The Bhakti movement began in South India between the 6th-10th centuries and was led by poet saints known as the Alvars and Nayanars. It aimed to make devotion to God accessible to all people, regardless of caste, by using local languages and emphasizing equality before God. While it did challenge some social hierarchies, it is debated whether the movement was truly reformist or helped uphold the emerging feudal order. By emphasizing personal devotion and surrender to God, the movement's ideology could be seen as parallel to the lord-servant relationship common in feudal societies. Overall, the Bhakti movement played a significant role in spreading religious ideas and influencing the social and cultural development of medieval South India

1.  The word Bhakti means the complete surrender of the individual
to God. Or Bhakti aims at self dedication to God.
 The ideas & activities that emerged in medieval period on the
basis of devotion to God is generally known as Bhakti Movement.
 Bhakti Movement started from South India or became popular
first in South India between 6th to 10th century.
 It witnessed the socio economic & cultural transition of society &
considered as a reformative movement that made a great impact
in shaping the Indian society, culture, religion & literature. In
short, Bhakti movement played a significant role in social
formation of early medieval India.
Bhakti Movement

2. Features of Bhakti traditions
• Its propagators were the saints who were Bhakti poets.
• Challenged the conservative Brahmanic traditions.
• Provided representation to the lower castes and women.
• Rendered contributions in the field of culture and music.

3. AZHVARS & NAYANARS
 This movement was led by the Azhvars and the Nayanars. The
Azhvars were Vaishnavites and the Nayanars, were Saivites.
i.e. Azhvars were the devotees of Lord Vishnu and Nayanars
were devotees of Lord Shiva.
 Vishnu & Shiva had turned out to be the most important gods
of Brahmanical religion. The Brahmanas who came to South
India from the North had brought Vaishnavism & Saivism.
Though bhakti had emerged as a cult in north India earlier it
became institutionalized in South India.
 Azhvars & Nayanars composed and propagated devotional
songs. They opposed caste inequalities & gave representation
to women. The woman saint Andal was one of the famous
Vaishnavites saints. Another woman saint Karakkal
Ammayar was a Saivite.

4. The Azhvars
 The term ‘Azhvar' means “one who is immersed in God”.
 There were 12 Azhvars saints during this period. It include Tirumankai Azhvar,
Kulasekhara Azhvar, Tiruppana Azhvar, Periyazhvar, Nammazhvar etc.
 The Vaishnava Bhakti poetry is compiled in Nalayira Divyaprabandam by
Nathamuni.
 Among the Vaishna Azhvars, Nammazhvar, Periyazhvar, Maurakkavi were
brahmanas while Tiruppana Azhvar, Tirumankai Azhvar belonged to lower
castes & Andal was women saint.
 Tirumankai, a petty chieftain and highway robber, was converted to the path of
Vishnu by the woman he loved.
 Nammazhvar was a lower caste saint who spent his life in fasting and
meditation. He
compiled four series of verses to provide poetry to the ordinary people. For this

5. The Nayanars
 The term ‘Nayanar’ means a “leader”, in the sense of God’s chosen apostle.
 It is stated that there were 63 Nayanars or Saivite saints who preached Saiva Bhakti
in South India. Among the 63, the Muvar or “the three great hymnists‟ - Appar,
Sundarar and Sambandar -are given prominence. Their hymns constitute the major
part of the Saivite canon.
 Manikyavasagar, Cheraman Perumal Nayanar were another significant Saivites.
 Periyapuranam of Seikkilar narrates the hagiology of 63 Nayanars.
 The famous Saiva bhakti book, Tiru Kailasa Janamithram is said to have been
authored by Cheraman Perumal Nayanar. This book written in Tamil had helped a lot
for the spread of Bhakti movement in South India.
 The anthologies of Saiva Bhakti poems are called Devaram(Thevaram) &
Tirumurai.
 Sundaramurthi Nayanar & Sambandar were brahmins & Nandanar, Viralminda
Nayanar belonged to lower castes & Karakkal Ammayar was women bhakti

6. Women in Bhakti Tradition
 The inclusion of women within the bhakti tradition marked an important
departure from Brahmanical Hinduism where women were debarred
from spiritual attainment and the ascetic life.
 Many women were attracted to the Bhakti Movement. Akka Mahadevi
of Karnataka and Andal and Karakkal Ammayar of Tamil Nadu were
prominent among them.
 While bhakti created space for the self-expression of women, the extent
to which gender boundaries were dissolved needs a closer look.
Clearly, the experience of bhakti was not the same for all women.

7. Growth of Regional languages
 The propagators of the Bhakti movement spread their ideas through their
vernacular languages. This was to enable the common people to understand them.
This resulted in the growth of the regional languages.
 All Vedic texts were written in Sanskrit. Sanskrit was unknown to lower castes &
they were not allowed to learn Sanskrit. In this circumstance, bhakti saints used
regional language to propagate their bhakti which is accessible to all strata of
society.
 The use of regional language in Bhakti also acted as a powerful reaction to
Brahmin dominance.

