A last-minute revision squeeze of this chapter: the integration of cults, bhakti in the south, the Virashaivas, Islamic traditions, the growth and organisation of Sufism, the Chishtis, Kabir, Guru Nanak and Mirabai, and how historians read the sources behind all of it. The full explained notes are available separately.
1 The whole chapter in one frame
The single most important line in this chapter: “Hindu” religion in this period formed through integration, Brahmanical ideas spreading outward, local cults being absorbed inward, real conflict running alongside the merging. Nothing here is a single, fixed tradition; everything is fluid, contested, and reconstructed by historians from sources that each carry their own bias.
2 Definitions worth memorising
3 Bhakti in the south, at a glance
Alvars and Nayanars
- Devotees of Vishnu / Shiva, Tamil hymns from c. 6th century
- Bhaktas from every background, including “untouchable” castes
- Compositions later entered temple ritual; still worked with Brahmana intermediaries
- Nalayira Divyaprabandham = “Tamil Veda”; Tevaram compiled 10th century
- Heavily patronised by the Cholas (9th-13th c.)
Basavanna’s Virashaivas/Lingayats
- Karnataka, 12th century; Basavanna was a Brahmana minister at a Kalachuri court
- Directly challenged caste, ritual “pollution”, and rebirth
- Bury their dead (not cremate); encouraged post-puberty marriage, widow remarriage
- Own literature: vachanas, in Kannada
- The more thoroughgoing critique of the three traditions
Women devotees: Andal (Vishnu’s beloved, an Alvar) and Karaikkal Ammaiyar (extreme asceticism, described herself as a demoness) – neither joined a formal order, but both directly challenged patriarchal norms by their very existence and their poetry.
4 Islam in the subcontinent: rulers, subjects, names
Zimmi/jizya: a non-Muslim scripture-follower (Jews, Christians, later Hindus in India) paid jizya for protection under Muslim rule. Naming communities: “musalman” barely appears in 8th-14th c. Sanskrit texts; people were named by origin (Turushka, Tajika, Parashika) or by reused older terms (Shaka, Yavana) or the broad, sometimes derogatory mlechchha – rarely a fixed “Muslim vs Hindu” religious marker. Mosques: universal features (Mecca orientation, mihrab, minbar) + local variation (brick Atiya mosque, Bangladesh, 1609; wooden Shah Hamadan mosque, Srinagar, 1395).
5 Sufi organisation: the whole system in one chain
Be-shari’a (Qalandars, Madaris, Malangs, Haidaris): reject khanqah, mendicancy, celibacy, defy shari’a openly. Ba-shari’a (Chishtis, Suhrawardis, Naqshbandis): comply with shari’a, organised khanqah life.
| Major Chishti sufi | Year of death | Dargah location |
|---|---|---|
| Shaikh Muinuddin Sijzi | 1235 | Ajmer (Rajasthan) |
| Khwaja Qutbuddin Bakhtiyar Kaki | 1235 | Delhi |
| Shaikh Fariduddin Ganj-i Shakar | 1265 | Ajodhan (Pakistan) |
| Shaikh Nizamuddin Auliya | 1325 | Delhi |
| Shaikh Nasiruddin Chiragh-i Dehli | 1356 | Delhi |
Ajmer dargah (“Gharib Nawaz”): earliest textual references 14th c.; Muhammad bin Tughlaq first Sultan to visit; Ghiyasuddin Khalji of Malwa funded the first tomb (late 15th c.); Akbar visited 14 times up to 1580. Languages: Hindavi (Delhi Chishtis), masnavis (Jayasi’s Padmavat), Dakhani (charkhanama, lurinama, shadinama, around Bijapur). Amir Khusrau introduced the qaul at qawwali’s opening. Sufis and the state: auqaf (charitable trusts) and inam (tax-free land) accepted, never accumulated; sufis’ authority came directly from God, which is exactly why Sultans facing a non-Muslim majority courted them instead of imposing shari’a through the ulama.
6 New devotional paths: three figures, one table
Kabir
c. 14th-15th c. Three manuscript traditions (Bijak, Granthavali, Adi Granth Sahib). Sant bhasha, ulatbansi. Birth religion genuinely uncertain.
Baba Guru Nanak
1469-1539. Rab (formless). Shabad hymns, sangat. Guru succession to the Guru Granth Sahib and Khalsa Panth.
Mirabai
c. 15th-16th c. Rajput princess of Mewar, devoted to Krishna. Reconstructed from orally-transmitted bhajans.
