AI Overview
The Tamil Bhakti movement (6th–9th centuries CE) revolutionized South Indian society by emphasizing intense, personal love for God and sweeping across Tamilakam. It revived Hinduism, challenged the hegemony of Buddhism and Jainism under the Kalabhras, and broke down rigid caste barriers.
The Core Pillars: Nayanmars and Alvars
- The Nayanmars: 63 Shaivite saints who worshipped Lord Shiva. Key figures include Appar, Sambandar, Sundarar, and Manikkavasagar. Their compiled hymns are known as the Thirumurai, which includes the Tevaram.
- The Alvars: 12 Vaishnavite saints devoted to Lord Vishnu. Prominent saints include Periyazhwar, Andal, and Nammalvar. Their verses were compiled into the Nalayira Divya Prabandham.
Social and Cultural Impact
- Democratization of Religion: By utilizing the local Tamil language and welcoming devotees from all social strata (including those marginalized by the traditional caste system), it made worship accessible to the common masses.
- Royal Patronage: The movement flourished under the Pallava, Pandya, and later Chola dynasties, which supported the construction of magnificent temples.
- Temple Architecture & Society: The grand temples became centers of socio-economic life, integrating hymns, music, and dance (Bharatanatyam) into daily religious rituals.
Legacy and Spread
The Tamil Bhakti movement served as the precursor and ideological foundation for the broader Bhakti movement that later spread across Karnataka and Northern India
Bhak Movement in South India
Submied to – Rev. Bobby S. Mathew Submied by – Ebenezer Shylan & Alby Mathew
I ntroduction
The Hindu Spiritual disciplines are called Sadhanas. The meaning of the word ‘sadhana’ is means, method, path or way.
There are three main types of sadhanas, they are Karma yoga, Bhakti yoga, and Jnana yoga, i.e. the way of Selfless Work, the
way of exclusive devotion to God and the way of Wisdom. Narada, the author of Bhakti-sutra, defines Bhakti as intense love
of God.
1
Comparing to other Hindu religious paths Bhakti, the path of devotion is simple. For example Jnana, the path of knowledge
is apt to be hard and Karma the path of work (or religious performances) has often been exclusive. The teachings of
Upanishads, or Samkhya, [adivedanta] seemed so metaphysical and thus difficult to understand the concept of God where as
in the Bhakti movement let to religious enthusiasm rather than to claim speculations about all pervading Brahman.
2
So it not
wonder the path of devotion is more appealing to the common people. In this seminar we are going to see the Bhakti
Movement in South India.
Meaning of Bhakti
The term Bhakti comes from the Indo-German root form ‘Bhag’ and the Sanskrit verb ‘Bhaj’, meaning to be attached to,
to partake of, and to share in. Bhakti is therefore the state of having a share in others. Bhakti is letting the other enter deep in
to oneself; mutual indwelling and participation. The meaning of “movement” is the practice that influences a large section of
a society. It is ecstatic union, consciousness of non-duality.
3
Common Features of Bhakti movement
Some of the common features of Bhakti movement may be chiefly described as under:
1. Belief in one Supreme God of love and grace.
2. Belief in the individuality of every soul which is nevertheless part of the divine soul.
3. Belief in salvation through Bhakti (Devotion).
4. The exaltation of Bhakti above Gyana and Karma Marga.
5. Extreme reverence paid to the guru.
6. The doctrine of holy name.
7. Initiation through a mantra.
8. Relaxing of the rules of the caste, sometimes even ignoring all caste distinction.
9. Religious teachings through the Vernacular.
4
Principles of Bhakti Movement
The main principles of Bhakti movement are:
1) God is one,
2) To worship God man should serve humanity,
3) All men are equal,
4) Worshipping God with devotion is better than performing religious ceremonies and going on pilgrimages,
5) Caste distinctions and superstitious practices are to be given up.
Historical Development of Bhakti Movement
The Bhakti stream has been flowing as an undercurrent in the religious life of India. Bhakti was a movement in Hinduism
characterized by ecstatic devotion to Brahman in the form of Vishnu, Shiva and Krishna. There are some though relatively
few hymns to Vishnu in the Vedas, but it is believed that his popularity may have been due to his identification with some
1
T.M.P. Mahadevan, Outlines of Hinduism 3
rd
ed., (Bombay: Chetana Pvt. Ltd. 1999), 79.
2
Christopher Augustus Bixel Tirkey, Major religions in India, (Delhi: ISPCK,2001),132-133.
