Nirguna bhakti

History glossary

Topic: Bhakti and Sufi Traditions · NCERT: Class 12, Ch 2 "Bhakti-Sufi Traditions"

Meaning

Nirguna bhakti is loving devotion to a God who is nirguna, meaning "without attributes". This God has no form, no image and no body, so worship needs no idols, temples, priests or rituals. From about the 14th century it was taught by saint-poets such as Kabir and Baba Guru Nanak. It matters because these saints sang in local languages, not Sanskrit. That opened devotion to weavers, "low caste" groups and women, without any need for a priest.

Explanation

Background: why a "new" path appeared

  • From about the 14th century, a new group of saint-poets began to teach love for a God with no form and no image.
  • They felt that "middle-men" stood between people and God:
  • priests
  • temples and idols
  • pilgrimages

  • fasts

  • So they rejected all of these. In their view a person could reach God directly, through love and remembering God's name.

  • They wrote in local languages, not Sanskrit, so ordinary people could understand and join.
  • Their ideas grew out of talk and argument with sufis and yogis. For example, Kabir's ideas took shape among sufis and yogis in Awadh (eastern Uttar Pradesh).

Main features

  • A formless God. God is described by words that deny form:
  • Kabir uses Vedanta words: alakh (the unseen one), nirakar (the formless), Brahman and Atman.
  • Kabir also uses Islamic names: Allah, Khuda, Hazrat, Pir.

  • Guru Nanak called the Absolute "rab", with no gender and no form.

  • One God, no images. Some of Kabir's poems mock polytheism (worship of many gods) and image worship in sharp words.

  • Remembering the Name. The main practice was:
  • nam-simaran (remembering the Divine Name) for Kabir. It is close to the sufi zikr (repeating God's name) and ishq (love for God).

  • repeating the Divine Name for Nanak, which he saw as the only way to reach God.

  • Rejecting rituals. Nanak rejected:

  • animal sacrifice
  • ritual bathing
  • image worship
  • harsh bodily austerities (punishing the body to gain merit)

  • the scriptures of both Hindus and Muslims, an unusual even-handed stand

  • A special language. Kabir used sant bhasha, the mixed language of the nirguna saints. It was made to be understood across many regions. Nanak instead composed his hymns, called shabad, in Punjabi.

  • Twisted words for a God beyond words. Kabir used ulatbansi ("upside-down sayings"). These are riddle-like lines such as "the lotus which blooms without flower" or "fire raging in the ocean". Ordinary words cannot hold a formless God, so he twisted them on purpose to shock the listener into thinking.
  • Music as the carrier. The poems were sung, not read in silence. Nanak's shabads were sung to the rabab (a string instrument) played by his attendant Mardana.

How it changed over time

  • Kabir: verses first, followers later. Kabir set up no organisation in his lifetime. His poems were collected only after his death into three traditions that are separate but overlap:
  • Kabir Bijak, kept by the Kabirpanth in Varanasi and elsewhere in Uttar Pradesh
  • Kabir Granthavali, linked with the Dadupanth in Rajasthan

  • poems inside the Adi Granth Sahib

  • Printed spread. By the 19th century, printed collections of Kabir's verses were sold from Bengal to Maharashtra.

  • Nanak: from a teacher to a community.
  • He set up sangat, congregational worship where followers sit, sing and eat together.
  • He chose Angad as his successor. This began a line of gurus that lasted nearly 200 years.

  • According to NCERT, he did not wish to start a new religion. A separate Sikh identity hardened later.

  • Making it into a book.

  • Guru Arjan, the fifth guru, compiled the Adi Granth Sahib. Britannica dates this to 1604 [6].
  • It holds the hymns of Nanak and his four successors, along with hymns of Baba Farid (a sufi), Ravidas/Raidas and Kabir. These hymns are called "gurbani".
  • Later, Guru Gobind Singh, the tenth guru, added the hymns of Guru Tegh Bahadur. The enlarged book became the Guru Granth Sahib.

Results

  • Religion moved out of priestly hands. A weaver, a leather worker or a woman could worship without anyone's permission.
  • Hindu, sufi and yogic ideas mixed together in one shared devotional language.
  • Long-term survival depended on organisation:
  • Nanak's path became a lasting community through sangat and the line of gurus.
  • Kabir's path survived through panths (groups of followers) formed after his death.

Time, place and evidence

  • Period: from about the 14th century onwards. Kabir lived around the 14th–15th centuries. Guru Nanak lived from 1469 to 1539.
  • Regions:
  • Kabir: Varanasi and Awadh in Uttar Pradesh

  • Nanak: Punjab. He was born at Nankana Sahib, near the river Ravi.

