Bhakti Sufi Traditions: Changes in religious beliefs and devotional text | Class 12 History | Notes | NCERT

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The Big Picture

1. Background: Great and Little Traditions

• Sociologist Robert Redfield coined the terms great tradition (the Sanskritic and Puranic texts and rituals) and little tradition (local cults of villages and tribes).
• The two did not stay apart: local gods were absorbed into Puranic worship, and Puranic ideas spread into local cults.
• Example: Jagannath (Puri, Odisha). A local deity of tribal origin was later worshipped as a form of Vishnu; a major temple was built here in the 12th century by the Ganga ruler Anantavarman.
• Goddess worship and Tantric practices also grew, with some Tantric rituals open to people of all castes.
• Many sects set aside Brahmanical rituals and caste divisions and welcomed women and low castes.

2. Two Streams of Bhakti

Type	Meaning	Examples
Saguna	Worship of god with form and attributes (Vishnu, Shiva, a goddess)	Alvars, Nayanars, Mirabai, Tulsidas, Surdas
Nirguna	Worship of an abstract, formless god	Kabir, Guru Nanak

3. Bhakti in the South: Alvars and Nayanars

• Early bhakti emerged in Tamil Nadu around the 6th century CE.
• Alvars (12, devotees of Vishnu) and Nayanars (63, devotees of Shiva) travelled from place to place, singing hymns in Tamil.
• They came from all backgrounds: Brahmanas, cultivators and some from so-called untouchable groups.
• They treated devotion to a personal god as more important than birth, ritual or study.

Texts

Group	Deity	Main compositions
Alvars	Vishnu	Nalayira Divyaprabandham (compiled c. 10th century), called the Tamil Veda
Nayanars	Shiva	Tevaram (hymns of Appar, Sambandar and Sundarar)

Women devotees

• Andal (Alvar): composed songs of love for Vishnu, still sung today.
• Karaikkal Ammaiyar (Nayanar): a devotee of Shiva who chose extreme asceticism; she described herself in her poems as a demoness who haunted the forest, rejecting conventional ideas of female beauty and the duties of a wife.
• Their lives challenged patriarchal norms, though their compositions were preserved in male-led traditions.

Caste and rivalry

• Bhakti saints included people from many castes, yet some Brahmanical ideas of caste continued.
• Bhakti poets criticised Buddhists and Jainas, who were rivals for popular and royal support.

State support

• Pallava, Pandya and Chola rulers supported temples and Tamil devotional singing.
• Chola kings, such as Parantaka I, installed metal images of Nayanar saints in Shiva temples and had Tamil hymns recited in rituals.
• Temples at Chidambaram, Thanjavur and Gangaikondacholapuram became centres of Shaiva worship.
• So the movement had popular roots but also benefited from royal patronage.

4. Virashaivas (Lingayats) in Karnataka

• A movement of the 12th century led by Basavanna (a minister at the Kalachuri court).
• Followers (Virashaivas or Lingayats) worship Shiva and wear a linga on the body.
• They challenged caste hierarchy and ideas of pollution, and questioned rebirth.
• They accepted practices that Brahmanical law frowned on, such as marriage after puberty and widow remarriage.
• Their compositions are vachanas, in Kannada.
• They won followers among people on the margins of the Brahmanical order.

5. Religion in the Delhi Sultanate and After

• Muslim rulers recognised the guidance of the ulama, scholars who interpreted the Qur’an and Hadith and the Sharia.
• Non-Muslim subjects were treated as zimmis (protected people) and paid jizya.
• In practice, rulers often adapted to local conditions and the Sharia was not applied uniformly.
• Nath, Jogi and Siddha groups renounced the world, practised yoga and meditation, and worshipped a formless supreme reality. Their ideas influenced Kabir and other nirguna poets.

6. Sufism

Ideas

• Sufism arose in West Asia in the early centuries of Islam as a movement of mystics who stressed love, devotion and direct experience of God over outward rituals.
• Sufis lived simply and often rejected worldly wealth; many were ascetics.
• They were also seen as saints or walis (friends of God), and many people went to them for blessings.

Organisation

Term	Meaning
Silsila	Chain of spiritual teachers and disciples
Pir or shaikh	Spiritual guide
Murid	Disciple
Khanqah	Sufi hospice or centre
Khalifa	Successor appointed by a pir
Dargah	Tomb of a Sufi saint
Urs	Death anniversary of a saint, seen as union with God
Ziyarat	Pilgrimage to a shrine

Main silsilas in India

• Chishti: Khwaja Muinuddin Chishti (Ajmer), Qutbuddin Bakhtiyar Kaki, Baba Farid, Nizamuddin Auliya. The Chishtis kept a distance from the state and accepted unasked gifts (futuh) only for charity.
• Suhrawardi: active in Multan and Sind; accepted state posts more readily.
• Qadiri and Naqshbandi: later silsilas; Shaikh Ahmad Sirhindi (Naqshbandi) stressed strict adherence to the Sharia.

