How regional Hindu traditions evolved
Hinduism speaks in every language of India. From the 6th century, poet-saints began singing to God not in Sanskrit but in Tamil, Kannada, Marathi, Bengali, Assamese and Hindi — and changed how ordinary people worship forever.
The verse
Songs in the people's language
[Historical scholarship]
Between the 6th and 9th centuries in Tamil country, two groups of poet-saints walked from temple to temple singing: the twelve Alvars, devoted to Vishnu, and the sixty-three Nayanars, devoted to Shiva. Their hymns — the Divya Prabandham and the Tevaram — were in Tamil, open to all, and full of personal love for God. Among them were women like Andal and Karaikkal Ammaiyar, and saints of every caste.
A movement that swept India
[Historical scholarship]
Over the next thousand years this "bhakti movement" spread across India, each region producing its own saints and songs. In 12th-century Karnataka, a minister of the king named Basavanna began writing short poems called vachanas — and founded a community that questioned caste and temple ritual itself…
The journey continues for members
- Saints of every region
- What the bhakti saints changed
- Local deities and great traditions
- What we can learn
Sources
- Divya Prabandham — Alvars
- Tevaram — Nayanars
- Vachanas — Basavanna, Akka Mahadevi
- Jnaneshwari — Jnaneshwar
- A. K. Ramanujan — Speaking of Siva (1973)