3
V. S. Lalrinawma, Major Faith Tradition in India (Delhi: ISPCK, 2007), 205.
4
Christopher Augustus Bixel Tirkey, op. Cit., 132-133.
non Aryan deities. The Bhakti movement centered on the deities Vishnu and Shiva. Shiva seems to be of Non Aryan origin.
The Bhakti movement seems therefore to have Non Aryan root and indeed the Padma purana declares Bhakti to be a product
of the Dravidian land.
5
It is believed that Bhakti movement was started in South India and Alwars and Adiyars saints [6
th
and 7
th
AD] were
responsible for it. The Alwars accepted lord Vishnu as their altar of faith and worship and were called Vishnavas while
Adiyars centered their faith on lord Siva and were called Shaivas.
6
Most of these saints from low castes and this movement
may have been restricted for some time to the lower strata of the society.
Life and teachings of Bhakti Saints in South India
1) Alvars: The Alvars are the most ancient Vaishnava poet-saints of south India who with their Tamil hymns full of
intense devotional love for Vishnu sang the mystic glory of the lord. The word ‘Alvar’ means one who has a mystic intuitive
knowledge of god and who has emerged oneself in the divine contemplation. It also means one who has dived or one who is
immersed. Twelve of them have obtained canonical recognition. The collection of hymns of the Alvars consisting of 4000
verses is called Nalayira-Divya-Prabandhan and is placed side by side with the Vedas. These Alvars flourished from AD
700-1000. The Alvars with their overflowing devotion to God completely renounced themselves to Him, like a maid
offering herself to her lover, and treated themselves as entirely dependent on him. The devotee forgets everything else
except the lord and his love for God is beyond space and time. The philosophers called the Alagiyas or the Acharyas by the
Alvars who provided a philosophical basis for the personal Theism and tried to combine their doctrine of Bhakti with Karna
and Jnana.
7
2) Nayanars: Nayanars were the Tamil poet-musicians of the seventh and the eighth century who composed devotional
hymns of great duty in honor of the Hindu god Shiva. The hymns of Nayanars were preserved in several collections that
were finally combined in the 10
th
century to make up the 12 major canonical scripture of the Saivasiddhanta system. The
hymns remained the favorite expression of popular Bhakti among Tamil Saivas. Developed in the 13
th
century, the
Saivasiddhanta gave theological and ritualistic expression of the Nayanars Bhakti in its emphasis on divine grace and the
eternal distinction between Shiva and the self.
8
Siva Bhakthi and Vaisnava Bhakthi
For the common people, trimoorthy concept of god was not an easy idea to comprehend and practice. But the
Brahmanism was saying about the three great deities . Brhma (creator) Vishnu (Preserver) and Siva (Destroyer), even though
it was an intellectually satisfying, Brahmins fail to explain the equal dignity of Brhma, Vishnu and Siva. In the sacred
writings Brahma was not a popular deity, so common people preferred focus on Vishnu and Siva or their consorts. For them
love in its sublime form is Bhakti and it is exclusively attachment of soul; it cannot be enriched with external symbols or
show. It was easy to follow because Bhakti Achraias never advocate pilgrimage, charity, study of scripture, chanting of the
hymns from Vedas, bathing in sacred waters, fasts etc. Siva bhakthi and Vaisnava bhakthi stress the loss of the limited self
and ephemeral worldly interest, in fvor of an emotional, outpouring love for an eternal transcendent Lord. Vaishanavite
saints called Alvars and the Shaivite saints called Nayanmars, spearheaded the Bhakti movement in the Tamil country. For
the Vaishavites, the Lord is Narayana and to the Shaivites, Shiva is the Lord. In the earlier stages of the Bhakti movement,
Shaivism was dominant, while in the later stages Vaishavism took over.
9
The Siva bhakthi in Tamilnadu
Siva Bhakthi takes its origins from the theistic svetavatara Upnishad and the line then goes through the Shiva Agamas to the
Tamil devotional poets of the six and subsequent centuries, the best known of whom is Manikka Vachakar. The
compositions of Saiva adherents are derived into eleven groups and it called ‘Tirumari’ compiled by Nambi of Iinjore. In the
literature of Saivisam, bhakti appears of general to have a stricter and more ascetic character then corresponding to Vaisnava
sources in Saivism there is less erotic imagery, due to the fact of the early independence of the Tantric sects in which Saiva
eroticism is not fully developed.
