The Afterword by Richard Davis in The Archaeology of Bhakti II: Royal Bhakti, Local Bhakti edited by Emmanuel Francis and Charlotte Schmid, IFP and EFEO, Pondicherry, 2016 may be useful in this connection. Here is an excerpt.

“In light of this diversity of forms of bhakti portrayed in classical Indic texts, it seems wise to abandon the attempt to identify a single point of historical origin for bhakti.  Instead, we might adapt the archeological method of the chorological classification.  Within the same chronological period, we find a variety of types (in this case, varieties of devotional religion), fulfilling the same function, which for the archeologist points to a divergence of traditions involving distinct groups (in this case, different religious communities).  In our case, the difference is not a geographical one, as it usually is for archeologists, but a matter of differing religious commitments.  How does bhakti manifest itself differently within different religious communities, directing themselves towards different recipients?”

The concept of emotional bhakti (as opposed to intellectual bhakti) a la F. Hardy has been traced to the poetry of Aḻvars and Nāyaṉmars till now. However, in a paper I presented in 2015, I argue that the beginning of emotional bhakti can be traced all the way back to the Clssical Tamil poetry.
Regards,
Palaniappan


On Nov 4, 2016, at 10:16 AM, George Hart <glhart@berkeley.edu> wrote:

Gaining legitimacy through identification with the Vedas is nothing new. The Srivaishnavas took the first-millennium hymns of the Divyaprabandham and made them the “Tamil Veda.” I’m not sure exactly when this happened, but probably about the 10th or 11th millennium CE. The poems themselves describe how moving they are when sung, but unfortunately in order to stress their “Vedic” status, they came to be recited like the Vedas, mechanically and without the music, which must have been quite beautiful. When recited in front of a deity, certain phonemes (I forget exactly which ones) are changed to softer phonemes lest the reciter inadvertently pollute the deity. Recitation of the Divyaprabandham is part of the worship in many Vaishnava temples in the south, and its words are considered on a par with those of the Vedas. The Divyaprabandham itself, which dates to the first millennium CE, goes to great lengths to identify Vishnu worship with the Vedas. George

On Nov 3, 2016, at 11:43 PM, Nagaraj Paturi <nagarajpaturi@gmail.com> wrote:

Dear Patrick,

I went to the website you directed us to.

It is an ISKCON activity.

It is well known that ISKCON is based on Goudiya Vaishnava Vedanta which is one of the Bhakti (centred) schools of Vedanta.

What they are saying here is that GEV is based on their philosophy. Their philosophy is a school of Vedanta and Vedanta is Vedic. So GEV is based on Vedic Bhakti Vedanta is not wrong. The word Bhakti Yoga is used here in that sense. So I don't see anything wrong in the word Vedic here.

The word 'Vedic' is not always used in the sense of ' as in Vedas'. The word is quite often used in the sense of 'belonging to the lineage of the cultural/textual complex of which the Vedas are (of course, vital) part. From the insider's point of view , Vaidika is Veda- aviruddha, Veda-anuroopa, Veda-anusaari etc. not necessarily Vedochcharita/Vedas'ruta.

It probably would be an interesting study to survey how far the pull for such cults among people is based on their claims to be Vedic.

For something which is already 'Hindu' , the claim of Vedic, I guess, does not add any new value.

For that matter , it is intriguing to see that pamphlets are distributed in India, (at least here in the Telugu region) claiming that Jesus is in the Vedas. 'Mohammed in the Vedas' is also one of the internet-popular themes.  It is interesting to study the motives behind such claims.

On Fri, Nov 4, 2016 at 7:39 AM, patrick mccartney <psdmccartney@gmail.com> wrote:
Dear Friends, 

Is this the first mention of the term 'bhakti' ? 

yasya deve parā bhaktir yathā deve tathā gurau /
tasyaite kathitā hy arthāḥ prakāśante mahātmanaḥ prakāśante mahātmanaḥ // SvetUp_6.23 //


 I ask this question as I'm trying to understand the following statement:   

GEV is based on the sacred Vedic principles of bhakti-yoga. 

While 'bhakti' is mentioned at least in the above upanishad, I thought 'bhakti yoga' was quite clearly a post-vedic development, and that the bhakti movement developed from the 6th century CE. To the devotee this statement might seem unproblematic, but to the scholar it appears to conceptually and temporally conflate disparate things. 

As I am certainly not an expert on bhakti I would appreciate clarification. 

I am interested in how organisations operationalise the 'vedic' sign in their marketing and promotional material to generate 'authenticity' and legitimacy. 



All the best,

Patrick McCartney, PhD
Fellow
School of Culture, History & Language
College of the Asia-Pacific
The Australian National University
Canberra, Australia, 0200


Skype - psdmccartney
Phone + Whatsapp:  +61 414 954 748
Twitter - @psdmccartney




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--
Nagaraj Paturi
 
Hyderabad, Telangana, INDIA.
 
Former Senior Professor of Cultural Studies
 
FLAME School of Communication and FLAME School of  Liberal Education,
 
(Pune, Maharashtra, INDIA )
 
 
 
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