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SHAH ABDUL LATIF ft TAYUMANAVAR
RAMALINGA SWAMI
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DEVOTIONAL POETS AND MYSTICS
PART II
.
■ : -
. -
l
Cultural Leaders of India
DEVOTIONAL POETS
AND
MYSTICS
PART II
Surdas# Narasimha Mehta# Mira# Rupa Goswamin#

Haridasas# Rahim# Jayasi# Raskhan# Tukaram#
Samartha Ram das# Bhadrachala Ramadas#
Shah Abdul Latif# Tayumanavar# Ramalinga Swami
PUBLICATIONS DIVISION
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First Edition December 1978 (Pausa 1900)
First Reprint Edition May 1981 (Jyaistha 1903)
Second Reprint Edition May 1991 (Jyaistha 1913)
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ABOUT THE SERIES
The object of the series is to offer the general reader authentic

accounts of the life and work of the great figures since the earliest
times who have contributed in large measure to the culture and
thought of India and influence the mind and life of its people.
The series will include about 125 such names—seers and philoso¬
phers, poets and dramatists, mystics and religious leaders, writers
on science, aestheticians and composers.
0
The books are intended for the average reader who is keen to
learn more about the past but who has no knowledge of details
and is not interested in finer academic issues.
ALSO IN THE SERIES
Volumes already published

Founders of Philosophy
Scientists
Seers and Thinkers
Social Philosophers
Devotional Poets and Mystics (Part I)
Devotional Poets and Mystics (Part II)
Ramayana, Mahabharata and Bhagavata Writers
Composers
Philosophers and Religious Leaders (Part I)
Poets, Dramatists and Story-Tellers
Under print
Valmiki and Vyas
PREFACE
At the end of the classical age, in the post-Sankara period

and with the rise of Gorakhnath and the Nath-Sampradaya there
arose in the different parts of the country a line of Saints and
Mystics who brought the wisdom of the ancients, the Rishis and
the Acharyas, to the common people. They adopted the local
language and used the medium of song in their mission. They
were pilgrims, all the time moving among the people. They came
from all classes and strata of the society, which in itself was the
outcome of the universality and the basic oneness of men that
they proclaimed. They might have risen in diverse schools of
religion or philosophy, but all of them emphasised the funda¬
mental truth, and the eternal values. With satire and sarcasm,
and in homely language with similies and symbols, they declaimed
against hypocrisy and corruption, empty forms and rituals and
all kinds of sham. Their plea was for sincerity of faith and
fellowship of beings and integration of the whole man. When
the great Hindu kingdom declined, invasions increased, the ideas
and institutions of Dharma and Bhakti were in peril, these min¬
strels of God, always on their feet, kept up the morale of the
people, and through the attraction of the form with vyhich they
played, with freshness and variety, on the refrain of morality and
character, and the superiority of special values over mundane
pursuits revitalised the devotion and faith, the Bhakti and Srad-
dha of the classes and the masses. In the coming together of
cultures, confrontation was not the only result: there was also
a synthesis which gave rise to saints who bridged the gulf and
spoke the same voice of integration.
(viii)
The wide coverage that the subject provides has been kept in
presenting these men of God. Because of their number and their
detailed treatment, these Devotional Poets and Mystics had to
be given in two large volumes. Some names may appear to have
been left out, but they will appear in some other volumes, those on
the Ramayana-Mahabharata-Bhagavata Poets, Teachers and
Musicians.
This Volume, the second part, on the Devotional Poets and

Mystics, offers another fourteen of them; five from the Hindi
speaking areas; three from Western India (Gujarat and Mahara¬
shtra), one from the East (Bengal), a group of saints, the Hari-
dasas of Karnataka; two from Tamil Nadu and one each from
Sindh and Andhra Pradesh. Four of them ware Muslims who
spoke to Hindus and Muslims alike. Some of them were active
participants in politics and public affairs but maintained the
poise and peace of their soul, and were adepts in the art (Kausala)
of Nivritti in Pravritti, a lesson which is the ever relevant message
of the Gita.
Among the writers of these articles are, besides University

Professors and writers, Vice-Chancellors and High Court Judges
who sent their articles at different times. It was therefore not
possible to present the Saints in a rational arrangement. But
arranged or not arranged, flowers are flowers !
Thanks are due to these authors who have participated in the

blessings of these Saints whose lives and lessons they have dwelt
upon.
Here is one more open book of God-realisation !
V. RAGHAVAN
OUR CONTRIBUTORS
J. R. Verma
Premkuti,
3, Daryaganj,
Delhi-6
V. R. Trivedi
Former Director,
Shri Chuni Lai Gandhi Vidya Bhawan,
Surat
Anantrai Raval
Retired Professor of Gujarati,
Gujarat College,
Ahmedabad
Siddheswara Bhattacharya
Banaras Hindu University,
Varanasi-5
Masti Venkatesha Iyengar

49, II Cross, Gavipuram Exten.,
Bangalore-19
Shamsher Bahabur Singh

B-IV/89, Dayanand Colony,
Lajpat Nagar-4
New Delhi-24
00
Madan Gopal
Author and Journalist,
B 2/17, Vasant Vihar,
New Delhi
(The late) Bala Krishna Rao

Amaravati,
15, Tagore Nagar,
Allahabad
Prabhakar Machwe
Visiting Fellow,
Indian Institute of Advance Studies
Simla
(The late) V. Raghavan

Retd. Professor of Sanskrit,
7, Srikrishnapuram Street,
Mylapore, Madras
Motilal Jotwani
Senior Lecturer,
Department of Modern Indian Languages,
Deshbandhu College,
University of Delhi
New Delhi
(The late) S. Sachidanandam Pillai

Former Registrar of Annamalai University,
Madras
Prof. K. R. Srinivasa Iyengar,

Formerly Vice-Chancellor of
Andhra University, and formerly Vice-President
Sahitya Akademi,
91, Kutcheri Road, Mylapore, Madras
CONTENTS
SURDAS 1
/. R. Verma
Narasimha Mehta 8
V. R. Trivedi
Mira 17
Anantrai Raval
Rupa Goswamin 26
Haridasas 37
M. Venkatesha Iyenger
Rahim 57
Shamsher Bahadur Singh
Malik Muhammad Jayasi 67

Madan Gopal
Raskhan 75
Bala Krishna Rao
Tukaram 82
Prabhakar Machwe
(xii)
Samartha Ramdas 88
Prabhakar Machwe
Bhadrachala Ramadas 95
V. Raghavan
Shah Abdul Latif 106

Motilal Jotwani
Tayumanavar 117
S. Sachidanandam Pillai
Ramalinga Swami 125

K. R. Srinivasa Iyengar
SURD AS
J. R. Verma
Surdas, the blind bard and afdent apostle of Krishna Bhakti,

belongs to that small set of supreme mystics who emphasized
pure devotion and simple faith as a sure path to the highest
religious experience. Between the 13th and the 16th century
the Bhakti cult (devotional movement) encompassed the entire
country. Essentially humanistic in its approach, it wove a synthe¬
tic pattern out of the various strands of faiths and cultures.
They visualized the concept of a loving personal God and resolved
the perpetual opposition between the personal and the imper¬
sonal, the transcendent and the immanent, static and dynamic
aspects of the Divine Nature; between the Absolute of philosophy
and the ‘sure true friend’ of devotional religion. They did this
by ascending to a height of spiritual intuition at which these
aspects are ‘melted and merged’, and perceived as the completing
opposities of a perfect whole. God is here felt to be not the
final abstraction, but the one actuality, the Omnipresent Reality,
the All-Pervading, teaching and companioning each soul, ‘the Mind
within mind’.
The Movement did not aim at establishing a new religion or

creed, it only reinterpreted and restated what had already existed,
so as to bring it closer to the people and to make it a part of
their life. At a time when people were passing through a phase
of despondence and helplessness, these spirtual savants of the
age, both by precept and example, infused the people with an
awareness of new horizons, of social, moral and spiritual goals
of life. Their teachings have been interwoven into the life,
character and speech of the millions inhabiting the country for
more than three hundred years.. Composing their verses in local
dialects they also unconsciously set in motion a movement for
2 DEVOTIONAL POETS AND MYSTICS
the development of the Indian languages. Their teachings—tender

and powerful, simple and tremendous, rank high in the world of
religious poetry. Springing from their hearts, these teachings,
through their intense sincerity, reach the deepest recesses of our
emotional and spiritual consciousness.
Surdas’s life, as that of many other poets of the age of

Devotion, is steeped in mystery. Only lengends and stray reflec¬
tions help to knit together a plausible pattern, a sort of an appro¬
ximate biography. A lot of speculation still exists over details
regarding his date of birth and life, but fortunately none regard¬
ing the fact of his existence. Relying on available evidence, it
would be safe to conclude that this renowned saint-poet was born
in a village named Siri on the oustkirts of Delhi, towards the
end of the 15th century (widely accepted date is 1478 A.D.).
With Delhi stretching its outward bounds and claiming dozens
of villages in the neighbourhood, it would be futile to trace out
the exact topography of the village. Again, distance and lack
of any authentic account have helped in dramatizing and even
romanticizing the life of an otherwise simple, devout saint into
that of an amorous adventurist. Some have tried to establish
that he was married and was very much tied up with bonds of
domesticity; some others have strayed further and have tagged
on to his youthful days the legendary, but incredible episode of
another devotional mystic Bilvamangal.
The facts, however, can be fairly adduced to establish that

Surdas was neither married, nor did ever find himself in the
amorous meshes of a woman of questionable morals. Blind from
birth, he renounced the world at an early age and set out, led
by his inner illumination, to seek the Lord, the ultimate refuge
of the handicapped, the dispossessed and the down-trodden.
Instinctively intelligent, he, through his deep perception, visualis¬
ed what his physical eyes failed to record. He moved from one
place to another—a seeker after Truth, an explorer into the
ultimate Reality, till he reached, at the age of 18, ‘Vishram Ghat’
SURDAS 3
in Mathura. Thence he shifted to ‘Gau Ghat’, said to be bet¬

ween Mathura and Agra, on ihe banks of the sacred Yamuna.
His fame as a devotee and poet had already travelled far. Once
Shri Vallabhacharya, the great saint-savant of the age, halted at
‘Gau Ghat’ during his itinerary, and listened to the devotional
compositions sung by Surdas in his melodious voice. Vallabha¬
charya, however, couselled him to sing of Lord’s Creative Play
(Bhagvat Lila). Surdas took this advice to heart and was initiat¬
ed by the great Acharya into the mysteries of pure contempla¬
tive devotion. He attained a mystic vision which unfolded to
him the entire Divine Play, and spontaneous outpourings of
devotional melody started flowing through his musical throat.
He settled permanently in Vraj, its soil still fragrant with the
aroma of the childhood and love-sport of Lord Krishna. It was
therefore meet that Sur’s devotion sprouted and attained its full
blossoming in this sacred soil. He lived there, till the end came
(in 1583 A.D., according to a majority of ciritics and commenta¬
tors) and this devout bard, whose very life was like a strain from
his Lord’s flute, or a playful eddy on the sacred Yamuna, as if
intolerant of any further separation from his Master, attained the
final fulfilment and his thirsty soul submerged into the Supreme
Soul. The mortal frame still lay prostrate before the Lord’s
image in Srinath temple situated on Mt. Goverdhan. The
resonant voice of devotional melody was stilled and there would
be no more tears, no more poignant strains of separation from
the Lord. But for hundreds of years these verses have continued
to thrill the hearts and enrich the lives of millions with a deep
devotional fervour.
Sur’s literary fame rests on three major volumes of poetic

compositions, Sur-Saravali Sahitya-Lahari and last but not the
least, Sur-Sagar. Sur-Saravali is reported, in contemporary writ¬
ings, to have consisted of one lakh verses, but all these are not
available; many of the verses have been lost to posterity due to
obscurity and uncertainty of the times. Surdas has based Sur-
Saravalt on the analogy of the game of Holi (Spring Colour
Festival). The Lord is the Great Player who in His playful mood
decides to create the universe. He creates out of Himself the
Primeval Man in whom appeared the three attributes of Nature—
Sattva, Rajas and Tamas. Chronicling the various stages of the
evolution of the universe, Sur then describes the twenty-four incar¬
nations and the account is interspersed with the legends of Dhruva
and Prahlada. From verse 360 onwards Sur gets ecstatic while
narrating the story of the incarnation of Lord Krishna and the
various sports connected with His life, and Ras-Lila (the group
dance favourite with Krishna, his cowherds and the Gopis). From
verse 1013 to 1017 there is enumeration of the various Ragas
and Raginis and this is followed by a description of Vasant
(Spring) and Holi festivals. The poet’s expression gets inspired in
his unique description of the Divine Couple (Radha and Krishna).
Scihitya-Lahari is a collection of Sur’s verses remarkable for

their emotional content and ornate expression. Although its 118
verses deal with various forms of poetic composition, yet the
dominant note is that of Bhakti (Devotion). Some critics have
been hard on Surdas, charging him with denigrating his devo¬
tional muse by extravagantly sensuous descriptions. However,
Sur, as any one else might have done, wrote in the idiom of his
age and in his devotional fervour and spiritual passion he soared
far above the mundane considerations of critics and commenta¬
tors. He raised full-throated melodious strains describing the
multifarious sports of his deity. These descriptions are marked
by simplicity, not sophistication, longing but not just, passion for
drinking at the fount of divine beauty, but no sensuous infatua¬
tion. There is strange but deft admixture of the human and
the divine in these intensely passionate descriptions.
Sur-Sagar is the most significant work of Surdas and marks

the final consummation of his poetic art. Its main aim is to
describe Lord Krishna's life. Surdas reflects on the role of
Knowledge of Renunciation, Forms of Devotion, Incarnations,
Divine Worship, Ritual etc. But in the latter part all his
SURDAS 5
verses are a homage to Lord Krishna, describing His life and

multiple sports. He is depicted as pervading the entire universe.
He delights his mother in the garb of son; his friends, the cow¬
herds, in the garb of a comrade, Gopis in the garb of an aesthete.
The whole Vraj is delighted and blessed with the various rela¬
tionships he has established and is wrenched in pain and insuffer¬
able agony when Krishna decides to leave it. Sur-Sagar is the
epitome of the entire Vraj life. The main topics dealt with are—
Krishna’s birth and childhood pranks, Ras Lila, the Divine Flute,
departure from Vraj, the end of Kamsa etc. With these are
dovetailed stories and traditional legends—making it all an epic
of spiritual faith and devotion. The exultation at his birth,
the throb of the mother’s heart, the frolics of friends, the tending
of cows, the teasing of Gopis, the simple joys amongst the bounty
of Nature, the loving complaints from neighbours, the unfolding
of the profound and mystic love—all are feelingly described and
these assume epic dimensions. Krishna’s sport with Gopis, though
delightful outwardly, represents an unparalleled tragedy. In the
context of Uddhava-Gopi conversation, Surdas has introduced an
element of poignant sorrow and here in the deep, silent and serene
waters of Sur-Sagar are reflected the intensity of pain and the
pangs of separation. The soft, tender verses throb here with
weight and excitement of passionate sorrow.
Krishna Bhakti is the warp and woof of Surdas’s poetry which

embodies a whole gamut of emotions. For thousands of years
Krishna’s chronicle has been written and recited by manifold
writers and poets, but it is rare to find anywhere else the happy
marriage of emotion, imagination and beauty. Surdas has visua¬
lised in Lord Krishna a sport-loving friend of the cowherds, the
Destroyer of Asuras (demons), the Saviour of devotees, the Im¬
perishable, the Omnipresent and the Abode of Supreme Bliss.
To this God has Surdas surrendered himself. The supernatural
and celestial aspects of the Lord’s personality get fused with the
human aspects and the entire image is touched up with sensi-
. tive imagination and ardent emotion. Sur’s descriptions are.
subtle, tender and lively. One has only to shuffle the pages of
his writings to discover beautiful pictures of motherly tenderness,
cunning conceits and frolics of childhood, the simplicity and
picturesqueness or the idyllic setting which serves as a backdrop
to the sports of child Krishna.
In the depiction of Radha, Surdas has scored- over other

