Hatha yoga Bhakti movement. It eliminated the need for "either ascetic renunciation or priestly intermediaries, ritual paraphernalia and sectarian initiations". This led to its broad historic popularity in India. Later in the 20th-century, states Mallinson, this disconnect of Hatha yoga from religious aspects and the democratic access of Hatha yoga enabled it to spread worldwide. Between the 17th and 19th-century, however, the various urban Hindu and Muslim elites and ruling classes viewed Yogis with derision. They were persecuted during the rule of Aurangzeb, who ended a long period of religious tolerance that had defined the rule of his predecessors beginning with Akbar,
Kirtan Hindu scriptures such as the "Bhagavad-gita" where Krishna describes multiple paths to spiritual freedom, including karma marga (way of works), jnana marga (way of knowledge) and bhakti marga (way of loving devotion to god). "Kirtan" relates to the bhakti marga tradition of Hinduism. References to "Kirtan" as a musical recitation are also found in the Bhagavata Purana, an important Vaishnava text. Kirtan is often practiced as a kind of theatrical folk song with call-and-response chanting or antiphon. The ancient sage Narada revered as a musical genius, is called a "kirtankar" (singer of kirtan) in the Padma Purana. The famous story