5
V. S. Lalrinawma, op. Cit.
6
Darshan Singh, Indian Bhakti Tadition and Sikh Gurus, (Chandigarh: Lyall Book depot, 1968), 27.
7
V. S. Lalrinawma, Op.Cit., 218.
8
Ibid., 219.
9
Darshan Singh, op. Cit., 26.
Nayanars or Nayanmars: The Nayanars or Nayanmars were Shaivite devotional poets of Tamil Nadu, active between the
fifth and the tenth centuries CE. The Tamil Saiva hagiography Periya Puranam, a volume of the Tirumurai, written during
the thirteenth century CE, narrates the history of each of sixty-three Nayanars and the history of nine Thokai Adiyar.
10
Cuntarar's eighth century work Tirutoṇṭar tokai lists 60 Shaiva saints but gives none of the legends associated with them. In
the tenth century Nambiyandar Nambi composed the Tirutoṇṭar Antādi, a sequence of interlocking verses the title of which
can be rendered as the Necklace of Verses on the Lord's Servants. In this work Nambi add Cuntarar, himself and his parents
to the sequence, creating what is now the canonical list of sixty-three saints, each with a brief sketch of their legend.
11
Nayanars were from varied backgrounds, ranging from kings and soldiers to untouchables. The foremost Nayanars are
Appar, Cuntarar and Campantar. Together with the twelve Vaishnava Alvars, the Nayanars are sometimes accounted South
India's 75 Apostles of Bhakti because of their importance in the rise of the Hindu Bhakti movement.
12
The Saiva Siddhanta
The saiva siddhanta is the theology of the monotheistic religion which developed outside the Brahminic circle both in Tamil
and Sanskrit. In Tamilnadu saiva siddhanta absorbed the bhakthi and become a Tamil religion Of the fourteen text which
constitute the canon of Tamil saivism, the siva jnana bodham of Meykandar, written in the first half of the thirteenth century
A.D. is the first attempt at a systematic statement of the tent of Tamil saivism. According to saiva siddhanta theology there
are three distinct categories of existence: the Lord (pati), soul (pasu), and the mental and material universe which binds them
(pasa). The lord in an aspect called Sadasiva, performs five action: the emission of the cosmos, its maintenance, its re-
absorption, the concealing of himself, and the revealing of himself through the grace. He is wholly transcendent and distinct
from the eternal substance of maya. The soteriological goal of the saiva siddhanta is liberation from the cycle of
reincarnation, conceived as becoming equal to Siva. In Tamilnadu, the tradition comes to incorporate an emotional devotion
expressed in the hymns of Tamil saints. Originally it was connected with rituals.
13
Vaishnava Bhakthi in Tamilnadu
The compositions of Vaishnavas were compiled by Naht Muni and were called ‘Nalyana Prabandham. They enriched Tamil
literature.Vaishnava Bhakthi centres in many cases on the figure of Krishna partly as depicted in the Bhagavat Gita, but also
as he appears in the Bhagavata Purana. In the Vaishnava schoolbhakthi is highly emotionally charged attitude often there
may be an allegorical eroticism involved, particularly when inspiration is drawn from the Bhagavata purana. In this book the
attitude of man to God is described as being that of the utter love and adoration of Krishna by the Gopis of Vrindhavan.
Among the Vaishnava bhakthi poets.
14
Alvar saints
There is a long and ancient tradition of Bhakthi in the works of the Alvar saints. Alvars or 'Azhwars' literally means 'people
who are immersed'. They are so called because they were immersed in their devotion and love to their Lord, Vishnu. Alvar
prayers are simple and full of religious devotion traditional in the Bhakthi School. The devotional outpourings of Alvars,
composed during the early medieval period of Tamil history, helped revive the bhakti movement, through their hymns of
worship to Vishnu and his avatars. The collection of their hymns is known as Divya Prabandha and is considered equal to
the sanskrit body of work called vedas and related revelatory texts, detailing knowledge of Nature, God and the relationship
between the two.
Most of these Alvar saints came from the Dravidian society, who remained unaffected by the pantheism of the
Upanishads; so deeply emotional is their worship in Him. Among the Alvar only the most famous was Namm Alvar, who
flourished in the first half of the ninth century. Among the Tamils, most of the Alvar saints came from the low castes, and
the movement may have been restricted for some time to the lower strata of the society, who got very little from the
orthodox Hinduism. There was also one Alvar woman from the lower strata of the society, who was accepted as a religious
leader in the caste-ridden male dominated society.