writers on the subject, like Vidyapati and Chandidas in making
her more vibrant, more profoundly attractive and more intensely
youthful and by lending her greater depth and appeal. She longs
for complete identification with the Lord, burns in the seething
flames of separation, but has no complaint; her renunciation is
lofty as the Himalayas, but is tempered with humility; her sense
of duty is harder than flint, but her heart is tender as the morn¬
ing dew. Being Krishna’s childhood involvement, her love has
grown with the years, and after separation from Krishna, she
attains a quiet, spiritual dignity. She is in fact the Lord’s own
inner, inseparable, self-identifying power. Gopis are not repre¬
sented as individuals, they are a composite entity, a multiple
personality of Radha. * In their anxious longing for full identi¬
fication with the Lord, they attain the highest reaches of self¬
dedication. They accompany Him in the celebrations of Vasant
(Spring) and' Holi festivals and during Ras-Lila which brings
about the socialization of their individual relations. • Ras-Lila is
Surdas’s distinct artistic achievement. Under the magic spell
of the music of the flute and dance, stones melted, the Yamuna
ceased to flow and the moon stopped her onward journey in
the sky ! Ras Lila is raised to a spiritual level where love between
the lover and the beloved is transformed into a mystical devo¬
tion. Gopis’ love is ideal, it is not a sudden burst of passion.
While ecstatically forgetful in His company, they are heart-broken
in separation. In their pathetic plight, they despise the counsel
of yoga from Uddhava, Krishna’s courier. They provide the
element of tragic pathos in the entire chronicle. Surdas has
achieved great success in analyzing the emotion of the heart and
stands on a high pedestal as a poet of pure emotions.
surdas 7
There is, in the works of Surdas, a happy blending of poetry

and music and a strong and rich lyrical element. He has even
appended to each one of .his verses the name of the appropriate
Raga or Ragini for singing them. In this poetic form there is
considerable variety and innovation. He has embellished and
embroidered his verses with richly coloured silken threads of deep
devotion and sensitive imagination. He employed for his poetic
creations, a form of Hindi called Vraj Bhasha. It has proved to
be the best medium for interpreting the sweetest and subtlest
emotions of the human heart. It is said to be the traditional
poetic language for centuries, but it was given to Surdas to refine
and enrich it, to introduce into it elements of suppleness and
flexibility, subtlety and vitality. He was the first to harness the
language for a literary role, and for 400 years in the north-west
of India the whole gamut of emotions in Indian poetry—union
and separation, joy and sorrow, love and devotion, found effec¬
tive expression through this medium.
Surdas’s contribution to the devotional life of his country and

to the language, has to be viewed in- the context of his times.
Bhakti (devotion) to him is complete in itself; it is not a means,
but the end, the ultimate, fulfilment. His writings are watch¬
words, current phraseology, and are woven in the texture of the
social life and speech of countless men and women. He lives
in the hearts of millions and his life and writings will continue to
inspire and enthuse people towards a spiritually dedicated and
morally edifying way of life.
NARSIMHA MEHTA
V. R. Trivedi
An amorphous vernacular becomes the language of a region

distinct from other allied vernaculars, owing to many causes.
These may be political, geographical or social. But the chief
factor that gives it an identity, status and popularity as a pos¬
session of the people is the literary genius which makes it the
vehicle of its inspiration and thought. Jnanadeva, more than any
other poet of the medieval period, gave Marathi a firm foundation.
The same can be said of Narasimha Metha. We cannot think
of Gujarati as a distinct language of culture without thinking of
Narasimha, Premananda, Govardhanram and Gandhiji.
And the dearest bhojan of Gandhiji was written by Narasimha :

“Who is a true man of God ?” “Lo ! Him we call the *man of
the Lord Omnipresent who experiences in himself the pain that
another feels; who renders service to soothe another’s distress;
who does not impart into his mental texture pride of age or of
deed.
“Who venerates each one in every world ; who speaks ill of
none; whose speech, whose senses and whose mind are kept
under firm disciplines; blessed is the mother who gave birth to
him. Him we call a Vaishnava. Whose ambitions have been
abandoned; to whom all women not locked with him in marri¬
age are his mother, whose tongue slips not to utter untruth, whose
hand does not stretch forth to touch what is not his own; him
we call a Vaishnava. In his pure self are, all the places of pil¬
grimage”.
This is, indeed, a good poem of moral ardour and self-discip¬

line and it is sanctified by Gandhiji who was a translator, so to
say, of the poem in his life.
NARASIMHA MEHTA 9
But Narasimha’s soaring expression of his mystical experience
is to be found in other hymns. Here he is with the prophets. In
a psalm of mystical rapture, Narasimha describes the awakening
of the spirit. “When I am spiritually awakened, the world appears
as naught. All appearance and enjoyment -are as it were dreams.
All this is the play of the Supreme. The various ornaments of
gold are only name and form; gold is the reality. So is the
Supreme Reality in relation to the world. Removed from the
world of name and form, and from all inward oppositions, I am
in a state of beautitude, lost in the Supreme.”
In all this cosmos, Thou art but one,

Manifesting Thyself in diverse infinite forms.
Thou art the Spirit in bodies,
And the Light of light Thou art.
Uttering Thy word in the voiceless Deep.
Thou manifestest Thyself in the Vedas ;
Thou art the wind. Thou art the water ;
Thou art the Earth and the Holder of the same.
Thou hast blown Thyself in the form of trees,
All this manifested universe Thou hast created
Out of Thyself to enjoy the same in various ways ;
Thou hast manifested Thyself as souls
For the same purpose.*
In another hymn in the same lofty strains Narasimha urges

man to see for himself Krishna, the Divine Person, the ultimate
all-embracing Reality in eart and sky, in water and fire, nay in
the entire cosmos. He is ineffable. There is nothing like Him.
Only the lover could hold Him in love, and Narasimha would
lay himself down at His lotus feet when dying. There is no
other refuge. This is one of the noblest poems in Gujarati, com-
♦Translation by Manilal C. Parekh.

paring well with great utterances which sing of God’s infinite

glory and man’s loving surrender :—
“What dost thou see in the sky, pervading it all ?
At the feet of the same Dark One, I desire to die, .
For, there is none here who can be compared to Krishna.
My Lord’s beauty is matchless and is such
As cannot be apprehended by my intellect.
Seeing him I can only lose myself in an endless festive
season.
Holding fast with the bonds of love to the roots of eternal
life.
We should know the entire cosmos
With all its bodies and spirits as but One spirit
Where millions of rising suns shine
With all their flaming glorious lighti
Where the sky is ablaze with bright colour
As with a mantle of gold.
Sachchidananda is sporting in joy.
Swinging in a cradle of gold.
There is neither wick, nor oil, nor thread,
And yet burns bright everlastingly*.
Living in the holy land of Shree Krishna and Somnath, Nara-
simha lived and sang to his deity—the beloved Krishna—in the
15th century. Some scholars think that he flourished after Val-
labhacharya but the traditionally accepted period of his life, 1414-
1480 A.D., may be regarded as reasonably certain. The spiritu¬
ally re-generating movement of Bhakti which started with the
Bhagavata and Ramanuja, and which had its sources even earlier,
had reached Gujarat long before Vallabhacharya, for the Bhaga¬
vata was used for translation and adaptation by Gujarati poets
such as Bhima and Kesavadas in the 15th century.
Narasimha certainly knew Jayadeva’s Gitagovinda and it
is possible that he imbibed the cult of erotic mysticism from
•Translation by Manilal C. Parekh.

NARASIMHA MEHTA 11
him. Not only the names of the Gopis mentioned by Narasimha,

but the whole tone and rhythm of his language convey a remi¬
niscence of Jayadeva. It is possible that Narasimha’s dramatic or
visualizing imagination drew vigour from Jayadeva. Narasimha’s
fondness for Marathi expressions—sometimes he utters whole
sentences in Marathi in his poetic dialogue with his Lord—cer¬
tainly indicates his familiarity with contemporary Marathi poetry.
It may be presumed that Vallabhacharya gave a new shape to
the cult of loving devotion by including the doctrine of grace in
it and calling it Pusti-marga and not merely Prema-marga, the
path of devotion through love which is implicit in Narasimha.
Pilgrims and shrines of worship knew no geographical bounds
within Bharatvarsha, and the great philosophical and spiritual
movements of Sankara and Ramanuja soon took posession of
the heart of the whole of Hindustan. The metaphysical and
religious synthesis of the teachings of Sankara and Ramanuja,
of transcendentalism and Maya on the one hand and qualified
non-dualism and Lila (Sport) on the other, of Knowledge and
Devotion, was the chief character of the religious revival of early
medieval period (1200-1600). The metaphysical non-duality of
the Absolute is no bar to mystical union of the individual con¬
ceived as gopi, with the beloved Lord, Sri Krishna through
blissful love and utter self-surrender.
It is the measure of Narasimha’s popularity as a devotee and
poet that the language of many of his poems has lost its archaic
character. In fact, the language of Narasimha and Mirabai
(1499-1547) was nearly the same—a late form of old Gujarati.
Gujarati and Marwadi become distinct languages only around
1650 A.D. And yet in the less popular poems of Narasimha,
the old idiom could be discerned and perhaps the old form of
all his poems can be reconstructed by scholars. But that will
be for academic value and satisfaction.
But the original linguistic and metrical character of Nara¬
simha’s work has a cultural significance; it establishes it as a
link between the rasa and phagu of the early period and the
12 DEVOTIONAL POETS AND MYSTICS'
latter day akhyan of Bhalan and Nakar. Chronologically, there¬

fore, Narasimha is certainly not the first Gujarati poet but he is
esteemed as the father of Gujarati poetry. In saintly character
and personal influence, in the gusto of his devotional enthusiasm,
in the assonance and wealth of his diction, and in poetic imagi¬
nation, he had no equal in Gajarat for centuries. Once the
metaphysical and religious position, that in the ultimate union
with the Divine Person Krishna, the Supreme Lord of the Universe,
is the salvation for which the individual soul, somehow separated
from the Lord, hankers, and that in the ultimate state the indi¬
vidual personality of men, even in the state of blissful union is
retained and accepted, only the dramatic imagination of the seeker
such as Jayadeva or Narasimha, is needed for his spiritual assimi¬
lation to Radha or the Gopi. Such a psychological shift is notice¬
able in Semitic and Christian mysticism also. Jesus Christ
compares the seekers after God to virgins looking for the bride¬
groom. A similar relationship was conceived between the Church
and Jesus himself by St. Paul. St. Bernard, a heroic leader says :
“The love of God and the soul can be expressed in no way so
perfectly as by the mutual love of bride and bridegroom, all being
in common between them, and neither having any separate pos¬
sessions”. Erotic love being the highest form of personal love,
it is easily transformed to the sphere of religious fervour, in which
the devotee seeks the Lord, the Cosmic Lover, as his beloved^
This might be the psychological explanation of erotic mysticism,
which, one must remember is not confined to India or to Hinduism.
Of course, from a social and moral standpoint, this was a very
vulnerable attitude, and actually led to aberration and perversion,
but with the best devotee, the love of beloved Krishna-Radha or
her associate Gopi acted as a catharsis and sublimation of the
sexual instinct. The courage, nobility and humanity of saints like
Narasimha, Surdas, Chaitanya and Sahajananda belie any other
supposition.
As in the case of so many other seers and saints of India the

life of Narasimha is enveloped in the mist of legend and
NARASIMHA MEHTA 13
miracle. The Indian mind fondly believes in the extraordinary

character of the life of the saint and ofter invests it with trials
and tribulations from which the miraculous intervention of
providence should relieve him. From the mass of legend it is
difficult to get at the real facts of Narasimha’s life. All poets,
and especially the lyrical poets, are autobiographical spiritually,
but Narasimha is autobiographical in the usual sense. In some
of his narrative lyrics he has described how Krishna himself
intervened in some marvellous manner to save his honour at a
critical juncture. In his Harmata including Har Same-na-Pada
(1456) lie narrates the ordeal in which the king had required
him to prove his bona fides as a bhakta by some positive evi¬
dence of God’s grace. The miracle happens and Narasimha re¬
ceives the Deity’s garland. The poem has many interpolations,
but the original has been ascertained by Pandit K. K. Shastri.
The bold familiarity of his address to God, the volubility of his
diction, the rush of his rhythm and the easy use of Marathi
phraseology are evidence of its authenticity. In one pada he
reminds his Lord of his gracious help on former occasions of
trial and distress—
•
“You are no Master, nor am I your favoured servant, if

King Mandlik can persecute me. People abuse me as a greedy,
lascivious hypocrite, not a true devotee of yours. If you are
truly my master, come to my aid as you did at the time of
my daughter’s Mameru*. Surely you are not deaf in my case
simply because I happen to be a Nagar, for you have been gra¬
cious to men of low birth like Namadeva and Kabir. How could
you hope to live in peace in Heaven, or in Virndavan with Radha,
without me as your gay associate!”
The other authentic autobiographical poems are Mamerun,

Shamalsha-no-Vivaha and Hundi. These and some other
lyrics help us in gathering some facts of the poet’s life, what-
* Ceremonial gift of ornaments and clothes given at the time of the
first pregnanes ot the daughter.
ever may be the rational explanation of God’s assistance in each

case. That the dramatic add empathetic imagination of Nara-
simha might have coloured what might only be the timely assist¬
ance of devoted patrons cannot be ruled out.
Narasimha, by caste a Nagar Brahmin, was born at Talaja,

a village near Junagadh, in Saurashtra, Gujarat. He lost his
father early and was under the care of his elder brother and his
wife. And we know what it generally means for the dependent
in a Hindu joint family. As a sensitive boy he must have
sought the company of itinerant devotees of various deities
whose songs must have given him solace and fired his poeitc
imagination. His poetic career leaves the impression of a man
of culture who had discarded the ways of the world for a higher
fulfilment. It is very probable his career as a poet and a bhakta
began in his association with the wandering and singing sadhus.
It was in their company probably that he had the vision of
Rasalila. the dance of Krishna with Gopis wherein he himself
had the privilege of holding the torch. This mystical experience
or imaginative realization when he was probably fifteen, set the
seal on his career as a man of God, and he turned his back
on the world. He now had a separate home in Junagadh where
he lived with his wife, Manekbai, whom he had married when
she was quite young. He had by her a daughter Kunvarbai,
and a son, Shamal. He lived in Junagadh for the greater- part
of his life. Men and women gathered round him and joined
him in the worship of Krihna, singing in chorus his lyrics of
love and devotion. They looked to his earthly needs as far as
they could, the poet always having faith in God’s bounty. God
helped him beyond the expectation of his community at the
ceremony of the first pregnancy of his daughter and also when
his son married. God saw that his hundi (cheque) drawn on
the deity at Dwaraka was honoured. And he rescued him in the
great ordeal imposed by Rai Mandlik, the king of Junagadh. Even
so he had his share of grief, ridicule, vilification and opprobrium.
NARASIMHA MEHTA 15
His wife and son died and his daughter became a widow. He left
Junagadh and passed the last fifteen years of his life in Mangrol
near Junagadh. His humility, his association with the lowly,
even the untouchables, and with women devotees of Krishna
scandalized the Nagars, a community known for its culture,
prudence and conformity to social convention. Narasimha was
decried as a debauchee and a cheat. But he did not shrink.
He continued all his life to preach patience, humility, amity,
equal compassion for all God’s creatures, self-restraint and
absolute attachment to Lord Krishna. •
The autobiographical poems arud Sudamachcirita and also

