Devotional Path to the Divine

Nayanar movement was started in order to check the development of Buddhism and Jainism in the southern peninsula. They wanted to protect their religion from the incursion of these new religions.

To try and preach universal toleration and do away with caste discriminations.

Hagiographies are the biographies of the Alvars and Nayanars or can be considered as religious biographies. These are very helpful in writing histories of Bhakti tradition.

The places where Sikh congregation and religious gatherings of the followers of Guru Nanak were held were called Dharamsalas. These were also the places for feeding the poor. Eventually, every Sikh home became a Dharamsala. Now it is known as Gurdwara.

The Chola and the Pandyas built many temples around many shrines between the tenth and twelfth centuries. The saint- poets visited these shrines and sang songs of Bhakti. It strengthened the links between the Bhakti tradition and temple worship.

Shankara was one of the most popular religious philosophers of India born in Kerala. He was the expounder of the concept of Advaita which is the doctrine of oneness of the individual soul and the supreme god. He was a fully developed Yogi, Jnani and Bhakta. He believed that Brahman alone is real, this world is unreal. He considered the world as Maya or an illusion. He preached renunciation of the world and adoption of the path of knowledge.

Many people were not satisfied with the notion that noble and high caste of human beings come by birth. These two religions helped them overcome notion that high caste comes by birth. That was why most of the people started following Buddhism and Jainism.

Ramanuja was born in Tamil Nadu in the eleventh century. He was deeply influenced by the Alvars. He was an exponent of the doctrine of Vishistadavita or qualified non-dualism. He advocated that the best means of attaining salvation was through intense devotion to Vishnu. According to Ramanuja's teachings, Lord Narayana or Bhagavan is the Supreme Being. He believed that Vishnu helped devotees to attain the bliss of union with Him. Later his teachings inspired the Bhakti cult in North India.

The Virashaiva movement began in Karnataka in the mid-twelfth century. It was started by Basavanna and his companions like Allama Prabhu and Akkamahadevi.

A number of religious groups criticized the rituals and other aspects of conventional religion and preached the social order using simple logical arguments. They advocated renunciation of the world. To achieve the salvation, they advocated intense training of the mind and body through practices like yogasanas. They became popular among low castes in North India.

Sufis were Muslim mystics. They rejected outward religiosity and emphasized love and devotion to God and compassion towards all fellow human beings. They condemned the elaborate rituals and codes of behaviour demanded by Muslim religious scholars. They also composed poems expressing their feelings.

Khanqahs were like hospices. It was a place where the Sufi masters held their assemblies. Devotees of all descriptions including members from the royal and noble groups, and ordinary people gathered there. They discussed spiritual matters and were blessed by the saints.

Guru Nanak was born in Talwandi. He preached against caste distinctions ritualism, idol worship and the pseudo-religious beliefs that had no spiritual content. He chose to mix with all. He dined and lived with men of the lowest castes and classes which was socially and religiously unheard of in those days of rigid Hindu caste system. His followers ate together in the common kitchen called langar which became a nucleus for religious gatherings of his society and of establishing the basic equality of all castes, classes and sexes.

Guru Nanak appointed one of his followers named Lehna as his successor before his death. Later Lehna came to be known as Guru Angad and projected himself as part of Guru Nanak.

The Mughal emperor Jahangir ordered the execution of Guru Arjan Dev. By the beginning of the seventeenth century, the town of Ramdaspur (Amritsar) developed around the central Gurdwara, also called Harmandar Sahib (Golden Temple). It was like a state with self-governing. The Mughal emperor saw this development as a potential threat against his rule. So he ordered the execution.

1. Baba Guru Nanak was born in 1469 at Tailwind (Nankana Sahib in Pakistan).
2. Baba Guru Nanak was born in 1469 at Tailwind (Nankana Sahib in Pakistan).
3. Baba Guru Nanak died in 1539.

Martin Luther was one of the most important leaders of the changes that took place within Christianity.Luther felt that several practices in the Roman Catholic Church went against the teachings of the Bible.

When gods and goddess were identified with Shiva, the local myths and legends became part of the Puranic stories and the methods of worship introduced in the Puranas were followed for the local gods and goddesses.

During the seventh and ninth centuries new religious movements were led by the saints called the Nayanars who were devoted to Shiva and Alvars who were devoted to Vishnu.

The Sikh movement began to get politicized in the seventeenth century. Development culminated in the institution of the Khalsa by Guru Gobind Singh in 1699. Thus, the community of the Sikhs called the Khalsa Panth came into existence as a political entity.