Editing Bhakti movement (section)

=== Spread throughout India in the 2nd millennium ===
[[file:Basava cropped.jpg|thumb|Statue of [[Basava]]  (1131–1196), founder of [[Lingayatism]]]]

[[file:Chaitanya sankirtan.jpg|thumb|Chaitanya Mahaprabhu leading the Vaishnavas in 'Nagar kirtan', devotional chanting and dancing, in the streets of [[Nabadwip]], [[Bengal]].]]
The influence of the Tamil bhakti saints and those of later northern Bhakti leaders ultimately helped spread ''bhakti'' poetry and ideas throughout all the Indian subcontinent by the 18th century CE.<ref name="Embree" /><ref name="Flood">{{cite book |last=Flood |first=Gavin |url=https://archive.org/details/introductiontohi0000floo |title=An Introduction to Hinduism |publisher=Cambridge University Press |year=1996 |isbn=978-0-521-43878-0 |page=[https://archive.org/details/introductiontohi0000floo/page/131 131] |url-access=registration}}</ref> However, outside of the Tamil speaking regions, the Bhakti movement arrived much later, mostly in the second millennium. 

For example, in [[Kannada]]-speaking regions (roughly modern [[Karnataka]]), the Bhakti movement arrived in the 12th century, with the emergence of [[Basava]] and his Shaivite [[Lingayatism]], which were known for their total rejection of [[Caste system in India|caste distinctions]] and the authority of the [[Vedas]], their promotion of the religious equality of women, and their focus on worshipping a small [[lingam]], which they always carried around their necks, as opposed to images in temples run by elite priesthoods.<ref>Brockington, J. L. (1996). ''The Sacred Thread: Hinduism in Its Continuity and Diversity'', pp. 145-47. Edinburgh University Press.</ref> Another important Kannada figure in the Bhakti movement was [[Madhvacharya]] (c. 12-13th centuries), a great and prolific scholar of [[Vedanta]], who promoted the theology of dualism ([[Dvaita Vedanta]]).<ref>Brockington, J. L. (1996). ''The Sacred Thread: Hinduism in Its Continuity and Diversity'', p. 148. Edinburgh University Press.</ref>

Similarly, the Bhakti movement in [[Odisha]] (known as Jñanamisrita bhakti or Dadhya Bhakti) also began in the 12th century. It included various scholars including [[Jayadeva]] (<abbr>the 12th-century author of the ''[[Gita Govinda]]''</abbr>), and it had become a mass movement by the 14th century.<ref>{{cite web |author=History of Odisha |date=15 April 2018 |title=Pancha Sakhas of Medieval Odisha |url=https://www.historyofodisha.in/pancha-sakhas-of-medieval-odisha/ |access-date=2022-03-03 |website=History of Odisha}}</ref> Figures like [[Balarama Dasa]], [[Achyutananda]], [[Jasobanta Dasa]], [[Ananta Dasa]] and [[Jagannatha Dasa (Odia poet)|Jagannatha Dasa]] preached Bhakti through public [[Kirtan|sankirtans]] across Odisha. [[Jagannath]] was and remains the center of the Odisha Bhakti movement.

The Bhakti movements also spread to the north later, particularly during the flowering of northern [[Bhakti yoga]] of the 15th and the 16th centuries. Perhaps the earliest of the northern bhakti figures was [[Nimbarkacharya|Nimbārkāchārya]] (<abbr>c.</abbr> 12th century), a Brahmin from [[Andhra Pradesh]] who moved to [[Vrindavan]]. He defended a similar theology to [[Ramanuja]], which he called [[Bhedabheda|Bhedābheda]] (difference and non-difference).<ref>Brockington, J. L. (1996). ''The Sacred Thread: Hinduism in Its Continuity and Diversity'', p. 151. Edinburgh University Press.</ref> Other important northern bhaktas include [[Namdev|Nāmdev]] (c. 1270-1350), [[Ramananda|Rāmānanda]], and [[Eknath]] (c. 1533-99).<ref>Brockington, J. L. (1996). ''The Sacred Thread: Hinduism in Its Continuity and Diversity'', p. 152. Edinburgh University Press.</ref> 

Another important development was the rise of the [[Sant Mat]] movement, which drew from [[Islam]], [[Nath]] tradition and Vaishnavism from which the famous 15th-century [[Kabir]] arose. Kabir was a saint known for Hindi poetry that expressed a rejection of external religion in favor of inner experience. After his death, his followers founded the [[Kabir panth]].<ref>Brockington, J. L. (1996). ''The Sacred Thread: Hinduism in Its Continuity and Diversity'', p. 157. Edinburgh University Press.</ref> A similar movement sharing the same Sant Mat Bhakti background that drew on both Hinduism and Islam, was founded by the [[Guru Nanak|Guru Nānak]] (1469-1539), the first Guru of [[Sikhism]].<ref>Brockington, J. L. (1996). ''The Sacred Thread: Hinduism in Its Continuity and Diversity'', p. 158. Edinburgh University Press.</ref>

