Author: M. Rajagopalachary
Publisher:
ISBN: 9788131608128
Category : Bhakti
Languages : en
Pages : 0
Book Description
Bhakti movement had been an energizing phenomenon that provided a concrete shape and an identifiable face to the abstractions of Sanskrit scriptures. As counterculture, it embraced into its fold all sections of people breaking the barriers of caste, class, community and gender. It added an inclusive dimension to the hitherto privileged, exclusivist, Upanishadic tradition. A primal instinct for unmitigated attachment, total surrender and craving for freedom are at the root of the bhakti tradition. From within, it performed a subversive, reformatory function that changed the dynamics of worship at religious level and challenged the hierarchies at social level. Bhakti literature was marked by spontaneity and ecstasy and hence it produced a rich body of verse born of the heart. The bhasa poets from different castes, regions and religions created a bountiful corpus of literature since eighth century AD in the form of metrical compositions, poems, songs, vachanas, bhajans, keertanas and padams. A heterogeneous group, they are distinguished by non-sectarian attitude, vernacular idiom, faith in divinity, dismissal of rituals and caste, and affinity with the underprivileged sections. Rooted in the age and the soil their literature is unique in that each of them bears his/her unique stamp of a distinct idiom in their dialogue with God who is like any other human being as He exchanged the roles of a lover, beloved, companion, benefactor and guide. Bhakti is as exciting as ever in that it attracts critics into its atmospheric zone over and again, and they come up with multiple interpretations and commentaries. The twenty seven articles in this volume trace the beginnings and growth of bhakti movement and literature as propagated by a number of poet-saints across India up to the twentieth century. The poet-saints discussed in the volume include Andal, Kanakadasa, Mirabai, Kabir, Vemana, Pothana, Annamayya and others. [Subject: Literature, India Studies]
Bhakti Movement and Literature
Author: M. Rajagopalachary
Publisher:
ISBN: 9788131608128
Category : Bhakti
Languages : en
Pages : 0
Book Description
Bhakti movement had been an energizing phenomenon that provided a concrete shape and an identifiable face to the abstractions of Sanskrit scriptures. As counterculture, it embraced into its fold all sections of people breaking the barriers of caste, class, community and gender. It added an inclusive dimension to the hitherto privileged, exclusivist, Upanishadic tradition. A primal instinct for unmitigated attachment, total surrender and craving for freedom are at the root of the bhakti tradition. From within, it performed a subversive, reformatory function that changed the dynamics of worship at religious level and challenged the hierarchies at social level. Bhakti literature was marked by spontaneity and ecstasy and hence it produced a rich body of verse born of the heart. The bhasa poets from different castes, regions and religions created a bountiful corpus of literature since eighth century AD in the form of metrical compositions, poems, songs, vachanas, bhajans, keertanas and padams. A heterogeneous group, they are distinguished by non-sectarian attitude, vernacular idiom, faith in divinity, dismissal of rituals and caste, and affinity with the underprivileged sections. Rooted in the age and the soil their literature is unique in that each of them bears his/her unique stamp of a distinct idiom in their dialogue with God who is like any other human being as He exchanged the roles of a lover, beloved, companion, benefactor and guide. Bhakti is as exciting as ever in that it attracts critics into its atmospheric zone over and again, and they come up with multiple interpretations and commentaries. The twenty seven articles in this volume trace the beginnings and growth of bhakti movement and literature as propagated by a number of poet-saints across India up to the twentieth century. The poet-saints discussed in the volume include Andal, Kanakadasa, Mirabai, Kabir, Vemana, Pothana, Annamayya and others. [Subject: Literature, India Studies]
Publisher:
ISBN: 9788131608128
Category : Bhakti
Languages : en
Pages : 0
Book Description
