Editing Bhakti (section)

===Post-Vedic movement===
{{See also|Hindu synthesis}}

Scholarly consensus sees ''bhakti'' as a post-Vedic movement that developed primarily during the [[Hindu Epics]] and [[Puranas]] era of Indian history (late first mill. BCE-early first mill. CE).<ref>"Scholarly consensus today tends to view bhakti as a post-Vedic development that took place primarily in the watershed years of the epics and Puranas." Karen Pechilis Prentiss (2014), The Embodiment of Bhakti, Oxford University Press, {{ISBN|978-0195351903}}, page 17</ref><ref>{{cite book |author1=Monier Monier-Williams |author2=Ernst Leumann |publisher=Clarendon |place=Oxford |title=A Sanskrit-English dictionary, etymologically and philologically arranged : with special reference to cognate Indo-European languages |edition=new |year=1899 |oclc=152275976|author-link1=Monier-Williams }}</ref>

The ''[[Bhagavad Gita]]'' is the first text to explicitly use the word "bhakti" to designate a religious path, using it as a term for one of three possible religious approaches or [[yoga]]s (i.e. [[bhakti yoga]]).<ref>Karen Pechilis Prentiss (2014), The Embodiment of Bhakti, Oxford University Press, {{ISBN|978-0195351903}}, page 5</ref>

The ''[[Bhagavata Purana]]'' (which focuses on [[Krishna]] bhakti) develops the idea more elaborately,<ref name="Cutler" /> while the ''[[Shvetashvatara Upanishad]]'' presents evidence of ''guru-bhakti'' (devotion to one's spiritual teacher).<ref name="Klostermaier" /><ref>{{Cite book| last =  Singh| first = R. Raj|year=2006|title=Bhakti and philosophy|publisher= Lexington Books|pages=28|isbn=978-0-7391-1424-7| ref =  name="Singh"}}</ref>