Bhakti Cults

   During 500-900, Jainism and Buddhism gradually gave way in south India to a new form of religious worship represented by the devotional cults of the Tamil saints, which were among the early expression of what later came to be called the bhakti movement. From the 14th century onward, the bhakti cults became a dynamic force in north India. Insofar as these cults attracted the artisans and professional castes, the bhakti movement may be seen as filling the vacuum created by the disappearance of Buddhism. At the same time, some of the Vaishnava saints, such as Ramanuja and Vallabha, have also been associated with the bhakti movement. Some of the teachings of bhakti cults that were to make a deeper impact on social rather than purely religious ideas were influenced by Islamic mysticism. The Sufic and bhakti thought and practice coalesced at various points. The essential belief in the need to unite with God by cultivating divine love and a stress on the necessity of being guided by a preceptor are indicative of this coalescence.

   But the mysticism of Sufis was not encouraged by all the bhakti saints. Many of them belonged to the class of less prosperous cultivators and artisans, in most cases from lower castes. In their teachings, institutionalized religion and objects of worship were attacked, caste disregarded, women were encouraged to join gatherings, and teachings were entirely in the local vernacular languages. Kabir's and Nanak's teachings were the most significant contributions of this nature during the 15th and 16th centuries.