Bhakti movement had been an energizing phenomenon that provided a concrete shape and an identifiable face to the abstractions of Sanskrit scriptures. As counterculture, it embraced into its fold all sections of people breaking the barriers of caste, class, community and gender. It added an inclusive dimension to the hitherto privileged, exclusivist, Upanishadic tradition. A primal instinct for unmitigated attachment, total surrender and craving for freedom are at the root of the bhakti tradition. From within, it performed a subversive, reformatory function that changed the dynamics of worship at religious level and challenged the hierarchies at social level. Bhakti literature was marked by spontaneity and ecstasy and hence it produced a rich body of verse born of the heart. The bhasa poets from different castes, regions and religions created a bountiful corpus of literature since eighth century AD in the form of metrical compositions, poems, songs, vachanas, bhajans, keertanas and padams. A heterogeneous group, they are distinguished by non-sectarian attitude, vernacular idiom, faith in divinity, dismissal of rituals and caste, and affinity with the underprivileged sections. Rooted in the age and the soil their literature is unique in that each of them bears his/her unique stamp of a distinct idiom in their dialogue with God who is like any other human being as He exchanged the roles of a lover, beloved, companion, benefactor and guide. Bhakti is as exciting as ever in that it attracts critics into its atmospheric zone over and again, and they come up with multiple interpretations and commentaries. The twenty seven articles in this volume trace the beginnings and growth of bhakti movement and literature as propagated by a number of poet-saints across India up to the twentieth century. The poet-saints discussed in the volume include Andal, Kanakadasa, Mirabai, Kabir, Vemana, Pothana, Annamayya and others. [Subject: Literature, India Studies]
A Storm of Songs
Author: John Stratton Hawley
Publisher: Harvard University Press
ISBN: 0674425286
Category : History
Languages : en
Pages : 457
Book Description
India celebrates itself as a nation of unity in diversity, but where does that sense of unity come from? One important source is a widely-accepted narrative called the “bhakti movement.” Bhakti is the religion of the heart, of song, of common participation, of inner peace, of anguished protest. The idea known as the bhakti movement asserts that between 600 and 1600 CE, poet-saints sang bhakti from India’s southernmost tip to its northern Himalayan heights, laying the religious bedrock upon which the modern state of India would be built. Challenging this canonical narrative, John Stratton Hawley clarifies the historical and political contingencies that gave birth to the concept of the bhakti movement. Starting with the Mughals and their Kachvaha allies, North Indian groups looked to the Hindu South as a resource that would give religious and linguistic depth to their own collective history. Only in the early twentieth century did the idea of a bhakti “movement” crystallize—in the intellectual circle surrounding Rabindranath Tagore in Bengal. Interactions between Hindus and Muslims, between the sexes, between proud regional cultures, and between upper castes and Dalits are crucially embedded in the narrative, making it a powerful political resource. A Storm of Songs ponders the destiny of the idea of the bhakti movement in a globalizing India. If bhakti is the beating heart of India, this is the story of how it was implanted there—and whether it can survive.
Publisher: Harvard University Press
ISBN: 0674425286
Category : History
Languages : en
Pages : 457
Book Description
India celebrates itself as a nation of unity in diversity, but where does that sense of unity come from? One important source is a widely-accepted narrative called the “bhakti movement.” Bhakti is the religion of the heart, of song, of common participation, of inner peace, of anguished protest. The idea known as the bhakti movement asserts that between 600 and 1600 CE, poet-saints sang bhakti from India’s southernmost tip to its northern Himalayan heights, laying the religious bedrock upon which the modern state of India would be built. Challenging this canonical narrative, John Stratton Hawley clarifies the historical and political contingencies that gave birth to the concept of the bhakti movement. Starting with the Mughals and their Kachvaha allies, North Indian groups looked to the Hindu South as a resource that would give religious and linguistic depth to their own collective history. Only in the early twentieth century did the idea of a bhakti “movement” crystallize—in the intellectual circle surrounding Rabindranath Tagore in Bengal. Interactions between Hindus and Muslims, between the sexes, between proud regional cultures, and between upper castes and Dalits are crucially embedded in the narrative, making it a powerful political resource. A Storm of Songs ponders the destiny of the idea of the bhakti movement in a globalizing India. If bhakti is the beating heart of India, this is the story of how it was implanted there—and whether it can survive.
The Historical Development of the Bhakti Movement in India
Author: Iwao Shima
Publisher:
ISBN: 9788173048845
Category : Bhakti
Languages : en
Pages : 299
Book Description
Contributed articles.
