Bhakti: devotion in local languages

Bhakti traditions emphasized devotion through local-language poetry about relationships with the divine. Earlier devotional singing continued as many new works and communities appeared between the twelfth and seventeenth centuries. Poets used ordinary experience, stories and landscapes. Songs circulated in temples, homes, streets and travel, while oral performance and copying sustained material that listeners could encounter within their own linguistic environments.

References: [1]

Kabir’s poems addressed inward practice and criticized some religious and social habits. Mirabai expressed devotion to Krishna, while authors such as Tulsidas retold inherited stories in local languages. Traditions differed over divine forms, rituals and duties, forming their own lineages. Women, artisans and people of other backgrounds entered poetic memory, with expressions of belief shaped by particular experiences and social positions.

References: [1]

Followers maintained relationships through gatherings, singing, pilgrimage and gifts. Families and institutions preserved works as teachers explained verses and performers adjusted forms for audiences. Leaders, merchants and residents offered support within markets, migration and urban life. Later communities adopted and reshaped the traditions in new linguistic and institutional settings, using repeated performance to sustain identity and the teaching of devotional practices.

References: [1]