Class 12 history chapter 6 notes, Bhakti Sufi traditions notes

Bhakti Sufi traditions notes: Class 12 history chapter 6 notes

Textbook	NCERT
Class	Class 12
Subject	History
Chapter	Chapter 6
Chapter Name	Bhakti Sufi traditions notes
Category	History Notes
Medium	English

Class 12 history chapter 6 notes, Bhakti Sufi traditions notes here we will learn about the Bhakti movement and Sufi movement.

The striking feature during the period between eighth to eighteenth centuries : –

🔹 The most important feature of eighth to eighteenth century was that many new gods and goddesses were visible in sculpture and texts.

🔹 Another important thing was the worship of the major deities like Vishnu, Shiva and the Goddess which were visualised or depicted in various forms.

Meaning of Bhakti : –

🔹 The word Bhakti is derived from a Sanskrit word ‘Bhanj’, which means coordination and charity. The roots of Bhakti first found in the Vedas. It stresses the Union of the individual with God as well as one’s personal devotion to God.

What is Cult?

🔹 Cult was a relatively small groups of people having religious beliefs or practices different from the major religion.

What is meant by integration of cults?

🔹 The integration of cults that historians were speaking about was removing the boundaries between different groups and intermixing them.

The integration of cults ( Religious processes ) : –

🔹 Historians have described two processes regarding the coordination of religious processes.

🔸 1. The first process was related to disseminating of Brahmanical ideas. The main objective behind the disseminating of this idea was composition, compilation and preservation of Puranic texts. These texts were written in simple Sanskrit verse, which were easily accessible by women and Shudras who were generally excluded from the Vedic learning.

🔸 2. The second process was that, the Brahmanas started accepting and reworking the beliefs and practices of these and other social categories.

Worship of Vishnu ( Example of Second Process ) : –

🔹 The most striking example of the second process was evident at Puri, Orissa, where the principal deity was identified, by the twelfth century, as Jagannatha a form of Vishnu. The literal meaning of Jagannath is : – the lord of the world.

🔹 The local tribal specialists made the image of deity using wood and this deity was recognised as a form of Vishnu. But the Vishnu visualised here was very different from that in other parts of the country.

“Great” and “little” traditions : –

🔹 The terms great and little traditions were coined by a sociologist named Robert Redfield in the twentieth century to describe the cultural practices of peasant societies.

🔸 Great tradition : – Robert Redfield found that peasants observed rituals and customs that emanated from dominant social categories, including priests and rulers. These he classified as part of a great tradition.

🔸 little tradition : – At the same time, peasants also followed local practices that did not necessarily correspond with those of the great tradition. These he included within the category of little tradition.

🔹 He also noticed that both great and little traditions changed over time, through a process of interaction.

Many Religious Ideologies : –

🔹 In fact, many beliefs and practices were shaped through a continuous dialogue between what sociologists have described as “great” Sanskritic Puranic traditions and “little” traditions throughout the land.

Worship of the goddess : –

🔹 Worship of the goddess, often simply in the form of a stone smeared with ochre, was evidently widespread.

🔹 These local deities were often incorporated within the Puranic framework by providing them with an identity as a wife of the principal male deities sometimes they were equated with Lakshmi, the wife of Vishnu, in other instances, with Parvati, the wife of Shiva.

Tantric worship : –

🔹 The forms of worship often associated with goddess were classified as Tantric. In many parts of the Indian subcontinent, the worship of the Goddess was prevalent in the form of Tantric worship, in which both men and women participated.

🔹 Those who followed Tantric rejected the caste and class within the ritual context. The ideas of Tantric worship also influenced Shaivism as well as Buddhism, especially in the eastern, northern and southern parts of the subcontinent.

Conflicts that arose during the Bhakti movement : –

🔹 There were conflicts between those who followed the Vedic tradition and those who practiced the Tantric way of worshipping deities.

🔹 Those who valued Vedic tradition often condemned the practices that went beyond the performance of sacrifices and chanting of mantras.

🔹 On the other hand those who engaged in Tantric practices ignored the authority of the Vedas.

Early Traditions of Bhakti : –

🔹 During this period in many of the bhakti traditions the brahmanas remained as mediators between the god new the devotees.