Publisher:
ISBN: 9788173048845
Category : Bhakti
Languages : en
Pages : 299
Book Description
Contributed articles.
Bhakti Poetry in Medieval India
Author: Neeti M. Sadarangani
Publisher: Sarup & Sons
ISBN: 9788176254366
Category : Bhakti
Languages : en
Pages : 324
Book Description
This Text Is An Attempt To Reconstruct The Bhakti Movement From The 8Th Century Tamil Nadu To The 16Th Century Punjab, In Its Totality, As A Connected Organic Phenomenon And As Perhaps The Earliest Indian Voice Of Deconstructive Modern Thought.
Publisher: Sarup & Sons
ISBN: 9788176254366
Category : Bhakti
Languages : en
Pages : 324
Book Description
This Text Is An Attempt To Reconstruct The Bhakti Movement From The 8Th Century Tamil Nadu To The 16Th Century Punjab, In Its Totality, As A Connected Organic Phenomenon And As Perhaps The Earliest Indian Voice Of Deconstructive Modern Thought.
The Bhakti Movement and the Status of Women
Author: Leela Mullatti
Publisher: Abhinav Publications
ISBN: 9788170172505
Category : Religion
Languages : en
Pages : 180
Book Description
The Indigenous Protest Movement Called Bhakti Movement, Comprising Bhakti Cults Of Many Hues And Colours, Had An Impact On The Status Of Women In India. Many Of Them Tried To Do Away With The Manifold Taboos, Pollutions And Rituals With Which, Hindu Religion Was Cluttered. While Some Accepted The Equality Of Men And Women, Others Reinforced The Inequalities In Practice. The Present Case Study Of Virasaivism, A Populous Sect In Karnataka, Deals With Ther Impact Of This Movement On The Status Of Women. After A Careful Research On A Hundred Families With First And Second-Generation Women, The Author Finds That Precepts And Practices Meet Here In A Unique Way. Child-Training Practices, The Institution Of Marriage, The Family And Kinship System And The Economic And Socio-Religious Life Of Virasaiva Women Enable Them To Enjoy A Comparatively High Status.
Publisher: Abhinav Publications
ISBN: 9788170172505
Category : Religion
Languages : en
Pages : 180
Book Description
The Indigenous Protest Movement Called Bhakti Movement, Comprising Bhakti Cults Of Many Hues And Colours, Had An Impact On The Status Of Women In India. Many Of Them Tried To Do Away With The Manifold Taboos, Pollutions And Rituals With Which, Hindu Religion Was Cluttered. While Some Accepted The Equality Of Men And Women, Others Reinforced The Inequalities In Practice. The Present Case Study Of Virasaivism, A Populous Sect In Karnataka, Deals With Ther Impact Of This Movement On The Status Of Women. After A Careful Research On A Hundred Families With First And Second-Generation Women, The Author Finds That Precepts And Practices Meet Here In A Unique Way. Child-Training Practices, The Institution Of Marriage, The Family And Kinship System And The Economic And Socio-Religious Life Of Virasaiva Women Enable Them To Enjoy A Comparatively High Status.
A Genealogy of Devotion
Author: Patton E. Burchett
Publisher: Columbia University Press
ISBN: 0231548834
Category : Religion
Languages : en
Pages : 468
Book Description
In this book, Patton E. Burchett offers a path-breaking genealogical study of devotional (bhakti) Hinduism that traces its understudied historical relationships with tantra, yoga, and Sufism. Beginning in India’s early medieval “Tantric Age” and reaching to the present day, Burchett focuses his analysis on the crucial shifts of the early modern period, when the rise of bhakti communities in North India transformed the religious landscape in ways that would profoundly affect the shape of modern-day Hinduism. A Genealogy of Devotion illuminates the complex historical factors at play in the growth of bhakti in Sultanate and Mughal India through its pivotal interactions with Indic and Persianate traditions of asceticism, monasticism, politics, and literature. Shedding new light on the importance of Persian culture and popular Sufism in the history of devotional Hinduism, Burchett’s work explores the cultural encounters that reshaped early modern North Indian communities. Focusing on the Rāmānandī bhakti community and the tantric Nāth yogīs, Burchett describes the emergence of a new and Sufi-inflected devotional sensibility—an ethical, emotional, and aesthetic disposition—that was often critical of tantric and yogic religiosity. Early modern North Indian devotional critiques of tantric religiosity, he shows, prefigured colonial-era Orientalist depictions of bhakti as “religion” and tantra as “magic.” Providing a broad historical view of bhakti, tantra, and yoga while simultaneously challenging dominant scholarly conceptions of them, A Genealogy of Devotion offers a bold new narrative of the history of religion in India.
