Bhakti Poetry Its Relevance and Significance

Sahitya Akademi

Bhakti Poetry: Its Relevance and SignificanceAuthor(s): Manager Pandey and Alka TyagiSource: Indian Literature, Vol. 45, No. 6 (206) (November-December, 2001), pp. 129-138Published by: Sahitya AkademiStable URL: http://www.jstor.org/stable/23345761 .

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Bhakti Poetry: Its Relevance and Significance

Manager Pandey

With the Bhakti Movement, Indian society, its literature and

culture, enter a new phase of growth and evolution.

The Bhakti Movement is a pervasive cultural movement which

appeared in various forms of cultural expression including religion,

philosophy, language, art and literature.

In fact this is a pan-Indian uprising of a people's culture against feudalism. This movement had its roots in some very significant processes of change in the 11th and 12th centuries, when various

castes came into being and regional languages and their literatures evolved.

As a result of the Bhakti Movement, the process of building up of various regional languages quickened and the foundation was laid for the growth of modern Indian languages.

Free from Sanskrit, Pali, Prakrit and Apabhransha, literatures in regional languages entered into a new phase of growth and

development. Consequently, Indian literature and culture broke the shackles of feudalism and seem to have headed towards a more

creative, people's culture. Bhakti poetry, liberated from the formalism of ancient poetics, feudalist culture and from the courtly atmosphere, is an expression of people's culture—their emotions in their own

languages. Cultural awareness, ideologies and sensibilities expressed in the Bhakti Movement and its literature are more closely related to culture and society of its own times than to ancient traditions of Indian culture and literature.

The Bhakti Movement recognises the absurdities of social systems. It not only portrays the anti-human ideologies of feudalist society in their various aspects and forms, but also expresses a feeling of rebellion against them. This spirit of rebellion against feudalism and



the resultant creative potential of mass culture had not been expressed in any other form of Indian poetry before the Bhakti period.

Because of a new kind of cultural awareness during the Bhakti

Movement, the content, perspective and expressive patterns of Bhakti

poetry evolved in a way which was quite free from Sanskrit poetry and poetics. The people-oriented literature of the Bhakti period is

different not only in form and contents. It is quite novel and free

from classicist literatures of Sanskrit, Pali, Prakrit and Apabhransha. The essence of the Bhakti poetry stems from experiences of common

people and their culture. Poetic forms of Bhakti period are different

from those of Sanskrit. They are more developed forms of folk

literature and folk-culture. Bhakti lyricism is what we find in the

inherited oral tradition of village songs. Its metrical forms are closer

to Hindi and are very different from those of Sanskrit. However the

most significant fact is that for the first time in the history of Indian

literature the spoken language began to move closer to poetic language in Bhakti poetry. For the first time, the artificial gap between the

so called literariness of conventional poetic language and sheer

spontaneity of day-to-day language was bridged. Since this kind of novelty of form and content in Bhakti poetry

is quite free from the poetic conventions of Sanskrit poetry to base

the evaluation of Bhakti poetry on the conventional parameters of

Sanskrit poetics would only lead to a re-assertion of tradition at the

cost of neglecting a new kind of creative potential and the historical context of the origin and evolution of Bhakti poetry. While evaluating

Bhakti-poetry, the more sensitive part of some critic's mind does get astounded by the unique and unprecedented originality of Bhakti

poety but, at the same time, the more conventional part of their mind

gets contented with establishing Bhakti-poetry as merely a new form

of the old poetic traditions of Sanskrit, Pali and Apabhransha. The

uniqueness of the form and content of Bhakti poetry cannot be

explained in the conventional critical framework. A critical perspective which is free from conventional parameters and poetic traditions is

essential for the interpretation and evaluation of the people-oriented

Bhakti-poetry. In their analysis of the Bhakti Movement and literature, some

critics search only for the main sources of Bhakti philosophy and

neglect the historical context of the Bhakti Movement. Such critics

trace Bhakti history back to the Vedas but do not see the contemporary socio-cultural basis and creative nature of the Bhakti Movement.