🔹 The historians of religious after classify bhakti traditions into two broad catagories: saguna (with attributes) and nirguna (without attributes).

• Saguna : – worship of deities such as Shiva, Vishnu and his avtaars incarnations and form of goddess or devi is done.
• Nirguna : – worship of an abstract form of god.

Definition of Saguna Tradition : –

🔹 The saguna traditions focused on the worship of specific deities such as Shiva, Vishnu and his avatars or incarnations and forms of the goddess or Devi which were conceptualised as having human forms.

Definition of Nirguna Tradition : –

🔹 Nirguna bhakti on the other hand, was worship of an abstract form i.e. existing in thought or as an idea but not having a physical or concrete existence of God.

Alvars : –

🔹 Those who are immersed in the devotion to Vishnu.

Nayanars : –

🔹 These were leaders who were devotees of Shiva.

Earliest Bhakti Movements ( Alvars and Nayanars ) : –

🔹 Earliest Bhakti movements around sixth century were led by the Alvars and Nayanars. Alvars were devotees of Vishnu and Nayanars were the devotees of Shiva. They sang hymns in Tamil in praise of their Gods and travelled from once place to another.

🔹 During their travels, the Alvars and Nayanars identified some shrines as residences of their chosen deities. Later, very large temples were built at these sacred places which were developed as centres of pilgrimage.

🔹 Singing compositions of these poet-saints became a part of temple rituals in these shrines and also saint’s images were worshipped.

Attitudes towards Caste : –

🔹 According to some historians, the Alvars and the Nayanars started a movement of protest against the caste system and the Brahmanas and attempted to reform the system.

🔹 The devotees came from the different social backgrounds such as artisans, cultivators and even from the caste that were considered “untouchable”

Compositions of the Alvars and Nayanars : –

🔹 The compositions of the Alvars and the Nayanars are considered to be as important as the Vedas.

🔹 For instance, one of the major anthologies of compositions by the Alvars, the Nalayira Divyaprabandham, was frequently described as the Tamil Veda, thus claiming that the text was as significant as the four Vedas in Sanskrit that were cherished by the Brahmanas.

Contribution of Woman saint in Bhakti tradition: –

🔸 Mirabai :- 15th century best known woman Poet. She was Rajput Princess, defied her husband and did not submit to the traditional role o wife and mother. Recognised Krishna, the avtar of Vishnu, as her lover. After rejecting the comfort of her husband of palace she followed the path of Bhakts.

🔸 Andal : – She saw herself as a beloved of vishnu, Her verses expresses love for the deity. She was an Alwar saint.

🔸 Karaikkal Ammaiyar : – She was a Nainar Woman saint. She was a devotee of Lord Shiva. She adopted a path of extreme asceticism in order to attain her goal.

🔹 These women renounced their social obligations. Their very existance and their composstions posed a challange to patriarchal norms

Women Devotees : –

🔹 Perhaps one of the most striking features of these traditions was the presence of women.

🔸 Andal : –

• The compositions of Andal, a woman Alvar, were widely sung and even now they are continued to be sung.
• She saw herself as the beloved of Vishnu and her verses expressed her love for the deity.

🔸 Karaikkal : –

• Karaikkal Ammaiyar was another woman who was a devotee of Shiva, adopted the path of extreme self- discipline in order to attain her goal.
• Her compositions were preserved within the Nayanar tradition.

🔹 These women renounced their social of obligations and posed a challenge to patriarchal norms.

Compilations of devotional literature : –

🔹 By the tenth century the compositions of the 12 Alvars were compiled in an anthology known as the Nalayira Divyaprabandham (“Four Thousand Sacred Compositions”).

🔹 The poems of Appar, Sambandar and Sundarar form the Tevaram, a collection that was compiled and classified in the tenth century on the basis of the music of the songs.

Opposition to Buddhism and Jainism : –

🔹 The saint-poets the Alvars and the Nayanars were opposed to Buddhism and Jainism. This hostility is well marked in their compositions particularly of the Nayanars.

🔹 Historians say that his conflict was due to competition between members of different religious traditions for royal patronage.

