BHAKTI AND SUFI MOVEMENTS
The Bhakti and Sufi movements were the most prominent religious movements of Medieval India, which stood for union of faiths and traditions. Devotion and worship to the God was considered the way of salvation for human beings. Religious diversity flourished into institutionalised tolerance and acceptance in the conflict and cruelity-ridden society.
These people belong to different turugs or orders. Assembly formed around a master which met for spiritual sessions (majalis), in meeting places known as zaviyahs, khangahs or tekke. All sufi orders trace many of their original precepts from the Islamic prophet Muhammad through his cousin and son-in-law Ali ibn Abi Talib, an exception is the Naqshbandi order, which trace their origins through the first Sunni Caliph, Abu Bakar.
BHAKTI MOVEMENT
Bhakti is a devotional worship of God, with the ultimate objective of attaining moksha or salvation. The Gyan Marg or the path of devotion to God. Siddhas were puritanical and monotheistic and condemned idolatry.
CAUSES FOR THE EMERGENCE OF BHAKTI MOVEMENT
Bhakti movement emerged in Southern India mainly in the Tamil region under the Pallava rule around 6th century. This was based on the worship of Shiva and Vishnu and was led by local saints, who used local language for preaching. They ignored the caste system and initially this movement was based on the equality of all human beings.
These saints led a very simple lifestyle and the Bhakti movement became very popular in Southern India and displaced Jainism and Buddhism as popular religions from the region. Bhakti movement reached the North only after the turks invaded India and weakened the Brahmin- Rajput alliance. Improvement in the economic condition of the lower classes, especially of those artisans and the impact of Islam’s Doctrine of Monotheism and equality were also important causes for emergence of the Bhakti movement in the North.
MAIN FEATURES OF BHAKTI MOVEMENT
The saints of Bhakti movement gave three means or margas for attaining salvation, which they referred as moksha. These were
- Gyan marga Attaining salvation through learning and understanding.
- Karma marga Attaining salvation through food deeds like doing services to the needy people
- Bhakti marga To attain moksha through unconditional love towards the God and total surrender to the good
Bhakti movements also discarded the priestly domination as well as rituals. According to Bhakti saints, the individual could realise God through devotion and personal effort.
The essential belief in both Sufism and Bhaktism was unity with God. The reformers took the idea of reforming the society by criticising the social evils like casteism, ill treatment to women or idolatry.
ALVARS (VAISHNAVITE SAINTS)
Alvar means one who is ‘immersed in the experience of God, the boundless or the mysterious one. Tradition reckons 12 aivars. They come from all walks of life and all stratas of the society and include in their ranks, as one man. Between the 5th-9th century, in the Tamil-speaking region of South India, these saints revitalised the Indian religious milieu, sparking a renewal of devotional worship throughout the sub-continent.
Travelling from place to place, from temple to temple, from holy site to holy site, they composed exceedingly beautiful poetry to their divine beloved, Vishnu, as an expression of their love for him.
Anyone could see why their poetry was so attractive; at once both impassioned and philosophical, their words cut across all barriers of caste and class, attracting all to their faith.
In doing so, they sculpted a new religious heritage of intensely emotional Bhakti or love of the Divine, whose impact is still felt today in the Indian religious life.
In the 9th-10th centuries, the philosopher saint Nathamuni took extraordinary efforts to recover these verses from near oblivion. Nathamuni arranged them as the Divya Prabandham divine or collection, set many of them to music and rejuvenated the tradition of formally reciting them in temples.
NAYANARS (SAIVITE SAINTS)
Nayanars refer to the 63 devotees (and 9 general devotees) of Lord Shiva, who lived before or during the lifetime of Sundaramurthy Nayanar. He sang at Thiruvarur where he recited the names of all 63 future Nayanars: this recitation is called Tiruttondar-Tokai.
In it, he refers to himself as the servants of all saints. Periya puranam of Sekkizhar (Holy book, Tirumurai) talks in detail the life of these 63 devotees
It is important to note that these devotees come from various background, caste, economic background, main work for living, stages of life (single, married or sanyasi) and include both male and female ones. Some were learned scholars while others did not have any formal schooling. The unifying factor is their extreme devotion to Lord Shiva. The Lingayats of Kannada region questioned the theory of rebirth and rejected the caste hierarchy.