DOI: https://doi.org/10.63345/ijrhs.net.v13.i6.4
Rohit Tiwari
Independent Researcher
Chhattisgarh, India
Abstract
This manuscript examines how language functioned as a catalyst in disseminating the Bhakti movement across diverse regions of India between the eighth and seventeenth centuries. It explores the interplay between vernacular expressions and devotional ideologies, analyzing how poets and saints employed local tongues to reshape religious practice and social structures. By tracing the evolution of key Bhakti literatures—from Tamil āḻvārs and Kannada Vīraśaiva Vachanakāras to Marathi abhangs and Hindi kīrtan—the study demonstrates that language choice was both a means of access and an instrument of transformation. Employing a comparative-historical methodology grounded in textual analysis, this work highlights patterns of translation, adaptation, and oral performance that enabled pan-Indian diffusion. Findings underscore that vernacularization not only democratized spiritual knowledge but also fostered regional identities within a shared devotional ethos. The conclusions reveal the enduring legacy of Bhakti’s linguistic strategies in shaping modern Indian cultural pluralism.
Keywords:
vernacularization, devotional literature, linguistic diffusion, regional identity, Bhakti poetry
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