Relation with the state ( Relationship of Chola rulers with Bhakti ) : –

• The Chola rulers supported the bhakti traditions and built temples for Shiva and Vishnu.
• Some of the magnificent temples for Shiva such as temples in Chidambaram, Thanjavur and Gangaikondacholpuram were constructed under their patronage.
• The Chola rulers built temples often to claim divine support and proclaim their own power and status and adorned those temples with stone and metal sculpture to represent the visions of the popular saints.
• They made the spectacular representations of Shiva in bronze sculpture.
• The Chola kings introduced the singing of Tamil Shaiva hymns under royal patronage, taking the initiative to collect and organize them into a text (Tevaram).
• According to Inscriptional evidence, the Chola king Parantaka I had constructed the metal images of Appar, Sambandar and Sundarar in a Shiva temple.
• These were carried in procession during the festivals of these saints.

The Virashaiva and Lingayats of Karnataka : –

🔹 A new movement emerged in Karnataka in twelfth century, which was led by a Brahmana named Basavanna (1106-68 CE) who was initially a minister in the court of a Kalachuri ruler. His followers were known as Virashaivas (heroes of Shiva) or Lingayats (wearers of the linga).

Lingayats and their belief : –

🔹 Lingayats continue to be an important community in the region to date. They worship Shiva in his manifestation as a linga, and men usually wear a small linga in a silver case on a loop strung over the left shoulder. Those who are revered include the jangama or wandering monks.

🔸Their belief : –

🔹 Lingayats believe that on death the devotee will be united with Shiva and will not return to this world.

🔹 Therefore they do not practise funerary rites such as cremation, prescribed in the Dharmashastras. Instead, they ceremonially bury their dead.

Lingayats Challenge to the Caste system : –

• The Lingayats challenged the idea of caste and the “pollution” attributed to some groups by Brahmanas.
• They also questioned the theory of rebirth.
• Their opposition to caste system won them number of followers who were marginalized within the Brahmanical social order.
• The Lingayats also practiced certain approvals that were rejected by the Dharmashastras such as post- puberty marriage and the remarriage of wodows.
• Our knowledge about the Virashaiva tradition is came from vachanas (literally, sayings)composed in kannada by those who joined the movement.

Lingayats Contribution in the social and religious area with reference to caste system : –

• After death devotees will be united with Shiva.
• They did not practice funerary rites.
• They challenged the idea of caste
• They also questioned the theory of re-birth.
• They also encouraged post-puberty marriages and remarriage of widows.

Religious ferment in North India ( Religious condition of north India ) : –

• According to historians, in north India there was a period when several Rajput states emerged and in most of these states Brahmanas occupied important place by performing rituals.
• There was no attempt to question their position directly. At the same time there were other religious leaders who were out of the orthodox Brahmanical systems, and were gaining ground.
• These included the Naths, Jogis and Siddhas. Many of them came from artisanal groups such as weavers who were well organized.
• These religious leaders questioned the authority of the Vedas. However, they were unable to win the support of the ruling elites.
• Turkish conquest culminated in the establishment of the Delhi Sultanate.
• The power of many Rajput rulers was thus undermined and also of the Brahmanas who were associated with those kingdoms.
• The coming of the Sufis was a significant part of these developments.

Islamic Traditions : –

🔹 When Central Asian people settled in the North-Western parts of the subcontinent Arab merchants visited ports along the Western coast in the first millennium CE. With the advent of Islam from seventh century, these regions became a part of Islamic world.

The coming of Turks and the Islamic tradition : –

🔹 In 711 an Arab general named Muhammad Qasim conquered Sind, which became part of the Caliph’s domain.

🔹 Later (c. thirteenth century) the Turks and Afghans established the Delhi Sultanate. This was followed by the formation of Sultanates in the Deccan and other parts of the subcontinent; Islam was an acknowledged religion of rulers in several areas.

🔹 This continued with the establishment of the Mughal Empire in the sixteenth century as well as in many of the regional states that emerged in the eighteenth century.

Zimmi : –

🔹 Zimmi were people who followed revealed scriptures, such as the Jews and Christians and lived under Muslim leadership.

🔹 A category of the Zimmi (protected) was developed for people who followed revealed scriptures. These included Jews and Christians. They paid a tax called Jizya and gained the right to be protected by Muslims.