Practices

• Sama (listening to devotional music, later qawwali) and zikr (repeating God’s name).
• Visits to dargahs drew Hindus and Muslims, rich and poor.
• Mughal emperors, including Akbar, visited Chishti shrines such as Ajmer.
• Sufis used local languages. Baba Farid composed verses in the local language, some of which are included in the Guru Granth Sahib; Sufis in the Deccan composed short poems in Dakhani.

7. New Bhakti Voices in the North

NIRGUNANirniguna

Kabir (15th–16th century)

• Likely a weaver; claimed by Hindus, Muslims and the Kabirpanth, which shows how hagiography can be contested.
• Sang in many dialects of Hindi; his verses were collected in the Kabir Bijak, the Kabir Granthavali and the Adi Granth.
• Rejected idol worship, ritual, pilgrimage and caste; for him God was formless and within the heart.
• Used terms from both Hindu and Islamic traditions (Allah, Hari, Ram).

Guru Nanak (1469–1539)

• Born at Talwandi (in Punjab) and later settled at Kartarpur on the Ravi.
• Taught a formless God (Nirankar); rejected rituals, idol worship, austerities and caste differences.
• Stressed nam, dan and isnan; set up sangat (congregation) and langar (community kitchen).
• Guru Angad compiled Nanak’s hymns in Gurmukhi; Guru Arjan compiled the Adi Granth; Guru Gobind Singh added Guru Tegh Bahadur’s hymns and founded the Khalsa in 1699.

Saguna

Figure	Region	Deity	Notes
Mirabai	Rajasthan	Krishna	Married into the Sisodia family; rejected the role of a dutiful wife; took Ravidas as her guru; songs sung by women
Tulsidas	Uttar Pradesh	Rama	Composed the Ramcharitmanas in Awadhi
Surdas	North India	Krishna	Composed songs in praise of Krishna (Sursagar)
Shankaradeva	Assam	Vishnu	Promoted devotion and namghars (houses for prayer and recitation)

8. Bhakti and Sufism Compared

Point	Bhakti	Sufism
Core idea	Personal love for God	Personal love and union with God
Guide	Guru or saint	Pir or shaikh
Gatherings	Temples, satsang, singing	Khanqah, dargah, sama
Songs	Bhajan and kirtan in local languages	Qawwali, verses in local languages
Idols	Saguna bhakti worships images	No idol worship
Common ground	Love, mysticism, criticism of rigid ritual, local languages, welcome to women and lower castes	Same

9. Reading the Sources

Source	What it tells us	Watch out
Devotional songs (Divyaprabandham, Tevaram, vachanas, Kabir’s verses)	Beliefs and feelings of devotees	Preserved and shaped by later singers and editors
Hagiographies	Lives of saints	Mix of fact and legend; written by followers
Malfuzat	Conversations of Sufi saints	Compiled by disciples later
Maktubat	Letters of Sufi teachers	Reflect the writer’s views
Tazkiras	Biographies of saints	Often idealised
Temple and dargah records	Patronage and rituals	Show the elite side

10. Timeline (Approximate)

11. Important Terms

Term	Meaning
Bhakti	Devotion to a personal god
Saguna / Nirguna	God with form / formless god
Alvars / Nayanars	Tamil devotees of Vishnu / Shiva
Vachana	Kannada devotional verse of the Virashaivas
Silsila	Chain of Sufi teachers
Khanqah	Sufi hospice
Dargah	Tomb of a Sufi saint
Urs	Death anniversary of a Sufi saint
Ziyarat	Pilgrimage to a saint’s shrine
Malfuzat	Collected sayings of a Sufi saint
Zimmi	Protected non-Muslim subject
Langar	Community kitchen

Ten Fast Facts

1. Alvars worshipped Vishnu; Nayanars worshipped Shiva.
2. The Nalayira Divyaprabandham is called the Tamil Veda.
3. Andal and Karaikkal Ammaiyar are the best-known women saints of the Tamil tradition.
4. Basavanna founded the Virashaiva movement in Karnataka.
5. Sufi silsilas organised teachers and disciples; Chishti and Suhrawardi were the main ones early on.
6. Baba Farid’s verses are included in the Guru Granth Sahib.
7. Kabir rejected caste, ritual and idol worship.
8. Guru Nanak’s hymns were compiled in Gurmukhi.
9. Mirabai was a devotee of Krishna who left aside the duties of a conventional wife.
10. Tulsidas wrote the Ramcharitmanas in Awadhi.

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