His soul yearned to break free of the mortal body and fly to the distant shores like the swan. He began to seek inner peace in the still waters of a lake. The next step was self-awareness – the ability to see the reflection of his inner self in the world around him. With the passing of ages, he began to evolve emotionally and spiritually – the creative spark which was so far confined to cave paintings, burst into a flames and leapt towards more abstract forms of creation: language, music and poetry were born. As he learnt to understand more the workings of Nature, he began to feel gratitude and veneration towards Her. Nature for him became the bestower of life as well as death.

Neeti SinghĮver since primitive man grew conscious of his environment, he was both awed and terrified by Her. Do refer to the page of Contents and Chapters that explore the matrix of Bhakti as a transforming, reformist and hybrid phenomena on the Indian landscape and history: Note: My surname when the thesis was published was 'Sadarangani' which was dropped later when I returned to my maiden surname 'Singh'. The thesis, as the title suggests, charts the contexts and complexities that led to the inception of Shaiva and Vaishnav Bhakti movements in 8th century Tamilnadu the cultural encounters, assimilations and variations that emerged as Saguna Bhakti met Sufism and birthed yet another hybrid, abstract and eclectic form we know so well as Nirguna Bhakti. This work was much lauded by Prof Kapil Kapoor who encouraged me to publish it.

Published in 2002, this here is a pdf of my PhD thesis which was later published as a book by Sarup & Sons, New Delhi. Bhakti Poetry in Medieval India: Inception, Cultural Encounter and Impact: with reference to the work of Kabir and Nanak, 2001.

Tum hi ho bandhu cast