Ulama : –

🔹 (plural of alim, or one who knows) Ulama are scholars of Islamic studies. As preservers of this tradition they perform various religious, juridical and teaching functions.

🔹 Muslim rulers were to be guided by the ulama who were expected to ensure that they ruled according to the sharia.

Shari’a : –

🔹 The shari’a is the law governing the Muslim community. It is based on the Qur’an and the hadis, traditions of the Prophet including a record of his remembered words and deeds.

🔹 With the expansion of Islamic rule outside Arabia, in areas where customs and traditions were different, qiyas (reasoning by analogy) and ijma (consensus of the community) were recognised as two other sources of legislation. Thus, the shari’a evolved from the Qur’an, hadis, qiyas and ijma.

Popular Practice of Islam : –

🔹 Those who have accepted Islam, also accepted the five pillars of the faith. They are:

• (i) There is one God, Allah and Prophet Muhammad is his messenger (shahada).
• (ii) Offering prayers five times a day (namaz/salat).
• (iii) Giving alms (zakat).
• (iv) Fasting during the month of Ramzan (sawm).
• (v) Performing the pilgrimage to Mecca (hajj).

Differences in people’s behavior : –

🔹 These universal features were often overlaid with diversities in practice derived from sectarian affiliations (Sunni, Shi’a), and the influence of local customary practices of converts from different social milieus.

🔸 For example, the Khojahs, a branch of the Ismailis (a Shi’a sect), developed new modes of communication, disseminating ideas derived from the Qur’an through indigenous literary genres.

🔸 Elsewhere, Arab Muslim traders who settled along the Malabar coast (Kerala) adopted the local language, Malayalam. They also adopted local customs such as matriliny and matrilocal residence.

Matrilocal residence : –

🔹 Matrilocal residence is a practice where women after marriage remain in their natal home with their children and the husbands may come to stay with them.

Ginan : –

🔹 ginan (derived from the Sanskrit jnana, meaning “knowledge”), ginan devotional poems in Punjabi, Multani, Sindhi, Kachchi, Hindi and Gujarati, sung in special ragas during daily prayer meetings.

Names for communities : –

🔹 We often take the terms Hindu and Muslim for granted, as labels for religious communities. Yet, these terms did not gain currency for a very long time.

🔹 Historians who have studied Sanskrit texts and inscriptions dating between the eighth and fourteenth centuries point out that the term musalman or Muslim was virtually never used.

Classification of people : –

🔹 People were occasionally identified in terms of the region from which they came. So,

• the Turkish rulers were designated as Turushka,
• Tajika were people from Tajikistan and
• Parashika were people from Persia.

🔹 Sometimes, terms used for other peoples were applied to the new migrants. For instance, the Turks and Afghans were referred to as Shakas and Yavanas (a term used for Greeks).

Mlechchha : –

🔹 Mlechchha was the more general term used for the migrant communities, which indicated that they did not observe the rules of caste society and spoke languages that were not derived from Sanskrit.

Who were the Sufis?

🔹 Sufis were a group of religious minded people in Islam. They believed in asceticism (severe self-discipline) and mysticism (spiritual belief of union with God) in protest against the growing materialism of the Caliphate.

🔹 Sufis laid emphasis on seeking salvation through intense devotion and love for God by following his commands. The sufis thus sought an interpretation of the Qur’an on the basis of their personal experience.

The Growth of Sufism : –

🔹 The English word Sufism was coined in the nineteenth century. The original word used in Islamic texts was tasawwuf. Historians gave several meanings to it.

🔹 According to some scholars, it was derived from, suf, meaning wool, referring to the rough woollen clothes worn by sufis. Some others derived it from ‘safa’, meaning purity.

🔹 It might also have been derived from ‘suffa’, the platform outside the Prophet’s Mosque, where a group of close followers assembled to learn about faith.

Main Principles of Sufism : –

• Monotheism
• Mysticism
• Stress on love and Meditation,
• Bhakti Music
• Importance of Pir or teacher
• Belief in soul
• The main aim of life in to attain the Allah (Almighty)

Khanqahs : –

🔹 The Sufis started creating institutions by organising communities for travellers called Khanqah (Persian). These institutions were controlled by a teaching master known as shaikh (in Arabic), pir or murshid (in Persian).

