Long before modern-day podcasts or Instagram sages, heartfelt worship in India found its spark among the Tamil Alvars and Nayanars (6th–9th centuries CE). Singing paeans to Vishnu or Shiva in the soil-rich heartlands of present-day Tamil Nadu, they tore down temple walls of Sanskrit exclusivity, making devotion a matter of everyday speech and song.

A few centuries later, up in the Gangetic plains, a second wave hit its stride. Roughly between the 12th and 15th centuries, poets and mystics like Kabir, Guru Nanak, and Chaitanya began to champion an intimate bond with the divine—beyond rigid ritual and caste hierarchies. Their verses, composed in Braj, Punjabi or Awadhi, resonated across merchant stalls and village fairs. The influence of Sufi ideas—prizing love over law—wove seamlessly into their message, creating an early form of interfaith vibrancy still felt in India’s shared shrines today.

Social tensions under the Delhi Sultanate and later the Mughals provided fertile ground for these egalitarian voices. Mirabai’s devotional couplets to Krishna, uttered from the Marwar courts of the 16th century, immediately struck a chord among women and marginal communities excluded from mainstream worship. Meanwhile, Tulsidas’s 16th-century Ramcharitmanas rewrote Valmiki’s Sanskrit epic into Awadhi, making Rama’s story accessible to millions.

By the 17th century, Bhakti had spread “to the last corner” of the subcontinent—right into folk theatres, temple rituals and local fairs. Pilgrims poured in to Varanasi, Puri and Dwarka, humming Bhakti hymns alongside traditional chants. Over time, even British colonial observers noted how these devotional gatherings served as “grassroots” unifiers, blurring linguistic and caste lines.

Today’s renaissance of personal spirituality—whether through yoga retreats in Rishikesh or viral bhajans on YouTube—echoes that same impulse. Emotional devotion to a personal god, born in the dust of South Indian temples and North Indian courtyards, continues to reverberate across India’s cultural landscape.