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Paper short abstract

This paper examines how the motif of “Motif of Quest: Travel and Wandering” serves as a bhakti modality in the case studies based on the lives of Akkamahadevi and Allamaprabhu projecting them as fallible human beings as they undergo spiritual transformation during their travels.

Paper long abstract

The motif of wandering presents a space for transformation and spiritual growth in religious literature across the world. These journeys are a test of endurance and heightened spiritual awakening in the lives of saints. This paper a proposes the notion of Hagiographic Folk Motif (HFM), entailing one such motif namely “Motif of Quest: Travel and Wandering.” The conceit of HFM is inspired from the idea of the motif index in folklore studies developed by Antti Aarne (1910) and Stith Thompson’s Motif Index of Folk Literature (1932-1936), the Aarne–Thompson–Uther Index. The HFM charts life struggles, spiritual quests and victories in the lives of the saint protagonists presenting them as fallible heroes who inspire devotion among the followers. While bhakti at its core can be understood as loving devotion to God. It is found on a relationship of trust and love towards a personal god or a supreme being. (Radhakrishnan 1948, 58); Modality on the other hand can be contextualized as culturally embedded grassroot expressions rooted in vernacular religious expression of bhakti. Thus, this paper considers the transformative power of the "Motif of Quest" as a bhakti modality in the select fictionalized biographies as case studies based on the lives of Akkamahadevi and Allamaprabhu , hailing from the Vīraśaiva sects in medieval Karnataka, India. Furthermore, it explores how bhakti modality presents these saints not as distant, idealized spiritual icons but as embodied, fallible human beings as they undergo spiritual transformation during their travels.

Key Words: Saint Narratives; Wandering; Pilgrimage; Vīraśaiva; Bhakti Modality