🔹 He enrolled disciples (murids) and appointed a successor (khalifa). He established rules for spiritual conduct and interaction between inmates as well as between laypersons and the master.

Sufi silsilas : –

🔹 Sufi silsilas began to crystallise in different parts of the Islamic world around the twelfth century.

🔹 The word silsila literally means a chain, signifying a continuous link between master and disciple, stretching as an unbroken spiritual genealogy to the Prophet Muhammad.

🔹 It was through this channel that spiritual power and blessings were transmitted to devotees.

Special rituals for who wanted to enter the group : –

🔹 Special rituals to admit people into the group were developed in which persons who wanted to enter the group took an oath of commitment, wore a piece of cloth and shaved their hair.

Dargah : –

🔹 Dargah is a Persian term. Its meaning is tomb-shrine. When the sheikh died, his tomb shrine became the centre of devotion for his followers. This encouraged the practice of pilgrimage or ziyarat to his grave, particularly on his death anniversary.

🔹 It was believed that, after death the soul of sheikh get united with the soul of Allah. People sought their blessings to attain material and spiritual benefits. Thus evolved the cult of the sheikh revered as wali.

Wali : –

🔹 Wali (plural auliya) or friend of God was a sufi who claimed proximity to Allah, acquiring His Grace (barakat) to perform miracles (karamat).

Outside the Khanqah : –

🔹 Some sufis disrespected khanqah and took to mendicancy (poorness) and observed celibacy (self-restraint). These sufis were known as mystics.

🔹 They ignored rituals and observed extreme form of strict and simple way of living. They were known by different names like Qalandars, Madaris, Malangs, Haidaris, etc.

Be-sharia or Ba-shari’a : –

🔹 sufis deliberate refusal to obey the shari’a, these people were often referred to as be-sharia and in sufis who obeyed shari’a were called ba-shari’a sufis.

Names of silsilas : –

🔹 Most sufi lineages were named after a founding figure. For example, the Qadiri order was named after Shaikh Abdul Qadir Jilani.

🔹 However, some like the Chishti order, were named after their place of origin, in this case the town of Chisht in central Afghanistan.

Major Sufi Silsila : –

1. Chisthi
2. Subravadi
3. Kadiri
4. Naqshband

Chishti silsila : –

🔹 By the sixteenth century the shrine of muinuddin chisthi had became very popular. He started the Chishti silsila in India. The Chishtis were the most influential, because they adapted local environment and adopted various features of Indian devotional traditions.

Life in the Chishti khanqah : –

🔹 The khanqah was the centre of social life. It comprised several small rooms and a big hall (jama’at khana) where the inmates and visitors lived and prayed.

🔹 The inmates included family members of the Shaikh, his attendants and disciples.

🔹 The Shaikh lived in a small room on the roof of the hall where he met visitors in the morning and evening.

🔹 A veranda surrounded the courtyard, and a boundary wall ran around the complex.

🔹 There was an open kitchen called langar, ran on futuh (voluntary charity). People from different fields like soldiers, slaves, singers, merchants, poets, travellers, rich and poor, Hindu jogis (yogi) and qalandars came seeking discipleship, amulets for healing and wanted intervention of the Shaikh in different matters.

The practices that were adopted by the Chishtis in their kanqah : –

• Bowing before the Shaikh
• Offering water to visitors
• Shaving the heads of initiates
• Yogic exercises

Chishti devotionalism: ziyarat : –

🔹 Pilgrimage, called ziyarat, It means pilgrimage to tombs of sufi saints. This was common all over the Muslim world.

🔹 This practice is an occasion for seeking the sufi’s spiritual grace (barakat). For more than seven centuries people of various creeds, classes and social backgrounds have expressed their devotion at the dargahs of the five great Chishti saints.

🔹 Amongst these, the most revered shrine is that of Khwaja Muinuddin, popularly known as “Gharib Nawaz” (comforter of the poor).

Khwaja Muinuddin’s dargah : –

🔹 In the fourteenth century, there were references to Khwaja Muinuddin’s dargah. Muhammad bin Tughlaq was the first Sultan to visit the shrine, but the construction to house the tomb was funded by Sultan Ghiyasuddin Khalji of Malwa, in late 15th century.

