<P> Shandilya and Narada are credited with two Bhakti texts, the Shandilya Bhakti Sutra and Narada Bhakti Sutra . </P> <P> The Bhakti movement originated in South India during the seventh century CE, spread northwards from Tamil Nadu through Karnataka and Maharashtra, and gained wide acceptance in fifteenth - century Bengal and northern India . </P> <P> The movement started with the Saiva Nayanars and the Vaisnava Alvars . Their efforts ultimately helped spread bhakti poetry and ideas throughout India by the 12th--18th century CE . </P> <P> The Alvars, which literally means "those immersed in God", were Vaishnava poet - saints who sang praises of Vishnu as they travelled from one place to another . They established temple sites such as Srirangam, and spread ideas about Vaishnavism . Their poems, compiled as Alwar Arulicheyalgal or Divya Prabhandham, developed into an influential scripture for the Vaishnavas . The Bhagavata Purana's references to the South Indian Alvar saints, along with its emphasis on bhakti, have led many scholars to give it South Indian origins, though some scholars question whether this evidence excludes the possibility that bhakti movement had parallel developments in other parts of India . </P>

Who made the concept of bhakti popular in south india