History · Ch 6 — Bhakti–Sufi Traditions — Changes in Religious Beliefs and Devotional Texts
Attitudes towards caste
Attitudes towards caste
The Alvars and Nayanars are often seen by historians as having challenged or at least tried to reform the caste system and the dominance of Brahmanas. This view is supported by the fact that their followers — the bhaktas — came from a wide range of social backgrounds. Some were Brahmanas, but others were artisans, cultivators, and even people from castes considered “untouchable”. …
Source 1 — The chaturvedin and the “outcaste”. An excerpt from a composition of an Alvar named Tondaradippodi, who was himself a Brahmana:
You (Vishnu) manifestly like those “servants” who express their love for your feet, though they may be born outcastes, more than the Chaturvedins (Brahmanas versed in the four Vedas) who are strangers and without allegiance to your service. …
Source 2 — Shastras or devotion? A verse composed by Appar, a Nayanar saint:
O rogues who quote the law books, / Of what use are your gotra and kula? / Just bow to Marperu’s lord (Shiva who resides in Marperu, in Thanjavur, Tamil Nadu) as your sole refuge. …
Compilations of devotional literature. By the tenth century the compositions of the 12 Alvars were compiled in an anthology known as the Nalayira Divyaprabandham (“Four Thousand Sacred Compositions”). The poems of Appar, Sambandar and Sundarar form the Tevaram, a collection that was compiled and classified in the tenth century on the basis of the music of the songs. Such compilations preserved oral, sung devotion in written form, and the claim that they were as important as the Vedas (the Nalayira Divyaprabandham was described as the …