Publisher: Columbia University Press
ISBN: 0231548834
Category : Religion
Languages : en
Pages : 468
Book Description
In this book, Patton E. Burchett offers a path-breaking genealogical study of devotional (bhakti) Hinduism that traces its understudied historical relationships with tantra, yoga, and Sufism. Beginning in India’s early medieval “Tantric Age” and reaching to the present day, Burchett focuses his analysis on the crucial shifts of the early modern period, when the rise of bhakti communities in North India transformed the religious landscape in ways that would profoundly affect the shape of modern-day Hinduism. A Genealogy of Devotion illuminates the complex historical factors at play in the growth of bhakti in Sultanate and Mughal India through its pivotal interactions with Indic and Persianate traditions of asceticism, monasticism, politics, and literature. Shedding new light on the importance of Persian culture and popular Sufism in the history of devotional Hinduism, Burchett’s work explores the cultural encounters that reshaped early modern North Indian communities. Focusing on the Rāmānandī bhakti community and the tantric Nāth yogīs, Burchett describes the emergence of a new and Sufi-inflected devotional sensibility—an ethical, emotional, and aesthetic disposition—that was often critical of tantric and yogic religiosity. Early modern North Indian devotional critiques of tantric religiosity, he shows, prefigured colonial-era Orientalist depictions of bhakti as “religion” and tantra as “magic.” Providing a broad historical view of bhakti, tantra, and yoga while simultaneously challenging dominant scholarly conceptions of them, A Genealogy of Devotion offers a bold new narrative of the history of religion in India.
Bhakti and the Bhakti Movement
Author: Krishna Sharma
Publisher:
ISBN:
Category : Religion
Languages : en
Pages : 372
Book Description
Description: This book makes a total departure from some well-established notions about bhakti and the Bhakti movement. It questions and rejects the current academic definition of bhakti and the portrayals of the Bhakti movement in the light of that definition. Trying to recapture the generic meaning of the term bhakti, the author postulates that bhakti by itself does not suggest any ideational or doctrinaire position. According to her, a restricted and erroneous definition of bhakti has served as the substratum for all theorisations about the Bhakti movement, when taken as a whole. What is reckoned as the Bhakti movement, she states, is an amalgam of a number of devotional movements of a divergent nature. A monolithic view of these can be taken only if their common denominator bhakti is understood in its generic sense. Not otherwise. In short, the author has called into question the whole conceptual framework and the basic terms of reference used hitherto for the study of bhakti and the Bhakti movement. This is significant since they have had the sanction of more than one hundred years of scholarship, and have not been questioned till now. She has done so on the strength of her being able to trace back the origins of the errors she has underlined. The author has tried to establish the fact that the accepted academic definition of bhakti is a modern construction; and that it was artificially formulated by certain Western Indologists of the nineteenth century with the aid of criteria which had no relevance in the context of Hinduism. The process of its formulation has been examined historiographically in this critique to show how it had gradually taken shape between 1846 and 1909. The reasons for its subsequent incorporation in modern Indian scholarship have also been made clear. Adopting an interdisciplinary approach in this book, Dr. Sharma has grappled with many vital issues related to the Bhakti theme. It is hoped that this erudite work would serve as a landmark in the study of bhakti and the Bhakti movement.
