The story of
Indian culture is one of continuity and synthesis. The earlier invaders of the country – the
Greeks, the Sakas and the Huns – were absorbed into the fold of Hindu
civilization; but it did not happen in
the case of the Muhammadan invaders. The
Muslims had definite social and religious ideas which differed fundamentally
from those of the Hindus. But whenever
two types of civilizations come into close contact with each other for
centuries, both are bound to be mutually influenced. Therefore, the same process of assimilation
continued, regarding even the Hindus and Muslims and there flowed a general
current of mutual harmony and tolerance in different spheres of life. This assimilation between the two cultures
led to the growth of new religious movements, new styles of art and
architecture. In fact, in different
aspects of life – in arts and crafts, in music and painting, in dress and
costume, in games and sports – this process had progressed so much that in 1526
Babur noticed their peculiar “Hinustani Ways”
ORIGIN
OF THE MOVEMENT
The development of religious thought in India in this
period is a subject of special interest.
Indeed it was highly credible that the Hindus, in spite of the powerful
inducements that were present, preferred political subjection and social
degradation to the surrender of their mind and faith. Curiously, there was smong the Hindus, even under
the direct rule of the Muslims a moral and intellectual revival which K.M.
Panikkar likes to call the Medieval Hindu Renaisssance. However, it is not reasonable to suppose that
the movement owed its origin to Islam though it received fresh vigour and
stimulus by its contact with the new religion.
In fact the beginnings of the movement are to be traced to the work of
the celebrated philosopher Sankara, who revived Hinduism basing it on a logical
monistic system system in which an attempt was made to reconcile the paths of
Jnana (knowledge), Karma (action), and Bhakti (devotion). One serious short-coming in Sankara’s system
was its emphasis on the path of Jnana which failed to evoke hearty response
from the common people. At the same time
the cosmopolitan ways of Islam began to penetrate into the social and religious
systems of Hindus, liberalising their outlook.
The dynamic religion of Islam threatened the very philosophical basis of
Hinduism. Therefore the serious crisis
which faced Hinduism with the advent of Islam was recognized and the need was
felt for deepening Hiduism with a view
to make it a living force.
DEFENCE
OF HINDUISM
In the
light of these requirements, Hindu reformers of the period led to a two fold
movement. The one aspect of it was
symbolised in the continuous reinterpretation of the Vedas and other scriptures
with the object of strengthening the social bonds. The
famous school of Vedic scholars led by Sayana and Madhva in
Vijayanagara, Viswesvara and Kulluka in Bengal wrote elaborate commentaries on
the Vedas and the Smritis. Further,
attempts were made to translate into vernaculars the puranas and other
religious works through which the message of Hinduism was carried to the common
people. These activities provided
Hinduism with a defensive armour.
ASSIMILATION
OF NEW PRINCIPLES
More
important is the process of assimilation by Hinduism of certain cosmopolitan
principles of Islam. The Hindu religious
reformers of the medieval age laid emphasis on the path of Bhakti in preference
to the other two paths. They preached
the unity of God-head and the fundamental equality of all religions. They held that the dignity of man depended
not on his birth, protested against the formalities of religion and domination
of the priests, and emphasised simple devotion and faith as the means of
salvation. They popularised strong
monotheism, absolute surrender to God and a direct realisation of god through
devotion. According to K.M. Panikkar
that Essentially therefore the Bhakti movement was a new interpretation of
Hinduism in terms of Islam’s monotheism and egalitarianism, but its religious
doctrine was that of the Bhagvadgita whose summons to surrender all and take
refuge in God, came to have a special significance in the circumstances of the
time”.
RAMANUJA
AND RAMANANDA
The earliest exponent of the Bhakti school of
religious thought was the great Vaishnava teacher Ramanuja, who flourished in
the early part of the 11th century.
He popularised the cult of devotion to a personnal God and preached that
it was the only means of salvation.
