Philosophy and attain salvation. to understand knowledge the of true nature path of Brahman the and of adoption and world the of renunciation preached was formless and without any attributes. Hethat Brahman, the only or Ultimate Reality,UltimateReality.the is which taughtHe of the individual soul and the Supreme Godof in the eighth century. He was an advocate philosophers of , was born in Kerala about it.about to devotion on ideas New inequalities. and rituals Soon, temples. the enter even to allowed not were Pe rituals. the performed priests trained Specially perform various rituals. Temple worship became elab made and gods these for temples large built chiefs r Vishnuofworshippers Siva, were and who Nayanars the about read have would you VI class In century. various kinds of of kinds various o devotion intense Such tears. to moved are them of or Shankara, one of the most influentialmost the of one Shankara, Advaita CHAPTER You may have seen people perform rituals of worship qawwalis 23 or the doctrine of the onenessthe of doctrinethe or , or even repeating the name of God in silence, and silence, in God of name the repeating even or , bhakti bhakti Bhakti and Sufi movements that have evolved since the eigh the since evolved have that movements Sufi and Devotional Paths to the Divine hc dvlpd n ot India north in subsequently. developed which of strand new the inspired greatly God doctrine Ramanuja’s Supreme distinct. remained the with united when oneness according to which the soul even doctrine of of doctrine the propounded He worship. temple in ensured a place for people of lower castes with Him. Ramanjua also to a large extent helps the devotee to attain the bliss graceofHis Vishnu.Vishnuin to union devotion of attaining salvation was through intense the Alvars. According to him the besteleventh meanscentury, was deeply influenced by Ramanuja, born in South India in thein India South in born Ramanuja, god emerged. Read on to knowto on Read emerged. god ople belonging to some castes some to belonging ople orate, complex and expensive. r love of God is the legacy oflegacy the is God of love r land grants and other gifts togifts other and grants land a reaction set in against suchagainst in set reaction a Bhakti poems of Alvars andAlvars of poems Bhakti espectively.andkings Soon , or singing Vishishtadvaita Vishishtadvaita noticed that somethat noticed bhajans r qualified or , , kirtans bhakti th Basavanna’s Virashaivism The Saints of Maharashtra We noted earlier the connection From the thirteenth to the seventeenth between the bhakti movement and temple centuries Maharashtra saw a great number worship. This in turn led to a reaction that of saint-poets, whose songs in simple was best represented in the Virashaiva Marathi continue to inspire people. The movement initiated by Basavanna and his most important among them were companions like Allama Prabhu and Jnaneshwar, Namdev, Eknath and Tukaram Akkamahadevi. This movement began in as well as women like Sakkubai and the Karnataka in the mid-twelfth century. The family of Chokhamela, who belonged to the Virashaivas argued strongly for the equality “untouchable” Mahar caste. This regional of all human beings and against Scriptural tradition of bhakti focused on the Vitthala ideas about caste and the treatment of (a form of Vishnu) temple in Pandharpur, women. They were also against all forms as well as on the notion of a personal god of ritual and idol worship. residing in the hearts of all people. These are vachanas or sayings attributed to Basavanna:

The rich Will make temples for Shiva. What shall I, A poor man Do? My legs are pillars, The body the shrine, The head a cupola Of gold. Listen, O Lord of the meeting rivers, Things standing shall fall, But the moving ever shall stay.

& What were the major ideas expressed by Basavanna?

& What is the temple that Basavanna is offering to God?

Fig 23.1 A fireside gathering of ascetics.

