Gross composition of Maja brachydactyla zoeae

Annual festival falling on the second day (duj) of the bright, or waxing, half of the lunar month of Kartik (October–November). This festival is cel-ebrated to emphasize the bond between a brother (bhaiya) and sister. During Bhaiya Duj, married women invite their brothers into their homes, apply tika marks on their brothers’ foreheads as a sign of respect, and feed them sweets and a hearty meal. Sisters also tie a string around their brothers’ right wrists to symbolize the emotional bond between them and the brother’s obligation to pro-tect his sister throughout her lifetime.

Unmarried women host their brothers in the same way in their natal homes. In either case, on this day women should pray that their brothers have long lives and that they themselves be happily married. The brothers, in turn, give pre-sents to their sisters.

Aside from reaffirming the normal family love between brother and sister, this festival also emphasizes the protec-tive role that brothers play in their sis-ters’ lives, particularly after women are married. The traditional pattern in northern India is for married women to live with their husbands’ families. Since women generally outlive their fathers,

for most of her life a woman’s primary protectors will be her brothers. A woman without brothers is in a position of relative weakness. If nothing else, these yearly visits give brothers the chance to assess their sister’s happiness and the state of affairs in her married home.

Such visits also notify the husband’s family that they are still concerned with her welfare.

Bhajan

(“sharing”) General name for a religious or devotional hymn, which is almost always sung in a vernacular language. As an expression of personal devotion, bha-jans have no prescribed forms and in contemporary times are often set to the melodies of film songs. As a genre, bha-jans can have any or all of the following themes: detailing the deeds of a particu-lar deity, praising the deity, addressing the god in a tone of complaint or humble supplication (vinaya), reminding the deity of the speaker’s difficulties from internal or external sources, or warning the listeners to examine and reform their lives. Singing and listening to such hymns was, and remains, a major form of religious activity in the bhakti (devo-tional) movement. During these sessions, devotees (bhakta) “share”

their songs and experiences with one another. Although one can find bhajans dedicated to all the gods in the pantheon, from a historical perspective this singing tradition has been strongest among the devotees of Vishnu.

Vaishnava devotional literature is full of tales of Vishnu coming in disguise to take part in bhajan sessions, since the company of his devotees is said to be heaven on earth.

Bhakta

(“sharer”) In Hinduism, this word denotes a devotee of any particular deity. The word’s literal meaning,

“sharer,” has a twofold sense. On one hand, the devotee shares in the deity’s grace by virtue of his or her piety. On the Bhakta

other hand, since most Hindu devotion-alism involves a community of worshipers, the devotee also gets to share in the company and community of like-minded people.

Bhaktamal

(“Garland of Devotees”) Text written by Nabhadas (ca. 1600) in which he gives short (six-line) biographical accounts of over two hundred bhakti (devotional) figures. Although Nabhadas himself was a Ramanandi, and thus a devotee (bhakta) of the god Rama, his work not only includes devotees of all sectarian persuasions but is generally considered unbiased. The text is notably free of astonishing and miraculous events.

Instead, the main emphasis is on the devotee’s personal qualities, which serve as a model for others. In many cases the Bhaktamal gives the earliest reliable account of these figures, which makes it an extremely important source for northern Indian literary and religious history. It is all the more interesting that the text cannot be definitively dated,

although internal evidence suggests that it was completed early in the seven-teenth century.

Bhaktavijaya

(“Triumph of [God’s] Devotees”) Text written by Mahipati, an eighteenth-cen-tury writer and hagiographer of the devotional (bhakti) poet-saints. The sto-ries in the Bhaktavijaya focus mainly on the saints connected with the Varkari Panth, a religious group centered around the worship of the god Vithoba at his temple at Pandharpur.

This focus is understandable since Mahipati himself was a Varkari. In keeping with the trend toward unifica-tion often promoted by the devounifica-tional movement, he also included tales of other great devotees (bhakta), most notably Kabir, Namdev, Jnaneshvar, and Narsi Mehta. The stories in the Bhaktavijaya present each of these saints as a paradigm of devotion and stress the power of piety to overcome all obstacles. This theme also marks Mahipati’s other major work, the Bhaktililamrta. The Bhaktavijaya has been translated by Justin E. Abbott and Narhar R. Godbole as Stories of Indian Saints, 1988.

Bhakti

(“sharing”) The most common word denoting devotion to God. This is one of the three traditional paths to gain final liberation of the soul (moksha), and it has been the most widespread type of religious practice for well over a thou-sand years. The word’s literal meaning conveys the sense of relationship. On one hand, it refers to an intense and pas-sionate love between devotee (bhakta) and deity, and on the other, it refers to separate communities of people bound together by their common love of God.

