Bhakti: Then and Now

India, being a country with a rich spiritual and cultural heritage, gives a prominent place to
Bhakti. Bhakti is the most commonly performed theme and a vital aspect in sāttvika
abhinaya. The term bhakti meaning partition, division, devotion, attachment, loyalty,
faithfulness, reverence, service, worship, homage, decoration and attribute; has its origin
from the root ‘Bhaj’. The earliest reference of the term Bhakti is found in the śvetaśvatara
upaniṣad.(T.N. VI. xxiii. 65),1 Bhagavadgītā preaches three paths to attain mokṣa (Eternal
bliss) – karma yoga (path of action), jñāna yoga (path of knowledge) and bhakti yoga (path
of devotion). Kṛṣṇa in the 12th chapter of Bhagavadgītā says bhakti yoga is considered the
better path, out of these three.

Bhakti as a Bhāva or a rasa: Abhinavagupta brings bhakti under śānta rasa (Raghavan
122). Dhanañjaya in his Daśarūpaka considers bhakti and prīti as a bhāva and adds it with
other bhāva-s like harṣa, utsāha and others. (Dhanañjaya IV. lxxxiii. 747). Mammaṭa in his
Kāvyaprakāśa states Bhakti as a vyabhicāri bhāva.2(Mammaṭācārya IV. xxxv. 70).
Hemacandra in his kāvyānuśāsanam places bhakti as a part of rati, (Pramilā Tripāṭhī 231)
thus a bhāva. Jagannatha pandit maintains it to be just a bhāva. (Raghavan 142). Bhanudatta
in his Rasataraṅginī states that bhakti is a vyabhicāri of śānta rasa. (Bhānudatta IV. 108)

Dandin illustrates preyas3 with 2 illustrations indicating bhakti. (Raghavan) Bopadeva and
Hemādri in their Bhāgavatamuktāphala, developed bhakti into a main rasa. According to
them bhakti rasa takes the form of the other 9 conventional rasa-s. Furthering the idea of
Bopadeva; Rupagosvāmi, a gauḍīya vaiṣṇavist, in his works deals with bhakti in great length.

Bhakti in gauḍīya vaiṣṇavism: The term ‘Bhakti’ owes a lot to gauḍīya vaiṣṇavism. Bhakti in
Bengal- vaishnavism or the gauḍīya vaiṣṇavism, started by Chaitanya Mahaprabhu, has a
unique interpretation. Rūpa and Sanātana Gosvāmīs, followers of Chaitanya are credited for
systematising and defining gauḍīya vaiṣnavism and for expressing the theology of bhakti and
its rasaśāstra(De 117–119) The vaiṣṇava ālaṃkārika-s of Bengal accept the eight rasa-s of
Bharatha and also accept rasa-s like śānta, vātsalya, sakhya and add a new rasa called dāsya,
making a total of 12 rasa-s. The novel orientation comes with the śṛṅgāra becoming rati for
the supreme. This śṛṅgāra was called madhura or ujjvala. Along with madhura, śānta, dāsya,
sakhya and vātsalya were considered as the primary rasa-s while the remaining were more or
less considered vyabhicārins to the primary rasa-s. They became rasa-s only in connection to
Kṛṣṇa. (Raghavan 145)

Bhakti rasa definition: In ‘The Number of Rasa-s’, Raghavan explains that - Madhusūdana
Sarasvatī through his Bhagavadbhaktirasāyana, is the one who takes bhakti to the next level
of rasaśāstra by defining it and by stating its vibhāva, anubhāva etc.

‘bhajanaṃ antaḥkaraṇasya bhagavadākāratārūpam bhaktiḥ | bhakti is the citta taking the

form of the Lord. Pañcāpageśa explains this as - The human mind is like a hard like wax
under the influence of rage or love melts itself and imprints the sthāyibhāva. “Now, in Bhakti
rasa, the Lord who is bliss in essence is the sthāyibhāva and imprints himself on this piece of
wax, the human mind”(Śastrī 289)

‘mukunda iti bhaktiyogasya viṣayanirdeśaḥ, sarvāntaryāmī sarveśvara eva

bhaktirasālambanavibhāva iti vakṣyate | - Lord is the Ālambana vibhāva. Tulasi, candana etc
are the uddīpana vibhāvas, tears of joy, closing of the eyes etc are the anubhāvas. The
sthāyin is the ‘citta’ which has taken the form of the Lord. (Raghavan 147–154)

Bhakti movement: Bhakti movement is a Hindu religious movement which propagated

‘loving devotion’. In the bhakti movement the differences between religion and everyday life
was destroyed and an unified identity was attained. (Jackson 67) The Bhakti movement finds
its inception in Tēvāram and Divyaprabandam. Dash, in his ‘Mystic Eros’ describes the
devotion of the Āḻvārs:

“The Ālvārs yielded themselves fully to the ecstatic raptures that came to their senses
through the action of song and symbol. They saw God in everything and under the most
intimate terms known to human relationship; they sought to express passionate hunger of
the heart for Him. The soul cannot rest until it finds God.”(Dash 168)

Bhakti in History of Dance: The latter half of the 5th Century saw the rise of the Pallavas.
Though originally Jains, a reconstruction of śaivism and vaiṣṇavism is seen from the period
of King Mahendran. (S. Raghuraman 115) The Pallavas connected dance to temples. Temple
administrations were handed over to the Kanigai-s (temple dancers). (S. Raghuraman 148)
Tēvāram and Divya Prabandham were from this period. “The songs that were made to praise
the kings in the Sangam age, shifted to songs praising the valour and glory of God”. Dance
which was performed as an expression of the human emotions shifted to devotional media.
(Raghuraman 132) The art form of dance grew in the temple precincts and nurtured bhakti
along its growth.

Bhakti in Bharatanāṭyam mārgam: Bharatanāṭyam is full of devotion. The execution of a

Bharatanāṭya mārgam is compared to the divine experience of entering a temple and
experiencing God. In the words of Balasaraswati: The Bharatanatyam recital is structured
like a Great Temple:

"We enter through the Gopuram (outer hall) of Alarippu, cross the Ardhamandapam
(half way hall) of Jatiswaram, then the Mandapam (great hall) of Shabdam and enter
the holy precinct of the deity in the Varnam. In dancing to the Padams, one
experiences the contentment, cool and quiet of entering the sanctum from its external
precinct. It is akin to the juncture when the cascading lights of worship are withdrawn
and the drum beats die down to the simple and solemn chanting of sacred verses in the
closeness of God. Then the Tillana breaks into movement like the final burning of
camphor accompanied by a measure of din and bustle."(“Margam”)

Reformation and Bhakti: With the advent of the British the devadāsis lost their patronage
and took to sensual presentations. Dance was a taboo and women of good repute were not
allowed to learn dance. Rukmini Devi Arundale came to the rescue of this art form. Though
from a Brahmin family she learnt this art and started the world renowned ‘Kalakshetra’. To
remove the stigma of prostitution attached to Bharatanāṭyam, Rukmini Devi removed all the
vulgarities of Śṛṅgāra and called it ‘Bhakti Śṛṅgāra’.(Shashikumar 30) People who believed
in the theories of Rukmini Devi gave up Śṛṅgāra and took to bhakti. This could be
considered as a major contributor of bhakti items into the present day Bharatanatyam.

Proliferation of Bhakti lyrics in performances: Recent times have seen a distinct increase
in the number of bhakti items executed during performances. A few plausible reasons are
explored here.

Male dancers: Earlier the dancers were mostly females and men were Naṭṭuvanārs. But now,
with many men taking up dancing, the inaptness of nāyikā oriented lyrics for presentation is
quite often remarked by male dancers. Bhakti is an emotion which is adaptable by both men
and women dancers. This has led to an upsurge of bhakti lyrics.4
Programmes for festive occasions: Temples sponsor performances5 and other organisations
also give opportunities for performance during festivities. So unmistakably bhakti, becomes
predominant when danced for temple festivities.

Performance by children: With more children taking up dancing, more often than not, many
teachers choose bhakti pieces suitable for execution by children than compared to Śṛṅgāra.
Kalanidhi Narayanan feels that teaching Śṛṅgāra pieces to children takes immense patience
and is quite difficult. As they have to be made to understand the situation before the
execution of such a piece. (Kalanidhi Narayanan 78)

New exploration of songs from other genres: The current generation is quite open to explore
new horizons. They are experimenting with other non traditional songs like Bharatiyār songs,
dohā-s, Tirukkural etc. Many of these are not only bhakti oriented but also give wide shades
of bhakti like – dēśa bhakti, mātṛ bhakti, guru bhakti, rāja bhakti etc.

Conclusion: The debate of Bhakti being a rasa or otherwise still continues.(Ganesh 221) The
reason as to why it has not developed in the rasaśāstra as per the words of John C. Plott

“Thus, if this tradition has not well developed to the full a theory of art as such, it has
nevertheless been so pre occupied with the beauty of God and with artistic expression
of His praise that it has not had the leisure, as it were, to indulge in theorizing about it.
For just as it is a truism that the greatest artists, with few exceptions, have not been
the best exponents of the aesthetic theories....” (Plott 283–84)

Bhakti has also undergone a lot of change. In the vedic times it was śraddha bhakti, later it
developed into karma mārga, jñāna mārga, then there was even the cārvāka philosophy6.
Then started the Bhakti Movement, the movement where the highest principle was made a
personal God. (Shastri)

