The Bhakti Movement
How the bhakti movement of devotional poet-saints transformed Hinduism, from the Tamil Alvars and Nayanars to Kabir, Mirabai, Tulsidas and Chaitanya.
The bhakti movement was a great wave of devotional religion that swept across India over roughly a thousand years, from around the 6th century in the Tamil south to the 17th century in the north and west. Its poet-saints taught that loving devotion (bhakti) to God was the surest path to liberation, open to everyone regardless of caste, gender or learning. They sang in the languages of ordinary people rather than Sanskrit, and their songs are still sung in homes and temples today.
What is bhakti?
The Sanskrit word bhakti comes from a root meaning “to share” or “to participate”, and means devotion, love and participation in God. The Bhagavad Gita already presents bhakti as a path to God. The Bhagavata Purana lists nine forms of devotion: hearing about God, singing his praises, remembering him, serving his feet, worship, bowing down, servitude, friendship and complete self-offering.
The Tamil beginnings
The movement began in Tamil Nadu between the 6th and 9th centuries with two groups of poet-saints:
- The Alvars, twelve devotees of Vishnu, including the woman saint Andal, who longed to marry God. Their hymns form the Nalayira Divya Prabandham.
- The Nayanars, sixty-three devotees of Shiva, from every level of society.
They travelled from temple to temple singing ecstatic hymns, and laid the foundations of Sri Vaishnavism and Tamil Shaivism.
Bhakti spreads
| Region | Saints | Period |
|---|---|---|
| Karnataka | Basava and Akka Mahadevi, poets of Shiva in short sayings called vachanas; later the Haridasas, such as Purandara Dasa | 12th–16th centuries |
| Maharashtra | Jnaneshwar, Namdev, Janabai, Eknath and Tukaram of the Warkari tradition, devoted to Vithoba at Pandharpur | 13th–17th centuries |
| North India | Kabir, Ravidas, Surdas, Tulsidas, Mirabai | 15th–17th centuries |
| Bengal and Odisha | Chaitanya and his followers | 15th–16th centuries |
| Assam | Sankardev, founder of a monotheistic Vaishnava tradition | 15th–16th centuries |
| Gujarat | Narsinh Mehta, whose hymn Vaishnav Jan To was Gandhi's favourite | 15th century |
Saguna and nirguna
Scholars distinguish two strands. Saguna bhakti worships God “with qualities” in a personal form, such as Krishna or Rama; Surdas, Mirabai and Tulsidas belong here. Nirguna bhakti worships God “without qualities”, beyond all form and image; Kabir and Ravidas are its best-known voices. Kabir's verses mocked empty ritual and the divisions between Hindus and Muslims, and are included, with those of Ravidas and Namdev, in the Sikh scripture, the Guru Granth Sahib.
Themes
- Love over ritual: sincere devotion matters more than sacrifice, pilgrimage or learning.
- Equality: God accepts every devotee. Many saints came from low-caste or untouchable communities, and several were women.
- Vernacular languages: the saints composed in Tamil, Kannada, Marathi, Hindi, Bengali and other languages, creating some of the earliest great literature in those languages.
- Singing together: congregational singing (kirtan and bhajan) became central to Hindu worship.
Legacy
The bhakti movement transformed Hinduism into a religion centred above all on personal devotion. It shaped temple worship, music, dance and festival life, and its songs remain part of everyday Hindu practice around the world. Modern movements such as ISKCON continue its tradition.
Sources and further reading
- John Stratton Hawley, A Storm of Songs: India and the Idea of the Bhakti Movement (Harvard University Press, 2015).
- A. K. Ramanujan, Speaking of Siva (Penguin Classics, 1973).
- John Stratton Hawley and Mark Juergensmeyer, Songs of the Saints of India (Oxford University Press, 1988).