Religious ferment in north India

Detail

The puzzle: why no Alvar-Nayanar type bhakti in the north

• In south India, the Alvars (devotees of Vishnu) and Nayanars (devotees of Shiva) left a huge body of devotional poetry in Tamil from about the 6th century.
• In north India, Vishnu and Shiva were worshipped in temples, often big ones with royal backing. So the gods were the same.
• But nothing like the Alvar/Nayanar corpus appears in the north until the 14th century. This gap is the puzzle posed in the NCERT chapter.
• The point to remember: it is a gap in a certain kind of devotional literature — poetry in the local language, by saints, often against caste and ritual — not a gap in worship itself.

Why the gap? The Rajput states

• From about the 7th century, north India was ruled by many Rajput states rather than one empire.
• In these states Brahmanas held both secular and ritual importance:
• Ritual — they performed the sacrifices and temple rites that made a king look legitimate.

• Secular — they advised kings, held land grants, and ran administration.

• Because kings and Brahmanas supported each other, this arrangement faced little serious challenge from other religious groups.

• Result: no room for a popular, anti-ritual saint poetry to grow with royal support, the way it had in the Tamil country.

Outside orthodoxy: Naths, Jogis and Siddhas

• Challenge did come, but from outside the official religion. The main groups were the Naths, Jogis and Siddhas.
• What they taught:
• They questioned the authority of the Vedas.
• They rejected caste rules and elaborate ritual.
• They taught in the languages of ordinary people, not Sanskrit — so weavers, potters and traders could follow them directly.

• They stressed renunciation and meditation on a formless ultimate reality.

• Who joined: many came from artisanal groups, including weavers. This is the key social fact.

• Why artisans could now be heard:
• Organised craft production grew, so artisan groups became larger and more self-aware.
• New urban centres appeared, bringing craftspeople together.

• Long-distance trade with Central Asia and West Asia expanded, raising demand for cloth and craft goods.

• Matsyendranatha (flourished 10th century) is remembered as the first guru of the Naths, a movement that mixed Shaivism, Buddhism and Hatha Yoga [4].

• His chief disciple Gorakhnath (also Gorakshanatha) is treated as the founder of the Kanphata Yogis ("split-ear" yogis, named from the large earrings put through split ears), an order of ascetics built around Hatha Yoga [4][5].
• By the 13th century Gorakhnath is described as leader of a Shaivite ascetic sect called the Nathas ("Lords") [5].
• Kanphata teaching mixed mysticism, magic and alchemy taken from Shaivite and Buddhist esoteric systems as well as Hatha Yoga [5]. Hatha Yoga means the demanding physical discipline — postures and breath control — used as the road to liberation [4][5].
• A colonial-era study of this order, The Religious Life of India: Gorakhnath and the Kanphata Yogis, is available in the national digital library [2].
• Their limit: they attracted many ordinary followers but failed to win the support of the ruling elite. Without royal patronage their ideas did not become state religion and their texts were not preserved on a grand scale.

The Turkish conquest and a new conjuncture

• The old Rajput-Brahmana arrangement was broken from outside by the coming of the Turks.
• Key military moments: campaigns between 1175 and 1206, decided by the Battle of Taraori (1192) and the Battle of Chandawar (1194) [6].
• After Muhammad of Ghur died in 1206, his slave-lieutenant Qutb al-Din Aibak founded the first dynasty of the Delhi Sultanate; these sultans were Turks with the family name Mu'izzi [6].
• This first line, the Mamluk (Slave) dynasty, ruled roughly 1206–1290 and had to fight constantly against the revived power of Hindu chiefs, mainly Rajputs [6].
• What this changed:
• Rajput states were undermined, and with them the Brahmanas tied to those courts.
• Brahmanas lost the monopoly on royal favour, so their claim to be the only channel to the divine weakened.

• New rulers, new cities and new patrons opened space for fresh religious voices.

• The arrival of the sufis was a major part of this same conjuncture. Sufis came with and after the Turkish rulers, settled in north Indian towns, and preached love of God in ways ordinary people could join.

• The Sultanate period (1206–1526) produced a large body of sufi literature in north India [3].
• Put together: the loss of Rajput-Brahmana dominance + the artisan-based Nath/Siddha ferment + the sufi presence is what finally made the north Indian bhakti wave possible from the 14th century onwards.

Prelims Hooks

• Alvars = devotees of Vishnu; Nayanars = devotees of Shiva; both south Indian, both absent as a literary type in the north until the 14th century.
• In Rajput states, Brahmanas held both secular and ritual importance — the reason bhakti faced little early challenge in the north.
• The three heterodox streams named for north India: Naths, Jogis and Siddhas.
• Many Nath/Siddha followers came from artisanal groups, especially weavers.
• Matsyendranatha — flourished 10th century, first guru of the Nathas [4].
• Gorakhnath — disciple of Matsyendranatha, founder of the Kanphata Yogis; a 13th century leader of the Nathas [4][5].
• Kanphata = "split-ear"; the order is known for Hatha Yoga [5].
• Battle of Taraori — 1192; Battle of Chandawar — 1194 [6].
• Delhi Sultanate founded 1206 by Qutb al-Din Aibak after the death of Muhammad of Ghur; first dynasty = Mamluk/Slave, c. 1206–1290 [6].
• Sultanate period for sufi literature is dated 1206–1526 [3].

Mains Points

• Patronage decides survival, not popularity. The Naths and Siddhas had mass appeal among artisans and taught in people's languages, but got no ruling-elite support. Compare with the Alvars and Nayanars, whose hymns were collected and given temple status under Pallava and Chola patronage. Use this to argue that the "absence" of early north Indian bhakti may partly be an absence of preservation.
• Economic change produced religious change. Organised craft production, new towns and trade with Central and West Asia created a confident artisan class; the Nath and Siddha rejection of the Vedas is best read as this class finding a religious voice, not as pure theology.
• The Turkish conquest was a religious turning point, not only a political one. By breaking Rajput states it broke the Brahmana monopoly on royal legitimacy — and in the same decades brought the sufis. The 14th-century flowering of north Indian bhakti follows this double opening.
• Continuity and borrowing. Nath/Siddha ideas — a formless God, inner discipline, contempt for ritual and caste, teaching in the vernacular — pass directly into the later nirguna saints such as Kabir and Guru Nanak, who also absorb sufi ideas. The two streams meet rather than merely compete.