Bhakti

Two distinct but related phenomena demonstrated the “Hinduization” that occurred from the sixth to the ninth centuries ce. The first was the explosion of devotional (bhakti) literature in the Tamil vernacular; the other was the construction of temples and incorporation of an elaborate symbolic and ritual life therein.

There were two sets of singers: Alvars, literally “those who drown” (in the grace of the god), were those who extolled the virtues of Visnu. Over a period of several generations, the nlvnrs composed thousands of stanzas singing of the bliss of surrender (prapatti) to god and exploits of their beloved deity. Among these poets were two known as Periyalvar (big alvar) and Nammalvar (our alvar). Another, Antal, was perhaps the first woman poet in India, certainly the first devotional singer, who likened the relationship with god to that of husband and wife and lover to lover. On the Saivite side, the Nayanmars extolled the virtues of Siva, both his terror (as exemplified in his burning of the three cities) and his grace (arul). While there were said to be sixty-three Nayanmars, perhaps in response to the notion of sixty-three Jain teachers, there were, in fact, some six to nine historical figures, some of whom were poets, including those known as Cundarar, Appar, and Nanacampantan. The songs of those poets, Vaisnava and Saiva, were fluid and retained orally; but, both sets of materials were collected and edited in the eleventh century, the Vaisnava corpus into the Nalayira-Divyaprabandham and the Saiva corpus into the Tevaram.

The work of two of these poets can illustrate the character of their devotion. Nammalvar, for example, evoked the creative powers of Visnu in a manner appropriate for a period of transition and “creation” of a more nearly “Hindu” order.

First, the discus rose to view, then the conch, the long bow, the mace, and the sword;

with blessings

from the eight quarters,

he broke through

the egg-shell of heaven, making the waters bubble;

giant head and giant feet

growing away from each other,

time itself rose to view:

how the lord

paced and measured

all three worlds!⁴

Similarly, Nammalvar voiced the poet’s sense of oneness with his god:

Promising me heaven,

making a pact with me,

today he entered this nest,

this thing of flesh,

himself cleared away

all obstacles

to himself,

all contrary acts...5

The poet expressed his pleasure at being god’s spokesperson:

My lord

who swept me away forever

into joy that day,

made me over into himself

and sang in Tamil

his own songs through me:

what shall I say

to the first of things,

flame

standing there,

what shall I say

to stop?⁶

Manikkavacakar, a Saiva poet, only later accepted as one of the classical Nayanmar poets and variously dated between the sixth and ninth centuries, co-opted imageries of love and sexuality to describe the relationship with the divine. The natural landscape was sensually described but was thought to fade into insignificance in the presence of the divine. To be “possessed” by the god was like a form of madness - it transcended all other experiences. Relationships with women similarly faded in comparison with the relationship to Siva. Indeed, the poet was like the beloved who was offered love (anpu) by the god and united with God as if in sexual union. Manikkavacakar described the bliss of being “possessed” by Siva:

He grabbed me lest I go astray.

Wax before an unspent fire, mind melted, body trembled.

I bowed, I wept, danced, cried aloud, I sang, and I praised him.

Unyielding, as they say, as an elephant’s jaw or a woman’s grasp, was love’s unrelenting seizure.

Love pierced me like a nail driven into a green tree.

Overflowing, I tossed like a sea,

heart growing tender, body shivering,

while the world called me Demon! and laughed at me,

I left shame behind, took as an ornament, the mockery of the local folk.

Unswerving, I lost my cleverness in the bewilderment of ecstasy.⁷

The bhakti experience as articulated by these singers reflected several patterns at once: first, they used the images of early Tamil poetry to localize the deities. The foliage and landscape of Tamil land was the god’s - the god was “here,” he had made his home here, learned the language, and established pilgrimage sites here. Similarly, imageries of love mirrored those used by the cankam poets. “Possession” and “intoxication” reflected the images by which the god made himself known in the “pre-Hindu” context. The poetry and the devotional experience were quintessentially Tamil. Second, the poets selectively appropriated myths from the northern epic setting thereby giving the local variations of the deities “sanskritic” or vaidika sanction. Siva’s destruction of the three cities was localized; Visnu was grafted onto Mayon, god of the pastoral tract. Skanda was grafted onto Murukan. Third, the songs were responding to a Jain and Buddhist context, at first with some virulence (especially in the Saiva case) then by selectively appro­priating elements of Jain and Buddhist ethics and ideology. There was evidence in the early generations of poets (especially in the writings of the Saiva Nanacampantan) of attacks on Jain or Buddhist attitudes, reflecting the attacks of certain Saivite kings on Buddhist or Jain establishments (such as that at Nagarjunakonda). Yet, in time, one finds the co-opting of Buddhist or Jain themes - hospitality, a sense of community, etc. At least one deity, Sasta, emerged in this period as an apparent alternative to the figure of Buddha - Sasta was teacher; his poses emulated those in earlier Buddhist and Jain iconography; but Sasta was also a son of Siva and accessible to help the devotee. Pilgrimage centers made the deities accessible, unlike the reclu­sive Jain mendicants. Not least important, Buddhist sacred places (pal l is) became sites for “Hindu” temples.

The bhakti poets, in short, expressed a form of Tamil identity that claimed Tamil country for “Hinduism” and placed itself in contradistinction to its religious rivals. These patterns recurred wherever bhakti was popular; the vernacular language became the medium of religious expression, albeit enhanced by forms of Sanskritic culture and there was selective appropriation of and distancing from the ideology of “others.”