🔹 The shrine had become very popular by the 16th century. Akbar visited the tomb, and was inspired by the spirited singing of pilgrims in the Shrine of Ajmer.

Chishti devotionalism: Qawwali : –

🔹 The use of music and dance was also a part of ziyarat. It included spiritual chants performed by specially trained musicians called qawwals to invoke divine happiness.

🔹 The sufis remember God either by reciting the zikr (the divine names) or evoking his presence through sama (interview) or performance of spiritual music.

🔹 ‘Sama’ was essential to the Chistis, and it is an example of interaction with indigenous or local devotional traditions.

Amir Khusrau and the qaul : –

🔹 Amir Khusrau who was a great poet, musician and disciple of Shaikh Nizamuddin Auliya, gave a unique form to the Chishti sama by introducing the qaul (Arabic word meaning “saying”) i.e. a hymn sung at the beginning or ending of qawwali. Today qawwali is performed in shrines all over the subcontinent.

Languages and communication : –

🔹 The Chishtis composed their poems in several languages. The Chishtis used Hindavi or Persian language. Sufis such as Baba Farid composed poetry in local language. Some Sufis composed long poems or masnavis to express ideas of divine love using human love as an allegory.

🔹 Sufi poetry was composed in the Dakhani language around the Bijapur and Karnataka region. Women while performing household chores like grinding grain and spinning sang these poems.

🔹 Other poems were in the form of lurinama(lullabies) or wedding songs(shadinama). The Sufis of this region were inspired by the kannada vachanas of the Lingayats and the Marathi abhangs of the sants of Pandharpur.

Sufis and the state : –

🔹 The chishti tradition was austere but it did not isolate political power. The Sufis accepted unsolicited grants and donations from the political elites. The sultans set up charitable trusts (auqaf) as endowments for hospices and granted tax-free land (inam).

🔹 The chishtis accepted donations in cash and kind and used for their immediate requirements such as food, clothes, living quarters and ritual necessities such as sama. The moral high status of the Sufis attracted people from all walks of life.

🔹 The kings wished to secure their support. Kings simply did not need to show their association with Sufis and also required legitimating for them. When the Turks set up the Delhi Sultanate, Sufis resisted the insistence of the ulama on imposing shari’a as state law because they anticipated opposition from their subjects.

🔹 The sultans also came to depend on the sufis to interpret the Sahri’a.It was believed that Auliya could intercede with god to improve the material and spiritual conditions of the people. As a result, kings got the shrines of the Sufis near built near their tombs.

🔹 There were instances of conflict between the Sultans and the sufis. To assert their authority both expected certain

Relationship of the sufi saints with the state : –

• Maintaining a distance from wordly power.
• The Sufis accepted unsolicited grants and donations from the political elites.
• The Sultans in turn set up charitable trusts (auqaf) as endowments for hospices and granted tax-free land (inam).
• King wished to secure support of sufi saints as they were popular among the masses due to people’s belief in their Miraculous power.
• Kings often wanted their tombs to be in the vicinity of sufi shrines and hospices.
• However, there were instance of conflicts between Sultans and Sufis.
• To assert their authority, both expected that certain rituals be performed such as prostration and kissing of the feet.

Poet-Saints of Devotional Paths : –

🔹 Many poet-saints engaged in explicit and implicit dialogue with these new social situations, ideas and institutions. Let us now see how this dialogue found expression. We focus here on three of the most influential figures of the time Kabir, Guru Nanak and Mirabai.

Weaving a divine fabric: Kabir : –

🔹 Kabir (c. fourteenth-fifteenth centuries) is perhaps one of the most outstanding examples of a poet-saint who emerged within this context. Writings on lives of saints within the Vaishnava tradition suggest that Kabir was born Hindu, but he was brought up by a poor Muslim family belonging to community of weavers or julahas, who were recently converted to Islam. They also suggested that Kabir was initiated into bhakti by a guru named Ramananda.

🔹 The verses attributed to Kabir use the words guru and satguru, but do not mention the name of any specific preceptor. Kabir was the source of inspiration for those who questioned entrenched religious and social institution, ideas and practices in their search for the Divine.