Free Distribution by Govt. of A.P. Devotional Paths to the Divine 197 These saint-poets rejected all forms of You made us low caste, ritualism, outward display of piety and Why don’t you face that fact, Great Lord? social differences based on birth. In fact, Our whole life – left-over food to eat. they even rejected the idea of renunciation You should be ashamed of this. and preferred to live with their families, You have eaten in our home. earning their livelihood like any other How can you deny it? person, while humbly serving fellow human Chokha’s (son) Karmamela asks beings in need. A new humanist idea emerged as they insisted that bhakti lay in Why did you give me life? sharing others’ pain. As the famous Gujarati saint Narsi Mehta said, “Vaishnavas are & Discuss the ideas about the social those who understand the pain of others.” order expressed in these compositions. This is an abhang (Marathi devotional hymn) of Sant Tukaram: Nathpanthis, Siddhas and Yogis He who identifies A number of religious groups that with the battered and the beaten, emerged during this period criticised the Mark him as a saint, ritual and other aspects of conventional For God is with him. religion and the social order, using simple, He holds logical arguments. Among them were the Every forsaken man Nathpanthis, Siddhacharas and Yogis . Close to his heart, They advocated renunciation of the world. He treats To them the path to salvation lay in A slave meditation on the formless Ultimate Reality and the realisation of oneness with As his own son. it. To achieve this they advocated intense Says Tuka, training of the mind and body through I won’t be tired practices like yogasanas , breathing to repeat again, exercises and meditation. These groups Such a man became particularly popular among low Is God castes. Their criticism of conventional In person. religion created the ground for devotional religion to become a popular force in & Why do you think Tukaram northern India. considers the friends of the poor and suffering as the real devotees and of God? The saints had much in common with the Sufis, so much so that it is believed that Here is an abhang composed by they adopted many ideas of each other. Chokhamela’s son: Sufis were Muslim mystics. They rejected 198 Religion and Society outward religiosity and emphasised love and the Sufis too believed that the heart can be devotion to God and compassion towards trained to look at the world in a different all fellow human beings. way. They developed elaborate methods of training using zikr (chanting of a name or Islam propagated strict monotheism or sacred formula), contemplation, sama submission to one God. It also rejected idol (singing), raqs (dancing), discussion of worship and considerably simplified rituals parables, breath control, etc. under the of worship into collective prayers. At the guidance of a master or pir . Thus emerged same time Muslim scholars developed a the , a genealogy of Sufi teachers, holy law called Shariat . The Sufis often each following a slightly different method rejected the elaborate rituals and codes of (tariqa ) of instruction and ritual practice. behaviour demanded by Muslim religious scholars. They sought union with God much A large number of Sufis from Central as a lover seeks his beloved with a disregard Asia settled in Hindustan from the eleventh for the world. Like the saint-poets, the Sufis century onwards. This process was too composed poems expressing their strengthened with the establishment of the feelings, and a rich literature in prose, Sultanate, when several major Sufi including anecdotes and fables, developed centres developed all over the around them. Among the great Sufis of subcontinent. The Chishti was Central Asia were Ghazzali, and Sadi. among the most influential orders. It had a Like the Nathpanthis , Siddhas and Yogis , long line of teachers like Khwaja Moinuddin Chishti of , Qutbuddin Bakhtiar Kaki of Delhi, Baba Farid of Punjab, Khwaja of Delhi and Bandanawaz Gisudaraz of Gulbarga. The Sufi masters held their assemblies in their khanqahs or hospices. Devotees of all descriptions including members of the royalty and nobility, and ordinary people flocked to these khanqahs . They discussed spiritual matters, sought the blessings of the saints in solving their worldly problems, or simply attended the music and dance sessions. Often people attributed Sufi masters with miraculous powers that could relieve others of their illnesses Fig 23.2 Mystics in ecstasy. and troubles. The tomb or of Free Distribution by Govt. of A.P. Devotional Paths to the Divine 199 a Sufi saint became a place of pilgrimage Thallapaka Annamacharya (1408 – 1503) to which thousands of people of all faiths was a popular saint-composer of Andhra thronged. Pradesh and is revered as ‘ pada kavita pitamaha ’. Annamayya dedicated his life & If you have ever been to a dargah for composing and singing the glories of describe it to your friends in the Lord Venkateswara of Tirupati. His class. How do people show compositions were mostly extempore in respects to the Pir and what do they spoken dialect unlike in the classics of the pray for there. age which were written in the classical (Grandhika ) style. In ‘Annamacharya New Religious Developments in Charitramu’ it is said that Annamayya India composed thirty two thousand keertanas on Lord Venkateswara. The period after the thirteenth century saw a new wave of the bhakti movement in In his keertanas , he took up subjects north India. This was an age when Islam, such as morality, dharma and righteousness. Hinduism, Sufism, various strands of He was one of the first few who opposed bhakti , and the Nathpanths , Siddhas and the social stigma towards the untouchable Yogis influenced one another. We saw that castes in his era. In his sankeertanas, new towns and kingdoms were emerging, “Brahmam Okkate Parabrahmam and people were taking up new professions Okkate...” and “E Kulajudainanemi and finding new roles for themselves. Such Evvadainanemi...” , he describes that the people, especially crafts persons, peasants, relationship between God and human is the traders and labourers, thronged to listen to same irrespective of the later’s color, caste these new saints and spread their ideas. and financial status, in beautiful yet Some of them like Kabir and Baba Guru powerful usage of words. Nanak rejected orthodox customs and beliefs. R_"#%'()*<0(-(R_"#%'.X@2 Poets like Bammera Potana, R_"#%'(3 \0(-(R_"#%' Annamacharya, Chaitanya Mahaprabhu, Tulsidas and Surdas accepted existing  *0:<<=!V@G(.2? *0:<<=!V@G(.2? beliefs and practices but wanted to make  *0:<<=!V@G(.2? *0:<<=!V@G(CCC these accessible to all. "E2?(2G(H"I_<(#J_<<(%K=!@ Potana who lived the life of a peasant in M"E%( "1<(#(MHJ_<<(%K=!@ (CCC the village Bammera near Warangal, composed the famous Mahabhagavatamu :<"ES'( *0R