some narrative lyrics reveal the poet’s power of picturesque
narration and realistic rendering of humorous and dramatic situ¬
ations, his riotous fancy and verbal artistry. He carries forward
the earlier tradition of narrative writing in separate lyrics loosely
connected with one another. He uses the Zulana metre as a
rule. His technique, while making the narration somewhat halt¬
ing, leaves ample room for the delineation or various moods
and minor incidents. Every lyric then can stand by itself. In
almost every modern Indian language the revival of Bhakti was
followed by Pauranik akhyana. In Narasimha we find both to¬
gether. It can fairly be maintained that he was the father of the
Gujarati akhyana, though his akhyana is more lyrical in form
and substance, than the later akhyanas. Two poems, Govinda
gaman and Suratasamgrama, though striking in their own way,
may not be Narasimha’s. The first describes the departure of
Krishna from Gokul to Mathura and the Gopis’ prayers, exhor¬
tation and tricks to prevent it. The second describes a sport¬
ful ‘battle’ between Krishna and his cowherd friends on one
9
side and Radha and her female associates on the other. Both
poems are noteworthy for their creative fancy, wit and vigour.
But modern Scholarship has regarded them as literary forgeries.
It is quite likely that, as in the case of Kabir and Mira, many
spurious additions were made in his other works by later poets
with a view to securing popularity in Narasimha’s holy name.
The genuine Padas in the other collections of his poems

are substantial in volume. Their themes are Krishnalila, the
sport of Krishna as a child, boy and youth, loving devotion and
sport of Gopis, and mystical realisation through knowledge of
the Supreme. The last group of poems has been widely ac¬
claimed. As poems of mystical transport, they achieve a rare
perfection. They were probably written in old age when the
poet’s youthful effusiveness of passion had yielded place to
beautiful and glorious contemplation.
The Krishnalila padas are found in different collection. They

are Krishnajanama, Balalila, Vasanta, Hindola, Chaturi, Rasa
and Sringara. The poet has employed various metrical forms
to suit the mode or theme of the lyrics. Some of these could
be set to classical tunes, while some others could be adapted to the
Garba dance. Narasimha’s Zulana metre, however, is his forte
and his chief contribution to the metrical equipment of Gujarati.
To this day it has remained a favourite metre with the poets,
being used as a flexible instrument for narrative, descriptive and
reflective poetry as well as the purdy lyrical.
The opulence of Narasimha’s diction and imagery is in

evidence in all these poems. For the evocation of sentiments
of loving ardour, and the filial affection, he selects fartiiliar in¬
cidents in the life of Krishna or invents them, and his creative
genius lends charm, grace and wonder to them. His imagery
is profuse and it shows his love of nature and knowledge of •
human relations. Poetic vitality never fails him. Lustre, sono¬
rity and vigour pervade all his poetry. It has the freshness of a
morning in spring—lovely, ardent and playful, the blooming
flowers and the warbling birds linking earth to heaven.
MIRA
Anantrai Raval
Mira is one of the brightest stars in the galaxy of the immortal

poets and mystics of India, not only of the medieval age but of all
time. There have been poetesses of a high order and also God-
intoxicated saints and mystics amongst women, but a combina¬
tion of the two in one person, and that too, a lady of royal blood
as Mira, has few parallels in the world. Another significant thing
about her is that she is, with legitimate pride, claimed in equal
measure by Rajasthan, Gujarat and northern India as belonging
to them. This is because each of the three languages, Rajasthani,
Gujarati and Vraj-Hindi have been enriched by the poems com¬
posed by her. This is explained by the fact that though Mira
was Rajasthani by birth and passed the first half of her life in
Rajasthan, she happened to live in Vrindavan in the east and
Dwaraka in the west in the latter years of her life.
We have always been indifferent or apathetic to the history

of the mundane life of the great figures in our history. This has
made it almost impossible for us to have an authentic account
of most of our saints, mystics and poets. We have only popular
anecdotes woven round them and passed on piously from gene¬
ration to generation. Mira is no exception to this. All that
has come down to us is the semi-historical anecdotes regarding
her emphasising her unflinching devotion to God and her mira¬
culous escapes from fatal persecution at the hands pf her royal
relatives, particularly the Rana of Udaipur, her brother-in-law.
As to the exact period of her life, Colonel Todd’s finding that she
was the daughter. of7Rao Dudaji of the Rathod family of Medta,
a small principality in Marwad in Rajasthan, and was married
to Rana Kumbha of Chitod, held ground for some years, fixing
1403—1470 A.D. as her date. But further research by a nun**
ber of scholars has made it possible to arrive at an agreed con¬

clusion which fixes 1498 A.D. as Mira’s brith-year and describes
her not as the daughter but grand-daughter of Rao Dudaji, mar¬
ried to Prince Bhojraj, the heir-apparent of Sangramsinh of
Chitod, better known by his abbreviated name Sang or Sanga.
Mira who lost her mother in early childhood was brought up by
her grandfather, a devout Viashnava from whom she obviously
imbibed in her impressionable early years her love for Sri
Krishna, which was to be reinforced and transformed into intense
devotion and dedication as she grew up. Wedded to the Krishna
idol gifted to her by a sadhu in her childhood, she probably was
a listless spouse to prince Bhojraj, who died early after a few
years of his marriage with Mira. Early widowhood drew Mira
further and unfinchingly to her Girdharilal, Lord Krishna, the
supporter of mount Govardhan. The rest of her life is the story
of her intense devotion to the Lord of her heart amidst and in
spite of the dislike of the close relatives of her deceased husband
for her bhakti way of life spent in Bhajon-Kirtan and in the asso¬
ciation with birds of the same feather.
No persuasion, no calumny, no persecution would turn her

away from her exclusive devotion and surrender to him. Short¬
lived Ratnasinh and Vikramaditya, the two younger brothers of
Mira’s husband Bhojraj, who succeeded to the throne when Rana
Sang, their father died in 1528, the former in 1528 and the
latter in 1532 A.D., are said to have subjected Mira to harsh
persecution. Obviously, they thought that the sort of life led
by Mira did not befit a would-have-been queen and a worthy
immate of the royal palace as she was. There are references to
various attempts successively made by the young rulers t'o put
an end to her life when they found that their attempts to mend
her life were of no avail. They were rendered unsuccessful by
the benign protection of her Lord. The serpent sent to Mira
under the cover of flowers for worship turned into saligram at
the touch of Mira on one occasion, and deadly poison into harm¬
less potion on another. On one occasion hearing the sound of
MIRA 19
a male voice from the chamber of Mira the Rana forced the door
to be opened but found therein only Mira and the Krishna idol.
There is also a popular tale of the Rana rushing into the parlour
of Mira, sword in hand, obviously to kill her, and returning awe¬
struck at finding not one but four identical Miras in front of
him.
Finding the palace atmosphere of Chitod uncongenial to the

exclusive and undisturbed pursuit of her faith, Mira left Mewad
soon after 1532 and after passing some time at Medta, her mater¬
nal place, made a move to Vrindavan, which had then assumed
the hallow of a holy place of pilgrimage for Krishna-lovers from
all over the country. There is an interesting anecdote about
Mira’s first meeting with Jiva Goswami, a disciple of Sri Chaitanya,
in Vrindavan. The Goswami at first declined to see her as she
was a woman. Mira’s retort that she was amused to find his
sex-consciousness intact in such a blessed place where all lovers
of Sri Krishna should be expected to feel and live as the Gopis,
the cowherdesses of Gokul dedicated to the Divine Lover Krishna,
made him relent and change his stance. After a stay of fair
duration in the holy land blessed with the dust of the feet of her
Lord, Mira, wishing to pass the rest of her life in Dwaraka,
which Sri Krishna had chosen as his capital, went there. It is
safe to assume that she spent quite a number of years in Dwaraka
in peaceful dedication to God.
The popular story about the end of her mortal frame runs
like this. Mewad was having one trouble after other, after her
departure. Vikramaditya, her persecutor, having been murdered,
Mewad was ruled by an upstart Vanveer for a short while before
Udesinh, the younger brother of Vikramaditya, defeated him and
regained the throne. Very soon, Mewad was afflicted by a
drought. Such hardships were attributed to the displeasure of
God at the treatment meted out to Bhakta Mira, whose return
to. the God-forskep land was thought of as the only remedy. The
small band of Brahmins sent by the considerate young Rana
Udesinh to Dwaraka to Implore her to return to Mewad having

failed, they resorted to fasting by way of righteous pressure to
persuade her to return, This moved compassionate Mira to ap¬
proach the holy icon of the Lord of Dwarka in the temple for
His will and permission and as the faithful ones believe, Mira’s
physical frame was absorbed in the idol, to the bewilderment and
despair of the waiting Brahmins. This happened some time in
the year 1546.
This story has given rise to a theory put foward by some

later biographers of Mira that she did not like to return to the
land which she had once left to worship her Lord without any
distraction or disturbance, and so she left Dwaraka abruptly,
unnoticed by the Brahmins, whereafter she lived for many years
in holy places in the south and in the north, in silent oblivion.
This makes it possible to accommodate the popular belief about
the meeting of Mira with Tansen, emperor Akbar and Tulsidas in
her later life. This theory gives Mira a life-span of about seven
decades and a natural death at a ripe old age. It is, however,
no more than a reasonable piece of guess-work.
Efforts have been made by scholars to find out whether

‘Mira’ was the real name of this renowned devotional poetess of
Rajasthan or whether it could be a pen-name. Some who are
inclined to believe in the pen-name theory suspect the word
‘Mira’ to be foreign (to be exact, Arabic) origin like ‘Kabir’,
the name of the famous mystic poet. But then, they have not
been able to ascertain the real name of Mira. There have also
been discussions amongst scholars as to the influence of Chait-
anya and Vallabhacharya and their Bhakti cults on her and her
poetry through her stay in Vrindavan and her constant contact
with bhajan-kirtan mandalis. True, Mira excels in Prema-lak
sham Bhakti and madhura bhava so highly eulogized by Chait-
anya and Vallabhacharya, the propounders of this form of Vaish-
nava Bhakti cult, but all her devotional poetry is marked by a
distinct voice of her own and does not show any sectarian colour
MIRA 21
or approach. As a poetess, she seems to be the product of her
own intense devotion for God : she may be her own creation
for all we know. Some songs of her like jogi mat ja, mat ja, mat
ja have led some scholars to jump at a guess that she might have
come into closer contact with some ascetic (jogi) of Nath sect
in her early life and developed some romantic attachment to him
and his way of life. Biit in all probability, she might have addres¬
sed her Krishna symbolically as a jogi. Some words and lines in
her poem jo turn todo piya main nahi todun echo those of the
devotional song of Raidas prabhuji turn chandan ham pani which
may be accounted for as the influence of contemporary and earlier
devotional literature which she might have listened to.
Some of the incidents of her life referred to above are recon¬

structed from those alluded to by her in a good many of her
autobiographical poems. It is possible that popular stories about
Mira might have given rise to such poems, some of which might
not be the genuine creation of Mira. They might have been com¬
posed by some later well-meaning admirers and passed off as
Mira’s by the easy medieval contrivance of inserting the name
of Mira in the last line signifying her authorship. But there is no
mistaking about the genuine compositions of Mira, and there is a
good number of them. Whatever her mundane outer life, her
inner one is unreservedly depicted in her devotional poetry which
comes to her most easily. It is her natural expression, something
like the spontaneous outburst of her powerful longing for the
Divine. Poetic utterance became the part and parcel of her sad-
hana; so much so that we could say of her ; she lisped in lyrics
and the lyrics came. Yet, her poetic genius is essentially that of
a poet of lyrical genius. It is through a pa da (song) that Mira
seeks to reach God. The words of her pa das do not merely record
the experience of God. They become an inherent part of it and
sometimes even cause it to take place. She experiences God in
her songs, which act as a bridge joining God and the God-posses¬
sed mystic poetess in her.
And what sort of an image of Mira do we find emerging from

her lyrics ? Succinctly put, it is that of a Gopi of Vraj, once
blessed with the bliss of communion with Krishna in Vrindavan
and Gokul, finding herself stranded in the arid land of Rajasthan
in the immensity of ages and space, pining for what is lost, a
veritable eternal thirst for God incarnate. Nothing is real in this
world for her God-sick being, except God and separation from
Him, the exquisite pang of separation from him which she has
repeatedly and with rising levels of intensity given utterance to
in lines like the following : —
1. Oh, what a love-lorn soul I am ! Nobody has any idea

of what pain I feel.
2. I have become pale and emaciated for my Divine

Lover : they do not know my inner disease.
3. I cannot afford to live without Him.

4. O Papiha, don’t you utter piyu, piyu.
5. I have forsaken all comforts. Why do you keep me

waiting and pining for you ?
6. Oh you, my companion in birth and death, I simply

can’t forget you day and night,
7. Oh, Flute-player, hurry up to my place.
8. Oh, Beloved, come and bless me with your darshan

(sight) : I simply cannot live without you.
The Bhagavata Puranci puts these words in the mouths of

the Gopis to whom Sri Krishna becomes invisible for a short
time : ‘A tiny moment without your presence becomes tiringly
long.’ Mira’s utterances of the pang of separation from her Lord
are no less poignant. In many a lyric she prays to Him in words
like the following :—
1. Please bestow your attention to this request of mine.

MIRA 23
2. Poor Mira has been waiting and waiting.
3. Make me your true maid-servant, my Lord.
4. There is a conflagration on the mountain-rib what to
do, O Kahna ?
5. God, redeem me when you feel you must.
6. Now I seek shelter at your feet : keep me on Merciful.
7. O you kind one, please hear my supplication.
8. 1 beseech you, Lord, kindly take my boat across, (the
river or sea of life) safely.
Hyper-responsive as God is, He cannot but grant the requests

of those who implore Him for His abounding grace. Mira’s pra¬
yers are granted, and Mira finds occasions to express joyfully the
bliss of union with the Lord in words like the following, dancing
with spiritual delight:—
\.
1. My prayed one has blessed my house today.

2. O friend, I am intoxicated with the pleasure of Girdhar.
3. I am in tune with the Infinite : my yearning has been
satisfied.
4. It has been raining profusely : He has played in my
house (heart) today.
The ideal of Prema-Lakshana Bhakti like the Gopis of Vraj,

Mira gives verbal expression to the intense longing of her spirit
for the Divine and the bliss of her communion with Him in a lan¬
guage couched in the diction of human love. Barring the silence
of ecstasy, it is the only type of expression that comes nearer
the correct description of the spiritual experience of the Bhakta,
as has been shown by similar expressions by St. Teresa, the Sufis
and Vaishava poets like Jayadev and Vidyapati, and mystics
like Kabir, Narasimha Mehta and many others. But Mira stands
distinguished in the lot in the natural modesty and grace of a
$4 ’ DEVOTIONAL POETS AND MYSTICS
woman. Men-poets had to assume the spirit of a Gopi : for Mira,

a woman totally dedicated to her Girdharlal, it was natural, That
is why her treatment of love for the Divine never appears out
of the way, observing as it does the sense of decorum and restraint,
without impairing intensity of the emotion. That is why she is
quite at home while delineating the emotions of the Gopis of Vraj
and Yasoda, the mother of Krishna, in her lyrics on Krishmleela.
and her own love for Krishna in many of her autobiographical
lyrics in words like :
1. My love for Him hails from previous births, Ranaji,

I am helpless.
2. v My mind has been pierced, O Rana.
3. I would not abide by your behest now, Rana; I have
secured Girdhari as my bridegroom.
4. I will dance, singing the greatness of Hari.
5. For me there is only Girdhar Gopal, no one else.
6. I am married to an immortal husband, O friend.
7. I have been fascinated by your charming face,
O Mohan!
She has also written a number of didactic lyrics, admonishing

the world-minded ones to turn Godward, in poems beginning with
lines like the following:
1. Oh mind, touch the feet of Hari.