Here the question of pattern is worth looking into the context

of ideas and the history of a cultural movement. It is more important to analyse the historical context in which the cultural or ideological

130 / Indian Literature : 206



movement has evolved and spread than to search for the original source of its central idea. It has often been seen in the history of

cultures and idea that a certain idea remains in the historical process as an abstract concept and when it finds a conducive social context, it takes the form of comprehensive movement. The concept of Bhakti

might have been very old as an idea and an emotion but it evolved

as a widespread cultural movement only in the period between 12th

and 17th centuries. If we keep our attention limited to the ancient

form of Bhakti as an idea and an emotion and keep on neglecting its all pervasive contemporaneous socio-cultural base, then it would

be very difficult to find answers to many important questions related to the Bhakti Movement and its literature. Scholars of the Bhakti

Movement and literature are repeatedly confronted with certain

questions. Why did this explosion of creativity take place during the

Bhakti Movement amongst Dalits and lower classes who had lived under oppression for centuries in feudal system and why did it become an expression of rebellion against the system. Why did anti feudalist people's culture arise only during the Bhakti Movement?

Why did the process of evolution of other regional languages quickened during the Bhakti Movement. Why did anti-feudal and humanist voices develop in Bhakti poetry? What was the social basis of this new form and content of Bhakti poetry. In order to find answers to all such questions it becomes necessary to place the Bhakti Movement and literature in its historical context and its socio-cultural milieu.

The lovers of Bhakti Movement and literature are of many types. Some of them read Bhakti literature only to ensure a place for themselves in heaven. Others use Bhakti literature to progress in this world as well as in the other. Some of them see Bhakti literature as a traditional form of worship and yet others, with a desire to

give the present a semblance of the past, summon Bhakti literature as a golden-age in the cultural history. Slightly different from these

people are the ones who, in the name of seriously searching for the cultural and social norms of that era in Bhakti literature, feel contented with preparing the lists of names of foods, dresses and jewellery popular during the period.

Another perspective of Bhakti Literature is the one held by those who want to preserve the pastness of the past in the name of historicism. Such naive historicists do not consider its contemporary significance. On the other hand, are the modernists who completely neglect the objectivity and historical context of Bhakti poetry and talk only about its present relevance. Then there are some eager revolutionaries who are different from the above-mentioned kind and

who, being overly concerned about the future, think of the sense

Manager Pandey / 131



of pastness as a burden and try to get free from it.

One can take up a historical view of the artistic-modes, ideo

logical forms and socio-cultural basis of Bhakti Movement and its

literature. Except for this, it is also necessary to analyse the artistic

and aesthetic relevance of Bhakti poetry and the rise of an extensive

pan-Indian movement of people's culture in the present context.

About the criticism of literature of the past, the famous critic Walter

Benjamin observed that it is not sufficient to evaluate it as an

experience of the past and that it is necessary to examine its sig nificance for the present.

Even today Bhakti poetry is most popular with the Indian

masses. It still fulfills the cultural aspirations and needs of the people to a certain extent. Therefore, those who care for the socio-cultural

progress of the masses cannot neglect Bhakti poetry. This is not just a question of the attitude of the pro-people thinkers towards tradition

but also that of their responsibility in the context of emergence of

a new people's culture. In the history of Hindi literature, the history of the evaluation

of the Bhakti Movement and its poetry is a history of the evolution

of literary perspectives, poetic sensibilities, critical vision and of the

relation between literature and society. Though Bhakti poetry was

neglected by the aristocracy in the age of formalist court poetry and

feudalist poetic interests, even at that time it was the main source

of fulfilling the cultural aspirations of the common masses. It became

possible to recognize the significance of the democratic aspect of the

Bhakti Movement and literature when an awareness of nationalism

and democratic culture came into being with the rise of Renaissance

and the freedom movement in the modern period. When, in Bharatendu's time, Balkrishna Bhatt called literature

