Early Giithaa sculptures
N. Ganesan
naga_ganesan at HOTMAIL.COM
Tue Dec 29 14:57:20 UTC 1998
<<<<
And if
bhakti could be traced to the practices which are described in ancient
Jaina and Buddhist sources, then it would also be wrong to think of
bhakti as a specifically Tamil phenomenon, even if Tamil authors gave
the bhakti movement an impetus. After all, the kind of phenomena which
Embree mentions are also found in Prakrit, Sanskrit and Kannada Jaina
texts from Karnataka. (And of course definitions of 'bhakti' differ from
one religious tradition to another.)
>>>>
In my little readings on Buddhism, especially Mahayana,
I could see bhakti-like phenomenon towards Bodhisattvas/Avalikta.
Is a similar process observable in Jain texts of say,
1-5th centuries AD?
Of course, within the Hindu religion, Tamil authors made bhakti
into a mass movement from 5th centuries AD. This is a major
transformation of Hinduism. Nowadays, Hinduism is mostly bhakti.
Quite an achievement.
Regards,
N. Ganesan
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