2. Don’t you utter, don’t you utter, don’t you utter any¬
thing else than the name of Radha-Krishna.
3. Such a birth in human frame may not be repeated.
4. Once you take to a life of renunciation, what is the
point of gloominess ?
Mira seems to have been a gifted singer with a fine sense of

music and melody. The rich variety of ragas that we find in her
MIRA 25
lyrics is a sure proof of it. It has, along with the intense devo¬
tional content and the lucid poetic expression thereof, ensured the
oral transmission of her lyrics in the last four centuries from gene¬
ration to generation in Gujarat, Rajasthan and north India, and
their never-dying popularity with musicians. We know how gifted
musicians like Dilip Kumar Roy, Juthika Ray, Pandit Omkamath,
Smt. Subbulakshmi and Lata Mangeshkar have set to exquisite
music some of the famous bhajans of Mira and honoured them by
lending them their voice, enhancing their popularity and longe¬
vity for times to come.
Mira takes her place in the front rank of the Indian mystics
and bhaktas like Jnaneswar, Nanak, Kabir, Narasimha Mehta,
Tukaram, Ramdas and others. She was a devout Krishnabhakta
first and last, comparable to St. Teresa and Rabia in her love of
God and the poetry that came to her as a means of expressing
her love of God. From the point of view of poetry of high lyrical
order and intensity of passion she can be favourably compared
to the Greek poetess Sappho. But Mira’s songs are much more
than all these. Equally rich in devotional fervour, poetic expres¬
sion and tuneful music, her songs penetrate into the recesses of
our hearts. They are the gems of immortal lustre in the treasure-
house of the devotional poetry of Rajasthan, Gujarat and north
India.
RUPA GOSWAMIN
Sarvajna Jagadguru was a priest in Karnataka, a high-born

Brahmin of Bharadvaja Gotra, having equal command over the
three Vedas. His son Aniruddha was only next to the father by
virtue of his profound depth in the Yajurveda. Aniruddha had
a couple of sons Rupesvara and Harihara. Padmanabha was the
son of Rupesvara. Like his grand-father, Aniruddha, he was
well-versed in the Yajurveda and had, in addition, sound know¬
ledge of the Upanishads.
From the distant land of Karnataka, Padmanabha migrated to

Bengal and became a domicile of Navahatta (Naihati) in the
24-Parganas. That was at the end of the fourteenth century or
the beginning of the fifteenth. He attracted there the attention
of the public by the performance of a sacrifice. So he translated
his knowledge of the Yajurveda into practice.
Padmanabha had five sons, Mukunda being the youngest.

As a result of family quarrels, he migrated to Jessore and settled
there. Kumara was the son of Mukunda. He \tfas the father of
several sons including the last three—Sanatana, Rupa and Aun-
pama.
By extraordinary talents and scholarship, Sanatana and Rupa

occupied exalted positions at the court of the Nawab of Gauda.
Sanatana became the Mahamaniri and the Nawab honoured him
with the title Saker Malik. Rupa also was appointed a high
official with the designation—Dabir Kims. At the vicinity of
Gauda the three brothers settled at the village Rama-keli. Thus
the journey from Karnataka through Navahatta and Jessore came
to a halt for the time being.
RUPA GOSWAMIN 11
In the face of association with the Moslems, the Sanatana
family was extremely anxious to keep up its high Brahmanic
tradition and practices by maintaining contacts with the Vai-
shnavas of Navadvipa. It was a day of liberation when the
resonance of khola and karatala that accompanied the religious
procession of Sri Chaitanya penetrated the solitary gloom of the
far off village, Rama-keli. The three souls were saved by abso¬
lute surrender to the feet of the Mahaprabhu. His divine touch
turned their metal into gold. They broke through the egotistic
shell to glide into infinite bliss, Bhagavan Sri Krishna. Their
onward march to spiritual life began. The barriers of house¬
hold life were all gone, and gone for ever.
The presence of Sri Chaitanya at Rama-keli was Very brief.

Rupa and Anupama ran to Allahabad to be blessed again with
the presence of Sri Chaitanya. The Mahaprabhu directed them
to proceed to Vrindavana. Sanatana met the Lord at Varanasi.
He also was directed to Vrindavana. Having visited Vrindavana,
Rupa and Anupama started for Puri where the Lord was resting
at the time. But Anupama died on the way. Rupa stayed with
the Lord for ten days at Puri and then returned to Vrindavana to
live there for good. Sanatana followed suit. He also visited
the Lord from Vrindavana to Puri to return shortly to Vrindavana
again. Like Rupa, he also settled in Vrindavana for life.
At Vrindavana, Sri Jiva, the promising young son of the

deceased brother, Anupama, joined Sanatana and Rupa. The
great triad built up the school in which there was a confluence
of heart and head, that came to be known in history as the
Bengal school of Vaishnavism. In this laudable task, three other
great souls contributed their share. Of these, Raghunatha Bhatta,
though wrote nothing, imparted a new tone to the devotional
atmosphere. Gopala Bhatta, a south Indian Brahmin, codified
religious practices of the new school in his Haribhaktinlasa.
Raghunatha Bhatta produced compositions, pure poetry and also
mixed with prose, to express his excellent spirit of devotion.
28 devotional poets and mystics
Thus, the six Goswamins of Vrindavana laid the foundation of

a New Vaishnava School. Religion and ethics, metaphysical
background, the unique cult of devotion with elaborate ritua¬
listic practices were furnished by the six Goswamins. Of these,
the two brothers and their nephew—Sanatana, Rupa and Jiva—
are most conspicuous^ by the wealth of their contribution. Of the
three again, SanatanA/ laid the spark, Rupa fanned it into flame
while Jiva diffused it in all directions. The foundation was laid
by Sanatana, Rupa built up the Superstructure while Jiva gave
it the finishing touch with extensions wherevef necessary. Rupa
is really the master architect of the Bengal School of Vaishnavism.-
The flourishing period of Rupa was between 1533 and 1550.

Rupa and Sanatana died in 1554 at an interval of a few months.
The earliest work of Rupa was the Padyavali, an anthology of

386 verses covering 126 authors, both old and new, all devoted
to Krishnalila. It is a collection surveying different aspects of the
sentiment of devotion. Then comes the Dana-keli-kaumudi, an
one-Act play (Bhanika) of the Uparupaka type. Composed in
1495 and consisting of erotic dialogues in prose and verse, it
describes the life of Sri Krishna through songs and dances. The
composition is an example of grace and refinement. Then come
the two lyric poems—the Hamsa-duta and the Uddhava-sandesa.
In the Hamsa-duta, Lalita, a girl friend of Radhika, sends a swan
to Mathura to communicate to Sri Hari Radha’s pangs of sepa¬
ration ; it is in the Sikharini metre. The Uddhava-sandesa in Man-
dak rant a metre conveys the message of Sri Krishna from Mathura
to Radha at Vrindavana. The two lyrics were inspired by
Kalidasa’s Meghaduta and are remarkable for their grace and
elegance. Then come four allied compositions—Ashtadasachhan-
das, Utkalikavallari (1550 A.D.), Govindavirudavali and Premen-
dusagara, all collected by Sri Jiva Goswamin under the title Stava-
mala. It consists of 64 pieces of hymns (stotras) and eulogistic
songs (virudas). The hymns are in eight verses, each in short
RUPA GOSWAMIN 29
lyrical syllabic metres. The songs are rhythmic and lyrical in verse
and prose. Devoted to the life of Sri Krishna at Vrindavana and
Mathura, the Stavamala is an excellent specimen of bhaktirasa,
pictorial fancy, lyrical quality, rhythm and alliteration, illustrating
49 varieties of metre. Next to these are two illustrious plays
the Vidagdhamadhava and the Lalitamadhava composed in 1533
and 1537 respectively. The Vidagdhamadhava, a seven-act play,
embraces the entire Vrindavana-lila and delineates Sringararasa
from Purvaraga to the first union of Radhika with Sri Krishna.
The Lalitamadhava, a ten-act play, has a complicated theme and
plot and deals with mature union with equal prominence of
vipralambha sringara. These two notable compositions were
matched by another couple of works, the Bhaktirasa-amritasindhu
and the Ujjvalanilamani, composed in 1541 and a little later
respectively. The delicacies of emotional experiences found in
the two plays are here hardened into scholastic theories, providing
the metaphysical, logical and psychological foundation of the
Bengal School of Vaishnavism. This brought into existence
his Natakachandrika, a work on dramaturgy. Besides, Rupa
composed works on theology—the Laghu Bhagavatamrita, Krishna
janmatithividhi and the Ashta kalika-slokavali. Like the Nataka¬
chandrika, he composed the Virudalakshana to define the metrical
technique of his eulogistic songs on Krishna. He has miscel¬
laneous works to his credit as well—Sriganoddesadipika (1550
AD), large and small, and the Prayuktakhyata Chandrika (a
grammar book).
The Krishna cult coupled with erotic mysticism springs directly

from the Srimad Bhagavata. But here the dalliances of Krishna
are with the Gopis. Only a particular Gopi enjoys Krishna’s
special favour and is identified as Sri Radha. Among the Vaish-
nava sects, those of Nimbarka and Vallabha also adopted
Sri Radha. Jayadeva and Lilasuka were immersed in the poems
and songs on the sports of Radha and Krishna, Babu Chandidasa
revelled in detailed descriptions of the love of Radha and Krishna.
Thus through poet-devotees the Radha-Krishna cult grew in
strength, and was solidified into theories by arduous efforts of

the sectarian theologians.
The sixteenth century witnessed a renaissance in Bengal in

different directions. Tantricism involving women for religious pur¬
poses was preached by Krishnananda Agamavagisa in his
Tantrascira. Allied to this, arose Sahcijiya cult, the doctrine of
naturalism that sought salvation in and through senses. The
then Vaishnavism drank deep at the fountain of this thought-
current with the result the common devotee began to take the
help of woman to symbolise his devotional aspirations. Somehow
he thought himself to be Krishna and his woman, Gopi and
sought to realise divine love through sensuous behaviour. The
episode of Chandidasa and the widow-washerwoman is an example
. on this point. All this meant that ideal Krishnalila so far con¬
fined to Radha alone, was sought to be realized in the life of
common man by means of imitation. It was meant to be the
reproduction of divine love in and through common man in terms
of his behaviour towards an ordinary woman.
On the other hand stoic asceticism mingled with mysticism

had originated from Sridhara, the noted commentator of the
Srimad Bhagavata. Chaitanya’s sannyasa guru, Kesava Bharati
and diksha guru, Isvara Puri, who initiated Chaitanya at Gaya
both belonged to the Advaita sects of Acharya Sankara. Isvara
Puri was the disciple of Madhavendra Puri who is held as the
pioneer of Vaishnavism in Bengal. Madhavendra had great
enthusiasm for the secret sites of Vrindavana and Isvara Puri
was an emotional mystic entering trance during Krishnakirtana.
Nursed in the tradition obtainable in the sixteenth century

Bengal and inspired by the living contacts of the then spiritual
stalwarts like Isvara Puri and Kesava Bharati, Sri Chaitanya exhi¬
bited the following traits :
(a) new spirit of emotionalism in lieu of traditional piety,

(b) emotional appeal to Krishnakirtana.
RUPA GOSWAMIN 31
(c) passion of Radha and Krishna,

(d) catholic and simple idea of worship,
(e) fancy for Vrindavana settlement, and,
(f) winning over scholars.
Among the stalwarts to come under the sway of Sri Chaitanya,

the name of Rupa stands out with remarkable eminence. As
already indicated, Rupa hailed from a Brahmin family of great
social status, that was both learned and had performed many
sacrifices. But the sense of pollution by association with the
Moslems prompted the three brothers to develop fascination
for Vaishnavism, as a gospel of liberation. Inspired by the
Vaishnavism of Navadvipa, young Rupa wanted to have first¬
hand acquaintance of Vaishnavism through the ages in all its
delicate shades. The result was the compilation of the Padyavali,
the anthology of verses. The selection was allowed to soak into
his being. His talent bloomed to give vent to his devotional
feeling. Rupa was both a poet and a scholar. The creative
artist knit into existence a tiny play, the Danakelikaumudi, on
Sri Krishna. He was aware that drama had direct appeal and so
the most suitable medium of communication. His natural gift of
lyrical vein then found expression in the lyrics, the Hamsaduta
and the Uddhavasandesa. His romantic mind thus crossed the
river Yamuna from Vrindavana to Mathura and then swam
back the same river from Mathura to Vrindavana. Apparently
his mind in its anxiety to have the fuller view of Krishna was
oscillating between the two points—Vrindavana and Mathura.
His creative genius now began to take greater strides. As a result
came into existence the four other compositions—Ashtadasa-
chhandas, Utkalikavallari, Govindavirudcivali and Premenduscigara.
They are excellent specimens of devotional poetry and prose,
revealing at the same time melody and rhyme, ecstasy of allite¬
ration and invention of new metres. They are attempts to per¬
fect the poetic technique to suit the rhythmic expression of
devotional joy.
All these happened before Rupa met Chaitanya. By the magic

touch of the Mahaprabhu, the mind and body of Rupa became
settled in Vrindavana for ever. The enthusiasm of Sri Chaitanya
for Vrindavana, which he had imbibed from his great spiritual
teacher Madhavendra Puri, was transfused in Rupa. Thus settled
in Vrindavana the poetic mind of Rupa dived deeper to reach the
mystery land which forged compromise between poetic sentiment
and high devotion. Rupa composed a couple of plays each of
pretty long dimension, in which the srinagara of Radha-Krishnalila
at Vrindavana, in all its delicate shades unfolded itself. As sri-
ngara, it was an aesthetic sentiment; as divine J^ye it was the
climax of refined devotion. To make this novel experience a
common cause, he chose the dramatic form as the vehicle of
communication. But Rupa was a conscious artist. To accommo¬
date the novelties invented in these literary media, he laid down
new norms in dramatic technique in his Natakachandrika. Thus
the poet and dramaturgist in him worked in perfect harmony.
But the rationale of the equation srinagara-dt\otion had to be

provided for acceptance by the rational mind. Rupa therefore
composed his monumental work, the Bhakti-rasamritasindhu which
not only furnished the logic of the equation but also developed it
into full-fledged system with all its possible implications. Having
justified the equation, he then set his hand to the Ujjvalanilamani
where the sringara between Radha and Krishna with all picturesque
details crystallised into divine love, the summun bonum of a
devotee. The two works are therefore complementary.
From the devotional point of view, Radha was the devotee

and Krishna was the object of devotion. This situation implies
dualism between the subject and object of devotion. On the
other hand, the union of Radha and Krishna means perfect coal¬
esces, a unique type of non-duality. How could the two be
reconciled ? In other words, the advaita strain of Acharya
Sankara, handed down to Sri Chaitanya by Kesava Bharati and
RUPA GOSWAMIN 33
Isvara Puri, came in direct conflict with the duality of devotiona-

lism. The answer was bhedabhedvada, the theory of peaceful
co-existence of difference and unity. It was a-logical as it was
purely a mystic reality to be realised and not to be argued upon
(achintya).
The genius of Rupa shed light on Vaishnava theology and

even grammar. They are also of importance.
Contacts of Rupa with Sri Chaitanya were few and far bet¬
ween and they were shortlived. But while Sanatana and Rupa
had some contacts with Sri Chaitanya, their nephew Jiva had none
at all. Thus they cannot be said to have benefitted much from
long and intense personal associations with Sri Chaitanya. They
could not have derived much from the writings of Sri Chaitanya
either. For, Sri Chaitanya wrote precious little. Under the cir¬
cumstances, what they obtained from Sri Chaitanya was general
inspiration. The edifice of Gaudiya Vaishnavism was therefore
largely the contribution of their scholastic and devout genius. But
that genius was undoubtedly kindled by the magnetic influence of
Sri Chaitanya. Of all the six Goswamins of Vrindavana who
took upon themselves the task of building up the new system,
the contribution of Rupa was most conspicuous. The metaphy¬
sics of Gaudiya Vaishnavism might have been the single large
contribution of Jiva but the cult of devotion woven round the
Radha-Krishnalila peculiar to this School, was on all hands the
unique contribution of Rupa.
At the hand of the rhetoricians, devotion found recognition