Although references to bhakti can be found in such early texts as the Shvetashvatara Upanishad and the Bhagavad Gita, the bhakti propounded here is radically different from later Bhaktamal

A family makes an offering in a burning tray.

Offerings are a sign of religious devotion (bhakti) to a deity.

usages. In both these texts, bhakti is pre-sented as a form of yoga in which one contemplates God as part of a con-trolled and disciplined practice. This is a far cry from the abandonment and pas-sionate involvement in later times.

The beginnings of this latter sort of bhakti arose in the Tamil country of deep southern India between the sixth and ninth centuries B.C.E. It had an intensity that was radically different from earlier notions, a devotional “heat”

as opposed to the “coolness” of yoga.

Tamil bhakti expressed, and continues to express, its devotion through songs sung in vernacular languages, convey-ing an intimate relationship with a per-sonal god.

These characteristics basically held throughout history. The use of vernacu-lar speech was especially significant, for this was the language of ordinary life and marked the egalitarianism that was one of the hallmarks of bhakti devotion. Bhakti devotees were men and women from all strata of society, from the highest to the lowest; here was an opportunity for religious life based solely on the depth and sincerity of one’s devotion rather than on one’s birth.

Despite this religious egalitarianism, devotees rarely tried to restructure their hierarchical societies. The idea was that religious equality was supposed to transcend rather than reform human society.

Aside from egalitarianism and per-sonal experience, bhakti worship also stressed community, based on the inter-connections between devotees. Though each devotee was an individual (and indeed, bhakti poets had real personali-ties, as the many hagiographies bear witness), they also fell into “families,” all of which were connected with each other. Many of the bhakti saints fell into recognizable groups: Some were cen-tered around a particular sacred place, such as the temple at Pandharpur in the state of Maharashtra; some were con-nected as teachers and students, such as Nammalvar and his disciple Nathamuni; and some had long-term

associations, as with the Lingayat com-munity. In all cases these devotees were keenly aware of those who had preceded them and their connections with one another. Such communities were both formed and reinforced through satsang, the “company of good people” whose influence over time was believed to have the power to transform. This was a type of “sharing” that bound devotees to each other and to their teacher, and through these two vehicles carried them to God.

These are general characteristics, and bhakti’s regional manifestations often take on a distinct flavor marked by, if nothing else, the differing languages.

The Padma Purana speaks of bhakti (a feminine noun) as a maiden who was born in southern India, attained maturity in the state of Maharashtra, and was rejuvenated in northern India. Although this is a metaphor, it accurately charts the historical diffusion of bhakti devotion, as well as its changes as it moved north. All forms of bhakti are shaped by specific times, places, and circumstances.

Bhaktililamrta

(“Nectar of the Play of Devotion”) Text written by Mahipati, an eighteenth-century writer and hagiographer of the devotional (bhakti) poet-saints.

Mahipati belonged to the Varkari Panth, a religious group centered around the worship of the god Vithoba at his temple at Pandharpur. The Bhaktililamrta gives extended accounts of Varkari saints, such as Eknath, Tukaram, Ramdas, and Bhanudas. The text presents each of these saints as a paradigm of devotion and stresses the power of worship to overcome all obsta-cles. This theme also marks his other major work, the Bhaktavijaya. Parts of the Bhaktililamrta have been translated by Justin E. Abbott as The Life of Eknath, 1981; and The Life of Tukaram, 1980.

Bhaktililamrta

Bhaktimarga

(“path of devotion”) Along with the path of action (karmamarga) and the path of wisdom (jnanamarga), this is one of Hinduism’s three generally accepted ways to gain final liberation of the soul (moksha). The bhaktimarga seeks release of the soul through bhakti, or passionate devotion to God.

Bhaktirasabodhini

(“Awakening the Delight in Devotion”) Name of a commentary on the Bhaktamal of Nabhadas; this commen-tary was written by Priyadas in 1712. In the Bhaktamal, Nabhadas had given brief six-line biographies of over two hundred contemporary bhakti (devo-tional) figures. These biographies are notably free of astonishing and miracu-lous events and usually stress the devo-tee’s personal qualities, to serve as a model for others. In the Bhaktirasabodhini, Priyadas gave great-ly expanded accounts for each devotee mentioned by Nabhadas, often narrat-ing amaznarrat-ing stories to which Nabhadas made no reference. In his biography of the poet-saint Ravidas, Nabhadas drew from the texts written by the biographer Anantadas, but in other cases his sources are not clear. The accounts in the Bhaktirasabodhini are suspect as genuine biographies of these saints, given Priyadas’s penchant for miracu-lous events and his chronological dis-tance from his subjects. Still, the text is extremely valuable as a mirror of his time, and careful analysis can reveal much about contemporary religious tensions and issues.