'the evolution of people's sensibilities,' he made clear not only the

greatness of the literature of his own age, but also pointed at a

fundamental characteristic of Bhakti literature. Bharatendu and other

writers of his age, who were concerned with the collective aspect of language and literature, could recognize the value and significance of Bhakti literature. Later on, protesting against various kinds of

formalism and conservatism, Mahavirprasad Dwivedi forged an

approach for a proper evaluation of Bhakti poetry. By the investigation of Bhakti poetry itself, Acharya Ramchandra Shukla evolved a kind

of literary judgement with which he could stoutly oppose anti-people and formalist literatures. Bhakti poetry shaped Acharya Shukla's

literary judgement and his objectivist critical vision made the evalu

ation of Bhakti poetry possible. Works of the great romantic poets

Jai Shankar Prasad and Nirala have revealed a close relation with




Bhakti poetry time and again. In Indian social history, after the Bhakti

Movement it was the Progressive movement which served as the

second extensive cultural movement leading to the growth of people's culture.

During the Progressive Movement, a new perspective, on the

relation between literature and society and the role and significance of literature in the progress of society, evolved which created the

possibility of a new kind of evolution of Bhakti literature.

In the same period, Hazari Prasad Dwivedi evaluated the place of Bhakti poetry in the evolving tradition of Indian literature. During the progressive period itself, struggling against some progressivist critics narrow outlook against the Bhakti period, Ram Vilas Sharma

analysed and critiqued the historical context of the Bhakti Movement and poetry. Ram Vilas Sharma has outlined the humanist tone

and anti-feudalist aspect of the Bhakti Movement and poetry by explaining its socio-cultural foundation. In the history of Hindi

literature, these fluctuations in the evaluation of Bhakti poetry have

proved that the significance of Bhakti poetry has increased whenever

there was a rise in the influence of collective and democratic elements in literature and criticism and that Bhakti-poetry has been neglected whenever the individualist and anti-people tendencies became dominant.

Many scholars who have studied the history of Indian culture, literature and society believe that the process of building up of nationalites started in 11th and 12th centuries in India. Emergence of nationalites meant the beginning of the dissolution of feudalism,

growth of mercantile capitalism and of regional languages and lit eratures. Changes in the economic base of a society brings about

changes in the balance and relationship between various social classes.

During the early stages of the formation of nationalism the power of the farmer, craftsman and the trading class increases. Change in the society's economic base and relations of production transform the ideological forms and new possibilities appear for the evolution of art, culture and literature. The classes which are affected by this new change in economic growth and relations of production play a very important role in literature, art and culture.

There is a very close relation between the Bhakti Movement and literature on the one hand and the socio-economic changes taking place in the beginning of 12th century on the other. The process of formation of nationalites began with the simultaneous process of

disintegration of feudalism which lead to the growth of a pervasive movement comprising of the rise of people's culture. It was because of the ongoing process of disintegration of feudal-system and gradual




dominance of farmers and craftsmen that a feeling of rebellion took

shape among Dalit castes which found expression in the saint

literature. These castes who were deprived of education got an

opportunity to express their creative potential consequent on the

growth of regional languages also. Otherwise only Aristocratic classes

had the right to enjoy the creative literature in the age of Sanskrit,

Pali, Prakrit and Apabhransha. So, the growth of regional languages

symbolised the beginning of a new literary and socio-cultural era

in India.

Saint poets and Bhakti-poets were inspired by and devoted to

a feeling of common good. Their experiences and their poetic practice were rooted in common life. Their poetry grew out of the popular culture and this culture then became the preserver of Bhakti poetry. It is inevitable that the poets and poetry, representing the rise of

popular mass culture against the culture of feudalism and its court

based poetry, became dependent on the people. Expressing defiance

against king's rule and feudal system, they declared, 'what has saints

to do with Sikri, [Santan ko kahan sikri* se kam]. This refutation and rebellion against the priests, religious hy

pocrisy, casteism and against the social discrimination between the

high and the low classes which is found in Saint poetry is an expression of rebellion against the feudal society and its. ideologies. This feeling of rebellion against the feudal ideologies has a revolutionary sig nificance in its own historical context. It not only reflects the social