Ramananda (14th century A.D.) of the Ramanuja school was the
bridge between the Bhakti movement of the South and of the North. He rejected caste and admitted men of all classes
as his disciples. His twelve disciples included a barber, a cobbler
and a Muhammadan weaver. He preached the
doctrine of Rama- Bhakti in Hindi. Mira
Bai (15th century) a Rajput princess, became a disciple of a
follower of Ramananda, and embodied his doctrines in Hindi and Gujarathi lyrics
of high quality.
VALLABHACHARYA
Vallabacharya
was an exponent of the Krishna Cult. He
was born near banaras of a Telugu Brahmin family in 1479 when the family was on
a pilgrimage to the holy city. He showed
signs of genius in his early life and after finishing his education, he started
on his travels. He reached the court of
Krishnadeva Raya of Vijayanagara where he scored a victory over the Saivites in
public debate. He visited Mathura,
Brindavan and other places and finally settled in Banaras. He taught the doctrine of Suddha-advaita
which denied the distinction between Brahman and the individual soul and
pointed to Bhakti as the means for the
latter to escape its bondage. Though he
laid stress on self-control and renunciation, his doctrine came to be known as
Pushti –marga and led his successors to stress the physical side of Krishna’s
sports. Abuses later on appeared
among his followers and “Vallabacharyaism became in its degenerate
from the Epicurcanism of the East.”
CHAITANYA
The
greatest saint of the Bhakti movement was Chaitanya. He was born in a learned Brahmin family of
Nadia in Bengal in 1485. He became an
ascetic at the age of 24 and spent the rest of his life preaching the message
of love and devotion. He denounced caste
and proclaimed the brotherhood of man, drawing his followers from the lower
classes as well as from among Muslims.
His message was : “if a creature worships Krishna and serves the Guru,
he is free from the bonds of illusion and attains to the feet of Krishna.”
NAMADEVA
In Maharashtra, the religion of devotion was preached
by Namadeva and Jnanesvar. Namadeva
belonged to the caste of tailors and flourished in the first half of the 15th
century. He had faith in the unity of
god – head and believed that salvation could be attained only through love of
god. A typical saying of Namadeva is:
Vows, fasts and susterities are not all necessary; nor is it necessary for you
to go on pilgrimages. Be you watchful in
your hearts and always sing the name of Hari.
KABIR
The most significant figures of the time were Kabir
and Nanak. Both condemned caste,
polytheism and idol worship, and helf that God was one. Kabir made earnest efforts to foster a spirit
of harmony between Hinduism and Islam .
He flourished about the end of the 14th century. Tradition represents him as a disciple of
Ramanada. Though his thought is Hindu in
its cast, influence of the Sufi saints and poets of his age was indeed great on
it. He preached a religion of love which
would promote unity among all classes and creeds. To him “Hindu and Turk wee poets of the same
clay; Allah and Rama were different name”.
NANAK
Nanak, the founder of Sikkism, was born in a Khatri
family of Talwandi in the Lahore district in 1469. He spent his whole life in preaching his
gospel of universal toleration. His
mission was to put an end to the conflict of religions. His message was one of unity of God and
personal love for Him. He laid stress on
moral virtues and condemned the formalism of both Hinduism and Islam. He had both Hindu and Muslim disciples.
The Bhakti cult was a wide-spread movement
which embraced the whole of the country.
“Perhaps, after the decline of Buddhism, there had never been a more
widespread and popular movement in our country than the Bhakti movement”. Its first object was to reform the Hindu
religion so as to enable it to withstand the onslaught of Islamic propaganda. Its second object was to bring about
reconciliation between Hinduism and Islam and to foster relations between the
two communities.The religious teachers tried to bridge the gulf between Hindus
and the Muslims and thus paved the way for Akbar’s liberalism. Vernacular
literature of different provinces received great impetus. Most of the religious reformers used
vernaculars as the vehicles of their teachings and there by gave them a new
dignity.
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