Where and when did the Bhakti movement begin?

It began in the Tamil south from about the sixth century CE with the Alvars, who sang to Vishnu, and the Nayanars, who sang to Shiva, and it spread across northern India between the twelfth and seventeenth centuries.

What is bhakti marga?

It is the way of loving devotion, in which a devotee gives themselves wholly to a personal God, trusting in grace rather than in ritual expertise or philosophical attainment.

Why was the Bhakti movement socially radical?

Its poets sang in the ordinary spoken languages instead of Sanskrit and taught that devotion alone qualifies a person for God, so women and those excluded from vedic study could take part fully and some saints refused caste distinction outright.

Describe Shaiva bhakti and name one of its reforming movements.

It is loving devotion to Shiva, sung by the Nayanars and often marked by asceticism and by direct, unmediated address to God; the Lingayats founded by Basava in the twelfth century rejected caste, temple ritual and brahmin mediation and wear the lingam on the body.

WJEC A-Level Religious Studies 603-0277-X

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Hinduism: Movements, Change and Contemporary Issues

The Bhakti movement and the path of devotion

3 things to know
A2 Unit 3

Overview

Bhakti marga, vaishnava bhakti and name two of its saints and shaiva bhakti and name one of its reforming movements.

What you need to know

Answer each one before you reveal it.

Your recallNot started

Key term

Describe Vaishnava bhakti and name two of its saints.

Key term

Distinguish saguna bhakti from nirguna bhakti.

Key term

Name the four sites of the Char Dham, and one other major place of Hindu pilgrimage.

Questions from this subtopic

Each one with the model answer underneath.

1
Where and when did the Bhakti movement begin?
Model answer
It began in the Tamil south from about the sixth century CE with the Alvars, who sang to Vishnu, and the Nayanars, who sang to Shiva, and it spread across northern India between the twelfth and seventeenth centuries.
2
What is bhakti marga?
Model answer
It is the way of loving devotion, in which a devotee gives themselves wholly to a personal God, trusting in grace rather than in ritual expertise or philosophical attainment.
3
Why was the Bhakti movement socially radical?
Model answer
Its poets sang in the ordinary spoken languages instead of Sanskrit and taught that devotion alone qualifies a person for God, so women and those excluded from vedic study could take part fully and some saints refused caste distinction outright.
4
Describe Vaishnava bhakti and name two of its saints.
Model answer
It is loving devotion to Vishnu and his forms, above all Rama and Krishna, expressed in song, temple worship and the retelling of their stories; Mirabai, the Rajput princess who defied her family with her songs to Krishna, and Tulsidas, who retold the Rama story in Awadhi, are among its best known figures.
5
Describe Shaiva bhakti and name one of its reforming movements.
Model answer
It is loving devotion to Shiva, sung by the Nayanars and often marked by asceticism and by direct, unmediated address to God; the Lingayats founded by Basava in the twelfth century rejected caste, temple ritual and brahmin mediation and wear the lingam on the body.
6
Distinguish saguna bhakti from nirguna bhakti.
Model answer
Saguna bhakti is devotion to God in a definite form, as Mirabai loved Krishna, while nirguna bhakti is devotion to the formless divine, as in Kabir, who rejected images and the external religion of both Hindus and Muslims.

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