changes of the era but has the power to inspire new social change. Even the mysticism of saint poets has expressed an idea of an

egalitarian social order as an alternative to the tyrannical feudal

system. This imagined country of saint-poets is not an exclusive other

world, different from the real world. Some people think that saint

poetry is merely a poetry of dissent and rebellion. This notion is

a result of half-knowledge about saint-poetry. Saint poetry besides expressing the rebellion against a feudalist

social order and its ideologies, also expresses realities of common

life, the beauty of folk culture and a desire for an egalitarian social

order. Sufi-saints based their poetic creations on the popular love

stories and using the age old structures of tales, their poems have

expressed various forms of contemporary people's culture. Jayasi's Padmavat is remembered for the pervading emotional experience of

Nagmati's separation from her husband. But because of the use of

the popular poetic form 'Barahmasa'. But there is a very poignant

portrayal of public life and culture in this description of the mood

* Síkrí was the centre of political power.




of separation which is no less significant. Pervasiveness of Nagmati's emotional experience of separation is expressed by taking public life

and culture as the base. Another testimony to Jayasi's anti-feudalist

consciousness is that he has seen and portrayed Sultan Alauddin

<5f Delhi as a devilish figure who was an active representative of

supreme authority of the feudal order. Jayasi's view of feudal monarchy was different from that of the ones who considered the Lord of Delhi as 'Lord of the World.'

Declaration of a violent rebellion against the ideologies of feudalism in a challenging language is found less in Saguna Bhakti poetry than in Nirguna saints' poetry. But the poetry of

Saguna devotees has rebelled against the feudal order and its ide

ologies through devices like characterisation, narrative structure and

through an awareness of the real, and of emotions and values of

life. The stories of Krishna and Rama which Surdas and Tulsidas

have used as a basis of their poetic creation are born out of the idealised tradition of Sanskrit poetics and are popular tales in public life. Heroes of these tales are the courageous men who rebel against injustice and exploitative forces. In its rebellion against and despotism of feudal

system, the common public visualizes a concrete form of their own

aspiration for struggle in the struggle of these heroes. This is the reason for the all-pervasive popularity of these tales. Krishna and Rama of Sur and Tulsi establish a benevolent socio-political order

by killing the inequitable, oppressive and tyrannical rulers. Tulsi's

imaginary Ramrajya expresses a public desire to replace the exploitive feudalist political order for a justice-loving and popular political order.

Though this imaginary egalitarian political order is influenced by the historical limitations of the age of feudalism, it has overtly expressed Tulsi's concern for public welfare and people's desire for freedom from feudalism.

Bhakti poets' anti-feudalist consciousness has found expression even in the forms of human relations and sentiments expressed in their poetry. In Surdas's poetry, Krishna's love for Radha and other

Gopikas is free from the feudalist moral conventions. This concept of unrestrained love and portrayal of its evolution in the form of human relations is in opposition to the feudalist perspective on love and marriage.

The variety, depth and comprehensiveness of simple human and generous forms of love as portrayed in Sur's poetry are seldom found elsewhere. No love-poet in Hindi is as great as Surdas. Sur's

description of profound affection has the power to evoke and preserve humanity even in inhuman situations. Sur's devotional path is the

Manager Panda/ / 235



path of love which expresses the simple, generous and human forms of love-relationships. Sur's poetry originates from a true attachement to this life and the world and it, in turn, invokes a true attachment towards life and the world. It is the poetry of the

totality of life where the beauty of emotion and action, in various stages of human life — childhood, adolescence and youth is suggested.

Ram Vilas Sharma has said that Bhakti Movement was not restricted to any particular class. All classes including farmers, traders and craftsmen were involved in it. In fact the Bhakti Movement was a pervasive cultural movement of all the classes who were victimised

by the feudal-order and were struggling to get free from it. But farmers and craftsmen played a major role in it and that is why it could become a movement of the rise of popular culture. On the one hand

it expresses the truth and beauty of common life, a desire for freedom from feudalist social system and violent rebellion against the priests, while, on the other hand, it declares the falsehood of the world, a

feeling of detachment from this life and the world, illusionism and

pessimism. In fact the social rebellion in the feudal era which was manifested

through religious means was not completely free from the influences

of feudalist ideologies. But, in spite of these influences, these rebellions and movements played an important role in social development.