Publisher:
ISBN:
Category : Religion
Languages : en
Pages : 372
Book Description
Description: This book makes a total departure from some well-established notions about bhakti and the Bhakti movement. It questions and rejects the current academic definition of bhakti and the portrayals of the Bhakti movement in the light of that definition. Trying to recapture the generic meaning of the term bhakti, the author postulates that bhakti by itself does not suggest any ideational or doctrinaire position. According to her, a restricted and erroneous definition of bhakti has served as the substratum for all theorisations about the Bhakti movement, when taken as a whole. What is reckoned as the Bhakti movement, she states, is an amalgam of a number of devotional movements of a divergent nature. A monolithic view of these can be taken only if their common denominator bhakti is understood in its generic sense. Not otherwise. In short, the author has called into question the whole conceptual framework and the basic terms of reference used hitherto for the study of bhakti and the Bhakti movement. This is significant since they have had the sanction of more than one hundred years of scholarship, and have not been questioned till now. She has done so on the strength of her being able to trace back the origins of the errors she has underlined. The author has tried to establish the fact that the accepted academic definition of bhakti is a modern construction; and that it was artificially formulated by certain Western Indologists of the nineteenth century with the aid of criteria which had no relevance in the context of Hinduism. The process of its formulation has been examined historiographically in this critique to show how it had gradually taken shape between 1846 and 1909. The reasons for its subsequent incorporation in modern Indian scholarship have also been made clear. Adopting an interdisciplinary approach in this book, Dr. Sharma has grappled with many vital issues related to the Bhakti theme. It is hoped that this erudite work would serve as a landmark in the study of bhakti and the Bhakti movement.
Bhakti Religion in North India
Author: David N. Lorenzen
Publisher: State University of New York Press
ISBN: 143841126X
Category : Religion
Languages : en
Pages : 350
Book Description
In India, religion continues to be an absolutely vital source for social as well as personal identity. All manner of groups--political, occupational, and social--remain grounded in specific religious communities. This book analyzes the development of the modern Hindu and Sikh communities in North India starting from about the fifteenth century, when the dominant bhakti tradition of Hinduism became divided into two currents: the sagun and the nirgun. The sagun current, led mostly by Brahmins, has remained dominant in most of North India and has served as the ideological base of the development of modern Hindu nationalism. Several chapters explore the rise of this religious and political movement, paying particular attention to the role played by devotion to Ram. Alternative trends do exist in sagun tradition, however, and are represented here by chapters on the low-caste saint Chokhamel and the tantric sect founded by Kina Ram. The nirgun current, led mostly by persons of Ksand artisan castes, formed the base of both the Sikh community, founded by Guru Nanak, and of various non-Brahmin sectarian movements derived from such saints as Kabir, Raidas, Dadu, and Shiv Dayal Singh. Two chapters discuss the formation of a distinctive Sikh theology and a Sikh community identity separate from that of the Hindus. Other chapters discuss the validity of the sagun-nirgun distinction within Hindu tradition and the interplay of social and religious ideas in nirgun hagiographic texts and in sectarian movements such as the Adi Dharma Mission and the Radhasoami Satsang.
Publisher: State University of New York Press
ISBN: 143841126X
Category : Religion
Languages : en
Pages : 350
Book Description
In India, religion continues to be an absolutely vital source for social as well as personal identity. All manner of groups--political, occupational, and social--remain grounded in specific religious communities. This book analyzes the development of the modern Hindu and Sikh communities in North India starting from about the fifteenth century, when the dominant bhakti tradition of Hinduism became divided into two currents: the sagun and the nirgun. The sagun current, led mostly by Brahmins, has remained dominant in most of North India and has served as the ideological base of the development of modern Hindu nationalism. Several chapters explore the rise of this religious and political movement, paying particular attention to the role played by devotion to Ram. Alternative trends do exist in sagun tradition, however, and are represented here by chapters on the low-caste saint Chokhamel and the tantric sect founded by Kina Ram. The nirgun current, led mostly by persons of Ksand artisan castes, formed the base of both the Sikh community, founded by Guru Nanak, and of various non-Brahmin sectarian movements derived from such saints as Kabir, Raidas, Dadu, and Shiv Dayal Singh. Two chapters discuss the formation of a distinctive Sikh theology and a Sikh community identity separate from that of the Hindus. Other chapters discuss the validity of the sagun-nirgun distinction within Hindu tradition and the interplay of social and religious ideas in nirgun hagiographic texts and in sectarian movements such as the Adi Dharma Mission and the Radhasoami Satsang.