as an emotion (bhava) directed to the adorable gods, fathers and
kings. Tranquil devotion to Lord Vishnu, lit by the effulgence
of knowledge, was later found to be of sufficient importance even
in poetic composition, It had therefore to be recognized as an
additional sentiment (rasa) besides the conventional eight or nine
with detachment to worldly pleasures as its nucleus. But Rupa
conferred the status of rasa on devotion to Sri Krishna. This
pure emotion, Suddha bhava had varying motifs—sexual, as in the
case of the Gopis; kinship, as in the case of Yasoda; divine grace,

as in the case of myriads of devotees.
A close scrutiny of the motifs reveals the fact that Sri Krishna
was believed to be a historical personage with all details as re¬
corded in the Srimad Bhagavata. In Vrindavana, he had on the
one hand the Gopis who had fastened their minds on him, lured
by his extraordinary physical charm with all qualities of an ideal
lover. He had on the other his kith and kin, the different relations,
including people who just wanted to serve him. Rupa played on
the whole gamut of these varying relations at Vrindavana and
co-ordinated them into the structure of his devotion. But within
the structure he rearranged the relations in hierarchical order
with the impulse of sex in the Gopis as the climax. Thus accord¬
ing to Rupa, devotion to Sri Krishna might be actuated by any
of the above motifs and such devotion ultimately matured into a
full-fledged sentiment in each case. Nevertheless, the devotion of
Gopis to Krishna was sentiment par excellence. It was divine
love in which sex impulse is crystallised through the fire of self¬
lessness. It was therefore the sweetest of all sentiments. All
other sentiments for Krishna are also marked by the common
characteristic of selflessness. But they differ qualitatively from
the sentiment of the Gopis in point of intensity and sweetness.
Rupa need not argue much for establishing this difference be¬
cause the rhetoricians had already recognised the supremacy of
sringara over all other sentiments.
Love of the Gopis for Krishna was the model to be emulated.
Rupa allowed the free play of religious imagination that forged
identification of a devotee with Radha or the Gopis as a method
of worship of Krishna. In this he conceded to the practice of
imitation of pre-Chaitanyaite Vaishnavism but to a very limited
extent. He ruled out, for instance, the imitation of Krishna by
a common man in the context of a common woman. His stoic
asceticism obtained as a heritage from Sankarite tradition in un-
broken continuity from Sridhara, Kesava Bharati, Isvara Puri and
Sri Chaitanya, ruled out such unwarranted extension, although
RUPA GOSWAMIN 35
this pitfall could not altogether be avoided by later Vaishnavism

in Bengal.
The imitation of Radha or Gopi by a common devotee was

supposed to create a mental situation in him, analogous to the pure
emotion (Suddhabhava) of Radha for Krishna. In fact, as indi¬
cated above, imitation is one of the methods for the dawning of
pure emotion. One might argue whether emotion brought about
by mere imitation of Radha can be absolutely identical with
the emotion of Radha for Krishna. But the same question
may be posed against the rhetoricians in a slightly different way :
Whether the actor feels the same way as Rama in the presence
of Sita ? And the answer proposed by the rhetorician is worthy
of attention, Yes, they say, because the feeling of an actor (if
he is a sahridciyci) is not an individualistic attitude but a refined
mental situation shared in common by real Rama and the actor.
Similar is the case with pure emotion which is the common pro¬
perty of Radha and a devotee. At least this was so in the life
of Sri Chaitanya. There is no evidence to prove that in the eyes
of Rupa, Sanatana or Jiva, Sri Chaitanya was a divine incarna¬
tion, Radha, Krishna or both. Yet Rupa found in him pure
emotion for Krishna and such emotion eventually matured into
divine sentiment with its climax in divine madness (Mahabhava).
Although Rupa confined pure emotion to Radha and allowed

that privilege to a devotee who imitated Radha in her feelings for
Krishna, he was catholic enough to find a place for the traditional
method of worship under Sastric injunction. Only he geared that
method to the worship of Sri Krishna in exclusion of other
deities. •;
As in the Vallabha School, Rupa assigned a respectable place

to divine grace in his scheme of devotion. It could be achieved,
Rupa asserted, and no ostensible cause was there for its possession.
It was divine grace radiating on some one irrespective of time
and place, caste and creed.
A passionate devotee, a trained scholastic mind, Rupa thus

invented a new dimension for sweet devotion (Madhurabhakti)
and he brought his creative genius with all its poetic grandeur
and sensuous imageries of the sahajiya to bear upon his cherished
approach of devotion coupled with selflessness.
HARIDASAS
M. Venkatesha Iyengar
The twelfth century seems to have been a time of spiritual

upheaval all over India. It was very much so in South India.
Ramanujacharya who systematised southern Vaishnavism did
his work in Tamil Nadu. and Karnataka a little before the
beginning and in the earlier years of that century. Basavanna
led the Virasaiva movement in Karnataka shortly after this.
Not long after came Madhwacharya in western Karnataka. While
various classes, dissatisfied with existing social conditions and
religious institutions, could throw in their lot with reformers like
Basavanna, there must have been a great mass of people to whom
also change seemed desirable but who were not prepared to leave
the pale of orthodoxy for getting it. Movements therefore
arose which slackened the bonds of social custom and religious
ceremonial without asking people to go outside the bounds of
orthodoxy. The Haridasa movement was the Karnataka analogue
of such movements.
Like all movements which have tried to take religion to the

common people, the Haridasa movement laid stress upon the
devotional aspect of religion and relied upon the vernacular for
carrying on its propaganda. It also devoloped an order of
preachers called Haridasas meaning servants of Hari or Vishnu,
the highest idea of godhead as conceived in it. These people
received initiation from a teacher in the main tenets of their
creed, the substance of which was that God was a personal
being, faultless, full of good qualities, merciful and watchful of
the welfare of all creation; and that He would save all who
acknowledged Him in their life. Naturally the creed discounted
ritual and ceremonial. It discountenanced the worship of many
gods and the sacrifice of life in worship of the godhead. It
38 DEVOTIONAL POETS AMD MYSTICS
disapproved of astrology and horoscopy, and emphasized reliance

on God’s mercy. It distinguished between community by birth
and community by quality, declaring that a man’s inner being
was of more consequence than the social circumstances of his
birth or growth. The Haridasa movement was thus really a
reform movement. It did not break away from existing insti¬
tutions but tried rather to modify them in the direction in which
salvation appeared to lie. Hundreds of preachers of the move¬
ment went about the country with the message of liberation,
singing psalms of wisdom an d religious experience and preaching
God from door to door.
The first of the Haridasas was an ascetic of the name of Nara-

hari Tirtha. He was perhaps the first to express in a song in the
vernacular his feelings in relation to God and life.
The following pieces are from a song composed by Narahari

Tirtha. It is probably the first he composed. The sentiment
and expression are worthy of the beginner of the Haridasa move¬
ment.
“In words I have been God’s servant, and greatly learned

in discourse; the mind has, however, loved money and
wordly pleasure and wronged God and the teachers
and felt no fear.
“As the years have passed I have grown more covetous and
am loading myself with error; I have gathered stone and
shell like a child and given up the shield of life.
“For whom is it, soul, that you are so anxious ? For whom
do you hoard this wealth ? Wife and children, friend
and others, none of them will go with you when you
leave the world.
“For giving in charity a pie has been a thousand; for im¬
proper expenditure a crore has been a pie; in doing
good you have felt no interest, in doing evil awake and
active.
HAlUDASAS 39
“Gall on God to whom all creation submits and give up
the enemies within the self; call on Him whom all
righteous men worship, the Lord of all good, the King
of the Universe”.
The next important name in the tradition is that of Vyasaraya.

Next after him, is Purandaradasa. Purandaradasa seems at first
to have been wealthy and to have lived a life of luxury and ease,
unwilling to share his wealth with the poor. He had a wife
who was very pious and devout. The story is told that God
took mercy on him and came once in the guise of a poor Brah-
mana and asked alms of him. Purandara refused. Then the
Brahmana went to the wife. Fearing lest her husband should
know, she gave him a small trinket which had come to her from
her mother. The beggar took the trinket to the husband for
sale immediately. The latter suspected that the trinket should
have been given by his wife and went home vexed and angry
and asked for it. The wife went in as if to bring it and did
not know what to do. In great distress she thought of taking
poison, when the trinket dropped into the cup which held the
poison. She took it and showed it to her husband. He wondered
that it should be with her and looked for it where he had kept
it and found it was gone. This miracle opened his eyes and he
renounced property and became God’s minstrel.
Purandaradasa strikes the keynote of the Haridasa rule of

life in a song of admission of human weakness and surrender to
God. “So without end are my faults, my master”, he says,
“I have not the tongue even to sue for pardon”. Pride on
various counts, and over-much love of wife and children and
others relatives, had made him forget to love God, the slayer of
evil.
He argues and asks in another piece if parents give up the

children they have borne and cease to look after them because ’
the children are silly. “If I, your servant, am ignorant may
you, Lord, leave me without protection ? Tell me, Purandara
Vitthala !” “I shall not let go your feet”, he says in another

piece, “whatever you do I shall cling to you, for yours is the
task of taking me across”.
The state of mind of the devotee when he has given up the

way of the world as no way for him, and has not felt the
assurance of realisation, is described by Purandaradasa in vivid
metaphor in a well-known song. He had not found the nest
nor the track that led to it. Away had both wives gone, and
the walls of the house had fallen and its place was empty. Peace
in God was gone nor did he know what luxury was in store for
hjm in future. His mind had forsaken thought of the eternal
Lord and had become barren. He cries in one place that he is
like the insect that has fallen into the fire and begs God to take
him out and save him. He asks God why He has dragged
him into this world. Why could He not look after him in
heaven, why did He give him birth ? Elsewhere the same mood
finds even fuller expression. That God was merciful; he was
somehow not quite sure, seeing that He was giving this body
again and again and was making him wander and was trying him
so. If God really were merciful let Him come and hold His
devotee by the hand and save him. If He were propitious would
bad impulses torment the devotee ?
When in the course of spiritual ascent he feels weaker than

usual. Purandaradasa cries out to God and says that this aban¬
donment was not right. Again :
“Knowing all and aware of all, may you forsake me thus ?
O Lotus-eyed, O great One, O God ! I have no friends,
life holds no pleasure for me, I have suffered from
calumny, kind one; you are father and mother, you
are brother and friend; and always I have trusted in you,
Krishna.
“The moments have become as ages and I have become
lighter than straw; I have suffered in - countless births.
Thou, worshipped by sages, and Creator of the world’s
HARIDASAS 41
creator, Sleeper on the serpent, Saviour of Prahlada,

Krishna.
“Having assumed the title pf Protector of devotees, should

you not be at hand to them ? O you, who liberate
man, my God Purandara Vitthala. I have trusted in
you a competent, to saver”.
What actually the experience was that wrung this kind of

cry from him we do not know but it finds even more poignant
utterance elsewhere.
God was to Purandaradasa’s mind almost a human master.

He says that for his own prestige. He should save His servants.
“I may have devotton or I may not. The good, however, call
me your servant. See to it now that people shall not say that
a servant of God was dragged down by the powers of death”.
This prayer of Purandaradasa was heard and He who is compe¬
tent to save all souls saved his and we hear in songs of what
must have been a later day, a more hopeful note and finally
assurance of salvation.
“When I am dwelling in thought of you, what harm can

wicked men do to me ?
“What will they do to me being evifiy disposed towards me,

when you, Eternal One, are looking after > me ? All
the moments of life I live in thought of you. Will ants
besiege a fire ?
“If a horse makes a rush to show off speed will the dust
it raises besiege the sun ? To men who can ensure no
harm can come. Will the hill shake in the wind ?
I
“If the thief sees a purse in the mirror and makes a hole
in the mirror to get it, will it become his ? I have
placed my trust in you, O Purandara Vitthala, save
4
“Come what may”, he says elsewhere, “only let us have our

Lord’s grace. Who says I am poor and who says I am friend¬
less ? Nay, I am neither while I have you, my God. To him
who can pray to God, here is Heaven and here He is present
with his angels.”
Thus convinced himself, Purandaradasa preached his faith to

others. He told men that to please God should be their main
object in life; the pleasing of others is a secondary matter. The
harm that anyone can do to us in being angry with us is little.
The good they can give by becoming propitious is of no value.
Purandaradasa makes it clear, however, that it is no small matter
to become God’s servant. That service is not for men of the
world, for it implies giving up the evil in oneself and living in
thought of the Deliverer. This is not easy. Sfo for a beginning,
man may well serve God’s servants.
“To become your servant is the fruit of the accumulated
merit of how many lives, O Bright and Merciful God,
Eternal Source of Good ! Grant me in fullness the service
of your servants”.
Failure in the world is not necessarily failure in the highest
purpose of life. If men will not have you, they may be merely
turning you on to God. Of his own experience Purandaradasa
said that people laughed and scoffed at him and left him God’s
name, they broke and choked him and cured him of useless hope,
they tried him and wearied him and rid him of desire and anger.
By much teasing they showed him the way to realisation. They
treated him as a life dedicated to God; they would have nothing
to do with him, Elsewhere he said :
' “Who that trusted you has prospered, my God ? Listen !
If a man accepts you, he cannot get even a handful of
grain as alms”.
Men of the world are a prey to anxiety. There is one way
out of this anxiety and that is to trust in God, not waver. There
is no one who trusted in God and was lost.
HARIDASAS 43
Show of orthodoxy and ceremonial purity are worthless. Those

who do not give up self and desire but are orthodox and showy in
worship, do it for getting food and pleasing men. Theirs is
saintliness for the sake of stomach. There is no jot of devotion
to God in it. If men have not the will to clear the mind of evil,
but get up at dawn and bathe and go to temple, what good is
it ? The old frog which stays in water both morning and evening,
what else does it do ? If men understand. Truth is bathing
and fasting and meditation and discipline combined; ceremony
performed by the untruthful is waste. Men wash the dirt on the
body but can they wash the mind by bathing in sacred water ?
Knowledge as a load of information, and knowledge which

does not improve life are worthless. What is one’s knowledge
if one does not know oneself ? What use is the repetition of a
formula if the mind is not pure ?
Man’s worst enemies are within. “I fear not fire nor prison
nor do I fear for my body. I fear not snake or scorpion nor
the edge of the sword; only thing I fear, one I dread within;
other’s money, other’s woman—these two I fear”.
To men claiming godliness but not worthy of reverence he

was harsh; to men striving for recognition as wise or important,
he said, “Say not, friends, I am great, I am great* There is
only one who is great—our Purandara Vitthala”.
He told the learned that wrangling about God’s nature is

useless. That He is all-powerful and all-pervading is all that we
can say. “Thus is God. So is God. Let me tell you how he is”.
He has no feet but makes all move; He has no hands but makes
all hold; He has no teeth but makes all chew; He has no stomach
but makes all eat; He has no ears but makes all hear; unseen,
He pervades within, without. From Him comes all. He is all
that men have thought He is. And Purandaradasa saluted God’s
form of Creator and His form of Destroyer; His form of the
King of Gods and His form of the moon; His form of moveless
44
life and His form of moving life. He saluted in fact God’s form
as manifest in all creation. It is useless to try to describe God
adequately by language meant for the world’s life. The Infinite
cannot be encompassed so. He can be an atom, He can be a
world; He can be both at once. He can be form, He can be
formless; He can be formless form; He can be manifest; He
can be latent; He can be both in one; He can have qualities;
He can be quality-less; He can be the two together. The im¬
possible is possible for God’s power. Unthinkable and wondrous
is the greatness of Purandara Vitthala.
All nature is obeying God’s law as is said in the Upanishads
“The earth fears and the hills and the rivers and the sea; *
They all fear you and keep their places;
The wind fears you and moves and the fire fears you and
burns;
The trees and creepers yield fruit;
O Purandara Vitthala, what a King are you !”

c
A good man does not necessarily desire to leave the world

of work. Only, he wishes to be always serving God within.
“O Lord of all that is good, grant me but this : That I shall
ever live the inner life in you”. Life is of value only as an
opportunity to serve God. “It is nothing very much, this life of
a few days. Know this and give in charity and do good”. Man
has an opportunity to rise which is denied to beasts. He should
make use of the opportunity ;
“Birth as a human being is a great opportunity. Do not

misuse it, O silly, O foolish ones. Garner merit before
the raid. Be not caught in the whirl of false living”.
He asks people to remember that God’s mercy alone stands.

