Editing Bhakti (section)

=== Bhakti movement ===
{{Main|Bhakti movement}}

[[File:Manavala mamunigal 03.jpg|thumb|[[Nammalvar]], considered the most prominent of the twelve [[Alvars]] ([[Tamil language|Tamil]] poet saints c. 5th to 9th century CE) whose hymns are compiled in the [[Naalayira Divya Prabandham|Nālāyira Divya Prabandham]]]]
[[file:Chaitanya sankirtan.jpg|thumb|Bengal illustration of the 15th century Krishna bhakta [[Chaitanya Mahaprabhu]] performing [[kirtan]], devotional chanting and dancing, in the streets of [[Nabadwip]], Bengal.]]

The ''[[Bhakti Movement]]'' was a rapid growth of bhakti, first starting in the later part of 1st millennium CE, from [[Tamil Nadu]] in southern India with the Shaiva [[Nayanars]]<ref name="Embree">{{cite book|last=Embree|first=Ainslie Thomas | author-link=Ainslie Embree|author2=Stephen N. Hay |author3=William Theodore De Bary |title=Sources of Indian Tradition|publisher=Columbia University Press|year=1988|pages=342|isbn=978-0-231-06651-8|url=https://books.google.com/books?id=An5mD6KMiSIC&pg=PA342}}</ref> and the Vaishnava [[Alvars]]. Their ideas and practices inspired bhakti poetry and devotion throughout India over the 12th-18th century CE.<ref name="Flood" /><ref name="Embree" /> The Alvars ("those immersed in God") were Vaishnava poet-saints who wandered from temple to temple, singing the praises of Vishnu. They hailed the [[Divya Desam|divine abodes]] of Vishnu and converted many people to [[Vaishnavism]].<ref name="Embree" />

[[File:Meerabai (crop).jpg|thumb|[[Meera]] (Mirabai) (circa 1498-1546) was one of the most significant poet-saints in the [[Vaishnava]] bhakti movement.<ref name=smpandey>SM Pandey (1965), [https://www.jstor.org/stable/1061803 Mīrābāī and Her Contributions to the Bhakti Movement], History of Religions, Vol. 5, No. 1, pages 54-73</ref>]]

Like the Alvars, the [[Shaivism|Shaiva]] Nayanar poets were influential. The ''[[Tirumurai]]'', a compilation of hymns by sixty-three Nayanar poets, is still of great importance in South India. Hymns by three of the most prominent poets, [[Appar]] (7th century CE), [[Campantar]] (7th century) and [[Sundarar]] (9th century), were compiled into the ''[[Tevaram]]'', the first volumes of the ''Tirumurai''. The poets' itinerant lifestyle helped create temple and pilgrimage sites and spread devotion to Shiva.<ref>{{cite book|last=Olson|first=Carl|title=The many colors of Hinduism: a thematic-historical introduction|publisher=[[Rutgers University Press]]|year=2007|pages=231|isbn=978-0-8135-4068-9|url=https://books.google.com/books?id=RVWKClYq4TUC&pg=PA231}}</ref> Early Tamil-Shiva bhakti poets quoted the [[Black Yajurveda|Krishna Yajurveda]].<ref>Karen Pechilis Prentiss (2014), The Embodiment of Bhakti, Oxford University Press, {{ISBN|978-0195351903}}, pages 17-18</ref> The Alvars and Nayanars were instrumental in propagating the Bhakti tradition. The [[Bhagavata Purana]]'s references to the South Indian Alvar saints, along with its emphasis on ''bhakti'', have led many scholars to give it South Indian origins, though some scholars question whether this evidence excludes the possibility that ''bhakti'' movement had parallel developments in other parts of India.<ref>{{cite book| last=Sheridan| first=Daniel| title= The Advaitic Theism of the Bhagavata Purana |publisher=South Asia Books |location=Columbia, Mo |year=1986 |isbn=978-81-208-0179-0 | url=https://books.google.com/books?id=qrtYYTjYFY8C}}</ref><ref>{{cite book | last=van Buitenen | first=J. A. B | chapter=The Archaism of the Bhāgavata Purāṇa | title=Encyclopedia Indica | year=1996 | editor=S.S Shashi | isbn=978-81-7041-859-7 | pages=28–45 | chapter-url=https://books.google.com/books?id=U-sC1GkwH7sC&pg=PA28 | publisher=Anmol Publications PVT. LTD. }}{{Dead link|date=October 2023 |bot=InternetArchiveBot |fix-attempted=yes }}</ref>