In [[Bengal]], the most famous composer of Vaishnava devotional songs was [[Chandidas|Candīdās]] (1339–1399).<ref name=":2">Brockington, J. L. (1996). ''The Sacred Thread: Hinduism in Its Continuity and Diversity'', p. 162-65. Edinburgh University Press.</ref> He was celebrated in the popular Bengali [[Vaishnava-Sahajiya]] movement. One the most influential of the northern Hindu Bhakti traditions was the [[Krishnaism|Krishnaite]] [[Gaudiya Vaishnavism]] of [[Chaitanya Mahaprabhu]] (1486–1534) in Bengal. Chaitanya eventually came to be seen by the Bengali Vaishnavas as an [[Avatar|avatara]] of [[Krishna]] himself.<ref name=":2" />  Another important leader of northern Vaishnava Bhakti was [[Vallabha|Vallabhacharya Mahaprabhu]] (1479–1531 CE) who founded the [[Pushtimarg]] tradition in [[Braj|Braj (Vraja)]].<ref>Brockington, J. L. (1996). ''The Sacred Thread: Hinduism in Its Continuity and Diversity'', pp. 165-166. Edinburgh University Press.</ref>

Some scholars state that the Bhakti movement's rapid spread in India in the 2nd millennium was in part a response to the arrival of [[Islam]]<ref>Note: The earliest arrival dates are contested by scholars. They range from the 7th to 9th century, with Muslim traders settling in coastal regions of the Indian subcontinent, to Muslims seeking asylum in Tamil Nadu, to Muslim raids in northwestern 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 Islamic rule in India and Hindu-Muslim conflicts.<ref name="donigerbrit" /><ref name=karen>Karen Pechelis (2011), "Bhakti Traditions", in ''The Continuum Companion to Hindu Studies'' (Editors: Jessica Frazier, Gavin Flood), Bloomsbury, {{ISBN|978-0826499660}}, pages 107-121</ref>{{sfnp|Hawley|2015|pages=39-61}} That view is contested by some scholars,{{sfnp|Hawley|2015|pages=39-61}} with [[Rekha Pande]] stating that singing ecstatic Bhakti hymns in local language had been a tradition in [[South India]] before [[Muhammad]] was born.<ref name=rekhapande /> According to Pande, the psychological impact of Muslim conquests may have initially contributed to community-style Bhakti by Hindus.<ref name=rekhapande>Rekha Pande (2014), ''Divine Sounds from the Heart—Singing Unfettered in their Own Voices'', Cambridge UK, {{ISBN|978-1443825252}}, page 25</ref> However, other scholars state that Muslim invasions, the conquests of Hindu Bhakti temples in South India and the seizure and the melting of musical instruments such as [[cymbals]] from local people were part responsible for the later relocation or demise of singing Bhakti traditions in the 18th century.<ref>Vasudha Narayanan (1994), ''The Vernacular Veda: Revelation, Recitation, and Ritual'', The University of South Carolina Press, {{ISBN|978-0872499652}}, page 84</ref>

According to [[Wendy Doniger]], the nature of the Bhakti movement may have been affected by the daily practices to "surrender to God" of Islam when it arrived in India.<ref name="donigerbrit" /> In turn, that influenced devotional practices in Islam such as [[Sufism]],<ref>{{cite book|first=Gavin|last=Flood|author-link=Gavin Flood|title=The Blackwell companion to Hinduism|publisher=Wiley-Blackwell|year=2003|page=185|isbn=978-0-631-21535-6}}</ref> and other religions in India from the 15th century onwards, such as [[Sikhism]], [[Christianity]],<ref name="Neill 2002 412">Stephen Neill (2002), ''A history of Christianity in India, 1707–1858'', Cambridge University Press, {{ISBN|978-0-521-89332-9}}, page 412</ref> and [[Jainism]].<ref name="Kelting 2001 87">Mary Kelting (2001), ''Singing to the Jinas: Jain laywomen, Maṇḍaḷ singing, and the negotiations of Jain devotion'', Oxford University Press, page 87, {{ISBN|978-0-19-514011-8}}</ref>

Klaus Witz, in contrast, traces the history and nature of the Bhakti movement to the [[Upanishads|Upanishadic]] and the Vedanta foundations of Hinduism. He writes that in virtually every Bhakti movement poet, "the Upanishadic teachings form an all-pervasive substratum, if not a basis. We have here a state of affairs that has no parallel in the West. Supreme Wisdom, which can be taken as basically non-theistic and as an independent wisdom tradition (not dependent on the Vedas), appears fused with the highest level of [[bhakti]] and with the highest level of God-realization."<ref>Klaus G Witz (1998), ''The Supreme Wisdom of the Upaniṣads: An Introduction'', Motilal Banarsidass, {{ISBN|978-8120815735}}, page 10</ref>