The Bhakti movement
Devotional poets bypass priests and caste, and write in the languages people speak.
- When
- —
- Duration
- 800 years
- Known to
- ± 50 years
- Era
- Post-Classical, Holocene
From the seventh century in Tamil country and spreading north over centuries, bhakti teaches direct personal devotion to God as sufficient for liberation, without ritual specialists, Sanskrit or caste qualification. Its poets include women such as Andal and Mirabai and low-caste figures such as Kabir and Ravidas, and they compose in vernacular languages, which shapes the literary development of Tamil, Marathi, Hindi and Bengali.