Prof Jack Hawley of Columbia University convincingly argued the opposite: Bhakti movement did not start in the South, and its a product of North India. Check h

Prof Jack Hawley of Columbia University convincingly argued the opposite: Bhakti movement did not start in the South, and its a product of North India. Check his book: A Storm of Songs: India and the Idea of the Bhakti Movement (Harvard, 2015)