The Positive Background of Hindu Sociology c14.s2.1

c14.s2.1

In the thirteenth and fourteenth centuries the *charai-veti* (march on) or expansion of Hindu culture was likewise in evidence in the new or "modern" Indian (vernacular) literatures. It was going on in Marathi-speaking regions through the development of the *abhangs* or folksongs of *bhakti* in honour of Viṣṇu. The *Gītā* was thereby rendered accessible to the people in their spoken language by poets like Jñāneśvara (c 1300) and Nāmadeva (1270-1350). The democratization of the *Gītā* is an achievement of first rate importance as furnishing the folk with the gospel of life's duties.