The Historical Development of the Bhakti Movement in India: Theory & Practice

Bhakti has formed an important part of religious life of the Indian people since the early medieval period. Devotees can be blessed with divine grace or attain union with God through their intense devotion called bhakti. This book attempts to elucidate the concepts of bhakti and traces its development theoretical as well as historical in the religious history of India. This volume is divided in two parts. The first part the Theoretical framework of Bhakti and its historical development contains seven chapters dealing with various types of theories of bhakti in the Indian traditions. These chapters specifically investigate how the idea of bhakti emerged took shape and was established in such philosophical schools as Vedanta Pancaratra Srivaisnava and Tantras. The second part this Philosophical influence of Bhakti and its popular acceptance contains seven chapters focusing an influence on the Indian religious traditions or how bhakti was popularly accepted in the Indian cultural contexts. Each chapter deals with the popular devotional movements led by Jnanesvar, Tukaram, Kabir, Tulsidas and Ramalingar with their works in the respective vernacular languages. The late Iwao Shima was a Professor of Indian Philosophy at Kanazawa University. He Extensively contributed to the various subjects of Indian spirituality including Advaita Vedanta Tantric and Sakta traditions, Marathi Bhakti Movements and renewed phases in Indian Buddhism. He was the inspiring organizer of research projects on Indian devotionalism the outcome of which is crystallized in this publication. Teiji Sakata is Professor Emeritus of Takushoku University. He is working on Hindi Folktales and medieval Hindi Literature. He is an active member of the International Conference on devotional literature in New Indo Aryan Languages. Katsuyuki Ida is a Lecturer of South Asian Studies at Kanazawa University. He has been working on medieval Hinduism focusing mainly on the Tantric practices and puranic myths. This book is the eighth volume of the series Japanese Studies on South Asia published by the Japanese association for south Asian studies. The main purpose of this series is to illustrate Japans contribution to South Asian Studies in the international academic world. This volume entitled Historical development of Bhakti Movement in India theory and practice is an attempt to elucidate the meanings of Bhakti in various religious traditions.