Guru succession: Nanak → Angad → … → Arjan (5th, compiled Adi Granth Sahib) → … → Gobind Singh (10th, added Tegh Bahadur’s hymns → Guru Granth Sahib; founded Khalsa Panth: uncut hair, dagger, shorts, comb, steel bangle).
Do not write that historians have confirmed Kabir’s birth religion. His own verses name no preceptor; the Hindu-birth/Ramananda-guru story comes from Vaishnava hagiographies written about 200 years after his lifetime, and Ramananda-Kabir contemporaneity is chronologically very difficult. Historians say this CANNOT be settled with certainty – that is the correct exam answer, not a pick of either side.
7 Reading the sources: the exam’s favourite theme
| Source type | What it is | Key limitation |
|---|---|---|
| Treatise | Manual on sufi thought (Kashf-ul-Mahjub) | One author’s own doctrinal understanding |
| Malfuzat | Saint’s conversations (Fawa’id-al-Fu’ad) | Compiled WITH the shaikh’s permission, for a didactic purpose |
| Maktubat | Sufi master’s letters (Maktubat-i Imam Rabbani) | One master’s views to particular recipients |
| Tazkira | Biographical account (Siyar-ul-Auliya) | Often glorifies the author’s own silsila; some details fantastical |
Oral transmission: Kabir’s and Mirabai’s compositions both survived first as sung, remembered verses, written down only long after their deaths – which is exactly why historians “may never be able to tell with certainty” which verses are genuinely theirs. Hagiography: read for genre conventions (what a devotee thought worth recording), not as a plain factual record – Jahanara’s own 1643 pilgrimage account is the chapter’s clearest example.
8 Timeline: ten period-bands
| Some major religious teachers, by approximate period | |
|---|---|
| c. 500-800 | Appar, Sambandar, Sundaramurti (Tamil Nadu) |
| c. 800-900 | Nammalvar, Manikkavachakar, Andal, Tondaradippodi (Tamil Nadu) |
| c. 1000-1100 | Al Hujwiri/Data Ganj Bakhsh (Punjab); Ramanujacharya (Tamil Nadu) |
| c. 1100-1200 | Basavanna (Karnataka) |
| c. 1200-1300 | Jnanadeva, Muktabai (Maharashtra); Khwaja Muinuddin Chishti (Rajasthan); Bahauddin Zakariyya, Fariduddin Ganj-i Shakar (Punjab); Qutbuddin Bakhtiyar Kaki (Delhi) |
| c. 1300-1400 | Lal Ded (Kashmir); Lal Shahbaz Qalandar (Sind); Nizamuddin Auliya (Delhi); Ramananda (UP); Chokhamela (Maharashtra); Sharafuddin Yahya Maneri (Bihar) |
| c. 1400-1500 | Kabir, Raidas, Surdas (UP); Baba Guru Nanak (Punjab); Vallabhacharya (Gujarat); Abdullah Shattari (Gwalior); Gesu Daraz (Gulbarga); Shankaradeva (Assam); Tukaram (Maharashtra) |
| c. 1500-1600 | Sri Chaitanya (Bengal); Mirabai (Rajasthan); Shaikh Abdul Quddus Gangohi, Malik Muhammad Jaisi, Tulsidas (UP) |
| c. 1600-1700 | Shaikh Ahmad Sirhindi (Haryana); Miyan Mir (Punjab) |
- “Hindu” formed through integration: Brahmanical ideas spreading outward, local cults (Jagannatha, goddess stones) absorbed inward, real conflict alongside the merging
- Alvars/Nayanars (c. 6th c.) → Chola patronage (9th-13th c., Parantaka I’s 945 inscription); Basavanna’s Lingayats (1106-68) went further: caste, pollution, rebirth, burial
- Zimmi/jizya, five pillars, mosque universal-vs-local features; “musalman” rare in pre-14th-c. Sanskrit sources
- Sufi chain: shaikh/pir/murshid → murid/khalifa → silsila → dargah/urs/ziyarat; be-shari’a vs ba-shari’a
- Chishtis most locally adapted: Hindavi, sama’/qawwali, Amir Khusrau’s qaul, Dakhani poetry; sufis and Sultans needed each other
- Kabir and Guru Nanak (nirguna) and Mirabai (devotion to Krishna) all cut across caste lines, Kabir and Nanak across Hindu-Muslim lines too; Kabir’s and Mirabai’s compositions survived through oral transmission, compiled long after their death
- Kabir’s birth religion cannot be settled with certainty – this is itself the correct exam answer
- Four source genres: treatise, malfuzat, maktubat, tazkira – each read for its own genre bias, never as plain fact