---
title: "Bhakti & Sufi Movements and Syncretic Culture"
description: "Understand the Bhakti and Sufi movements as devotional, social and literary forces shaping Indian syncretic culture, with the saints, texts and orders UPSC."
url: "https://modeldiplomat.com/learn/lessons/upsc-art-culture-bhakti-sufi-movements-and-syncretic-traditions"
---

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Bhakti & Sufi movements and syncretic traditions

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# Bhakti & Sufi movements and syncretic traditions

The Bhakti and Sufi movements as devotional, social and literary forces that shaped Indian syncretic culture, with the saints, texts and orders UPSC tests.

## Origins and the Two Streams

The Bhakti movement was a devotional reform current emphasising personal, emotional surrender (*bhakti*) to a chosen deity over ritual, priestly mediation and caste hierarchy. Its philosophical roots lie in the *Bhagavad Gita* and the *Bhagavata Purana*, but its mass phase began in the Tamil country between the 6th and 9th centuries CE with the **Alvars** (Vaishnava poet-saints, including Andal, the sole woman) and the **Nayanars** (Shaiva saints such as Appar and Sambandar). Their Tamil hymns were later canonised—the Alvars' compositions as the *Nalayira Divya Prabandham*, the Nayanars' as the *Tevaram*.

North Indian Bhakti is conventionally divided into two streams. The **nirguna** stream worshipped a formless, attributeless absolute and was radically iconoclastic: **Kabir** (c. 1440–1518), the weaver-saint of Banaras whose verses (*dohas*, *sakhis*) attack both Brahminical and Islamic orthodoxy, and **Guru Nanak** (1469–1539), founder of Sikhism, belong here. The **saguna** stream worshipped God with form and attributes, chiefly as Rama or Krishna: **Tulsidas** (1532–1623), author of the *Ramcharitmanas* in Awadhi; **Surdas** (c. 1478–1580), the blind poet of Krishna devotion whose *Sursagar* is in Braj; and **Mirabai** (c. 1498–1547), the Rajput princess-poet of Krishna.

## Regional Bhakti and Theological Founders

Bhakti acquired distinct regional identities. In Maharashtra the **Varkari** tradition centred on Vithoba of Pandharpur produced **Jnaneshwar** (*Jnaneshwari*, 1290), **Namdev**, **Eknath** and **Tukaram** (17th century), composing *abhangas* in Marathi. In Bengal, **Chaitanya Mahaprabhu** (1486–1533) popularised ecstatic *sankirtana* (congregational singing) and Gaudiya Vaishnavism. Assam saw **Sankardeva** (1449–1568) found the **Ekasarana Dharma** and the *sattra* monasteries, and create *Borgeet* songs and *Ankia Naat* theatre. In Karnataka the **Lingayat/Virashaiva** movement of **Basavanna** (12th century) produced *vachana* literature and the *anubhava mantapa* assembly.

The movement also had its philosophical architects who supplied doctrine to devotion: **Shankaracharya** (Advaita, c. 788–820), **Ramanuja** (Vishishtadvaita, 1017–1137), **Madhva** (Dvaita), **Nimbarka**, and **Vallabhacharya** (Pushtimarg, *shuddhadvaita*, 1479–1531). Two features recur in exam answers: Bhakti's use of **vernacular languages**, which democratised access to the divine and enriched regional literatures; and its **social critique**, opening sainthood to women, lower castes and artisans (Kabir a weaver, Ravidas a cobbler, Sena a barber).

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