(a) Analyze the tenets, spread and impact of the Bhakti Movement. (20 marks) (b) How far temple architecture under the Cholas…

(a) Tenets, spread and impact of the Bhakti Movement

Bhakti is the path of loving personal devotion to a god, open in principle to all. It grew from the sixth century in the Tamil country and reached the north by the fifteenth century, and it changed the religious and social landscape.

Tenets.

(i) Devotion and grace are the means of release, not sacrifice or learning. The devotee surrenders to the deity.

(ii) Equality in devotion. Saints of low caste and women are accepted, and ritual purity and Brahmanical mediation are downplayed.

(iii) Vernacular songs, in Tamil, Kannada, Marathi, Hindi and Bengali, and congregational singing (kirtan).

(iv) Two strands. The saguna tradition worships a god with form, such as Rama or Krishna (Surdas, Tulsidas, Mirabai). The nirguna tradition worships the formless (Kabir, Ravidas, Nanak).

Spread.

(i) Tamil country, 6th–9th centuries: the twelve Alvars (Vaishnava, including Andal) and the sixty-three Nayanars (Shaiva, with Appar, Sambandar and Sundarar). Philosophers followed: Ramanuja, Madhva, Nimbarka.

(ii) Karnataka: Basavanna's Virashaivas and their vachanas, and Akka Mahadevi.

(iii) Maharashtra: Varkari saints Jnaneshwar, Namdev, Eknath and Tukaram.

(iv) North and East: Ramananda, Kabir, Nanak, Chaitanya in Bengal and Shankaradeva in Assam.

Impact. It enriched regional languages and literature, built links between Hindu and Muslim devotional traditions with the Sufis, gave a voice to women and lower castes, and strengthened temple and pilgrimage culture.

Limits. Most bhakti saints did not ask for abolition of caste in society. Orthodoxy took up many of its ideas, and Sikhism was the one movement to form a separate community.

(b) Chola temple architecture compared with early South Indian temples

The early South Indian temple, in Pallava, Chalukya and Rashtrakuta work from the sixth to ninth centuries, moved from rock-cut caves to monolithic rathas (Mamallapuram) and structural stone temples, such as the Shore Temple and the Kailasanatha at Kanchipuram, and the Virupaksha temple at Pattadakal.

Differences.

(i) Scale. The early vimana was small. The Chola vimana of Rajaraja I's Brihadisvara temple at Thanjavur (completed in 1010 CE) rises to about 66 m in thirteen tiers, capped by a granite block, and the Gangaikondacholapuram temple of Rajendra I followed.

(ii) Plan. The early temple was a single shrine with a mandapa. The Chola temple is an axial complex of sanctum, ardhamandapa, mahamandapa and Nandi mandapa, within enclosed courts.

(iii) Refinement of sculpture. Dvarapalas, niche deities and friezes show finish and variety, as at Darasuram (Airavatesvara), while the bronze images, especially Nataraja, are a peak of the lost-wax art, and the Brihadisvara has wall paintings and long inscriptions.

(iv) Institution. The Chola temple was a centre of landholding, credit, dance and learning.

Judgment. In scale, planning and finish the Chola temples were clearly more grandiose. Yet the style was a development of the Pallava line, and the relief of Mamallapuram was as creative. The Chola gopura is small, as the vimana dominated; large gopuras belong to the later Pandya and Vijayanagara age.

(c) Post-Gupta period and the expansion of religious cults

The claim is largely correct, though it needs a qualification.

Case for.

(i) Shaivism and Vaishnavism spread, with Pashupata, Kapalika and Kalamukha sects, the Shaiva Siddhanta, the Bhagavata cult, and the doctrine of avatars.

(ii) Shaktism and Tantra rose, with the Devi Mahatmya, the Yogini temples and Tantric rites, and Saura and Ganapatya cults.

(iii) Buddhism and Jainism took Tantric forms (Vajrayana), and Jainism grew in Karnataka and Gujarat.

(iv) Integration of local and tribal cults into Puranic religion, as with Jagannath in Odisha and Vithoba in Pandharpur.

(v) Material base. Land grants to Brahmins and temples brought new lands and peoples into the caste order and raised temples as centres of religion and economy.

Case against. Many developments began in the Gupta period, as with the Puranas and the temple, and the expansion was in form, not in the number of religions.

Hence it is correct, if understood as a process of development and absorption of cults, more than a break from the Gupta age.