Gaur Purnima ...Bhakti Movement

[Guest guest]

I would really like to answer this in parts. The

Bhakti Movement was the period in Indian History ranging

from around 800AD to 1700AD. The word bhakti is

derived from Bhakta meaning to serve, honour, revere,

love and adore. In the religious idiom, it is

attachment or fervent devotion to God and is defined as

"that particular affection which is generated by the

knowledge of the attributes of the Adorable One." The

concept is traceable to the Vedas where its intimations

are audible in the hymns addressed to deities such as

Varuna, Savitra and Usha. However, the word bhakti does

not occur there. The word occurs for the first time

in the Upanisads where it appears with the

co-doctrines of grace and self surrender.<br>Bhakti movement

was propounded by Chaitanya, Namadeva, Tukaram,

Jayadeva. <br>Hinduism faced a very stiff competition from

Islam during the medieval period. Free booters and

plunderers from the harsh plains of central Asia and Persia

descended upon the Indian subcontinent carrying in their

hands the flag of Islam and in their hearts dreams of

looting the vast and legendary treasures of the country

and establishing great empires.<br><br>They occupied

vast territories in northern India, plundered and

destroyed many temples, traditions, practices and native

kingdoms and tried to introduce the new religion among the

native people with a zeal and enthusiasm that was

totally alien to the native traditions and religious

practices. Some of these rulers adopted very cruel and

inhuman methods in their zeal to convert people to Islam.

But they were hardly successful in their

objective.<br><br>These rulers succeeded in establishing large empires in

the subcontinent on the lines of Islamic traditions,

in establishing their own system of political

administration, taxation and jurisprudence, and in forcibly

converting many to Islam either through the fear of

punishment or the lure of royal patronage or elevation of

their social status.<br><br>They also succeeded in

imposing additional taxation on the people of other

faiths, inflicting undue suffering on Hindus through

persecution and biased treatment as a part of their religious

propaganda, and thereby reducing many rich Hindu families to

utter penury and social degradation so much so that

some of them had to do menial jobs in the Muslim

households to eke out a living.<br><br>But despite all the

suffering and cruel treatment, despite all the temptations

of joining the new creed, despite their losing power

prestige and status, despite the insults and ignominy they

had to bear, majority of the Hindus clung to the

religion of their ancestors and remained steadfast in

their devotion to the gods of their ancestral land.

Many preferred to die honorably than converting to the

new faith.