The concept of treating god as the supreme power, worshipping, and performing rituals is not a new idea. People have practised these things since the late 18th century. People show passionate devotion toward God. Some people are extremely dedicated to the god that they keep repeating his name for the complete day. Showing love for god by performing different rituals is the heritage of Indian culture. In other words, we have inherited this intense dedication toward god from Bhakti and Sufi movements.
However, over time, people came up with different ideas that paved a new way for the love of god.
In earlier times, people used to live in segregated and small groups. They used to worship different deities.
With the emergence of kingdoms, the growth of towns quickened its pace. The growth of towns attracted people to live together in larger groups.
The interaction of people with different worship practices led to the emergence of new ideas.
People started believing in the continuous process of birth and rebirth.
Another idea that people accepted was that all people are not equal. They believed that people had different statuses even at the time of birth.
However, some people didn’t agree with these ideas. To counter these ideas, they started spreading the teachings of Buddhism and Jainism. They believed that in this way, they can decrease social differences and help people get rid of the idea of the birth cycle.
In the Common era, another idea that was written in the Bhagavadgita and widely accepted by the people was the idea of a supreme god.
The deities which were worshipped in different areas were identified as Shiva, Vishnu, and Durga. They were also considered Supreme God and Goddesses.
People started following the rules and regulations written in Puranas. It states that people from all casts can receive the love of god through Bhakti.
This idea of Bhakti was also accepted by Buddhism and Jainism.
Nayanars were the followers of lord Shiva and Alvars were the devotees of lord Vishnu. These groups included people from lower castes too.
They composed beautiful poems and dedicated them to their beloved deities.
The seventh to ninth centuries were dominated by the different new religious movements started by the Nayanars and Alvars.
They were strong critics of Buddhism and Jainism. They believed that they can attain salvation by passionately worshiping lord Shiva and Vishnu.
They spent their life following the ideas of love that were laid down in Sangam literature (Tamil literature) and added a pinch of bhakti to them.
Chola and Pandya’s rulers built massive beautiful temples around shrines during the tenth and twelfth centuries. This helped in building a strong link between sculpture worship and Bhakti. Religious biographies were written during this period.
Gangaikondcholapuram Temple, Built by the Chola king Rajendra in the 11th Century
Richard Mortel from Riyadh, Saudi Arabia, CC BY 2.0
Hagiographies are books written on the daily lives of saints. In present times, we use these biographies to know more about the bhakti traditions and rituals. The period during the tenth and twelfth centuries was the time when many hagiographies of Alvars and Nayanars were written.
Shankara was born in the eighth century, in Kerala. He is considered one of the greatest philosophers.
He believed in supreme power and that the ultimate reality is the shapeless and oneness of a soul.
He used to believe that the world around us is fantasy and is of no use. He termed the various attractions and attachments of the world as “Maya”.
So, he sermonized that we should renounce this world and gain new knowledge to understand the real meaning of supreme power and achieve salvation in any way.
Ramanuja was another philosopher from the eleventh century. He was born in Tamil Nadu and he was a follower of Alvars.
He believed that one can achieve salvation by passionately worshiping Vishnu.
He believed that Vishnu helped his admirers to unite with him. He put forward the doctrine of Vishishtadvaita. Which states that the soul can be integrated with the supreme power and remain distinctive.
As we know, Chola and Pandya’s rulers built massive beautiful temples around shrines which helped us create a link between the bhakti movement and sculpture worship.
This led to the emergence of a new movement called the Virashaiva movement started by Basavanna and his associates Allama Prabhu and Akkamahadevi. It originated in Karnataka in the mid-twelfth century.
He believed in equality. He strongly criticized the brahminical idea of caste and the ill-treatment of women. He said that every human being should be treated equally despite his caste or gender.
He also criticized ideal worship.
Starting from worshipping different deities and then finding them identical, we have come a long way. People strongly believed in the supreme power. Each and every person wants to attain peace and reside in the shade of god. So, to do that people came up with many ideas and started having different beliefs. Many new ideas and philosophies emerged with time. There were many rituals that promoted inequality and discrimination. Many philosophers raised their voices against these inequalities. Many religious groups were formed to spread new ideas and beliefs which led to the spread of many moments like the Virashaiva movement started by Basavanna. If we talk about the present, we still have many ideas that are coexisting. The spread of the new bhakti idea also helped society to get rid of its evil practices like the caste system, ill-treatment of women, etc. It also inspired people to help needy people.
Q1. What was the idea of Basavanna's Virashaivism movement?
Ans. They believed in the equality of all living beings. They believed that no one should be ill-treated. They saw how women were not treated well and how the caste system prevailed all over India. So, they started this movement to condemn this caste system set by brahmans.
Q2. How many Nayanmars are there? What were the two sets of compilations of their songs?
Ans. Nayanars were 63 in number. All of them were from different castes, including lower castes. Tevaram and Tiruvacakam are their compilations of songs.
Q3. What is the relationship between supreme God and devotion and salvation?
Ans. Many philosophers gave the idea of a supreme god. They said that every individual can be united to God by passionately worshiping with utter devotion and salvation.
Q4. Who was Mira Bai?
Ans. Mira Bai was a true devotee and lover of Krishna. She was born and married into a royal family. She abominated the luxury of life and became a disciple of Ravidas. However, Ravidas belonged to a lower caste.
Q5. Who was Nathpanthis?
Ans. Nathpanthis were the people who believed that one can be united to the supreme power with the help of meditation and salvation. That is why they trained their mind with the help of yoga and breathing exercise.
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