as Ramananda, Namadeva,
Kabir and Sheikh Farid.
Abide pure amidst the impurities of the world was one of his famous sayings.
Mirbai:
Mirabai a saint of his movement was born in 1498 A.D
She was the daughter of Rathor Ratan singh of mewar and wife of the ruler of
udaipur.
She was a devotee of Krishna.
She was very popular in Rajasthan for her bhajans.
There is a big temple dedicated to mirabai in chittor the capital of mewar.
She become a devote of Lord Krishna, Left the palace and began singing her songs
( bhajans ) and preching the path of love on God.
Mirabai preached the worship of God in the name of Krishna and stressed that no
one should be deprived of his divine grace on the ground of birth , poverty age and
sex.
Ravidas:
Ravidas was a poet saint of the bhakthi movement during the 15th and 16th century.
Venerated as a guru ( teacher ) in the regions of Punjab, Rajasthan, Maharashtra
and Madhya Pradesh.
The life details of Ravidas are uncertain and contested.
Ravidas was one of the disciples of the bhakti Saint poet Ramananda.
Ravidas devotional songs were included in the sikh scriptures.
Ravidas spoke against social divisions of caste and gender and promoted unity in
the pursuit of personal spiritual freedoms.
Surdas:
Surdas lived at the court of Akbar and was popularly known as the blind bard of
Agra.
Surdas is believed to have been a disciple of vallabacharya who was a Vaishnava
Preacher in the sultanate period.
Vallabhacharya was the founder of Pushitimarga (way of grace)
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Surdas preached religion of love and devotion to a personal God.
He wrote inspiring and moving poems, Hindi poems about Lord Krishna.
Krishna’s bad lila constitutes the first great theme of Surdas poetry.
His popular works are sure sagar, sur saravali and sahitya lehari.
His monumental work Sur Sagar or Sur’s ocean is a story of Lord Krishna from
the birth to the departure for Mathura.
Maharashtra Saints:
The marath region produced a number of Bhakthi Saints namely Gnanadeva,
Namadeva, Eknath, Tukaram, Tulsidas and Ramdas.
Namdeva:
Namadeva a son of a tailor and an inhabitant of the village of Narasvamani in
Satara district of Maharashtra, under the influence of saint Janadeva was converted
to the path of bhakti.
He wrote many abhangs (songs composed and sung by saints in Maharashtra in
praise of God’s glory) in Marathi and Hindi.
Love god with all your heart to lead a pious life surrounding everything to him
with steadfast devotion is the essence of his message.
Namadeva preached the gospel of love.
He opposed idol worship and priestly domination.
He also opposed the caste system.
Tuka Ram:
Tuka Ram was born in 1608 in a village near poona, Mahrashtra.
He was a contemporary of Marath Shivaji and Saints like Eknath and Ramdas.
Tuka Ram believed in formless God.
He rejected vedic sacrifices, ceremonies, pilgrimages, idol worship etc…
He also preached the virtue of piety, forgiveness and peace of mind.
He spread the message of equality and brotherhood.
He tried to foster Hindhu-Muslim Unity.
Some of his verses are devoted to this theme.
He wrote his abhangas in Marathi.
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Ganadeva:
Ganadeva was the founder of the Bhakti movement is Maharashtra in the thirteenth
century.
It was called Maharashtra dharma.
He wrote a commentary of Bhagavat Gita called Gnaneswari.
Ekanatha:
He opposed caste distinctions and sympathetic towards the lower castes.
He composed many lyrics and his bhajans and kirtans were famous.
Guru Ramdas’s work was Dasabodha.
Tulsidas was the author of Ramcharitmanas.
Salient Features of Bhakti Movement:
The bhakti reformers preached the principles of monotheism.
They believed in freedom from the cycle of life and death.
They advocated that the salvation could be attained only by deep devotion and
faith in God.
They emphasized the self-surrender for obtaining the bliss and grace of God.
Gurus could act as guides and preceptors.
They advocated the principle of Universal brotherhood.
They criticized idol worship.
They stressed the singing of hymns with deep devotion.
Arguing that all living beings including humans were god’s children.
They condemned ritualism pilgrimages and fasts.
They did not consider any language as sacred and composed poems in the
language of the common people.
The Sufi Movement:
Sufism was a reform movement which originate in Persia and became popular in
India in the 12th century A.D.
The followers of this movement were called as sufis.
They regarded prophet Muhammad as a perfect human being.
Sufism insisted that God could be reached only through mediation love and
devotion.
They opposed rituals and were tolerant towards other relgions.
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The sufis organized themselves into communities as shaikh (in Arabic) pir or
murshid (in persion)
The sufis belonged to 12th orders called as silsilas.
The word silsila means a chain signifying a continuous link between master and
disciple.
Important sufi Saints of India:
Some of the most important sufi saints of India were khwaha muin-ud0din
chisti,Baba Farid and Nizam-ud-din Auliya.
Khwaja muin-ud-din chisti:
He came to India around 1192 A.D and stayed at Ajmer.
According to him the greatest form of devotion to god was through service to
humanity.
He dedicated his entire life to the service of mankind.
He was popularly known as “Gharib Nawaz” or protector of the poor.
He encouraged singing of devotional songs and quawalis at gatherings.
He died in 1235 A.D
The place where he was buried in Ajmer is an important place of pilgrimage.
The hindu customs of breaking coconuts and lighting of lamp.
Baba Farid:
Baba Farid the disciple of khwaja muin-ud-din chisti preached the unity of God
and brother hood.
He encouraged people to live a simple life.
He composed many verses in Punjabi.
Which are recited by both the Hindus and the muslims.
Sultan Balban was a devotes of Baba Farid.
Nizan-ud-din Auliya:
He was a popular saint who came from Badayeen and settled in Delhi.
He became the disciple of Baba Farid.
He was against class and caste distinctions.
He was popularly referred to as Mehboob-i-illahi (Beloved of God) by his
devotees.
His dargah is at Delhi
It is visited by both the Hindus and Muslims.
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Saint Nagore Andavar:
Saint Nagore Andavar belonged to the 16th century A.D
He was popularly called as meeran sahib or Qadirwali.
The shrine at Nagore is dedicated to him.
The Knadhuri Urs festival celebrated at Nagore is attended by people of all
religions.
Although the Nagore Dargah is dedicated to a muslim saint, Hindu influence is
seen in the architectural style of the Dargah and the rituals performed.
(e.g) applying sandalwood paste, giving prasadam, tonsuring the head etc.
Impact of the Bhakti and Sufi movement:
The Bhakti and Sufi movments tried-to end the exploitation of the masses by the
priestly class.
They created awareness about the evils of superstitious beliefs.
It paved the way for equality and brother hood.
The Bhakti Saints preached against ritualism idol worship caste system priestly
domination and different of religions.
They believed that though love and devotion one can realize the personal presence
of God.
They encouraged good will and co-operation among the Hindus and Muslims.
The Sufi Saints taught that there is one God and all human beings are his children.
They emphasized on leading a pure life and serving the poor and needy.
They condemned rituals and sacrifices.
Hindi, Punjabi, Bengali, Telugu, Kannada and Tamil literature were enriched by
the Bhakti and Sufi Saints