Religion and

Literature
Part 1: Bhakti

Overview
Studying religion through literature
Bhakti in a nutshell
Group activity: Hagiography
Reading bhakti poetry

Religion and Literature

How is this week different than our week on
text?
Focus on understanding contents of
literature in its context
Questions about identities and motivations
of authors
How does religious literature take shape?

Bhakti: an Overview
Bhakti devotion, lit. sharing
Not a unified movement, but a set of similar

religious sensibilities
Associated with vernacularism
Involves strong preference for a particular deity
Often a site of resistance to established social

hierarchies

Poem by Allama Prabhu

(Ramanujan, Speaking of Siva, p. 31)

Feed the poor, tell the truth,

make water places,
and build tanks for a town -you may then go to heaven after death,
but you'll get nowhere near the truth of our Lord.

Bhakti Timeline
Tamil Nadu: Alvars and
Nayanars
(500-900 CE, trad. 42002700 BCE)
Karnataka: Virashaivas
(10th-12th century CE)
Maharashtra: 13th-14th
century CE
North India: 15th-16th
century CE

Hagiography
Split into groups of ~5
Read the text
Prepare a summary of the text for the class.
What religious or social agendas are
apparent in the reading?
E.g Theological viewpoints and social hierarchy
(caste, gender, etc.)

Hagiography
Tiruppan Alvar

Nandanar

Hagiography
Basavanna

Mahadeviyakka

Hagiography
Mirabai

Kabir

Basavanna

The rich
will make temples for
Siva.
What shall I,
a poor man,
Do?

My legs are pillars,

the body the shrine,
the head a cupola
of gold.
Listen, O lord of the
meeting rivers,
things standing shall
fall,
but the moving ever
shall stay.

Mahadeviyakka
Other men are thorn
Under the smooth leaf.
I cannot touch them,
Go near them, nor trust them,
Nor speak to them confidences.
Mother, because they all have thorns in their
chests,
I cannot take any man in my arms but my lord
White as jasmine.

Mirabai
The Bhil woman tasted them, plum
after plum,
and finally found one she could offer
him.
What kind of genteel breeding was
this?
And hers was no ravishing beauty.
Her family was poor, her caste quite
low,
her clothes a matter of rags,
Yet Ram took that fruit--that touched,
spoiled fruit-for he knew that it stood for her love.
This was a woman who loved the
taste of love,
and Ram knows no high, no low.

What sort of Veda could she ever

have learned?
But quick as a flash she mounted
a chariot
And sped to heaven to swing on a
swing,
tied by love to God.
You are the Lord who cares for the
fallen;
rescue whoever loves as she did:
Let Mira, your servant, safely
cross over,
a cowherding Gokul girl.

Pundit, how can you be so dumb?

Youre going to drown, along with all
your kin, unless you start speaking
of Ram.
Vedas, Puranaswhy read them?
Its like loading an ass with
sandalwood!
Unless you catch on and learn how
Rams name goes,
How will you reach the end of the
road?
You slaughter living beings and call
it religion:
Hey brother, what would irreligion
be?
Great Saintthats how you love
to greet each other:
Who then would you call a
murderer?

Kabir
Your mind is blind. Youve no
knowledge of yourselves. Tell me,
brother, how can you teach anyone
else?
Wisdom is a thing you sell for
worldly gain,
So there goes your human birthin
vain.
You say: Its Narads command.
Its what Vyas says to do.
Go and ask Sukdev, the sage.
Kabir says: youd better go and lose
yourself in Ram, for without him,
brother, you drown.

Kabir
Hey Qazi, whats that book youre
preaching from?
And reading, reading how many
days?
Still you havent mastered one
word.
Drunk with power, you want to
grab me; then comes the
circumcision.
Brother, what can I say?
If God had wanted to make me a
Muslim, why didnt he make the
incision?
You cut away the foresken, and
then you have a Muslim; so what
about your women? What are
they?

Women, so they say, are only

half-formed men:
I guess they must stay Hindus
to the end.
Hindus, Muslimswhere did
they come from? Who got
them started down this road?
Search inside, search your
heart and look: who made
heaven come to be?
Fool, throw away that book,
and sing of Ram.
What youre doing has nothing
to do with him.
Kabir has caught hold of Ram
for his refrain,
And the Qazi? He spends his
life in Vain.

Kabir Singers

http://youtu.be
/YCAx95wucEE?t=3m22s

Odissi Dance

http://youtu.be/fSdFowoBryI?t=24s