Religion in India by Clothey Fred W

Author:Clothey, Fred W.
Language: eng
Format: epub
Tags: Humanities
Publisher: Taylor & Francis (CAM)
Published: 2006-10-30T16:00:00+00:00

Devotionalism

A major wave of devotionalism (bhakti) occurred during this period when Islam was increasingly visible. Was it a coincidence? Possibly but probably not always. Certainly, bhakti had thrived in the Tamil vernacular marking the Tamilization of aivism and in the seventh to ninth centuries. And tantrism and worship of the goddess were occurring in the eighth to tenth centuries, in a number of regions of India. Yet these movements seemed to have occurred at times and in places of transition. There was reaffirmation of regional and vernacular idioms, and a dialectic of “self” and “other.” The “other” had sometimes been other sects or communities. It had also included response to Buddhism and Jainism. Islam may well have been one of the catalysts of a resurgence of devotionalism in this period, whether directly or indirectly.13 The connections were sometimes explicit in those bhakti poets who were singing after the thirteenth century, though there were clearly other factors as well. These factors included an emerging consciousness of regional and vernacular identities, the appropriation of indigenous and “folk” forms of religious expression, and the borrowing of (and distancing from) brahmanic forms of orthopraxy.

Three vernaculars in particular were beginning to reflect a rich devotional surge: Marth, Bengl, and Hind. We look briefly at each context.

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