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History Optional PYQ Master Pack · Model answer

Write brief essay: Origin of the Bhakti Movement

  • UPSC 2002
  • Cultural Traditions in India, 750-1200

Bhakti as a theological concept — loving surrender to a personal God as a path to liberation — appears already in the Bhagavad Gita and the Upanishads, but the Bhakti Movement as an organized, emotionally charged, socially disruptive religious phenomenon has a specific historical origin: the Tamil country of the sixth to ninth centuries CE.…

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What the full answer covers

  • Textual and Philosophical Antecedents
  • The Tamil Origin: Alvars and Nayanars
  • Reaction Against Buddhism and Jainism
  • Socio-Economic Roots: The Temple as Institutional Anchor
  • Reaction Against Caste Rigidity and Ritualism
  • Institutional Consolidation and Canon Formation
  • …and 1 more sections, with a conclusion

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