Buddhism in India

6

6. After Buddhism: The Bhakti Movements

Movements

For nearly a thousand years, the bhakti or devotional movements
were major religious expressions for low-caste men and women,
which included some drawn from the castes considered most low, as
their occupation such as working with leather or other polluting jobs
made them untouchable. The leading figures of these movements are
called sant, and the term is so close to ‘saint’ that there is no need for
translation. They are often called ‘saint-poets’ because they were com-
posers of songs and hymns. However, where Catholic saints are those
recognised as such by a church hierarchy, the santsof the bhakti
movements were devotees who were recognised not by a religious
establishment, but by the people, as unusually holy or compelling
figures. Therefore we will use the term santhere without translation.
These sants, mostly drawn from the masses of lower-class and
lower-caste artisans and labourers have become the pioneers of paths
which attracted many of the masses today to some form of ‘Hinduism’.
Also, since their songs and hymns were composed in the peoples’
languages and are considered (with the exception of Tamil) to be the
earliest and often the greatest literature in these languages, the bhakti
movements are also identified with the national–linguistic cultures of
the different regions of India—consequently the role played by
Buddhism and Jainism was generally ignored.
Naturally, then, analysis of these movements has been controver-
sial. While some anti-caste radicals of the 19th and 20th centuries
have tended to reject them altogether, others find solace and hope
in the rise of lower-caste bhaktas and consider them as representing
a religious revolt of the exploited and a proof of low-caste creativity.
At the same time, questions have been raised about the relation of

The Bhakti Movements 187

the bhakti movements to Buddhism; often they are considered to

have been influenced by Buddhism, and quite often Buddhism and

the bhakti movements are put in the same category as ‘protest

movements’ against orthodox Brahmanism. For both these reasons

their analysis is crucial.

The following survey represents only the beginning of such an

analysis. Difficulties in interpreting the bhakti movements stem from

the very conditions of their origin. One aspect of their popularity

is that ‘modern’ 20th century interpretations by Dalits and non-

Brahmans stress the radicalism of the santsagainst traditional

Brahmanic interpretations. However, the recorded ‘traditions’,

which come mainly from the 13th to 18th centuries and minimise

radicalism, are almost the only existing historical records we have.

These very records, including official collections (there are few

really ‘critical’ editions) of songs and poems, reflect Brahman

dominance and the conditions under which the sants lived. A full

interpretation has to be attempted, a task that has only recently

begun. The translations given here reflect primarily those ‘authen-

ticated’ (i.e., earlier) songs and poems that has been possible at the

current stage of this ongoing work of recovery.

Nandanar: The Penalties of Caste

The earliest bhakti movements, the Shaivite and Vaishnavite move-

ments in Tamil Nadu, were clearly connected with an aggressive

Brahmanical revival. As Nilakantha Sastri has described it,

people began to entertain fears of the whole land going over to

Jainism and Buddhism...the worshippers of Shiva and Vishnu felt the

call to stem the rising tide of heresy. The growth, on the one hand,

of an intense emotional bhakti to Shiva or Vishnu and, on the other,

of an outspoken hatred of Buddhists and Jains, are the chief charac-

teristics of the new epoch. Challenges to public debate, competition

in the performance of miracles, tests of the truth of doctrines by

means of ordeal, became the order of the day. Parties of devotees

under the leadership of one gifted saint or another traversed the

country many times over, dancing and debating all their way. This

great wave or religious enthusiasm attained its peak in the early

seventh century and had not spent itself in the middle of the ninth

(Sastri 1999: 382).