The Historical Development of The Bhakti Movement In India: Theory and Practice

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Edited by: Iwao Shima
Teiji Sakata
Katsuyuki Ida

Bhakti has formed an important part of religious life of the Indian people since the early medieval period. Devotees can be blessed with divine grace or attain union with God through their intense devotion called bhakti. This book attempts to elucidate the concepts of bhakti and traces its development theoretical as well as historical in the religious history of India.

This volume is divided in two parts. The first part the Theoretical framework of Bhakti and its historical development contains seven chapters dealing with various types of theories of bhakti in the Indian traditions. These chapters specifically investigate how the idea of bhakti emerged took shape and was established in such philosophical schools as Vedanta Pancaratra Srivaisnava and Tantras.

The second part this Philosophical influence of Bhakti and its popular acceptance contains seven chapters focusing an influence on the Indian religious traditions or how bhakti was popularly accepted in the Indian cultural contexts. Each chapter deals with the popular devotional movements led by Jnanesvar, Tukaram, Kabir, Tulsidas and Ramalingar with their works in the respective vernacular languages.

The late Iwao Shima was a Prof. of Indian Philosophy at Kanazawa University. He Extensively contributed to the various subjects of Indian spirituality including Advaita Vedanta Tantric and Sakta traditions, Marathi Bhakti Movements and renewed phases in Indian Buddhism. He was the inspiring organizer of research projects on Indian devotionalism the outcome of which is crystallized in this publication.

Teiji Sakata is Professor Emeritus of Takushoku University. He is working on Hindi Folktales and medieval Hindi Literature. He is an active member of the International Conference on devotional literature in New Indo Aryan Languages.

Katsuyuki Ida is a Lecturer of South Asian Studies at Kanazawa University. He has been working on medieval Hinduism focusing mainly on the Tantric practices and puranic myths.

This book is the eighth volume of the series Japanese Studies on South Asia published by the Japanese association for south Asian studies. The main purpose of this series is to illustrate Japan’s contribution to South Asian Studies in the international academic world. This volume entitled Historical development of Bhakti Movement in India theory and practice is an attempt to elucidate the meanings of Bhakti in various religious traditions.

In india bhakti or devotion to God by devotees has been an important part of religious life since the early medieval period. When a devotee humbly worships God he/she is embraced by divine grace thus a devotee can be united with God through bhakti. Taking into consideration the importance of religious commitment of bhakti among the Hindus we organized this research group to work on its various phases in India and continued researching if from perspectives such as Indian philosophy Hindu literatures and modern Indian literatures. As a result the source materials for our studies are written in various languages not only in classical Sanskrit but also in such medieval and modern languages ad Bengali Marathi, Hindi and Tamil.

In order to share our academic efforts and results several seminars were held at Kanazawa University in Kanazawa City and Takushoku University In Tokyo. At these seminars all the contributors to this volume presented their draft papers and later revised them on the basis of the suggestion given by the participants our academic research was financially supported by a Grants in Aid for Scientific Research (Grant 13301-B-17320014) awarded by the Japan Society for the promotion of Science during the period 2005-8.

This volume consists of two part I Entitled the Theoretical framework of Bhakti and its historical development contains seven papers mainly discussing the various theories of Bhakti and its development in Indian religious traditions. Part II entitled The Philosophical Influence of Bhakti and its popular Acceptance also contains seven papers, focusing on how the philosophies of bhakti influenced Indian religious traditions, or how bhakti was popularly accepted in the Indian cultural context. Here is a brief introduction to the main themes and contents of this volume.

In ‘Reflections on Bhakti as a Type of Indian Mysticism’, Yoshitsugu Sawai presents a general discussion on the meaning of bhakti, comparing it with ‘mysticism’ in Indian religious contexts. In his semantic analysis, focusing on the theories of bhakti demonstrated by two scholars—Surendranath Dasgupta and Rudolf Otto—he argues that the ascetic dimensions of bhakti correspond to the religious phenomena covered by mysticism. although it may be preferable to use the term ‘faith’ or ‘practice’ when referring to the concept of bhakti in its popular dimension. In the second paper. ‘The Use of Bhakti/Bhakta in the Pancaratra Scriptures’, Hiromichi Hikita analyses the usage of the words bhakti (devotion) and bhakta (devotees) found in the ‘three jewels’, the early Pancaratra scriptures. Through his careful analysis of the usage of these terms, he concludes that only those who receive initiation into the Pancaratra sect are authorized to worship Visnu with bhakti in daily ritual and that Visnu thus grants various favors to his devotees in this world and absolute happiness in the next world.

The following two articles focus on the Srivaisnava philosophy. First. Bunki Kimura’s paper, ‘Ramnuja’s Theory of Bhakti Based on the Vedanta Philosophy’, attempts to clarify how, on the basis of the authority of the Upanisads. Ramanuja introduces bhakti to the Brahman as the indispensable means for moksa in the Vedanta philosophical tradition. According to his research, Ramanuja succeeded in establishing the theory that a Brahman’s knowledge (vidya) is interchangeable with bliss (Unanda). and constructed the basis of the later Vedanta philosophy connected to the bhakti cult. For his part Sadanori Ishitobi discusses the theory of salvation in the Srivaisnava tradition, especially in its two sub-sects, the Tengalai (southern school) and the Vadagalai (northern school) in ‘Theories of Salvation in the Tengalai and Vadagalai Schools’. Through analysis of the meanings of bhakti and prapatti expounded Pillai Lokacarya and Vedanta Desika, Ishitobi concludes that the signs of antagonism between Tengalai’s populism and Vadagalai’s traditionalism are evident in the difference of these two thoughts.

