South India

In the meantime, there were happenings in other parts of India besides the Gangetic belt. Sanskrit was not the only language used everywhere. For example, the prominent South Indian language in those days was Tamil. Like Natyashastra in Sanskrit, there is Tolkappiyam,the major work on Dravidian aesthetics in Tamil, written by Tolkappiyar. The work unsurprisingly has parallels with Natyashastra. Once again we have no records of translations, but how do we explain the coincidence? The ancient Tamil body of literature called Sangam literature shows influences of the Sanskrit epics, again pointing to some form of cultural contact.

The Bhakti movement which is perhaps the earliest pan-Indian movement originated in South India. It began around the 6^th century CE among the Vaishnava Alvars in Tamil Nadu in South India. They were mendicants or poet saints who advocated a life of complete dedication to God. In a way this movement was also a localised reaction against the hegemony of upper castes in Hinduism. Hinduism at that time was degraded by rigid caste structures and notions of untouchability. Knowledge and power were the privileges of an elite minority. The Bhakti movement tried to bring God down to the masses, eliminating the middle men in the path to salvation. They sang in the language of the common man in an idiom that even the illiterate peasant could understand.  The emphasis was on bhakti or simple devotion as opposed to elaborate rites and rituals of existing Hinduism. The major works were composed in the local language as opposed to Sanskrit. This movement slowly spread to other parts of India, making it a pan-Indian reality by the 18^th century.

How did the movement manage to spread to other parts of India in those days when there were no sophisticated means of communication? The bhakti poet-saints were wandering minstrels, spreading their message wherever they went. Their influence must have spread through translations. Since much of Bhakti literature was transmitted orally, we cannot speak for sure about translations. But it is otherwise difficult to explain the conceptual similarities we find in Nammalvar of Tamil Nadu and Chaitanya of Bengal.