15
The Main Teachings of the Alvars
a. The Reality: The Alvars were the fanatic devotees of the lord Vishnu. They were monotheistic. For them Vishnu is
10
Ibid.,27
11
Ibid.,28
12
Ibid.,29
13
V. S. Lalrinawma, Op.Cit., 207.
14
Ibid.,
15
Ibid.
eternal, endless, and imperishable and creates even Brahma and Rudra. He is omnipotent, omnipresent, infinite, and
immeasurable. The Veda cannot reach him. His grace to humanity makes him an avathara without losing his infinite image.
b. The Man: The individual soul is only a mode of the reality. It is property of the lord, who is the rular and the possessor.
The soul is different from the matter; the latter changes but the former is eternal.
c. Worship: worship to the lord includes the service to his lovers; the lord’s devotees should be loved as much as the lord.
Since God’s gracious love promotes him to create things; man’s love to God should be spiritual inspiration.
d. Way to salvation: To attain the idea of me and you must be given up, one should completely surrender to God.
16
Some important Alvars and their contributions
The one held in greatest esteem among the Alvars is Nammalvar. He lived during the seventh century CE. His
contribution to the four thousand prabandhams is as many as 1352. His hymns are considered by the Vaishnavites to contain
the essence of the Vedas. His works - Thiru Aasiriyam, Thiru Virudham, Periya Thiruvandhadhi correspond to the Yajur,
Rig and Atharva Vedas respectively. His other work Periya Thirumozhi (Divine words) is the one of the key works of
Vaishnavism.Periyalvar delighted in worshipping Vishnu as mother, nurse, devotee and lady love. Andal, who grew up in
Periyalvar's home, is attributed the Tiruppaavai, a most beautiful collection of 30 verses giving expression to the purest love
of God.Hirumangai Alvar has done Mangalasasanam (sung in praise) of maximum number of Divya Desams .
17
Evaluation and Conclusion
The Bhakti movement had brought the Hindus and the Muslims closer to each other. The equality concept preached by the
leaders reduced the rigidity of the caste system to a certain extent. The suppressed people gained a feeling of self-respect.
The reformers preached in local languages. It led to the development of Vernacular literature. They composed hymns and
songs in the languages spoken by the people. Therefore there was a remarkable growth of literature in all the languages. The
Bhakti movement freed the common people from the tyranny of the priests. It checked the excesses of polytheism. It
encouraged the spirit of toleration. The gap between the Hindus and the Muslims was reduced. They began to live amicably
together. It emphasised the value of a pure life of charity and devotion. Finally, it improved the moral and spiritual ways of
life of the medieval society. It provided an example for the future generation to live with the spirit of toleration.
The social significance of Bhakti Movement was remarkable. It also attempted to do away with all the distinctions of caste
and creed.
Bhakti Movement brought about a kind of “reformation” in India with reference to the attitude of people belonging to
variety of religions. It also led to respecting other religions. Following a religion and achieving salvation was made more
simple for all down trodden people. The divisive and destructive forces from various religions were also checked. This led
to the change in the mind sets of Indian people. To certain extent it contributed towards strengthening of spirituality of
people belonging to various religions were also checked. This led to the change in the mind sets of Indian people. To certain
extent it contributed towards strengthening of spirituality of people belonging to various religions.
Bibliography
Lalrinawma, V. S. Major Faith Tradition in India. Delhi: ISPCK, 2007.
Haridas Bhattacharryya.,The cultural Heritage of India Vol.5. Calcutta: The Ramakrishna Mission Institute of culture, 1993.
Mahadevan, T.M.P. Outlines of Hinduism 3
rd
ed. Bombay: Chetana Pvt. Ltd. 1999.
Singh, Darshan Indian Bhakti Tadition and Sikh Gurus. Chandigarh: Lyall Book depot, 1968.
Smet, R. V. de. and J. Neuner, eds. Religions Hinduism. Mumbai: St. Paul training school, 1968.
Tirkey, Christopher Augustus Bixel. Major religions in India. Delhi: ISPCK,2001.
16
,Haridas Bhattacharryya.,The cultural Heritage of India Vol.5 (Calcutta: The Ramakrishna Mission Institute of culture,
1993)169.
17
R.de Smet, and J. Neuner, Religions Hinduism (Mumbai: St. Paul training school, 1996)