Life in the world is fleeting. Build tanks, raise groves, relieve
HARIDASAS 45
people in distress. Give food to those who come to the house

asking for it and win heaven.
Man 'must have patience with the world and go through with
life showing, however, no weakness through self and attachment.
You must swim across sea, you must fight through life and win.
Being unattached to self and desire, loving life as the water on
the lotus-leaf loves the leaf and singing always that Rama is
Lord, those who would have the soul’s desire should swim and
win.
In another piece Purandaradasa preaches patience with fault¬

finders and kindness in return for unkindness. He asks meg to
realise the secret of the text that right alone succeeds and act
wisely ; to him who gives poison to give sweet and tasty food;
to serve him who hates ; to praise and oblige him who reviles
falsely; and if a man deceives, to give his name to their son
and honour him and all the while sing the glory of Lotus-eyed
Purandara Vitthala and realise the purpose of life.
He told men inclined to think of astrology and horoscopy

that trust in God was the real astrology and horoscopy.
o
Caste is not a mere matter of birth; it is in character. Do
you see the outcaste only outside the village ? Is there no out-
caste within ? For there are men who are outcastes by their
character.
The doctrine of Karma is preached fervently in many of the
songs. One of the most familiar says : “That a man has thought
on God with devotion, is borne out by his words coming true;
that he gave food to others, by his getting food to eat”.
Purandaradasa gives a new meaning to sacrifice. What we

should slay in sacrifice is our bad qualities. This is a familiar
way of weaning people from the lower forms of worship.
We cannot please God by what we are. We please Him by
acknowledging Him. What is it that we can take as gift to Him ?
With what shall we please him, Lord of the humble ? He should

give to us rather the thought of Him.
Man should not put off the impulse to rise. He should use
it when it comes. Winnow the corn when the wind is blowing.
Say not “tomorrow”. Now is the time; come. God is gracious
and is ever more ready with His mercy than man with devotion.
He will carry grass to the house of those who bring Him flowers.
He has no pride at all, the Lord of all wealth.
Purandaradasa was what in modern parlance should be called

a mystic. It appears from his story that he was a man of strong
impulses and will. When he was of the world he was heartily of
it; when he awoke from worldliness he reacted strongly and gave
up the world altogether. He felt near to God and yet far and
passed some time on the swing of faith, feeling his unworthiness
keenly, and slowly realising the mercy of God. This is the story
of all strong natures which start in the world’s race and feel
pulled towards God in the middle of it. Purandaradasa did
not write reminiscence. If he had, we should have had a book
like St Augustine’s Confessions, or Mahatma Gandhi’s story of
his life. Yet Purandaradasa put enough of himself into his songs
to give them the colour of his personality. In the songs which
he obviously composed late in life we see how near God was to
his heart.
The songs of Purandaradasa indicate a mind familiar with

the world and its ways and inclined as much to see without as
within. Wide knowledge, deep experience, and a great love of
humanity are visible in them. Their range is great. Men of
many types will find something in him to satisfy. The songs
preach not mere renunciation. Lifedn thought of God is what
they teach. They warn the prosperous ones of his
generation against thinking too much of the pleasure of
the body and material success and to the needy and destitute give
the message that they need not despair. God still was father to
HARIDASAS 47
all and misfortune might only be His way of calling them to

Himself. His teaching so appealed to the people of his and
succeeding generations that he is still the Servant of Hari that men
remember best..
Purandaradasa is the most important figure among Haridasas,
but he was only one of a large group of like-minded people.
Narahari Tirtha, the reputed originator of the movement, and
Kanakadasa—believed to have been a contemporary of Puran¬
daradasa—have been mentioned earlier. Well-known successors
of these are Vijayadasa, Jagannathadasa and Gopaladasa* Other
singers are named in the tradition and pieces attributed to them
occasionally sung.
Kanakadasa was a shepherd by birth, became a disciple of

the same Vyasaraya who probably was Purandaradasa’s preceptor
and was held in great respect by his teacher and friends. Some
stories are told of this saint which suggest that his rise in the♦
preceptor’s favour was not quite pleasing to persons who were

conscious of their superior caste. One story states that the
preceptor wanted to teach the grumblers a lesson and one day in
the open assembly he called some of these men as well as
Kanakadasa and gave each a plantain with the direction that they
should eat it where they would not be seen. They all went out and
came back later, Kanaka last. Kanaka brought the fruit intact.
The others had eaten theirs in some secret place. Kanakadasa was
asked why he did not eat the fruit. He said, “I could not eat
it anywhere. You told me that I should eat it unseen. Wherever
I went I felt that God’s eyes were on me.” “See”, said the teacher,
“that is why Kanakadasa is better than the rest of us”. A tradi¬
tion at Udupi runs to the effect that when Kanakadasa came to
the temple for worship and could not gain admission to the
presence of the deity, he went to the rear of the temple and
prayed. The image in the temple turned towards him : that is,
towards the wall behind which Kanakadasa stood. The people
then realised how great the devotee was and made a hole in the
wall so that he might have a view of the image. Another
story says that one day a hungry dog came into his house and
took some bread and ran out; and that his wife blamed him
for looking on when bread was being taken away by a dog.
Kanakadasa took some jaggery and ghee and ran after the dog
calling : “O Great one, my God living in all life, eat not mere
bread. Have this too”. It is said that he had a vision of God
on this occasion. Other stories are told to show his skill in talk
and his power to worship God mentally.
Kanakadasa’s songs show more subtlety than Purandaradasa’s.

They are more philosophical in tone. The following song of his
is very familiar to people :
‘‘This body is yours : so is the life within it :

■ yours too are the sorrows and joys of our daily life.
“Whether sweet word or Veda or story of law, the power
in the ear that, hears them is yours; the vision in the
eye that gazes lidless on beauty of young form, yea,
that vision is yours.
“The pleasure that we feel in living together with fragrance
of musk and sweet scents, that is yours : and when the
tongue rejoices in the taste of its food, yours is the
pleasure with which it rejoices.
“This body of ours and the five senses which are caught
in this net illusion, all, all is yours. O source of all
desire that the body bears, is man his own master ?
Nay, all his being is yours.”
A well known song of Kanakadasa teaches trust in God. He

tells his mind not to tremble but bear up a little. God will pro¬
tect all. We need have no doubt of this. The feeling of wonder
which comes over us when we look into the structure of our life
and thought and of nature around us is expressed by Kanaka¬
dasa in another song. Is God in Maya or is Maya in God ? Is
God in the body or is body in God ? Is the building in
space or the space in the building ? Or are both space and
HARIDASAS 49
building in the eye ? Or is the eye in the mind or the mind in the
eye ? Or are both eye and mind in Krishna ?
In another piece Kanakadasa tells his mind to beware or it
will go to ruin. The words can be addressed to any one. “Choose
not evil. Hold the rod of chastisement in the hand and use it
against yourself. Be not elated at the thought of body and pos¬
session ; walk not the way of destruction, consort not with the
wicked ; fall not, fall not. Do not practise deceit and earn wages
of sin... Forget not your true nature, keep your desire within
limits. And forget not the beautiful and eternal Lord. Forget
Him not.”
Kanakadasa says pilgrimages are of no use and the sacred
rivers are no more sacred than we who bathe in them make of
life. What good comes of living beside the sacred rivers
Krishnaveni, Ganga, Godavari and Tungabhadra and fasting and
bathing in them with devotion and performing ceremony and
fulfilling vow ? Why this exertion ? Get near to the soul of all
beings which is within : experience good and get real release.
Get strong. As other teachers said this teacher also said that
purity was something within. A man bows a hundred times and
plunges into water ; yet turns his eyes to women and makes his
mind prisoner to them. His show is like filling the inside of the
gourd with toddy and putting on the outside a garland and deco¬
rations of purity. He remonstrates with persons speaking of castes
and tells them not to fight and asks one of the fighters what
his’ caste is. There is no birth which he has not had, there is no
land which he has not trodden, there is nothing which he has
not cooked and eaten. Why then talk of caste, caste, caste ?
Know the truth within. Then, too, where is caste for those who
know the pleasure of right life ? What caste is soul, what caste
is life, what is the caste of the vital principles and the senses ?
Where is caste for the man whom the great God Adikesava has
looked on with grace ? Let a man remember Him to whom no
one is stranger. Of himself, however, Kanakadasa spoke in great
humility. He says in one piece :
fT have not devotion of the size of the gingili-seed. I am

thief amidst thieves, showy like the crane.”
He advises people not to worship endless numbers of village-
deities but to give in charity and do good.
Vadiraja, a younger contemporary of Purandaradasa and

Kanaka was another ascetic* Haridasa. Complete surrender is
expressed in the following piece by him.
“I have approached your feet, O Venkataramana, my

God of the loving and lotus-like eyes and abode of
all that is good ! I am a waif, my God, and you are
my one refuge ; take pity on me of your grace, and
look on me as your own. Think not of my failing,
my God. You who sleep on the serpent, O Great
One ! You look after whole nations ; even so look
after me. Sleeper on the serpent, Lord of mercy,
Great Hayavadana ”
Vijayadasa, a successor of Purandaradasa and Kanakadasa,

revived the tradition in his time. In one piece he describes his
spiritual awakening, using the figure of a sealed house opened
by officers of justice. The door of his being opened that day.
He knew not how he reaped this fruit that comes only of righteo¬
usness. It had been the home of evil all that time. He was
deceived till that day and through the mountain of darkness could
not see. God’s grace was the key and the teacher’s mercy was
the strength. In company with the servants of God he went to
his being and in the name of God opened the seal. The enemies
that were around fled. He went in through the door holding
firmly in the hand the light of knowledge fed with devotion.
What did he find ? A beautiful palace all around ; and there,
seated on the lotus of the heart, praised by the lords of creation,
served by the wealth of earth and heaven and surrounded by
reflections of His being, he saw Vijaya Vitthala in whom exstence,
knowledge and bliss are one. The simile is a little over¬
elaborated but the saint seems in ordinary life to have been
HAIUDASAS 51
a servant of the law and it came to him naturally. It should

also have been well understood in the circle in which the song
was first sung and even to us of a later day the picture has a
certain grandeur.
Vijayadasa asks his soul in one place why it came into the
world. Did it need to know what the world is like ? Why did
it leave the heavenly abode where it waited in service on God’s
presence ? Very well, then, he says and pretends to let it have
a go at life. Woman, gold and earth, always, are its possession.
Well, let it enjoy them. But he fears that the soul may take this
seriously and says again in tones of persuasion : “Look here,
soul ! Let by-gones be by-gones, bury the past and love God
and live in thought of Him from now on”. Mere knowledge and
ceremony are no good, he says, in another place. Liberation
comes not without realisation, come whatever else will. He repeats
in another piece that it does not matter where he is, the man who
is not for God; even if he utters God's name without intermission,
he will not reach eternal life. In another piece he confesses to
God that he had sat in silence for meditation and shown wond¬
rous qualities to the eyes of men but had not given up the self
and had been the worst of human creatures. He had not a jot
either of wisdom, or unwavering faith. Nor had he given up
desire. He told God who is said to meet every wish of his devo¬
tees that he had been a sinner before Him and begged Him not to
remember his failings against him. Earning livelihood by speak¬
ing of God he described in one piece as giving a ruby and taking
vegetables in exchange.
Jagannathadasa is another well-knoWn devotee. He calls on

God to come and dwell with him.
“Come, O Merciful One ! And stay for ever in my heart,

thou great without a second, Lord of all that is good !
‘,Come O Beautiful, Gracious to devotees! Come and stay

ever in the soft petals of my heart-lotus; to see your
/
holy feet, O Merciful One, I have performed numerous

austerities, observed numerous vows.
“I have given up thought of body, mind and wealth and

dream always of your lotus-like feet; I have now felt the
desire for you. Giver of men’s desires, fulfil that desire.
Delay not, I have lost my heart to you”.
He says he is God’s servant :

“Your servant am I, your servant am I. Your servant and
ever your servant. You, dweller in all life, centre of
holiness, your servant am I. O Heart of life, giver of
life, Creator of the Creator, Lord of existence, your
servant am I. Heart of time, directing time; you who
are beyond time, who set time in motion, you who stop
time, Master of time, time’s very form : your servant
am I.” I
He says that to those who know the way, worship of God is

very easy. Those who do not know are indeed unfortunate,
He asks for the company of the beneficent souls who call on
God’s name in delight. Elsewhere he tells his mind’ what things
are worthwhile for man : “Devote yourself to God’s story. In
the worship of metal and stone images there is nothing to be
gained. If you bathe in many waters, you wash dirt; but you
do not get real knowledge. Give up low thoughts and serve
good men”. In another piece he asks God why He tried this
servant of His servants’ servants and begs Him to bestow on him
that which is good. The devotee’s failure indeed was immeasur¬
able and God is essentially just, but let Him not forsake the sinner
on that account. Passions infested the man and he forgot God.
Let not the Unchanging One, the Eternal Bliss in wisdom, look
on these many and great faults, but forgive him.
Vasudevadasa, another well-known devotee, begged this only

of God and prayed to Him to be propitious and grant the request.
He would take nothing else from the Knower of all. That one
R ARID AS AS 53
prayer was that he be not placed in the company of the evil-

minded; not beg of all and sundry; that he be shown only the
story that concerns God. He could not live a moment without
God or something that concerned Him. He rejoiced to see God’s
servants. When he could hear of God he liked not to hear useless
talk of other things. Long life without thought of God, he felt,
was worthless, was nothing. Living but an hour he truly lives
who counts himself as one of God’s men.
This prayer is by Gopaladasa :
“Saviour of your flock and Granter of salvation, show

me your lotus-like feet today; O Beautiful, O son of
Nandagopa, Saviour of the distressed, Lord of all
good !
“I have been caught in the bonds of life and see not the way
and am weary; say I am your child, and forget my faults
and save me O father, source of Desire !
“I know not the truth and have lived as a coward; and have
not devoted myself to you; I have not seen you, nor sung
your glory ; O Graceful, I pray you save me.
“I have been a burden in the life of the world. I strayed
from the path and joined evil men. There is no one to
save me and I have come to you. O Magnanimous One,
Sweet Musician, Father, take me across”.
A large number of the songs of the Dasas relate to the story of

