BHAKTI MOVEMENT
New Religious Developments in North India
The period after the thirteenth century saw a new wave of the
bhakti movement in north India. This was an age when Islam,
Brahmanical Hinduism, Sufism, various strands of bhakti, and the
Nathpanths, Siddhas and Yogis influenced one another. We saw
that new towns (Chapter 6) and kingdoms (Chapters 2, 3 and 4)
were emerging, and people were taking up new professions and
finding new roles for themselves. Such people, especially crafts
persons, peasants, traders and labourers, thronged to listen to these
new saints and spread their ideas.
Some of them like Kabir and Baba Guru Nanak rejected all
orthodox religions. Others like Tulsidas and Surdas accepted
existing beliefs and practices but wanted to make these accessible
to all.
Tulsidas conceived of God in the form of Rama. Tulsidas’s
composition, the Ramcharitmanas, written in Awadhi (a language
used in eastern Uttar Pradesh), is important both as an expression
of his devotion and as a literary work.
Surdas was an ardent devotee of Krishna. His compositions,
compiled in the Sursagara, Surasaravali and Sahitya Lahari,
express his devotion.
Also contemporary was Shankaradeva of Assam (late fifteenth
century) who emphasised devotion to Vishnu, and composed
poems and plays in Assamese. He began the practice of setting up
namghars or houses of recitation and prayer, a practice that
continues to date.
Shankaradeva was a leading proponent of Vaishnavism in Assam.
He emphasised the need for ‘Naam Kirtan’ and encouraged the
establishment of ‘Satra’ or monas tries and ‘naam ghar’ or prayer
halls. His major compositions include the ‘Kirtana-ghosha’.
The essence of Shankaradeva’s devotion came to be known as Eka
Sarana Nama Dharma (supreme surrender to the One). The
teachings of Shankaradeva were based on the Bhagavad Gita and
Bhagavata Purana.
This tradition also included saints like Dadu Dayal, Ravidas and
Mirabai.
Mirabai was a famous woman-poet of Bhakti tradition.
Mirabai was a Rajput princess married into the royal family of
Mewar in the sixteenth century. Mirabai became a disciple of
Ravidas, a saint from a caste considered “untouchable”. She was
devoted to Krishna and composed innumerable bhajans expressing
her intense devotion. Her songs also openly challenged the norms
of the “upper” castes and became popular with the masses in
Rajasthan and Gujarat.
A unique feature of most of the saints is that their works were
composed in regional languages and could be sung. They became
immensely popular and were handed down orally from generation
to generation. Usually the poorest, most deprived communities and
women transmitted these songs, often adding their own
experiences. Thus the songs as we have them today are as much a
creation of the saints as of generations of people who sang them.
They have become a part of our living popular culture.
Chaitanyadeva, a sixteenth-century bhakti saint from Bengal,
preached selfless devotion to Krishna-Radha.
An important contribution of Bhakti saints was towards the
development of music. Jayadeva of Bengal composed the Gita
Govinda in Sanskrit, each song composed in a particular raga and
tala. A significant impact that these saints had on music was the
use of bhajan, kirtan and abhang. These songs which emphasised
on emotional experience had a tremendous appeal to the common
people.
A Closer Look: Kabir
Kabir, who probably lived in the fifteenth-sixteenth centuries, was
one of the most influential saints. He was brought up in a family of
Muslim julahas or weavers settled in or near the city of Benares
(Varanasi). We have little reliable information about his life. We
get to know of his ideas from a vast collection of verses called
sakhis and pads said to have been composed by him and sung by
wandering bhajan singers. Some of these were later collected and
preserved in the Guru Granth Sahib, Panch Vani and Bijak.
Kabir’s teachings were based on a complete, indeed vehement,
rejection of the major religious traditions. His teachings openly
ridiculed all forms of external worship of both Brahmanical
Hinduism and Islam, the pre-eminence of the priestly classes and
the caste system. The language of his poetry was a form of spoken
Hindi widely understood by ordinary people. He also sometimes
used cryptic language, which is difficult to follow. Kabir believed
in a formless Supreme God and preached that the only path to
salvation was through bhakti or devotion. Kabir drew his followers
from among both Hindus and Muslims.
A Closer Look: Baba Guru Nanak
We know more about Baba Guru Nanak (1469-1539) than about
Kabir. Born at Talwandi (Nankana Sahib in Pakistan), he travelled
widely before establishing a centre at Kartarpur (Dera Baba Nanak
on the river Ravi). A regular worship that consisted of the singing
of his own hymns was established there for his followers.
Irrespective of their former creed, caste or gender, his followers ate
together in the common kitchen (langar).
The sacred space thus created by Baba Guru Nanak was known as
dharmsal. It is now known as Gurdwara. Before his death in 1539,
Baba Guru Nanak appointed one of his followers as his successor.
His name was Lehna but he came to be known as Guru Angad,
signifying that he was a part of Baba Guru Nanak himself.
Guru Angad compiled the compositions of Baba Guru Nanak, to
which he added his own in a new script known as Gurmukhi. The
three successors of Guru Angad also wrote under the name of
“Nanak” and all of their compositions were compiled by Guru
Arjan in 1604. To this compilation were added the writings of
other figures like Shaikh Farid, Sant Kabir, Bhagat Namdev and
Guru Tegh Bahadur. In 1706 this compilation was authenticated by
Guru Tegh Bahadur’s son and successor, Guru Gobind Singh. It is
now known as Guru Granth Sahib, the holy scripture of the Sikhs.
The number of Baba Guru Nanak’s followers increased through the
sixteenth century under his successors. They belonged to a number
of castes but traders, agriculturists, artisans and craftsmen
predominated. This may have something to do with Baba Guru
Nanak’s insistence that his followers must be householders and
should adopt productive and useful occupations. They were also
expected to contribute to the general funds of the community of
followers.
By the beginning of the seventeenth century the town of
Ramdaspur (Amritsar) had developed around the central Gurdwara
called Harmandar Sahib (Golden Temple). It was virtually self-
governing and modern historians refer to the early-seventeenth-
century Sikh community as ‘a state within the state’.
The Mughal emperor Jahangir looked upon them as a potential
threat and he ordered the execution of Guru Arjan in 1606. The
Sikh movement began to get politicised in the 17th century, a
development which culminated in the institution of the Khalsa by
Guru Gobind Singh in 1699. The community of the Sikhs, called
the Khalsa Panth, became a political entity. The changing historical
situation during the sixteenth and seventeenth centuries influenced
the development of the Sikh movement.
The ideas of Baba Guru Nanak had a huge impact on this
development from the very beginning. He emphasised the
importance of the worship of one God. He insisted that caste, creed
or gender was irrelevant for attaining liberation. His idea of
liberation was not that of a state of inert bliss but rather the pursuit
of active life with a strong sense of social commitment.
He himself used the terms nam, dan and isnan for the essence of
his teaching, which actually meant right worship, welfare of others
and purity of conduct.
His teachings are now remembered as nam-japna, kirt-karna and
vandchhakna, which also underline the importance of right belief
and worship, honest living, and helping others.
Thus, Baba Guru Nanak’s idea of equality had social and political
implications. This might partly explain the difference between the
history of the followers of Baba Guru Nanak and the history of the
followers of the other religious figures of the medieval centuries,
like Kabir, Ravidas and Dadu whose ideas were very similar to
those of Baba Guru Nanak.
