Literary Movements in South India by Juvelle Mendes

Image from  a Literary Movement that started at a cafe 

Indian literary movements can be fundamentally divided into two eras, the old era and the new era. Amongst the noted literary movements of the old era were the Veera Shaiva movement, The Bhakti movement, and the Renaissance movement.

Two of the significant literary movements in India which were successful to create an everlasting impression upon the natives was the fueling of the Progressive Writers' Movement and the Little Magazine Movement.

The Islamic rule was perhaps the most that had made its permanent impact upon Indian literature, which was carried forth to the colonial rule, with English entering into the Indian scenario in a quite all-encompassing manner. And it was precisely during the advent of the British Empire to India that Indians had begun to revolt against many literary issues, paving way for the Indian literary movements.

Some of the famous worldwide Literary movements are Romanticism, Transcendentalism, Realism Naturalism, Modernism, Existentialism, and Beat generation. 

South India went through its spontaneous outbursts of literary movements. And this post will focus on those movements, namely Bhakti movement, Veerashaiva movement, Library movement and the Deshabhimani Movement,.

Bhakti Movement

Origins: Tamil Nadu

The Bhakti Movement in Tamil Nadu was not just about religion but an expression of Tamil social history from the seventh century on.

The Bhakti movement originated in South India during the seventh to eighth century CE, spread northwards from Tamil Nadu through Karnataka and northern India.

The movement started with the Saiva Nayanars and the Vaisnava Alvars, who lived between the 5th and 9th century CE. Their efforts ultimately helped spread bhakti poetry and ideas throughout India by the 12th–18th century CE. 

The Alvars, which means "those immersed in God", were Vaishnava poet-saints who sang praises of Vishnu as they traveled from one place to another. They established temple sites such as Srirangam and spread ideas about Vaishnavism. 

Some scholars state that the Bhakti movement's rapid spread in India in the second millennium was in part a response to the arrival of Islam and subsequent Islamic rule in India and Hindu-Muslim conflicts. Yet other scholars state that Muslim invasions, their conquering of Hindu Bhakti temples in south India, and seizure/melting of musical instruments such as cymbals from local people, was in part responsible for the later relocation or demise of singing Bhakti traditions in the 18th century. 

Figures of Importance: Mirabai, Tulsidas, Ramananda, Surdas, Adi Shankaracharya

The Veerashaiva Movement

Origins: Karnataka

During the late 12th century, the Kalachuris had triumphantly and boastfully renegaded against their overlords, the Western Chalukyas, and annexed their capital Kalyani. 

In such a tumultuous and chaotic period, a new and latest religious faith called Veerashaivism (or Lingayatism) germinated up as a revolt against the subsisting social order of Hindu society. A bunch of the followers from this faith began to pen their literature, referred to as Vachana Sahitya ("Vachana literature") or Sharana Sahitya ("literature of the devotees"), consisting of an exceptional and native form of poetry in free verse named Vachana. 

Basavanna, the prime minister of Southern Kalachuri King, is largely looked upon as the inspiration behind such a movement. A general and all-encompassing habit could be noticed that devotees would gather to talk about their mystic experiences at a center for religious discussion, referred to as Anubhava Mantapa ("hall of experience") in Kalyani. While into the discussion already, the Veerashaivas had enunciated their devotion towards Lord Shiva in easy and effortless vachana poems. These poems largely were spontaneous outbursts of rhythmic, epigrammatical, sardonic prose, accentuating upon the insignificance and triviality of riches, rituals, and book learning, strangely portraying a spectacular and impressive quality, reminiscent of the talks of Plato.

Figures of Importance: Basavanna, Allama Prabhu, Devara Dasimayya, Channabasava, Siddharama, and Kondaguli Kesiraja, Muppina Sadakshari

The Library Movement

Origins: Andhra Pradesh

The origin and evolution of the library movement are traced to the establishment of Swadeshi Grandhalayam at Vishakapatnam in 1886, the establishment of Sri Krishnadevaraya Andhra Basha Nilayam in 1901 at Hyderabad which resulted in the spread of library movement in Telangana and Andhra Desa. The formation of Andhradesa Grandhalaya Sangham in 1914 resulted in the establishment of as many as 163 libraries in Andhradesa.

The history of the library movement is traced to ancient times. Foreign travelers, Hieuan-Tsang, Fahien, appreciated the working of the libraries in ancient Indian Universities like Nalanda, Takshasila, etc.

Nicholo Conti others significantly focused on libraries in medieval times. Dr. S.R. Ranganathan made useful contributions to the cause of public libraries in Andhra Pradesh and even established modern public libraries.

The Christian missionary societies initiated the establishment of schools at Machilipatnam and Vijayawada. They started the establishment of libraries in those schools. 

Several vernacular newspapers like Viveka Vardini, Andhra Prakashika, Krishnapatrika, Lokaranjani played a very important role in bringing awareness on library movements among the people.

Figures of Importance: Kandukuri Viresalingam Panthulu, Dr. S.R. Ranganathan, Nicholo Conti,Sri Krishnadevaraya

The Deshabhimani Movement

Image from cartoonistyesudasan.blogspot.com

Origins: Kerala

This Movement originated at a writer’s meeting in Calicut in 1969, which was convened to formulate the policies for a literary cultural weekly journal to be launched as an associate publisher of the Desabhimani newspapers. Some leading personalities of the Malayalam literature like Thayat Sankaran, M R Chandrasekaran, and NN Kakkad joined hands with the young writers. They held regular meetings of the writers and readers to criticize its contents and suggest improvements.

Figures of importance: Thayat Sankaran, M R Chandrasekhran, and NN Kakkad

For further reading:

1. A History of Indian Literature by Sisir Kumar Das 

2. History of Indian English Literature by M K Naik

3. Concise History of Indian Literature in English by Arvind Krishna Mehrotra

References for the article:

1. Wikipedia 

2. JSTOR

3. International Journal of Library Science and Research (IJLSR)

4. Indianetzone – Veerashaiva Movement

About the author:

Juvelle is a QA lead by profession and loves building software bots. A chance encounter with Nivie who encouraged her, influenced her to start writing. She loves reading biographies and learning from journaled experiences.