PROPONENTS OF THE BHAKTI
MOVEMENT

RAMANUJA
 Proponent of the Vaishnavite tradition and the
Vishishtadvaita school
 Major works:
i. Vedarthasangraha
ii. Bhagawat Gita Bhashya
iii. Sri Bhasya
iv. Nithya Grantham
v. Vedantapida
vi. Vedantasara
vii. Gadya Traya (a trilogy)– Saranagati Gadyam +
Sriranga Gadyam +Vaikunta Gadyam

NIMBARKA
 Founded Dvaitadvaita or dualistic monism
 Work: Vedanta Parijata Saurabha

MADHAVACHARYA
 Associated with the Dvaita school of Vedanta
 Almost 37 works are attributed to him.
• Madhava Bhasya (based on the Brahma Sutras)
• Gita Bhasya (based on the Bhagawat Gita)
• Anu Vyakhyana
 Reinterpreted Verse 6.8.7 of the Chandogya
Upanishad, which says “Tat tvam asi” and
parsed the text as “Atat tvam asi”.

VALLABHACHARYA
 Propounded:
Sudhadvaita Vedanta
Pustimarga
Rudra Sampradaya
Wrote in : Sanskrit and Brajbhasha

RAMANANDA
 “the bridge between the Bhakti movement of the
South and the North”
 Kabir was his disciple.

DNYANESHWAR
 Wrote in Marathi
 Major Works: Dnyaneshwari, Amruthanubhava,
Haripath and a number of abhangas
 Dnyaneshwari is a commentary on the Bhagawat
Gita

EKNATH
 Wrote in Marathi
 Belonged to the Varkari tradition
 Works: Eknathi Bhagawata, Bhavarth Ramayan,
Anand Lahari and Rukmini Swayamvar
Hastamalak.
 Introduced the Bharood, a form of Marathi religious
song.

NAMADEVA
 Wrote in Marathi
 It is believed that he was a tailor who later resorted
to thievery before he became a saint.
 Associated with the Varkari sect
 Influenced by Vaishnavism and the Vithoba cult
 Composed bhajans and also abhangas

CHAITANYA MAHAPRABHU
 Popularized the Bhakti movement in Bengal
 Founded Gaudiya Vaishnavism
 Several biographies of Chaitanya were written. Some of
them are:
 Chaitanya Charitramrita by Krishnadasa Kaviraja
 Chaitanya Bhagavata by Vrindavana Dasa
 Chaitanya Mangala by Lochana Dasa
o The biographical film on Chaitanya – Nilachaley
Mahaprabhu, directed by Kartik Chattopadhyay
o ISKCON (The International Society for Krishna
Consciousness) was founded by C.Bhaktivedanta
Prabhupada to popularize Chaitanya’s teachings.

MIRABAI
 Devotee of Lord Krishna
 Born as a Rajput princess, she married King Bhoj
Raj of Mewar.
 M.S.Subbulakshmi starred as Mirabai in Meera, a
Tamil film based on Mirabai’s life.
 Gulzar directed a Hindi film titled Meera on
Mirabai’s life in 1979.

TULSIDAS
 Devotee of Lord Rama
 Wrote in Awadhi and Braja Bhasha
 Wrote Ramacharitamanas in Awadhi. It is a retelling
of the Ramayana.
 Began the ramlila plays (folk-theatre, depicting the
Ramayana)
 Believed to have composed the Hanuman Chalisa
 Also wrote Gitavali and Vinayapatrika in Braja

A NOTE ON RAMCHARITAMANAS
 Written in Awadhi, around 1574-76
 A retelling of the Ramayana in Awadhi
 Draws from the Adhyatma Ramayana and Valmiki
Ramayana as also other sources
 There are 7 books or kands
 The work has been acclaimed as “the living sum of
Indian culture”

SURDAS
 Lived in the 15th century
 Was blind; was a disciple of Vallabhacharya
 Wrote songs dedicated to Lord Krishna
 Called “the sun in the sky of Hindi literature”
 Most famous work: Sursagar

NARSINH MEHTA
 He was a Bhakti poet from Gujarat
 Composed the bhajan “Vaishnav Jan To”, which is
now associated with Mahatma Gandhi
 Major works: Putra Vivah, Sudama Charit,Chaturis,
Dana Leela

KABIR
 Born in Varanasi
 Disciple of Ramananda
 Wrote in Hindi and borrowed from Awadhi, Braj and
Bhojpuri
 Famous for his dohas and sakhis.
 His compositions can be seen in the Adi Granth as
also in Kabir Bijak, Kabir Parachai, Kabir Granth
and Kabir Granthawali.

KABIR (. . . )
 Rabindranath Tagore translated and compiled
Kabir’s poems as One Hundred Poems of Kabir.
 Arvind Krishna Mehrotra has also translated Kabir’s
poems into English
 The Pakistani Sufi singer who sang Kabir’s songs
for an album – Abida Parveen

TUKARAM
 Wrote in Marathi
 Belonged to the Varkari tradition
 Composed abhangas and kirtans, mostly devoted
to Vithoba.
 Dilip Chitre translated Tukaram’s writings into
English in the book titled “Says Tuka”. This work
won the Sahitya Akademi Award in 1994.

OTHER BHAKTI POETS
 Dadu Dayal
 Makukdasa
 Sundardasa
 Dharanidasa

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