Describe the new kind of Bhakti in south India.
Answers
Answer:
Concept of bhakti in South India
A new kind of bhakti evolved in South India in the seventh to ninth century, comprising of the emergence of new religious movements which were led by Nayanars and Alvars. Nayanars were saints devoted to Shiva and Alvars were saints devoted to Vishnu.
Explanation:
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BHAKTI MOVEMENT IN SOUTH INDIA
The Saiva Nayanar saints and Vaisnava Alvar saints of South India spread the concept of bhakti among different sections of the society irrespective of caste and sex during the period between the 7th and the 10th century. A peep into the history of the Bhakti movement in South. India, will makebone realise that the Bhakti movement there, was the after effect of a number of socio religious contradictions, superstitions and exploitative attitude of the priesthood and powerful in society. Buddhism and Jainism was prevalent in South India earlier to the sixth century. The Bhakti movement there started as a ‘Weapon’ to counter the existing Buddhist and Jain religion. There was logical ground behind this. In those timesbirrational ideas, malpractices and superstitions crept up into the Buddhist religion.
Buddhism strongly advocated for maintaining celibacy and monkhood then. This
austere life style could not be followed by the common people. Moreover the
Digambara sect of the Jains and their way of life wasn’t bearable for all sects of people
in society. In addition to this, the rites and brutal rituals observed by some people of
Sakta group created a kind of fear rather than devotion in the minds of common people.
The Saktas offered human as well as animal sacrifices to appease God. The other
extravagant rituals and customs, at times, was a torture for the gentle common people.
As its outcome the common Tamil people lost interest in embracing such religions and
tried to find ways and means to get rid of all these. Seeing the plight of the common
people, the Vaishnava Bhakta Alwaars and the Shaivite Nayanmaars lit the flame of
Bhakti movement in South India.1
The Bhagawad Purana was behind the evolution of the Bhakti Dharma. It
was through the path of Bhakti that the Bhagawad Purana gave a new facelift to the
society then. It was at the initiative of the Alwaars of South India in between the
seventh and tenth century that the Bhakti Dharma rose to be popular among many across societies. In a word to say, it was from this period that the renaissance of the
Vaishnava Movement started. The Alwaars were considered to be among the lowest
class in the Tamil society at that time. The social injustice and exploitation heaped upon
the Alwaars motivated them to find a permanent solution to this injustice pronounced upon them by the so called higher classes in society. The Alwaars renounced the religion in vogue then, which included numerous rites and rituals. Moreover, some of those rites and rituals ‘Imposed’ upon the public had no justifications. It was only
introduced to serve the purpose of groups with vested interest. In contrast to this the
Alwaars gave far more importance to love, respect and devotion and composed several
thousands of religious songs based on Bhakti. The Vaishnava Acharyas such as Sankaracharya, Ramanujacharya, Madhavacharya, Nimbakacharya, etc. gave a strong philosophical base to the concept of Bhakti introduced by the Alwaars and gave form to four different sects or community in later times. In this way Krishna tattwa came to be popularised and a firm philosophical base was given to this ideology by these four particular sects. The Vaishnava Bhaktas of the middle ages were successful in bringing about the Bhakti movement on the basis of the above mentioned philosophical base. The
middle ages were by and large an age of realizing the path of Bhakti. This new found
form of Bhakti didn’t remain confined to South India alone. In fact it spread to the whole of India. In various parts of India, the exponents of Bhakti such as Ramananda, Kabir, Tulsidas, Nanak, Tukaram, Jnandeva, Eknath, Vallabhacharya, Chaittanyadeva,Sankaradeva, Madhavadeva, Mirabai etc. tried to reinstate the socio-cultural as well as economic condition of India by means of Bhakti.