Tradition
Bhakti movement
Overview
The Bhakti movement was a significant religious movement in medieval Hinduism that sought to bring religious reforms to all strata of society by adopting the method of devotion to achieve salvation. Originating in Tamilakam during the 6th century CE, it gained prominence through the poems and teachings of the Vaishnava Alvars and Shaiva Nayanars in early medieval South India, before spreading northwards. It swept over east and north India from the 15th century onwards, reaching its zenith between the 15th and 17th century CE.
The Bhakti movement regionally developed around different Hindu gods and goddesses, and some sub-sects were Vaishnavism (Vishnu), Shaivism (Shiva), Shaktism (Shakti goddesses), and Smartism. The Bhakti movement preached using the local languages so that the message reached the masses. The movement was inspired by many poet-saints, who championed a wide range of philosophical positions ranging from theistic dualism of Dvaita to absolute monism of Advaita Vedanta.
The movement has traditionally been considered an influential social reformation in Hinduism, as it provided an individual-focused alternative path to spirituality, regardless of one's birth or gender. Contemporary scholars question whether the Bhakti movement was ever a reform or rebellion of any kind. They suggest that the Bhakti movement was a revival, reworking, and recontextualisation of ancient Vedic traditions.
Overview adapted from Wikipedia (CC BY-SA 4.0; see the article history for authors).
Possible passages
Found by search and not yet checked by a person; they may only mention the idea in passing.
Then change and motion begin and all this evolution goes on. This state of things is going on cyclically, periodically; that is to say, there is a period of disturbance of the balance, when all these forces begin to combine and recombine, and this universe is projected; and…
Swami Vivekananda, Jnâna Yoga, Part II
States what Bhakti movement is.
Other methods of deliverance from evil are in the excessive acts of penance performed by the Indians, to which a retreat within themselves is added. Now when the Indian thus internally collects himself, and retreats within his own thoughts, the moment of such pure concentration is called Brahma, the one and the clearly supersensuous state, which the understanding calls the highest possible existence. When this is so…
Georg Wilhelm Friedrich Hegel, Hegel's Lectures on the History of Philosophy
States what Bhakti movement is.
We may well suppose, therefore, that the Brahmans, who first incorporated this idea into the religious conceptions of retribution, were influenced by the ideas current in popular belief, which, on their part, represented the last development of earlier totem conceptions. These ideas may also have been reinforced by the belief (not even yet entirely extinct) in soul animals, into which the psyche disappears at the…
Wilhelm Max Wundt, Elements of Folk Psychology Outline of a Psychological History of the Development of Mankind
Close in meaning to Bhakti movement; the term itself is not named.
Philosophers who discussed Bhakti movement
Related ideas
- Avatar
- Ātman (Hinduism)
- Tirthankara
- Bhagavata Purana
- Dvaita Vedanta
- Gaudiya Vaishnavism
- Vishishtadvaita
- Ramanuja
- Madhvacharya
- Alvars
- Nayanars
- Hinduism
- Ravidas
- Wendy Doniger
- Indonesia
- Vedas
- Natha Sampradaya
- Jainism
- Karnataka
- Chaitanya Mahaprabhu
- Bhakti
- Moksha
- Assam
- Adi Shankara
Place in the tradition
Part of Philosophy.