This week in Daak:
This is a special week as we’re starting to publish writings of our summer reading interns who have spent a full month delving into different facets of South Asian Literature! This first two-part series is by Sakshi Nadkarni, who has been reading and curating the works of three Bhakti poet-saints from Maharashra. Focusing on women poets in both newsletters, Sakshi will explore their ideas and ideals of gender, devotion and domesticity.
We’re also thrilled to add a new section to this newsletter - Daak Recommends. In this section, we’ll handpick something we read/saw/heard this week that you might bring you some joy or comfort.
Please enjoy!
Love,
Prachi & Onaiza
1. The Radical Revolt: The Poetics of Dissent in Sant Janabai’s verse
You may have heard of Sant Kabir, Surdas, Tulsidas or other poets of the Bhakti movement, a socio-religious movement which sought to reform religion through devotion in India. But do you know of the Marathi poet-saints of the Vaarkari sub-movement in medieval Maharashtra? Named after the annual pilgrimage made to the home of their chosen deity, Lord Vitthala, on the banks of Bhima river in Pandharpur, the Vaarkari movement had influential proponents like Sant Tukaram, Namdev, Dnyaneshwar, and yet, some of its most firebrand proponents were women, like Janabai, Kanhopatra and Soyarabai.
A particularly radical poetess-saint from the thirteenth century was Janabai, a servant and disciple of the revered Namadev. She composed over 300 abhangas (literally translating to “unbroken), a form of Marathi devotional verse which pays tribute to Vitthala. Her most important contribution to the movement is her legacy of levelling – by bringing Vitthala, a God, into the home of a servant-woman, she brought the joy of poetry and devotion into the lives of common women. Through her poetry, which abounds in radical domestic imagery (in sharp contrast to the intellectual elevation of Gods by male poets), she imagines Vitthala as a companion who helps her with her household chores. Consider this abhanga, for instance:
झाडलोट करी जनी । केर भरी चक्रपाणी पाटी घेऊनियां शिरीं । नेऊनियां टाकी दुरी ऐसा भक्तिसी भुलला । नीच कामें करुं लागला जनी ह्मणे विठोबाला । काय उतराई होऊं तुला Jani sweeps the floor, And Vitthal - the bearer of the cakra (spinning disk) collects the dust, and carries it in a basket, and throws it away for her! Vitthal lost himself in Jani’s devotion, and started doing such lowly jobs Jani said, “Vitthala! how will I ever repay this debt?” (Translation by Rajeshwari Pandharipande)
But this is not the only role in which she imagines Vitthala — her God is not only her child, but also her mother and father, her lord and yet a prisoner or a brat whom she curses.
अरे विठ्या विठ्या । मूळ मायेच्या कार्ट्या ।।१।। तुझी रांड रंडकी जाली । जन्मसावित्री चुड्या ल्याली ।।२। O you Vitthya, Vitthya, nasty brat of the original illusion, born of mother’s lust! your wife has become a widow today! (Translations by Rajeswari Pandharipande and Sarah Sellergren) // येकलीच गाने गासी । दुजा शब्द उमटे पाशी ।। कोण गे तुझ्याबरोबरी । गाणें गाती निरंतरीं ।। पांडुरंग माझा पिता । रखुमाई जाली माता ।। एशियाच्या घरीं आले । जनी म्हणे धान्य जालें ।। Jani’s dialogue with her self: You are singing alone, but another voice always seems to accompany you. Jani, who sings with you? Panduranga is my father, Rakhumai is my mother, Jani says, “I entered their home, and was blessed with joy!” (Translation by Rajeshwari Pandharipande)
The casting of Vitthala in these diverse roles also shows an overpowering and all-consuming presence of God in her life, which is the hallmark of Bhakti poetry. Among these roles, the most ardent role is that of her lover-beloved, for whom Jani is ready to discard all social norms and even shed her dignity.
डोईचा पदर आला खांद्यावरी । भरल्या बाजारीं जाईन मी ॥१॥ हातीं घेईन टाळ खांद्यावरी वीणा । आतां मज मना कोण करी ॥२॥ पंढरीच्या पेठे मांडियेले पाल । मनगटावर तेल घाला तुह्मी ॥३॥ जनी म्हणे देवा मी झालें येसवा । निघालें केशवा घर तुझें ॥४॥ Cast off all shame and sell yourself in the marketplace then alone can you hope to reach the Lord // Cymbals in hand, a veena upon my shoulder I go about; who dares stop me? // The pallav of my sari falls away (A scandal!) yet I will enter the crowded marketplace without a thought. // Jani says, my Lord, I have become a slut to reach Your home. (Translation by Vilas Sarang)
As is evident in these verses, Janabai promotes an egalitarian mode of worship in two ways — firstly, by knocking Vitthala off his pedestal and making the devotee-God relationship more intimate, and secondly, by recognising the divinity within her female-servant self, thereby asserting her womanhood as an alternate route to reaching Vitthala. It is this radicality, which questions the practice of worshipping an unreachable, masculine God and replaces admiration with love, that make Janabai’s verses accessible and relevant.
By Sakshi Nadkarni
2. Daak Recommends
“When it happens I hope you’ll write something about me.”
This simple request, from one writer on the precipice of death (Agha Shahid Ali) to another (Amitav Ghosh), led to one of the most touching and intimate windows into love, friendship, creativity and joy. Read Ghosh’s heartrending tribute to his friend for a masterclass on living life with intention, kindness and a lightheartedness that can only come from deep feeling.