CASTE SYSTEM AND NIRGUN BHAKTI IN MEDIEVAL INDIA

Abstract

This paper is an attempt to study the caste system and its connection with nirgun bhakti in medieval India. It shows that varnasramadharma and caste system existed in pre-colonial India. The study of nirgun ideology helps to understand the aspects of varna and caste system. In doing so this paper investigates the legends and poetries of selected nirgun saints such as Kabir, Raidas and Dadu Dayal. These saints were existing during the fifteenth and sixteenth century in different parts of north India. The persons who follow nirgun (“without attributes”) bhakti are fewer in number and generally prefer to worship a divine being who remains mostly unmanifest and non-anthropomorphic.[1] It is to keep in mind that the nirgun saints belonged to the lower caste like Dadu Dayal (a dhunia), Raidas (a Chamar) and Kabir (Julaha). Thus, this paper seeks to understand the perspective of selected nirgun saints on the caste system in medieval India.

[1] David N. Lorenzen, Introduction: The Historical Vicissitudes of Bhakti Religion, in their ed., Bhakti Movement in India: Community, Identity and Political Action, State University of New York Press, 1995, P. 1.