8. Bhakti and the lower castes
 The presence of lower caste saints has also led some to argue that bhakti represented a
rebellion against the Brahmanical caste system.
 However, that one third of the total number of saints were brahmanas by birth. At the same
time, there were also saints drawn from a variety of social situations -- cowherd, fisherman,
potter, weaver, merchant, farmer, army commander and untouchable.
 The saints themselves did not maintain caste hierarchies. Although a brahmana, Sundarar loved
and married two lower caste women, a clear subversion of orthodoxy. Appar declared in a
hymn that he respected neither material wealth nor religious eminence.
 The Vaishnava saint Tiruppana Alvar was also an untouchable who spent eighty years of his
life singing the praises of Vishnu, standing a mile from the Srirangam temple. Appearing in
a dream, Vishnu asked the temple priest to place Tiruppana Azhvar on his shoulders and
carry him into the shrine. Such stories show that lower castes were able to create a space for
themselves within the bhakti tradition, proving that salvation was possible for all who loved God.
 Yet the number of these saints was small, and their oppression as a group continued in society.
What the bhakti movements succeeded in doing was to create a few spaces of freedom without
overturning the existing hierarchy.

9. Results of Bhakti Movement
 Even though the Bhakti Movement evolved with the aim of dedication to God, it
created certain qualitative changes in the Indian social system.
 The propagators of the Bhakti cult, through their words and songs, maintained
that every one was equal in front of God & this strengthened the concept of
social equality against caste discriminations.
 The idea of gender equality also began to take shape with the inclusion of
women in bhakti.
 The idea of social equality got wide popularity since the Movement was led by
low castes.
 Regional languages developed with the literary contributions of bhakti saints.
 Evil practices in the society were questioned & brahmin dominance was
challenged.

10. PERSPECTIVES ON BHAKTI MOVEMENT
 The proponents of the idea of “Indian Feudalism‟ view bhakti as the
ideological basis of the new social order.
 1.The linkage between feudalism and bhakti was first advanced by D.D. Kosambi
and scholars have since expanded upon the theme. Bhakti with its ideas of
subservience and devotion was seen as an ideology to uphold the feudal social
structure of the period. Just as the feudal lord demanded service, loyalty and surrender
from his vassal in return for protection, bhakta tied with his God for getting protection.
 2.R.N. Nandi(Social Roots of Religion in Ancient India) , for instance, argues that
“faith in an absolute superior was in keeping with the loyalties demanded by a
feudal society.” The doctrine of divine condescension and total surrender represented by
bhakti, he argues, was advanced by the landholding priestly elite to provide a moral
justification for the exploitation and subjugation of the masses.

11.  3.M.G.S.Narayan & Kesavan Veluthat (Bhakti Movement in
South India in The Feudal Order: State, Society and Ideology in Early
Medieval India, ed. D. N. Jha.) observe that Bhakti literature is suggestive of
the new feudal class relationships & the feudal ideology.
 The rituals & practices of the temple deity & the kings are equated as the
same. There is an amazing resemblance between the lord- serf relationship
at the core of feudal society & the deity – devotee relationship idealized &
celebrated in Bhakti literature.
 i.e. they stated that the relationship established between God & devotee was
generally that of the master- servant relationship in feudalism & many
inscriptions declare the rulers as dasas or servants of deities.

12.  Some believe that the Bhakti movement was a Social Protest or Social reform
but others believe that it was not reform, but the continuation of the ideas to be found in
Vedas.
 M.G.S & Kesavan Veluthat consider the Bhakti ideology as the cementing force bringing
together Kings, Brahmin priests & common people in a harmonious manner to strengthen
the rule of newly established Pallava,Chola & Pandyan Kingdoms.They observe that Bhakti
provided an illustration of equality among the people in a caste-based society.
 Burton Stein says that bhakti was an ideological factor that made the politico-economic
union of Brahmins and Vellalas (peasants) possible and sustainable.
 K. A. Nilakanda Sastri .(Development of Religion in South India), the prominent
historian of South India ,stated bhakti as a synthesis movement that could synthesis the so
called Great & Little tradition

13.  Sheldon Pollock Said that the Bhakti movement was neither a rebellion against
Brahmins and nor a rebellion against the Cosmopolitan language like Sanskrit.
 R. Champakalakhsmi (Trade, Ideology and Urbanization: South India 300 BC to AD 1300
)says that through among Nayanars and Azhvars included untouchables 65 percentage of
the saints belong to upper castes. Their study suggests that the bhakti movement was not
means of social protest or social reform.
OTHER VIEW
 Kamil Zvelebil says that the tradition of akam poetry in the early Tamil literature
transformed the north Indian Bhakti into a cult in South India.& he supports the view that
development of the Bhakti movement & the advance of Hinduism in South India was a
result of the synthesis of northern & southern religious traditions.

14.  In the 8th and 9th centuries, when the popularity of Jainism and Buddhism
waned (reduced/declined) many Kings & chiefs patronised Bhakti movement,
the openness & flexibility of the movement gradually disappeared.
 By the end of the 9th century, the anti-ritualism and anti-caste protest of
the Bhakti movement was come to an end. Also Brahmin acharyas took the
place of Nayanars and Azhvars.
 The Brahmin Acharyas became the custodians of temple with enormous
landed property ,power and wealth. This is how Sanskrit took the place of
Tamil language in the field of religion.
Prepared By
Anju Suresh M,
Assistant Professor,
Dayapuram Arts & Science College for Women,
Calicut,Kerala