The bhakti movement and the sants

भक्ति आन्दोलन

Also written: bhakti movement · sant tradition · kabir · mirabai · tukaram · ravidas · nayanmars alvars · भक्ति

The bhakti movement is the largest internal reform in the tradition's history. It began in the Tamil country in the sixth century and moved north over a thousand years, and everywhere it went it did the same three things: it taught in the local language, it made the highest goal available without ritual qualification, and it produced saints from every stratum of society.

The movement's theological warrant is a single Gītā verse that names the excluded groups and grants them the highest goal — which is why reform this radical could remain textually orthodox.

मां हि पार्थ व्यपाश्रित्य येऽपि स्युः पापयोनयः। स्त्रियो वैश्यास्तथा शूद्रास्तेऽपि यान्ति परां गतिम्॥

māṁ hi pārtha vyapāśritya ye'pi syuḥ pāpa-yonayaḥ striyo vaiśyās tathā śūdrās te'pi yānti parāṁ gatim

Taking refuge in Me, O Pārtha, even those of unfavourable birth — women, vaiśyas and śūdras — they too reach the highest goal.

— Bhagavad Gītā 9.32

And the sants' own formulation of the same point, in the languages people actually spoke. Kabīr, a weaver, put the whole argument about birth into two lines.

जाति न पूछो साधु की, पूछ लीजिये ज्ञान। मोल करो तरवार का, पड़ा रहन दो म्यान॥

jāti na pūcho sādhu kī, pūch lījiye jñāna mol karo taravār kā, paṛā rahan do myāna

Do not ask the saint his caste — ask him what he knows. Bargain for the sword; let the scabbard lie where it is.

— Kabīr, dohā

Some of the sants
Saint	Region and period	Background	Contribution
The 63 Nāyanmārs	Tamil, 6th–9th c.	Kings to potters	Tirumuṟai — the Tamil Śaiva canon
The 12 Ālvārs	Tamil, 6th–9th c.	Includes Āṇṭāḷ, a woman, and Tiruppāṇ, an outcaste	Divya Prabandham — the 'Tamil Veda'
Basavaṇṇa	Karnataka, 12th c.	Court minister	Vīraśaiva; the vacanas; rejection of temple and birth hierarchy
Akka Mahādevī	Karnataka, 12th c.	Woman renunciate	Among the most uncompromising voices in the corpus
Jñāneśvar	Maharashtra, 13th c.	Ostracised family	Jñāneśvarī — the Gītā in Marathi, at nineteen
Nāmdev	Maharashtra, 13th c.	Tailor	Abhaṅgas; his verses are in the Guru Granth Sahib
Ravidās	North, 15th c.	Cobbler	Verses in the Guru Granth Sahib; 'Begampura', the city without sorrow
Kabīr	Banaras, 15th c.	Weaver, raised Muslim	The sharpest critic of ritual in either religion; claimed by Hindus, Muslims and Sikhs alike
Mīrābāī	Rajasthan, 16th c.	Rajput princess	Left a palace for Kṛṣṇa; the most sung bhajans in India
Caitanya	Bengal, 16th c.	Scholar	Saṅkīrtana; the Gaudīya tradition
Śaṅkaradeva	Assam, 15th–16th c.	—	Ekasaraṇa; the sattras and Assamese devotional culture
Narsinh Mehta	Gujarat, 15th c.	—	'Vaiṣṇava jana to' — Gandhi's daily bhajan
Tukārām	Maharashtra, 17th c.	Grocer	Abhaṅgas of unmatched directness; the Varkari tradition
Tulsīdās	North, 16th c.	—	Rāmcaritmānas — the Rāmāyaṇa in Avadhi, and the most read book in north India

What it changed

Scripture in the spoken language: Marathi, Tamil, Hindi, Bengali, Kannada, Assamese, Gujarati, Punjabi.
Access without Sanskrit, without initiation and without birth qualification.
Women as saints and teachers in every stream.
The theological argument, made from the Gītā's own text, that whoever takes refuge — whatever their birth — reaches the highest goal.
Music as the primary vehicle: kīrtana, bhajan, abhaṅga, vacana, pada.

The bhakti movement and the sants

What it changed

The tributaries — traditions born from the same ground

Buddhism

Jainism

Sikhism

The Nātha sampradāya and haṭha yoga

Modern movements and teachers