Chapter 7 : Bhakti & Sufi

Define Bhakti Movement: Bhakti Movement:

1. Bhakti as a religious concept means devotional surrender to a personally conceived Supreme God for attaining salvation.

2. The origin of this doctrine has been traced to both the Brahmanical and Buddhist traditions and to various scriptures such as the Gita.

3. Bakti grew from a mere religious doctrine into a popular movement based on religious equality and broad-based social participation in South India for the first time in the seventh and tenth century.

4. The Movement led by poet-saints reached its climax in the tenth century and then gradually declined in south India.

5. There were two major branches of the Bhakti Traditions in South India.

   1. Alvars: Followers of Lord Vishnu

   2. Nainars: Followers of Lord Shiva

6. The Shaiv-Nayanar saints and Vaishnava-Alvar saints of South India spread the doctrine of bhakti among different sections of the society irrespective of caste and gender during the period between the seventh and the tenth century.

7. Some of these saints came from the "lower" castes and some were women ( Andal - Alvar and Karaikal Amaiyyar - Nainar)

8. The saint-poets preached bhakti in an intense emotional manner and promoted religious egalitarianism.

9. In the Eleventh Century, the movement was revived as a philosophical and Ideological movement by wandering “Acharyas” beginning with “Ramanujacharya” in the eleventh century.

10. After the establishment of the Delhi Sultanate in the 13th Century many regional distinctive Bhakti Movements developed in various parts of India ( Maharashtra, Bengal, Rajasthan, North India etc).

11. The nature of these sects was mainly of two types

    1. Nirguna: Those who believed in a formless God. ( Kabir, Guru Nanak)

    2. Saguna: Those who believed in various forms of God.

       1. Saguna were further divided into two major branches

          1. Followers of the Path of Rama :

          2. Followers of the path of Krishna ( Meera)

12. The Kabir sect was distinctive in all its context, leadership, members and teaching and it was very different from the old South Bhakti Movement and the rest of the Bhakti movement.