Overview
Bhakti (Sanskrit: भक्ति; Pali: bhatti) is a concept common to the Dharmic religions, conveying meanings such as attachment, fondness, devotion, trust, homage, worship, piety, faith or love. In Indian religious traditions, bhakti may refer to loving devotion directed towards a personal God such as Krishna or Devi, towards a formless ultimate reality such as Nirguna Brahman or the Sikh conception of God, or towards an enlightened being such as a Buddha, a bodhisattva or a guru. A practitioner of bhakti is referred to as a bhakta or bhakt.
Bhakti is often described as a deeply emotional devotion grounded in a personal relationship between the devotee and the object of devotion. One of the earliest appearances of the concept is found in the early Buddhist Theragatha (Verses of the Elders), where it occurs as the term bhatti. Early Hindu texts such as the Shvetashvatara Upanishad and the Bhagavad Gita describe bhakti as the contemplation of God, treating it as a form of yoga.
Bhakti ideas have inspired a wide body of popular literature and the compositions of saint-poets across India. The Bhagavata Purana, a text centred on Krishna, is closely associated with the Bhakti movement within Hinduism. The Bhakti movement itself was pioneered by the Tamil Alvars and Nayanars, and developed in the second half of the first millennium CE around the deities Vishnu (Vaishnavism), Shiva (Shaivism) and Devi (Shaktism).
Bhakti is also present in other religions practised in India. Nirguni bhakti, or devotion to the divine without attributes, is found in Sikhism as well as in parts of the Hindu tradition. Bhakti has further influenced interactions between Christianity and Hinduism in the modern era. Outside India, comparable forms of emotional devotion are found in certain Buddhist traditions of Southeast Asia and East Asia.