Krishna, the individual soul being thought of as beloved of God
and the love of God described in terms of human love. Some of
these pieces show keen love of nature’s beauty. In one of them
a maiden waking to the love of Krishna asks her friend who it is
that is playing so sweetly on the flute in Vrindavana, holding it in
his hands soft as tender leaves. The hill-side, she, sees, is filled
with the sound and the birds have gathered round the flutist. Is it
possible to go and see Krishna immediately ? Who is it playing on
54 devotional poets and mystics
the flute ? The cows have forgotten to graze and Jamuna has
slowed down her pace. With cowherds tending their cows allround,
who is it, so graceful and handsome playing his flute in Vrinda-
vana ? The elder one who has known the joy of the love of God
tells her it is Krishna and that the Gods have shed heaven’s flowers
on Him. “Go and see in Vrindavana. It is Sri Krishna in kadamba
forest, tending cows; go and see”.
It has been forgotten that these songs written to describe

divine love in this manner form a metaphor. This is the dilemma
of symbolic writing. A simile is taken to explain in terms of some¬
thing familiar, some truth which is abstruse. The abstruseness
is indeed removed but the truth is also removed with it and the
symbol remains in its place. In some of these songs the love for
God is pictured as love for a paramour and the devotee’s rela¬
tions with the world as the relations with a husband. The symbo¬
lism was not intended to recommend improper love in the world
by comparing it to divine love any more than to condemn divine
love by comparing it to improper love in the world. The use,
however, of the holiest of loves we know in such juxtaposition
with the unholiest love introduced an element of confusion.
Defenders of the metaphor will say that the fault is that of the
person who misunderstands. This is no doubt true but part of the
responsibility lies with those who use dubious metaphor in speak¬
ing to simple people.
We shall close with one example of later songs; The piece

seems to have been written by a devotee who lived about a hun-
red years ago.
“I have placed full trust in you, Panduranga; shine Thou

ever in the throne of my heart; Dispeller of the terror
of wordly life in devotees, your mercy is your treasure,
Panduranga.
“Even in the midst of the world’s great throng, teach my

mind to rest firmly in you; all the work I do is part
HARIDASAS 55
of your worship; give me constantly this share in your

worship.
“Overlord and God, let me constantly have the thought of

your world play, Panduranga; remove my dependence
on others; show me my path to the highest good.
“Alike in joy and in great sorrow, my friend be Thou, Pandu¬

ranga; Life of Life, Vyasa Vitthala, Panduranga, let
me always see the light of your countenance”.
The Haridasa movement made an effort to place a complete

code of morality and religion before the people. Its main object
was to condemn formalism and ritualism in religion and a too
arduous pursuit of wordly prosperity. It preached, instead
devotion to God and recognition of spiritual values. It preached
also that the better life was not meant for a few people but
was meant for all and should be striven after by all. It has been
sometimes said that the Dasas preached indifferentism and
quiescence and removed the impulse to work in the world by
decrying individual effort and emphasizing the doctrine of Karma.
It is true that single lines and sometimes piece seem to speak
in this strain. Possibly, particular Dasas preach only such
doctrine and no other. The accusation, however, cannot be made
against the whole school. All teaching has to be understood
with reference to the circumstances in which it arose. It should
also be remembered that these songs are lyric and the* idea in each
depends on the incident which gave birth to it. At the time of
prosperity when addressing men who had enough to eat the
teacher may well say : “Do not think your bodies are eternal.
Remember you have a soul. Eating and drinking are not the
whole of life”. To a generation that has more hunger than food
this advice not to love the world’s pleasures too much naturally
seems mockery. . We should see that the advice was meant for
the full man, not the hungry one. It applies today to the full
man. So far from preaching quiescence the songs prescribe the
doing of good deeds. It may be objected that this was recom¬

mended as a means of acquiring merit and not for its own sake.
The motive was suggested for the common man who could be
got to do such work only if he could gain something. Men of
higher mind were asked to work for pleasing God. It is true that
the teaching was not always understood and led to error in life.
This, however, has happened to nearly all teaching since the world
began. We do not judge a doctrine by the lives of the people
who misunderstood it but by those who understood it. We judge
it by what it meant to do and what at least partially it succeeded
in doing.
The Haridasa tradition is still alive though not very active.

As an attempt to reform orthodoxy from within we can imagine
that movement had to meet peculiar difficulties. In assessing
human worth it changed the emphasis from birth to character.
In preaching the greatness of the one God it condemned lower
forms of worship which the orthodox religion permitted and
even accepted into the fold. In placing emphasis on the meaning
rather than on the language and taking the best thought to the
people it touched vested interests to the quick. Mendicancy even
in the name of God seemed to many somewhat of a fall form the
dignity which the teachers of the people should claim. That the
Haridasa movement was treated with some hostility quite early
in its history is evident from the fact that Vaishnavas were soon
divided into Vyasakuta and Dasakuta, meaning the Vyasa group
and the Dasa group, the former relying on Sanskrit texts and
older traditions, the latter on the new teaching on a reformed
basis. The movement, however, has persisted inspite of opposition
and mendicants of the order even now go about singing songs
composed by themselves and the songs of their predecessors and
contemporaries.
RAHIM
Shcimsher Bahadur Singh
We vaunt much about our culture and civilization. But how

do we experience it as a living reality, and how do we see it in its
living form ? If it is so all-comprehensive, universal, as we all
believe, and truly great, if it is a repository of centuries of
intellectual probing and deep searching, pulsating with human
concern for future well-being and progress of mankind, how could
we grasp its intrinsic values without the aid and guidance of
history—history of the whole sub-continent of our motherland ?
It is not a magic wand in your hand, But it is certainly something
like a huge and vast banyan tree, proliferating and spreading
out in an ever-widening canopy of foliage, branches and shoots,
incorporating you and me, like hosts of others down the ages.
We cannot form any idea of the whole of its form from just any
one branch of it, much less can we understand or discover its full
form and content.
Now, it is some four hundred years ago that on some pro¬

minent branch of this great tree, a dove (you might say) flew
happily in and took his humble perch. "But his cooings filled part
of this vast canopy with his sweet reverberations, so much so that
the echoes are still not inaudible at this distance of time. That
great courageous Dove was Rahim.
- The Rosary of Devotional Lives (or Bhaktamala Prasang)

contains a beautiful anecdote which runs as follows :—
Across our borders once there lived a Pathan, Rahim by

name. And fame reached him of the radiant beauty of Srinathji*
*The God of the Vallabh sect of Vaishnavas- In earlier times His temple
stood on the slopes of Govardhana, near Mathura.
. He yearned to be face to face with Him. And the impulse set

him on the journey. Day and night he travelled, taking no rest.
When he reached the holy gates and as he wanted to push in,
“Hey do not enter !”—he was sternly checked. Then Rahim, in
an irritated voice, returned : “Mark the Eminence here ! And then
this sorry lack of common courtesy ! And, well, if it was to be
thus, why was the passionate urge created in me ! Why this
call ?”
“Complains Rahim, the Divinity has meted me out a fate

as that of the arrow on the taut string of a bow. For a
moment pulled me in close, and then shot me away
into distance.”
Having uttered these sentiments he moved away into the shade

of a rock. The high priest (Gusainji) heard him, and taking the
sweet offerings in a plate, placed it before Rahim. Then to him
thus remarked he : “Baba, why do you trouble yourself now
and come to me ! What have I to do with you ! I make com¬
plaints to Him alone, who sent me the Call.” Then Srinathji
Himself brought the plate of divine offerings to him, upon which
Rahim turned his back, looking the other way.
“Pull it down to yourself and up and away it goes, the

lantern hung high on the pole; play loose with it, let
it go, and there, it comes back to you. Mohan, my
beloved, what a strange experience Love is !”
Then Srinathji retraced his steps. And now, he was all regrets.
“How foolish of me to have acted the way I did ! What’s to be
my lot now !” He pondered, “Nothing, but that I pass my days
hereafter in recounting His ways.”
“The eyes are all too full of Mohan’s beauty

How can there be room for other beauties ?
Finding the caravansarai full, every new
traveller turns away from the gates”.
RAHIM 59
This may be apocryphal. But it is illustrative of certain

trends. A few of the nobility, no doubt, sought to deepen their
cultural sensibility by recourse to the satsang, i.e., by keeping
spiritual audience with renowned saints and sufis. It was part of
the way of life with those who placed highest value on integrity
of spirit and mind. This group almost invariably included those
who possessed the highest degree of artistic refinement. Certainly,
as all accounts concur, Nawab Abdur-Rahim Khan-i-Khanan was
one such luminary. And the reader of history knows that his
upbringing and complete education was a precious trust of no less
a person than emperor Akbar the Great, himself. So, then, as he
grew up into a truly cultured and courteous, truly robust and
valiant, truly intelligent and far-sighted young prince, he found
himself at home in the varied lores and traditions of the country
which he was to serve in war and peace as commander or as
patron of the various sciences and arts. The Hindi compositions
ascribed to him by popular consent as well as learned references
to his literary and artistic acumen and insight in such works
as Ma-asir-e-Rahimi amply demonstrate that Rahim, the popular
poet and the august jewel of Akbar’s court, was not only a deep
scholar of Persian, Arabic and Turkish but knew Sanskrit, Braj
Bhasha and Avadhi so well, that he composed poems in these
languages and of a standard that caught the fancy of accomplished
masters of his day and those of the subsequent times.
It is not the purpose of this essay to dilate on the well-known

military campaigns ably and successfully led by Rahim such as
the one in Gujarat, or on the most eminent positions of office
which he held in the empire as governor in the various subas or
as Vatil at the centre, etc. What draws us towards this intri-
gueing personality are not these things. Nor are they the intrigues
during Jahangir’s reign which saddened the last years of his life
and closed it in tragedy. True, we feel heavy at heart reading
about these things. Even as you look at his silent tomb on the
Mathura Road in Hazrat Nizamuddin in New Delhi, you cannot
but pause and ask the builder of the mausoleum at Safdarjang,
“Where’s gone all the marble that was once an architectural part
of the tomb of the Great Khan-i-Khanan ?” And we neglect the
great man still.
Rahim' is not only so well-informed for his times, and wise

but he is so human. Says Ghalib : ‘Even it is not vouchsafed
to every man to be human’. No better proof of the pure gold
that was his metal can be adduced than just this : that his greatest
contemporary, Tulsidas, counted him among his friends, although,
of course, he needs no credentials. His own Hindi couplets are
testimony enough.
He became a legend in his own life time. His magnanimous

generosity has been proverbial ever since. Few can be his peers
in this respect. His unbounded generosity to all and sundry drew
this query in the form of a beautiful piece of rhetoric from Ganga-
Kavi, an illustrious poet of his court and his age.
“Whence O Nawab Ju, did you imbibe this unique
mode of munificence ? The higher is the liberal
hand raised, lower and still lower bends down the
head.”
The Khan-i-Khanan’s answer was :

“The Munificent One is someone else who keeps on
replenishing us day and night. But people delude
themselves into thinking that this humble self is
the source. Hence the down-cast eyes, in embar¬
rassment”.
Tradition has it that the great Khan-i-Khanan was once

so thrilled by the excellence of a composition of this very Ganga-
Kavi that he awarded him thirty-six lakhs of rupias.
Scholars point out that Rahim has gracefully turned many

a Sanskrit gem into polished Braj Bhasha. This peculiar genius
is aptly exemplified in the following two couplets :
RAHIM 61
“Praised be the waters of the well. Humble folk can

slake their thirst to their fill. Where is the supre¬
macy of an ocean, if along its shores the whole world
go parched and thirsty ?”
“Rahim, it is common knowledge that Kamala (the
wealth-goddess) is never steady at one place. Spouse
of the Most Ancient One, how should she not be
errant ?”
Thanks to his popularity, such of Rahim’s couplets as showed

some affinity to the mode and manner of Kabir’s were unhesitat-
ingly slipped into the body of the Sakhis by popular compilers of
rhymed maxims. Come to think of it, it is no small tribute to
Rahim. This famous couplet, for example, illustrates the case :
4Rahim, those who go out abegging, they are already

dead. But they who face them with a ‘Nay’ have
indeed preceded them.”
The man who was so much steeped in our culture and drank
deep at its wells, and who at the same time added his own mite
to the store of ancient wisdom—why should not his pithy
observations, ever full of wit and grace, continue to be a source of
perennial pleasure ?
In the mediaeval phase of the history of Hindi poetry Rahim

is particularly noteworthy for his “Categories of beautiful women
in the Barawae measure” (Barawae Nayika-bhed). There is
reason to believe that Tulsidas felt inspired to compose his
Ramayana in the Barawae measure {Barawae Ramayana), after the
verse model set before him by Rahim. The work influenced many
a worthy poet coming after. Shri Maya Shankar Yajnik, who
specialised on Rahim, thinks that it is quite probable that the
famous Rati compilation known as “Adornment of the aesthetic
modes”, Rasa-sringar, was put together by the poet Mati Ram
himself. To be noted is the fact that in this work of aesthetics*
categories of beauty and classification of the modes of pleasure are

set down by Mati Ram, while the illustrations in each case are
taken from Rahim’s ‘‘Categories of Beauty” (Barawae Nayika-
bhed). “In these Barawae measures,” says the* great critic Pandit
Ramchandra Shukla, “we get a faithful glimpse of the true modes
of Indian love-relationship.” Below we give five of the choicest
ones, the same which the critic has cited in his History of Hindi
Literature.
Starting up your incessant coo-coo so very early,

oh winged friend, you inflame my passions. Pray
for a little while, be quiet !
The young wife goes out to set the lighted lamp at
the main door, but as soon as mother-in-law and
sister-in-law are seen returning home, blows it out.
Even as the loved one was setting foot in her court¬
yard, she rose up and hurried to greet him. Giggling
and full of hints, the witty young girl offered him his
due seat.
Joyfiflly shall I scrape grass with my shapely small

hoe alongside my husband. And, oh, ours shall be a
single thatched cover in the rains that fill our paths !
At least leave me for consolation, my love, a small
rosary, as you go abroad. -Telling on it your name
would help me bear somewhat the pangs of separa¬
tion.
There is yet another collection of Rahim’s Barawae couplets.

In parts at least it is of a maturer cast perhaps than the earlier
“Categories of Beauty”. A few of the couplets evince a power
of pathos, somewhat reminiscent of the padas of Sur Das. The
volume contains descriptions of the distracted feelings of the
forlorn Gopis of their dialogues on love and intellect with
Krishna’s ascetic philosopher-friend, Uddhava. Besides, there are
RAHIM 63
scenes of the rainy season, in racy rural idiom. Here is, for
example, Rahim’s observation on true love :
t
Just as in the course of bilth-cycles of millions of

creatures it is the rarest luck for a soul to get the
chance of a birth in human form (the highest in the
range of the living beings), so is the case with true
love. It is hardest to find in the whole wide world.
(Non-belief in re-incarnation would not put off the discerning

modern reader. On the contrary, he would find his apprecia¬
tion enhanced by the rhetorical exploitation of the peculiar
simile.)
Here is another couplet which describes Krishna’s dark-

complexioned beauty. The love-lorn Gopi tells her confidant :
What a wonder of marine glamour does the beauty of

Mohan’s perfect form possess ! No sooner do you
have a glimpse of it, sister, than the eyes (like
lotuses) are immersed in it and lost.
“Charms of the City” (or more explicitly “Around the Charm¬

ing City” : Nagar-Shobha) “is a fairly attractive album of folk
beauties. .It is a precursor of the more famous, Deva?s Jati-Vilas
(or intimate pleasures of the various caste folks)”. Rahim in his
own racy manner introduces us to the various types of the folk
belles representing some sixty caste milieu, each showing off her
own characteristic charms. Here we can distinguish a Brahmani
from a Khattrani or a Rajputni, a Pathani from a Bhatyarin, a
Jogin or a Bhaktin from a Dhobin (washer-woman) or a Chamarin
(women belonging to the caste of tanners).
The work reflects the cutely observant nature and good humour
of the poet. The portraits are anything but dull. Ways of amorous
dalliance and all the incidental coquetries are vividly portrayed.
The vegetable-seller, for example, is :
A brinjal-complexioned girl, selling sova and other

green salads. With all abandon she intones the
sensual songs of the Phaga season and the sexy terms
of abuse are ever on her lips.
Her baskets are full of green and fresh things. Who¬

soever is thereby attracted towards her is welcomed
with mock abuses. And these actually tantalize the
customers all the more.
While depicting the typical character of the Lady Innkeeper,

the moralist in Rahim could not resist giving his characteristic
twist to the description :
The Lady Innkeeper and the Goddess of Wealth
(Lakshmi) both show the same pattern of behaviour.
In either case, there is much fanfare of noble wel¬
come to the incoming clients, while the outgoing
ones are brusquely ignored.
Rahim exhibits another very curious style in Madanashtaka