  • Key people:

  • Kabir. His name is Arabic for "great". Some traditions say he was brought up by Muslim julahas (a weaver group that had recently converted to Islam).
  • Baba Guru Nanak. He was born into a Hindu merchant family, trained as an accountant and studied Persian.
  • Mardana, Nanak's attendant, who played the rabab.

  • Later gurus: Angad, Arjan and Gobind Singh.

  • How we know:

  • Kabir's poem collections: the Bijak, the Granthavali and the Adi Granth. A copy of the Bijak of Kabir is held in the rare-books collection of the Indian Culture Portal, Ministry of Culture [2]. One 19th-century printed study in the same collection is Kabir and His Followers [3].
  • Hagiographies (life stories written by devotees). For Kabir these date from the 17th century onward, about 200 years after he lived. So they are late evidence, and they disagree with each other.
  • Disputed details about Kabir:
    • Tradition says Ramananda initiated him. The dates do not fit, so this is doubtful.
    • His own verses speak of a satguru (true teacher) but name no teacher.
    • Britannica gives him firm dates (1440–1518) and dates the Bijak to about 1570 [4]. In the exam, follow NCERT, which leaves these questions open.
  • Nanak's own hymns (shabad), kept in the Adi Granth Sahib. Britannica gives his birth as 15 April 1469 at Rai Bhoi di Talvandi (now Nankana Sahib, Pakistan) and his death in 1539 at Kartarpur [5].

Don't confuse with

  • Saguna bhakti: devotion to a God with form, such as Krishna, Vishnu or Shiva, often through images. Mirabai is saguna because she loved Krishna. Even though she rejected caste rules, she was not a nirguna saint.
  • Shankaradeva's Bhagavati dharma: this is devotion to Vishnu, through absolute surrender and naam kirtan (singing God's names), based on the Bhagavad Gita and Bhagavata Purana. Like the nirguna saints it uses local speech and singing in groups. But its God is Vishnu, so do not list Shankaradeva as a pure nirguna saint.
  • Sant bhasha vs Punjabi: sant bhasha was the mixed language of nirguna poets like Kabir. Guru Nanak composed his shabads in Punjabi. A statement that "Nanak wrote in sant bhasha" is a trap.
  • Sufi zikr: this is the sufi practice of repeating God's name. Kabir's nam-simaran is close to zikr, but it belongs to the bhakti tradition.

Prelims Hooks

  • Nirguna = God without attributes or form. Saguna = God with form. Kabir and Nanak are nirguna; Mirabai is saguna.
  • Kabir Bijak → Kabirpanth (Varanasi/UP); Kabir Granthavali → Dadupanth (Rajasthan).
  • Ulatbansi = Kabir's "upside-down sayings", for example "fire raging in the ocean". Sant bhasha = the language of the nirguna poets.
  • Nanak called the formless Absolute "rab". His hymns are called shabad and are in Punjabi. They were sung to the rabab played by Mardana.
  • Guru Arjan (fifth guru) compiled the Adi Granth Sahib in 1604 [6]. Non-Sikh saints in it include Kabir, Baba Farid and Ravidas/Raidas.
  • Trap: the claim that Ramananda was Kabir's guru comes from tradition only. NCERT calls it doubtful because the dates do not fit, and Kabir's verses name no teacher.

Mains Points

  • Language chose the audience.
  • The nirguna saints dropped Sanskrit for sant bhasha and Punjabi.
  • Their God needed no image, temple or priest.

  • So devotion became something a weaver or a "low caste" person could practise directly. This made it a quiet challenge to priestly and caste authority.

  • A meeting ground of traditions.

  • Kabir mixed Islamic names for God (Allah, Khuda), Vedanta terms (nirakar, Brahman) and yogic ideas (shabda, shunya).
  • Nanak rejected the scriptures of both faiths.

  • This is useful for a GS-I answer on the shared, composite religious culture of medieval India.

  • Hagiography as a source, and institutions as the key to survival.

  • Kabir's life stories come about 200 years after him and contradict each other. Later followers supplied him a guru, Ramananda, to give him a proper lineage.
  • Nanak's sangat, his line of gurus and the Adi Granth turned a nirguna teaching into a lasting community.
  • The same devotional idea had very different long-term results, depending on whether it was organised.

Related concepts

Read more

Sources

  1. 1Class 12, Ch 2 "Bhakti-Sufi Traditions" (primary)
  2. 2Bijak of Kabir (rare books)indianculture.gov.in · tier 1
  3. 3Kabir and His Followers, Religious Life of India (rare books)indianculture.gov.in · tier 1
  4. 4Kabirkids.britannica.com · tier 3
  5. 5Guru Nanakbritannica.com · tier 3
  6. 6Guru Arjanbritannica.com · tier 3