200 Religion and Society Chaitanya Mahaprabhu (1486–1534) Tulsidas conceived of God in the form was a Vaishnava saint and social reformer of Rama. Tulsidas’s composition, the in eastern India (present day Bangladesh and Ramcharitmanas , written in Awadhi (a West Bengal). Chaitanya was a notable language used in eastern Uttar Pradesh), is proponent for the Vaishnava school of important both as an expression of his Bhakti yoga (meaning loving devotion to devotion and as a literary work. Also Krishna/God) based on the philosophy of contemporary was Shankaradeva of Assam the Bhagavata Purana and Bhagavad (late fifteenth century) who emphasised Gita . He propagated community singing of devotion to Vishnu, and composed poems Bhajans and dancing with devotion. He and plays in Assamese. He began the worshipped the forms of Krishna and practice of setting up namghars or houses popularised the chanting of the ‘ Hare of recitation and prayer, a practice that Krishna’ mantra . continues to date. This tradition also Kancherla Gopanna (1620 - 1680), included saints like popularly known as Bhakta Ramadasu, was Dadu Dayal, Ravidas a 17 th century devotee of Sri Rama and a and Mirabai. Mirabai composer of Carnatic music. He is one was a Rajput princess among the famous vaggeyakaras (same married into the royal person being the writer and composer of a family of Mewar in the song) in the Telugu language. He is sixteenth century. renowned for constructing a famous temple Mirabai became a for Sri Rama at Bhadrachalam. He disciple of Ravidas, a composed devotional lyrics to Rama which saint from a caste are popularly known as Ramadaasu considered Keertanalu . He wrote Dasarathi “untouchable”. She was Shatakamu , a collection of nearly 108 Fig 23.3 A painting devoted to Krishna and poems dedicated to Lord Rama. of Mirabai. composed innumerable bhajans expressing her intense devotion. [(\2?<]5(''<(#J_<(I_TI#:A`(a'(b"cIR_ b<(2bT Her songs also openly challenged the %(R_2?bT(3 b(fK]52?h<#'<`('i'(#\`=! R(2bT norms of the “upper” castes and became popular with the masses in Rajasthan and l2?.<<'"#'(YQR(2?b

Free Distribution by Govt. of A.P. Devotional Paths to the Divine 201 songs, often adding their own experiences. of his ideas from a vast collection of verses Thus the songs as we have them today are called sakhis and pads said to have been as much a creation of the saints as of composed by him and sung by wandering generations of people who sang them. They bhajan singers. Some of these were later have become a part of our living popular collected and preserved in the Guru Granth culture. Sahib , Panch Vani and Bijak .

