"On the other hand, Hindu saints used to assuage the outraged feelings of Hindus and encourage them reconvert to Hinduism. For instance Harihar and Bukka, sons of the Raja of Kampil ,converted to Islam by Muhammad bin Tughlaq, fled his court. At the instance of sage Vidyaranya they reverted to Hinduism and founded the Vijayanagar kingdom to resist the expansion of Muslim power in the South. Like Vidyaranya, there were scores of Bhakta saints who were helping people to resist injustice and retain their original religion. In Maharashtra, Namdeva in the fourteenth century declared that people were blind in insisting upon worshipping in temples and mosques, while His worship needed neither temple nor mosque.69 Such courageous denunciations were infectious and these spread in Gujarat, Bengal, Punjab and Uttar Pradesh. Ramananda, Kabir, Nanak, Chaitanya, Raidas, Dhanna, Sain, Garibdas and Dadu Dayal and a host of others spoke out in the same idiom openly and repeatedly. They came from all classes of society - Raidas was a chamar, Sain was a barber while Pipa was a Raja, Raja of Gauranggarh - but they were all respected and listened to. Of these the three most important saints who turned Bhakti into a movement were Kabir, Nanak and Chaitanya."
React to this quote
More by K. S. Lal
See allResonant Thoughts
"It seems to me that entitlement is the key to nearly all atrocities, and that any threat to perceived entitlement will provoke hatred. The man who flayed the cat presumably felt that his employers wer…"
"Saying that a state or regime is a murderer is a convenient personification of an abstraction. Regimes are in realty people with the power to command a whole society. It is these people that have comm…"
Explore Further
Related Quotes
"Your right to swing your arms ends just where the other man's nose begins."
— Zechariah Chafee"Not long after his accession, he reaffirmed the penalties which previous Emperors had enacted against the p…"
— J. B. Bury"Death is a process as straightforward as mowing a lawn."
— Antonella Gambotto-Burke"In justice as fairness society is interpreted as a cooperative venture for mutual advantage."
— John Rawls"“No,” said the old man, deep under. “I don’t remember anyone winning anywhere any time. War’s never a winni…"
— Ray Bradbury"Never insult the style of Elliot Rodger. I’m the most stylish person in the world. Just look at my profile …"
— Elliot Rodger