Kabir’s Teachings Kadir as a Social Reformer : –

• Belief in Monotheism
• Idea of casteles society
• Vision of Social Equality
• Secular Perspective towards religion
• Emphasis on Simran (remembrance) of God’s Name
• Attack on Hindu Polytheism and idol worship

Propagation of Kabir’s Teaching : –

• Compilation of his teaching is and Kabir Bijake, Kabir Granthanvali and Adigranth Sahib.
• Kabir’s ideas probably crystalised through dialogue and debates with in the traditions of sufi’s and Yogis of Awadh (UP)
• Compositions attributed to him.
• In the form of Ulatbansi.
• Anthologies of verses (Printed) in Begal, Gujarat & Maharashtra.

Kabir’s Compositions : –

🔹 Verses that belonged to Kabir have been compiled in three different but overlapping traditions. These were:

• The Kabir Bijak was preserved by the Kabirpanth (the path or sect of Kabir) in Varanasi, Uttar Pradesh.
• The Kabir Granthavali is related with the Dadupanth in Rajasthan.
• Many of his compositions are found in Adi Granth Sahib.

🔹 All these texts compilations were made long after the death of Kabir. By the nineteenth century, collection of poems and writings that belonged to Kabir were circulated in print in regions as far as Bengal, Gujarat and Maharashtra.

Importance of Kabir’s Poems : –

🔹 Kabir used to describe the ultimate reality in Islam as Allah, Khuda, Hazrat and Pir. He also used terms from Vedantic traditions, alakh (the unseen), nirakar (formless), Brahman, Atman, etc. Other spiritual ideas such as shabda (sound) or shunya (emptiness) belonged to yogic traditions.

🔹 Sometimes diverse and opposing ideas were expressed in these poems. Some poems took Islamic ideas and used the concepts like monotheism (belief in one God) and iconoclasm (the destruction of religious images) to attack Hindu polytheism (belief in many Gods).

Baba Guru Nanak : –

🔹 Baba Guru Nanak (14691539) was born in a Hindu merchant family in a village called Nankana Sahib near the river Ravi in the predominantly Muslim Punjab.

🔹 He was trained as an accountant and studied Persian. He was married at a young age, but he spent most of his time among Sufis and bhaktas. He also travelled widely.

Teachings of Guru Nanak Dev ji : –

• His messages is spelt out in his hymns and teachings.
• Advocated Nirguna Bhakti Tradition & said God is everywhere.
• The Absolute or Rab had no gender or form
• Rejected all religious sop scriptures.
• He firmly repudiated the external practices of the religions.
• Emphasised on ‘Nam-simran’ and ‘Jaap’.
• No importance of any caste, creed or sect.
• Talking about adopting the middlepath.
• Remembering the God by hyms called Shabad?
• It is believed that he did not want to established a new religion.

Mirabai : –

🔹 Mirabai (c fifteenth – sixteenth century) was the best known woman poet within the bhakti tradition. Biographies have been reconstructed from the bhajans that belonged to her.

🔹 She was a Rajput princess from Merta in Marwar who was married against her wish to a prince of the Sisodia clan of Mewar in Rajasthan.

🔹 She opposed her husband and did not accept the traditional role of wife and mother. She instead, recognised Krishna who was the avatar of Vishnu, as her lover.

Mirabai Challenge the norms of society : –

🔹 After leaving his husband’s palace she lived as a wandering saint and composed songs. As per some traditions, her instructor was Raidas, a leather worker.

🔹 This indicated that she challenged the norms of caste society. She did not form a sect or had group of followers, but she was recognised as a source of inspiration for many centuries.

🔹 Both women and men sing her songs, especially those who are poor and considered low caste in Gujarat and Rajasthan.

Reconstructing histories of religious traditions : –

🔹 Historians used a variety of sources to reconstruct histories of religious traditions. These include stupas, monasteries, and temples.

🔹 Historians also draw on textual sources including devotional literature and hagiographies. These sources enable historians to understand certain religious beliefs and practices.

🔹 They range from the simple direct language of the vachanas of Basavanna to the ornate language of the farman of the Mughal emperors.

🔹 Understanding each type of text requires different skills. Historians have to acquire familiarity with several languages and to be aware of the subtle variations in style that characterize each type.