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bhakti

In Hinduism, a path of loving, personal devotion to a deity, central to the Bhakti movement.

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Where does the word "bhakti" come from? It comes from Sanskrit bhakti, and was adopted directly into English (19th-20th c.).

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Where does the word "bhakti" come from? It comes from Sanskrit bhakti, and was adopted directly into English (19th-20th c.).

Bhakti’s story begins in Sanskrit: bhakti meant “devotion, loving worship.” From a root meaning 'to share, revere, worship'. It reached English by 19th-20th c. as bhakti. First recorded in 1832 in the Sanskritist Horace Hayman Wilson, who studied Indian religion as an East India Company surgeon in Calcutta. Today, bhakti means in Hinduism, a path of loving, personal devotion to a deity, central to the Bhakti movement.

  1. Stage 1 · Sanskrit · ancient bhakti "devotion, loving worship", from a root meaning 'to share, revere, worship'.
  2. Stage 2 · English · 19th-20th c. bhakti "a path of loving devotion to a personal deity", first recorded in 1832 in the Sanskritist Horace Hayman Wilson, who studied Indian religion as an East India Company surgeon in Calcutta.

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