In philosophy, poetry and sowal movements of the Bhakti

period, even in instances where reality is taken as illusion and illusion as reality due to an inverted worldview or a false consciousness in relation to life and the world, criticism of feudalist order is visible in the criticism of life and the world.

Bhakti philosophy is not merely a philosophy of false-conscious

ness. It has a pre-eminence of human relations and emotions that evolve in this life and the world. The age of bhakti is the

age of emotions. Bhakti poets, therefore, become enthralled by the splendour of life in this world and make human feelings themselves the bedrock of devotional feelings and poetic creativity. Wherever there is no underlining of the illusionist views in the

depiction of beauty and truth of this world, Bhakti poetry attains

its highest point. Bhakti teachers expounded this- worldly reality

against the vedantic view of illusion; Bhakti poets made various

human feeling and many-faceted human relationships the very essence of the relation between the deity and the devotee. In Bhakti

worldview, the reality of this world and its acceptance far outweigh the illusionist understanding of the world and the consequent feelings of dispassion.




Bhakti Movement has played a very important part in the

shaping up of what we call Indian culture today. The Bhakti Movement

has left an indelible mark on its various aspects. Not only literature and language, but all the live and significant traditions

found in Indian ways of life are bequeathed to us by the Bhakti

Movement. One reason for this all pervasive and permanent effect

of Bhakti-movement is that it contains the memories of the past of

our culture, socio-cultural awareness of contemporary times and a

deep concern for the future. It is not a cultural movement alone; it is a comprehensive social movement also, as it gives expression to the aspirations and realities of people's social life in various cultural

forms.

Bhakti Movement aims at the growth and preservation of human

reality or humanity. The whole creativity of Bhakti poetry is inclined

towards this objective. The vision of Bhakti poets considers nothing— above humanity, caste, class, race, gender, creed or illusionist view

of the world. As the pertinence of all these elements obstructs the

growth of humanity, Bhakti poetry attacks them in an uninhibited and dauntless manner.

Bhakti poetry reflects a wish to replace a social order based

on all kinds of discrimination by a more human social order that

is based on equality and humanity, which still gives inspiration and

strength to the exploited and vicitmised masses of India.

Bhakti is a religion of the heart. And most popular, extensive and generous among the religions of the heart is the religion of love. It raises man above the limitations of caste, class, race and religion and makes him free from fears of all kinds of dominant authorities. Bhakti poetry unites Sufis with the Vaishanavites and Sagunas with the Nirguna saints. In this way it forms a basis for the unification of people with humanist emphases. Nowhere in Bhakti poetry do we see religious fanaticism or sectarian parochialism. It is true that forms of love are not the same in all the Bhakti poets. Forms of love in Kabir, Jayasi, Surdas and Mira are different; But in spite of this, variation in tone and form, the underlying emotion is the same. It is the need of the present hour to explore the various aspects of this ideal and radical form of devotional sentiment in popular culture and expression of its various aspects in Bhakti

poetry.

Presently Indian society is going through a deep crisis. This crisis is more a cultural crisis than a socio-political one because

political warfare is now using cannon balls of culture only. This new

politics is moving ahead favoured by the storms of religious fanati cism, narrow-sectarianism and anti-humanist tendencies. And it is




destroying the heritage of broad minded human values, social ideals

and cultural aspirations of the Bhakti Movement. In this situation

it becomes necessary to recognise the past relevance and present

significance of Bhakti poetry. Bhakti poetry can help us to rise above

the present crisis as this poetry is woven into the life of the people even today. Therefore, it helps in creating the possibilities for an

intimate dialogue with the masses.

Translated from Hindi by Alka Tyagi □




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Bhakti Poetry Its Relevance and Significance