& Have you listened to any such old Kabir’s teachings were based on a bhajans in your mother tounge? complete, indeed vehement, rejection of the Find out who composed them. major religious traditions. His teachings Write down some of them and openly ridiculed all forms of external discuss their meaning in the class. worship of both Hinduism and Islam, the pre-eminence of the priestly classes and the A Closer Look: Kabir caste system. The language of his poetry was a form of spoken Hindi, widely understood Kabir, who probably lived in the by ordinary people. fifteenth-sixteenth centuries, was one of the most influential saints. He was brought Kabir believed in a formless Supreme up in a family of Muslim julahas or God and preached that the only path to weavers settled near the city of Benares salvation was through bhakti or devotion. (Varanasi). We have little reliable Kabir drew his followers from among both information about his life. We get to know and Muslims. Here is a composition of Kabir:

O Allah-Ram present in all living beings Have mercy on your servants, O Lord! Why bump your head on the ground, Why bathe your body in water? You kill and you call yourself “humble”, But your vices you conceal. Twenty-four times the Brahmana keeps the ekadasi fast, While the Qazi observes the Ramzan. Tell me why does he set aside the eleven months To seek spiritual fruit in the twelfth? Hari dwells in the East, they say And Allah resides in the West, Search for him in your heart, in the heart of your heart; 23.4 A painting of Kabir working on a loom. There he dwells, Rahim-Ram 202 Religion and Society A Closer Look: Baba Guru Nanak We know more about Guru Nanak (1469- 1539 AD) 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). Irrespective of their former creed, caste or gender, his followers ate together in the common kitchen (langar ). The sacred space thus created by Guru Nanak was known as dharmsal . 23.5 Baba Guru Nanak as a young man, discussion with holy men. The number of Guru Nanak’s followers was not that of a state of inert bliss but increased through the sixteenth century rather the pursuit of active life with a strong under his successors. They belonged to a sense of social commitment. He himself number of castes; but traders, agriculturists, used the terms nam, dan and isnan for the artisans and craftsmen predominated. This essence of his teaching, which actually may have something to do with Guru meant right worship, welfare of others and Nanak’s insistence that his followers must purity of conduct. His teachings are now be householders and should adopt remembered as nam-japna, kirt-karna and productive and useful occupations. They vand-chhakna , which also underline the were also expected to contribute to the importance of right belief and worship, general funds of the community of honest living, and helping others. Thus, followers. Guru Nanak’s idea of equality had social and political implications. This might partly The ideas of Guru Nanak had a huge explain the difference between the history impact on this movement from the very of the followers of Guru Nanak and the beginning. He emphasised the importance history of the followers of the other of the worship of one God. He insisted that religious figures of the medieval centuries, caste, creed or gender was irrelevant for like Kabir, Ravidas and Dadu whose ideas attaining liberation. His idea of liberation were very similar to those of Guru Nanak. Free Distribution by Govt. of A.P. Devotional Paths to the Divine 203 Key words : 5. Bhakti 1. Advaita 6. Yogasanas 2. Salvation 7. Bijak 3. Alvars 8. Abhang 4. Nayanars

Improve your learning

1. Fill in the blanks:

(a) Ramanuja was influenced by the —————.

(b) ————, ———— and ———— were advocates of Virashaivism .

(c) ———————— was an important centre of the Bhakti tradition in Maharashtra.

2. Describe the beliefs and practices of the Nathpanthis, Siddhas and Yogis .

3. What were the major ideas expressed by Kabir? How did he express them?

4. What were the major beliefs and practices of the Sufis?

5. Why do you think many teachers rejected prevalent religious beliefs and practices?

6. What were the major teachings of Baba Guru Nanak?

7. For either the Virashaivas or the saints of Maharashtra, discuss their attitude towards caste.

8. Why do you think ordinary people preserved the memory of Mirabai?

Project work :

1. Find out whether in your neighbourhood there are any , gurudwaras or temples associated with saints of the bhakti tradition. Visit any one of these and describe what you see and hear.

2. For any of the saint-poets whose compositions have been included in this chapter, find out more about their works, noting down other poems. Find out whether these are sung, how they are sung, and what the poets wrote about.

204 Religion and Society