For the Love of God
Author: Sandhya Mulchandani
Publisher: Penguin Random House India Private Limited
ISBN: 9353055814
Category : Literary Collections
Languages : en
Pages : 196
Book Description
Between the third centuries BC and AD were written thousands of verses in Tamil that have collectively come to be known as Sangam literature. The expressions of love between a man and a woman in these love poems gave way to passionate expressions of devotional love, where the heroine became the devotee and the hero became God. Through the centuries of patriarchy, women negotiated varied levels of existence and largely went unnoticed until they found a path for self-expression through bhakti or devotion. While the dominant form of worship was to prostrate before God, women found innovative ways of personal expression, often seeing the lord as a lover, friend, husband, or even son. The individual outpourings and the unfettered voices of these women refused to be drowned in the din of patriarchy gathering momentum until this became a pan India movement. In For the Love of God, Sandhya Mulchandani delves deep into historical accounts of these women who fell in love with God.
Publisher: Penguin Random House India Private Limited
ISBN: 9353055814
Category : Literary Collections
Languages : en
Pages : 196
Book Description
Between the third centuries BC and AD were written thousands of verses in Tamil that have collectively come to be known as Sangam literature. The expressions of love between a man and a woman in these love poems gave way to passionate expressions of devotional love, where the heroine became the devotee and the hero became God. Through the centuries of patriarchy, women negotiated varied levels of existence and largely went unnoticed until they found a path for self-expression through bhakti or devotion. While the dominant form of worship was to prostrate before God, women found innovative ways of personal expression, often seeing the lord as a lover, friend, husband, or even son. The individual outpourings and the unfettered voices of these women refused to be drowned in the din of patriarchy gathering momentum until this became a pan India movement. In For the Love of God, Sandhya Mulchandani delves deep into historical accounts of these women who fell in love with God.
A Poet's Glossary
Author: Edward Hirsch
Publisher: HarperCollins
ISBN: 0547737467
Category : Poetry
Languages : en
Pages : 683
Book Description
A major addition to the literature of poetry, Edward Hirsch’s sparkling new work is a compilation of forms, devices, groups, movements, isms, aesthetics, rhetorical terms, and folklore—a book that all readers, writers, teachers, and students of poetry will return to over and over. Hirsch has delved deeply into the poetic traditions of the world, returning with an inclusive, international compendium. Moving gracefully from the bards of ancient Greece to the revolutionaries of Latin America, from small formal elements to large mysteries, he provides thoughtful definitions for the most important poetic vocabulary, imbuing his work with a lifetime of scholarship and the warmth of a man devoted to his art. Knowing how a poem works is essential to unlocking its meaning. Hirsch’s entries will deepen readers’ relationships with their favorite poems and open greater levels of understanding in each new poem they encounter. Shot through with the enthusiasm, authority, and sheer delight that made How to Read a Poem so beloved, A Poet’s Glossary is a new classic.
Publisher: HarperCollins
ISBN: 0547737467
Category : Poetry
Languages : en
Pages : 683
Book Description
A major addition to the literature of poetry, Edward Hirsch’s sparkling new work is a compilation of forms, devices, groups, movements, isms, aesthetics, rhetorical terms, and folklore—a book that all readers, writers, teachers, and students of poetry will return to over and over. Hirsch has delved deeply into the poetic traditions of the world, returning with an inclusive, international compendium. Moving gracefully from the bards of ancient Greece to the revolutionaries of Latin America, from small formal elements to large mysteries, he provides thoughtful definitions for the most important poetic vocabulary, imbuing his work with a lifetime of scholarship and the warmth of a man devoted to his art. Knowing how a poem works is essential to unlocking its meaning. Hirsch’s entries will deepen readers’ relationships with their favorite poems and open greater levels of understanding in each new poem they encounter. Shot through with the enthusiasm, authority, and sheer delight that made How to Read a Poem so beloved, A Poet’s Glossary is a new classic.