Scholars state that the ''bhakti'' movement focused on Vishnu, Shiva, Shakti and other deities, that developed and spread in India, was in response to the arrival of [[Islam]] in India about 8th century CE,<ref>Note: The earliest arrival dates are contested by scholars. They range from 7th to 9th century, with Muslim traders settling in coastal regions of Indian peninsula, to Muslims seeking asylum in Tamil Nadu, to raids in northwest India by [[Muhammad bin Qasim]]. See: Annemarie Schimmel (1997), Islam in the Indian subcontinent, Brill Academic, {{ISBN|978-9004061170}}, pages 3-7; Andre Wink (2004), Al-Hind: the Making of the Indo-Islamic World, Brill Academic Publishers, {{ISBN|90-04-09249-8}}</ref> and subsequent [[Religious violence in India|religious violence]].<ref name=encyclopediabrit /><ref name=karen /><ref name=johnhawley /> This view is contested by other scholars.<ref name=johnhawley>John Stratton Hawley (2015), A Storm of Songs: India and the Idea of the Bhakti Movement, Harvard University Press, {{ISBN|978-0674187467}}, pages 39-61</ref>

The Bhakti movement swept over east and north India from the fifteenth-century onwards, reaching its zenith between the 15th and 17th century CE.<ref name=schomer>Karine Schomer and WH McLeod (1987), The Sants: Studies in a Devotional Tradition of India, Motilal Banarsidass, {{ISBN|978-8120802773}}, pages 1-2</ref> According to Patton Burchett, the four key features of this early modern bhakti movement in north India were:<blockquote>First and foremost, these communities were united by a distinctive focus on personal devotion to the Divine, as opposed to other traditional pillars of Indic religiosity such as [[Jñāna|knowledge]], ritual, or the practice of [[yoga]] or [[asceticism]]. This devotion took place in the context of an intimate, loving relationship with the Divine in which caste, class, or gender typically were said to have no place. This was a bhakti that found its most characteristic expression in (a) the context of spiritual fellowship ([[satsaṅg]]) with other devotees (bhaktas), (b) the medium of song, (c) the idiom of passionate love (śṛṅgāra/mādhurya) or painful separation (viraha), and (d) the remembrance—in meditation, recitation, chant, and song—of the name(s) of God. Second, these new devotional communities of [[Mughal India]] were alike in their production and performance of devotional works, composed in vernacular languages, remembering the deeds of God (especially [[Krishna|Kṛṣṇa]] and [[Rama|Rām]]) and exemplary bhaktas. Third, important in all these communities was the performance and collection of songs attributed to renowned bhakti poet-saints like Kabīr, Raidās, and Sūrdās. Finally, despite their many differences, the vast majority of bhakti authors and sectarian communities in early modern North India came together in articulating a devotional sensibility distinct from—and often explicitly positioned in opposition to—certain [[Tantra|tantric]] paradigms of religiosity.<ref>Burchett, Patton (2019)

''Genealogy of Devotion - Bhakti, Tantra, Yoga, and Sufism in North India'', pp. 2-3. Columbia University Press.</ref></blockquote>Bhakti poetry and ideas influenced many aspects of Hindu culture, religious and secular, and became an integral part of Indian society.<ref name="Embree" /> It extended its influence to [[Sufism]],<ref>{{cite book|last=Flood|first=Gavin D.|title=The Blackwell companion to Hinduism|publisher=[[Wiley-Blackwell]]|year=2003|page=185|isbn=978-0-631-21535-6|url=https://books.google.com/books?id=qSfneQ0YYY8C&pg=PA185}}</ref> [[Christianity]],<ref name="Neill 2002 412" /> and [[Jainism]].<ref name="Kelting 2001 87" /> [[Sikhism]] was founded by [[Guru Nanak]] in the 15th century, during the bhakti movement period, and scholars have identified it as drawing from many Bhakti traditions and ideas.<ref>W. Owen Cole and Piara Singh Sambhi (1997), A Popular Dictionary of Sikhism: Sikh Religion and Philosophy, Routledge, {{ISBN|978-0700710485}}, page 22</ref>

Saints such as [[Mirabai]], [[Surdas|Soordas]], [[Narsinh Mehta]] composed several bhajans that were a path towards Bhakti for many, that are universally sung even today. A modern age saint, Shri Devendra Ghia (Kaka) has composed about 10,000 hymns. These hymns are related to bhakti, knowledge, devotion, faith, introspection and honesty.<ref>{{Cite web |title=BHAAV SAMADHI VICHAAR SAMADHI - KAKA BHAJANS |url=https://www.kakabhajans.org/ |access-date=11 June 2022 |website=Kakabhajans.org}}</ref>

The movement has traditionally been considered as an influential social reformation in Hinduism, and provided an individual-focused alternative path to spirituality regardless of one's birth caste or gender.<ref name="schomer" /> [[Postmodernism|Postmodern]] scholars question this traditional view and whether the [[Bhakti movement]] were ever a social reform or rebellion of any kind.<ref>Karen Pechilis Prentiss (2014), The Embodiment of Bhakti, Oxford University Press, {{ISBN|978-0195351903}}, pages 10-16</ref> They suggest Bhakti movement was a revival, reworking and recontextualization of ancient Vedic traditions.<ref>Karen Pechilis Prentiss (2014), The Embodiment of Bhakti, Oxford University Press, {{ISBN|978-0195351903}}, pages 15-16</ref>