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,
Bhakti has been a common form of religious activity in world religions throughout human history. It is found in Christianity, Islam, Buddhism and Judaism. Bhakti (called "bhatti" in Pali language) has been a common aspect of Buddhism, where offerings and group prayers are made to images such the images of the Buddha and the "Bodhisattvas", or to deities such as wrathful deities. Karel Werner notes that Bhakti has been a significant practice in Theravada Buddhism, and states, "there can be no doubt that deep devotion or "bhakti / bhatti" does exist in Buddhism and that it had its beginnings in the