| Research Abstract |
With the rise of the bhaktimovement, in Tamil (7-9 ct.), bhakti began to occupy the central position in the three ways to salvation. Thereafter this bhakti was absorbed into the Brahmanical tradition and spread all over India. Three stages can be distinguished in the development of the bhakti movement. During the first stage, the bhakti movement, which had originated in a non-Aryan environment (Tamil), was absorbed into the orthodox Brahmanical tradition and was reconciled with the Brahmanical tradition of knowledge and meditation. Ramanuja and Madhva are representatives of this stage. They attempted to reconcile bhakti with the Upanisadic tradition of knowledge and meditation, and identified bhakti with knowledge and meditation. Their bhakti, however, came to lose, to some extent, the originally emotional character of bhakti as a result of the reconciliation with the Upanisadic tradition of knowledge and meditation.
With the spread of the bhakti movement to West and North India and amo
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ng the lower castes, bhaktibecame gradually free from the Upanisadic tradition of knowledge and meditation and recovered its originally emotional character. This is the second stage in the development of the bhaktimovement. This stage has two aspects. One is that bhaktispread all over India through the Sanskrit language, which supported the Brahmanical tradition as the sacred language of the brahmins ; emotional bhakti thus came to permeate the Brahmanical tradition itself. Vallabha, Nimbarkar and others are representatives of this aspect. The other aspect is that bhakti spread even among the lower castes through the local languages with the help of local sages who appeared in various parts of India. Jnanadeva's Jnanesvari is one of the representatives of this aspect.
Thus, in medieval India, the Bhagavadgita was first interpreted by Sankara to preach knowledge as the way to liberation. In contrast to Sankara, most of the later commentators (except Bhaskara) interpreted the Bhagavadgita to preach bhakti as the way to salvation. In the modern age, however, we witness the revival of karman as a way to salvation, not in the sense of the performance of rituals or duties of one's own caste but in the sense of social activities, such as the social movement for independence found in Tilak's interpretation. Less
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