“This Bhakti was genuinely different from the Vedic religion. Bhakti poems are
valued first and foremost because they signify a certain state of mind. If the saints’
poems are powerful then it is primarily because they induce a worshipful state of
mind in the hearer, rather than because of the verbal sound elements of which they are
composed are powerful in and of themselves.”(Cutler 17)

Bhakti enshrined itself in the abundant and versatile literature produced during the bhakti
movement. Dancers are quite indebted to saint poets like Nāyanmār-s, Aḻvārs, Marāṭhi sant-s,
Vacanagārā-s, haridāsā-s, sant-s, gosvāmī-s for the major chunk of Bhakti literature and in
turn dance literature.

Bhakti, though unheard in Nāṭyaśāstra is now the vital aspect of Indian literature and arts and
has become the most celebrated feeling.

Bibliography

Bhānudatta. Rasatarangini. Trans. Gopal Dutt Joshi. Delhi: Munshiram Manoharalal Publishers, 1974. Print.
Cutler, Norman. Songs of Experience: The Poetics of Tamil Devotion. Bloomington: Indiana University Press,
1987. Print.
Dash, Bishnu Charan. Mystic Eros : Troubadours and the Vaisnava Poets of Medieval India. Delhi: Abhishek
Prakashan, 2010. Print.
De, S. K. Early History of the Vaisnava Faith and Movement in Bengal - From Sanskrit and Bengali Sources.
Calcutta: Firma K.L.Mukhopadyay, 1961. Print.
Dhanañjaya. Daśarūpakam: Samīkṣātmaka Vistr̥ta Saṃskr̥ta Hindī Bhūmikādyāvaśyaka Tattvopetam. Trans.
Dāhāla. Vārāṇasī, Bhārata: Caukhambā Amarabhāratī Prakāśana, 1987. Print. Harjivandas Sanskrit
Granthamala 45.
Ganesh, R. Alamkaarashaastra. Trans. M. C. Prakash. Bengaluru: Bhavan’s Gandhi Centre of Science and
Human Values, 2010. Print.
Jackson, William J. “The Bhakta and External Worship.” Ed. T. S. Parthasarathy. The Journal of The Music
Academy LX (1989): 65–91. Print.
Mammaṭācārya. Kāvyaprakāsha: Text with English Translation (Complete) : (With Index & Appe[n]dices).
Trans. Ganganatha Jha. Delhi: Bharatiya Vidya Prakashan, 2005. Print.
“Margam.” N.p., n.d. Web. 26 July 2016.
Narayanan, Kalanidhi. Aspects of Abhinaya. Madras: Alliance Co, 1994. Print.
Plott, John C. A Philosophy of Devotion - A Comparative Study of Bhakti and Prapatti in Visistadvaita and St.
Bonaventura and Gabriel Marcel. Delhi: Motilal Banarsidass, 1974. Print.
Pramilā Tripāṭhī. Hemacandrakr̥ta Kāvyānuśāsana Evaṃ Bhojakr̥ta Sarasvatīkaṇṭhābharaṇa Kā Tulanātmaka
Adhyayana. Parimala Publication, 1989. Print.
Raghavan, Venkatarama. The Number of Rasa-S. Adyar-Madras: Adyar library and research centre :
Theosophical Society, 1975. Print.
Raghuraman, S. History of Tamizh’s Dance. Trans. Lakshmi Ramaswamy. Chennai: Nandini Pathippagam,
2007. Print.
Śastrī, P. Pañcāpageśa. The Philosophy of Aesthetic Pleasure. Annamalai Nagar: Annamalai University, 1940.
Print. Annamalai University Saṃskṛt Series No.6.
Shashikumar, Shobha. “Padavarna - A Study into the Aesthtics of Presentation in the Contemporary Times.”
Noopura Bhramari (2016): 20–57. Print.
Shastri, Bhagwat Kumar Goswami. The Bhakti Cult in Ancient India. Delhi: Oriental Publishers and
Distributors, 1924. Print.
T.N., Sethumadhavan, trans. “Svetasvatara Upanisad.” 2011. Web.

END NOTES
1
Even this is considered as a later interpolation by a few scholars like Max Muller.
2
Ratirdevādiviṣayā vyabhicārī tathāñjitaḥ bhāvaḥ proktaḥ|| - Love towards Gods and such other beings are to
be considered as vyabhicāri. Here, the such other beings, refers to sages, preceptors, king, son and so on.
3
Another additional rasa on the threshold of affection
4
Vide Interviews.
5
Like the nādanīrāñjanam of TTD, performance at the Udupi Rājāṅgana, Vaikuṇṭha ekādaśi festivities
organised by Śrī Raṅgam etc.
6
Materialism.