In ‘Some Sources of Madhva’s Bhakti Theory’, Hiroaki Ikebe philologically examines Madhva’s concepts of bhakti and moksa in the Nãráyaiya section of the Mahabharata, the Ahirhudhnyasamhita, the Laksmi-Tantra, and the Bhagavata-Purana, for he supposes that these texts constitute the source of Madhva’s theory of salvation. Clarifying the similarities between Madhva’s concept of bhakti or moksa and with that of these texts, Ikebe suggests that Madhva must have had his own source of thought. Regarding the concept of bhakti in Hindu Tantric philosophy. Katsuyuki Ida’s paper, ‘The Concept of Bhakti in the Tantric Tradition’, examines how the concept of bhakti was accepted in the Hindu Tantric tradition. Ida concludes that ‘instead of bhakti to the divinity, bhakti to the guru is remarkably emphasized in the Tantric scriptures, particularly in the Säktas’ Moreover, he emphasizes that bhakti to the guru may be traced back to the Brahmanical tradition, as typically found in the Dharma astras. The last paper of Part I is the ‘Realization of Inner Divinity: Ntha Yogins in the Medieval Bhakti Movement’, by Kazuyo Sakaki. By limiting her study to the Natha tradition, which developed physical techniques for gaining complete control over prãna, Sakaki investigates how the Nathas, as the result of their interiorized bhakti. become God themselves. They formulated spiritual practices for spiritual death and rebirth through the processes of purification. Thus, these seven articles trace the development of the theories of bhakti and also examine them along with some other theories in the Bhakti movements, including those pertaining to the Tantric and Natha traditions.

Part II also contains seven arti les that examine the development of the Bhakti movement in various areas in later medieval India. The first article, ‘The Atmosphere of Bhakti in Literature: A Buddhist Stotra, One Work of Katha Literature, and a Folk Tale’ is written by Yoshifumi Mizuno. He investigates how the atmosphere of bhakti is exhibited in other literary works. According to him, it is self-evident that bhakti literatures such as the Bhagavad-gita and Bhagavata-Purana characterize the atmosphere of bhakti, but aspects of bhakti can also be detected some Buddhist stotras, in katha literature in Sanskrit, and in folk tales in modern vernacular languages.

Shima points out that Jnanesvar’s philosophy written in Marathi represents the earliest stage of the development of bhakti. After his careful examination of the first six chapters of Jnanesvar’s commentary on the Bhagavad-gita, Shima clarifies that Jnanesvar’s interpretation is strongly influenced by Sankara’s thought and that it also accepts the style of the Tantric meditation developed mainly in the Nathas. Considering this fact he argues that bhakti and Tantrism which constitute the two main currents in medieval Hindu tradition bear constitute the two main currents in medieval chhiro Koiso’s paper, The Bhakti of Tukaram in his Abhangas also examinies the meaning of bhakti in the Marathi speaking area. In her analysis of Tukaram’s poetical compositions (The Abhangas) she concluded that his centre of your life. Walk the path of love Serve mankind and thus see God in all.

Moreover Kabir’s theory of Bhakti is discussed by Taigen Hashimoto in his paper A study of an aspect of Kabir’s Bhakti with the text and translation of the Gyana Caumtisa in Kabir’s Bijak as the title suggests Hashimoto gives the full text along with the English translation of the Gyana Caumtisa in Kabir’s Bijak. This is important research material in Hindi for examining the popular acceptance of bhakti. The theory of bhakti in the eastern part of India is argued in Masaru Tonguu’s paper. Analytical study of Bhaktirasa as a religious sentiment established by the Gaudiya Vaisnava School places bhakti toward Krsna above all the other types of bhakti and subordinates the traditional rasa theory to that of the Gaudiya Vaisnava school in order to emphasizes the excellence of bhakti rasa.

In Teiji Sakata’s Paper Rama in the eyes of his Consort Sita A Study of Tulsidas’s Ramcaritmanas the region where Rama has been the Supreme God for centuries is argued. Sakata focuses on the characteristics of Rama through the eyes of his consort, Sita with reference to the Hindi epics in the sixteenth century. According to his research from Sita’s perspective Rama has three phases Rama as Sita’s beloved husband the lord of Kosala Kingdom and the supreme God born as an incarnation of Visnu. In this case one may identify devotion the supreme God integrated into human love. The last paper of the volume brings us to south India in the nineteenth century. Hiroshi Yamashita’s paper entitled Saint Ramalingar and the Exemplification of God as Effulgence Sheds light on the aspect of bhakti in the case of Saint Ramalingar one of the central figures in the Hindu reform movement. Yamashita focuses on the devotion and practices of the saint.

By compiling these papers we would like to convey a message to the international academic community. Needless to say was realize that considerable research remains to be completed in order to satisfactorily clarify the characteristics of bhakti in Indian religious traditions.