“Eight Stanzas in Praise of the God of Love”). It somehow in¬
variably reminds one of Pandit Ayodhya Singh Upadhyaya (a poet
writing in the earlier decades of the present century). Look at
this pretty sample :
Kalita-lalita-mala ya jawahara-jara tha nayana-
chakhana wala chandni men khara tha [Decked in
jewels and adorned with garlands all grace and
fragrance, he stood there in the moonlight all aware¬
ness, all-discernment full of brilliance in his eyes.]
Our pure Sanskritised Khari Boli of the modern period is very

much alive here in the sixteenth century. In all his deeper strains,
Rahim seeks peace and harmony, only peace and harmony, in life
in terms of Indian aesthetics...the realization of the Santa Rasa,
which is not exactly what might be called, ‘Didactic Values*. It
is quite true, a goodly number of Rahim’s couplets are didactic.
RAHIM 65
But what I wish to emphasize here is that a good part is not just
that; but something more. An appeal not just to our moral instincts
only. They touch a deeper chord: where we begin to discern a
greater law at work, that of peace and universal harmony. Not
the cold logic or moral equations; but the peace and beauty, in¬
herent in deeper wisdom and understanding. The finest poetic
instincts keep company here. The face of Saraswati is a soft
face full of light, flowing with a deeper, quieter music of wisdom.
It is that which, in my opinion, Rahim seeks in the best of his
poems. And that is the basic' reason of his lasting appeal. All
such of his couplets are not easy to translate at all. The simple
magic of the original lies in the suggestive lilt and utter raciness
and richness of the idiom and in the true ring of the deeply felt
experience. However, there are a few of the paraphrasings with
which we may content ourselves :
This instrument of the corporal frame is like a win¬

nowing fan. Let it help you winnow out the chaff and
dross of the surrounding world. Let the lighter
elements be shaken off. Let things that have weight
(like the precious grain) augment your store.
Give up haughty airs, Rahim. Adopt the ways of the
humble. Be soft of speech. Walk in humility.
And everywhere you’ll find, it is your own native
place.
Value the water of purity. A pearl lacking it or a man

of character wanting in it, or even the bread-flour
for lack of it, is of no use at all. Therefore, Rahim,
do preserve this integral purity.
Don’t give jerks to the string of Love’s relationship,

lest it should break. For, once broken, you cannot
join the ends. Even if you join them, there would be
a knotted spot there. (No more the straight smooth
relationship as before).
So narrow is the passage of Love’s lane that two at a

time simply cannot exist there together. If it’s your
own Ego that is there, then Hari shall not be there.
If it’s Hari, then the presence of your own Ego is
ruled out.
The lotus-flower opens out its broad petals over the

waters (that gave it birth) providing shade against the
sun; and at moonrise closes up to allow the same
waters to keep cool, (with moon-beams). Born with
such a noble character, tell me Rahim, is there any¬
one who would not be his friend, or anyone who
would be his foe ?
If you uphold the truth, you lose the world ; if false¬

hood, you never can have divine peace. It is very
perplexing, Rahim ; since either path is path of severe
trial.
There are three situations occurring in life, which

reveal to you your good and evil. One is when you
are facing a stranger. Another when you are dealing
with your neighbour. Yet another when you are
striving for some settlement of rights.
A give-and-take approach in love’s relationship is

never to be recommended. No, Rahim. In such an
affair, one should stake one’s whole life, whatever
the result, gain or loss.
MALIK MUHAMMAD JAYASI
Madan Gopal
Malik Muhammad Jayasi’s work marks the high water-mark

of Sufi poetry in India. And yet, not much is known about
his life. Also, whatever little is known is gleaned only from
his works, wherein, he like other Sufi poets, apart from invoking
the blessings of God, tke Prophet and the Guru refers also to
the ruler of the time, and a few lines about himself. Thus it is
from some of the verses in his Padmavat and AkJiiri Kalam, that
it has been deduced that Jayasi was born around 1493 A.D.
*
Legend says that the day he was born witnessed a severe earth¬
quake. He later came to live in the village Jayas near Amethi.
The place was considered holy, and was the headquarters of one
of the Sects of the Sufis. From verses in his works, we also know
that Malik Muhammad was hot a handsome man at all; his left
eye had no light, and he was deaf in his left ear. His looks
evoked laugher, but his compositions more than made up for
all these drawbacks and so popular were his works that he was
listened to with rapt attention and devotion Even though he
was ugly, Nature endowed him with a heart which was pure and
overflowing with love for mankind and a humility which was
quite unlike any other poet’s. He was honoured by the Raja
of Amethi, who believed that he had been endowed with a son
because of Jayasi’s blessings. Jayasi died* in 1542, and his tomb
in Amethi is visited by pilgrims even today.
Jayasi’s works which were popular with the followers of Sufi
saints, remained rather unknown outside the circle until the last
century. Bharatendu Harishchandra gave it some space in his
Kavi Vachan Sudha. Sir George A. Grierson,‘with the help of
Sudhakar Dwivedi translated Jayasi’s Padmavat and published
it in Bibliotheca Indica of the Asiatic Society of Bengal. Further
attention came to be devoted when Acharya Ram Chandra
70 DEVOTIONAL POETS AND MYSTIC^
Ashraf of Jayas, who was in the line of Nizamuddin Auli# and

the other Mahdi (Mohiuddin ?) who belonged to the Sufi sect
which resided in Manikpur Kalpi. The ruler of the times when
Jayasi lived was Sher Shah (Sur).
After giving all these usual details, Jayasi gives the story of
Padmavati, which starts with the description of King Gandharva
Sen’s island kingdom of Simhala, his beautiful capital city, its
gardens and orchards, his parliament, his daughter Padmini or
Padmavati, of unparalleled beauty. Padmini’s favourite parrot
named Hiraman is keen to help locate a suitable husband for
her. At some point Gandharva Sen feels annoyed and asks that
the parrot be put to death. However, the parrot escapes, only
to be made a captive and sold to the Brahmin companion of a
trader from Chittor in Mewar, The parrot is taken to Chittor,
<
where Rattan Sen has just succeeded his father Chitra Sen. Rattan
Sen is impressed by the cleverness of the parrot and buys off
Hiraman for a lakh of rupees. One day, when Rattan Sen is
away for shikar, and his queen Nagamati boasts of her looks,
Hiramen tells her of the beauty of Padmini of Simhala island.
Nagamati feels jealous and orders the parrot to be put to death.
Hiraman, however, is hidden by a well-wisher. When produced
before Rattan Sen, he narrates his tale and repeats what he had
told Nagamati about the beauty of Padmini. Hearing of the
beauty of Padmini, Rattan Sen falls in love with her and decides
to win Padmini for himself. For this mission he puts on the
robes of a mendicant and accompanied by 16,000 loyal soldiers,
sets out on his way to Simhala. The journey is hazardous. Gaja-
pati, the king of Kalinga, places a ship at the disposal of Rattan
Sen and his companions (Such names as Gajapati, Narapati,
Ashvapati etc. used by Jayasi were in currency till the twelfth
century, and are found in ancient inscriptions). Rattan Sen and
his companions sail to Simhala. There, with the blessings of
Siva and Parvati, and other gods of the Hindu pantheon. Rattan
Sen is able to have a glimpse of Padmini in the temple, and
swoons on seeing her dazzling beauty.
MALIK MUHAMMAD JAYASI 71
Ultimately Rattan Sen succeeds in winning the hand of the

fair Padmini. Meanwhile, Nagamati sends messages of pangs
of separation to Rattan Sen and he feels home-sick. After several
adventures including a ship-wreck, Rattan Sen and his 16,000
companions, who had also married as many of Padmini’s friends,
return to Chittor. Back in his own realm, Rattan Sen, with his
two queens, Nagamati and Padmini, lives happily. They bear
him a son each, named Naga Sen and Kamal Sen respectively.
All this is contained in the first part of Padmavat. The second
part starts with expulsion by Rattan Sen of Ragho Chetan, a
Tantric astrologer, from Chittor. This Ragho Chetan had been
given a golden bangle by Padmini. Feeling insulted by the be¬
haviour of Rattan Sen, Ragho Chetan goes to Sultan Alauddin
of Delhi, and tells him of the beauty of Padmini of Chittor. !His
object is to arouse Alauddin to invade Chittor, defeat Rattan
Sen, and possess Padmini. This would not only avenge | the
wrong done to him by Rattan Sen but also get him the o^her
golden bangle from Padmini. Hearing of the great unparalleled
beauty of Padmini, Alauddin sends messengers and demands
that Rattan Sen present Padmini to him and take whatever part
of his domains he wants. When Rattan Sen spurns his offer,
Alauddin invades Chittor. The seige, which is on for eight years,
is unsuccessful. However, hearing that Delhi is endangered by
a foreign invader, Alauddin decides to rush back to Delhi and
negotiates a treaty with Rattan Sen. The Chittor ruler’s loyal
chiefs Gora and Badal oppose the treaty. But Rattan Sen over¬
rules them. As a result Alauddin becomes a guest of Rattan
Sen and in that capacity he is able to get a glimpse of Padmini.
He is captivated and plays foul. So, while he is being seen off,
Alauddin makes Rattan Sen a prisoner and holds him as a
hostage. It is his loyal Gora and Badal who adopt a clever
strategem to smuggle 1600 soldiers into Delhi to get Rattan Sen
released.. They succeed in whisking him away. Alauddin’s
forces give a hot chase. Gora stays behind with 1000 men to
keep them engaged, while Badal and others take Rattan Sen back
to Chittor. On reaching his capital Rattan Sen hears of the
insulting overtures made-during his captivity by Alauddin and

Raja Dev Pal of Kumbhalner to Padmini. To take revenge, he
attacks Dev Pal’s citadel. There is bitter fighting. Dev Pal is
killed, and Rattan Sen himself is mortally wounded. He returns
to Chittor—to die. Both Nagamati and Padmini immolate
themselves. While this is happening, Alauddin attacks Chittor
again. After bitter fighting, he is able to capture Chittor, but
a Chittor without Padmini or Padmavat or any of its inhabitants.
It would be seen from the above that Malik Muhammad
Jayasi has used all the traditional themes of Indian folklore e.g.
the role played by a clever parrot, falling in love after hearing
of the beauty of a princess, sending of messages through a bird,
meeting of the lover and beloved in a temple, sea voyage, storm,
cyclone, the destruction of ships, donning the garb of a mendi¬
cant for getting possession of the beloved, the divine blessings
of Siva and Parvati to the true seeker after his being tested,
separation from the beloved, description of Simhala island,
jealousy between two co-wives, prophecy etc.
Jayasi’s poem is written in the vernacular dialect of his time

\^ith an admixture of commonly used Persian words and idioms.
He has also followed the rules of Hindi poetry and, as was
common in Eastern India, used, with considerable effect, the
doha and chaupayi metres. He was also responsible for some
innovations. The story of Padmavat, it may be added, has used
some facts or events of history, e.g. the seige of Chittor by
Alauddin. But Jayasi has mixed this event with several elements
from other stories.
The story of Padmavati, as written by Jayasi, is not a mere

romance. The poet has given the story a spiritual and religious
colour. He has made it an allegory. Rattan Sen is supposed to
be the soul, Chittor the body of man, parrot Hiraman the guru
and Padmini symbolising wisdom. Alauddin represents delusion.
All the striving have been gone through by Rattan Sen, because
it has to culminate in the union between the beloved (God) and
MALIK MUHAMMAD JAYASI 73
the lover, or bhcikta pining for the beloved, their union being
like the water of the cloud merging into that in the ocean. As
the water in the cloud is keen to make its way to merge into
the ocean, it comes to the earth through rains and, through rivers,
find its way to the ocean. Nature in Jayati’s work is also only a
reflection of the divine, ever keen to merge into Him.
«
The following extracts from the translation by Sir George A.

Grierson and Pandit Sudhakara Dwivedi of Pcidmcivat will give
some idea of Jayasi’s excellence as a poet :
“When a man approacheth this land, ‘tis as though he
approacheth Kailasa, the mount of heaven. Dense mango-groves
lie on every side, rising from the earth to the very sky. Each
tall tree exhaleth the odours of mount Malaya, and the shade
covereth the world as though it were the night. The shade is
pleasant with fits Malaya breeze ; e’en in the fiery month of
Jyestha [May-June] ‘tis cool amidst it. It is as though night
cometh from that shade and as thougli from it cometh the green¬
ness of the sky. When the wayfarer cometh thither suffering
from* the heat he forgetteth his trouble in his blissful rest, and
whoso hath found this perfect shade, returneth ne'er again to
bear the sun rays.
So many and so dense are these groves, that I cannot tell their
end. The whole six seasons of the year do they flower and fruit,
as though it were always spring.
There dwell the birds, singing in many tongues, and sporting
joyfully as they look upon these nectar branches. At dawn the
honey suckers are fragrant; and the turtle dove cries out. Tis
thou and only thou” (ek a-i ty' hi).. The emerald parroquets
sportively rejoice, and the rock-pigeons cry kurkur and fly about.
The hawk-cuckoo crieth for its beloved, and the skulking waibler
shouted tuhin khi. Kuhu kuhu ever crieth the cuckoo, while the
Jdng-crow speaketh in many tongues, ‘lyre, tyre [dcihi, dahi]
crieth the milkmaid bird, while the green pigeon plaintively
telleth its tale of woe. The peacock’s cry kun kun sounded sweet
to the ear, and loudly caw the crows.
Filling the orchards, sitteth every bird that hath a name, and
each praiseth the Creator in his own tongue”.
Referring to Padmavat as “an allegory describing the search
of the soul for the true wisdom, and the trials and temptations
that beset it on its course” Sir George A. Grierson says that
“Malik Muhammad Jayasi’s ideal of life was high, and through¬
out the work of the Muslim ascetic, there run veins of the
broadest charity and of sympathy with those higher spirits among
his Hindu fellow countymen who were groping in the dark for
that light of which many obtained more than a passing glimpse”.
RASKHAN
Bala Krishm Mao
It is indeed ironical that so little should be known about a

poet like Raskhan whose work is so well known. He is, of course,
far from being the only famous poet whose life-story oscillates
between legend and history, but few poets of the period to which
he belongs, and whose verse has gained anything like the popular
affection which Raskhan’s poetry' has achieved, have left jfewer
footprints behind.
< ' • 7* ■
Even the name Raskhan has been the subject of controversy

Was it Raskhan or Raskhani or Ras Khan ? What is known is
that Raskhan (by which name we shall refer to him, if only be¬
cause it is the most widely accepted) was a Muslim who was born
at a place called Pihani in the modern Hardoi district of Uttar
Pradesh. What may also be said to be more or less accepted
by all is that he came of an aristocratic and widely respected
family of Saiyads, the Khan honorific being no more than a re¬
minder of an honour bestowed on a distinguished ancestor by the
monarch. (It is, however, the view of several scholars that the
Khan at the end of the name was the customary honorific used
by Pathans and that Raskhan was in fact a Pathan). In either
case, whether he was a scion of a Saiyad family or a Pathan,
there is little controversy about his full name having been Saiyad
Ibrahim—though the reasons for there not being much contro¬
versy on that point is only the absence of enough data for serving
as a base for controversy.
There is no record of his year of birth. Conjectures, there¬
fore, have to be based on whatever material can be found. Such
material is available in the 252 Vaishnavon-ki-Varta, the Bhakta-
mala, the Shiva Singh Saroj and Raskhan’s own works, and on
the basis of this material Raskhan is believed to have been born
Filling the orchards, sitteth every bird that hath a name, and
each praiseth the Creator in his own tongue”.
Referring to Padmavat as “an allegory describing the search
of the soul for the true wisdom, and the trials and temptations
that beset it on its course” Sir George A. Grierson says that
“Malik Muhammad Jayasi’s ideal of life was high, and through¬
out the work of the Muslim ascetic, there run veins of the
broadest charity and of sympathy with those higher spirits among
his Hindu fellow countymen who were groping in the dark for
that light of which many obtained more than a passing glimpse”.
RASKHAN
Bala Krishna Kao
It is indeed ironical that so little should be known about a

poet like Raskhan whose work is so well known. He is, of course,
far from being the only famous poet whose life-story oscillates
between legend and history, but few poets of the period to which
he belongs, and whose verse has gained anything like the popular
affection which Raskhan’s poetry has achieved, have left fewer
footprints behind.
Even the name Raskhan has been the subject of controversy
Was it Raskhan or Raskhani or Ras Khan ? What is known is
that Raskhan (by which name we shall refer to him, if only be¬
cause it is the most widely accepted) was a Muslim who was born
at a place called Pihani in the modern Hardoi district of Uttar
Pradesh. What may also be said to be more or less accepted
by all is that he came of an aristocratic and widely respected
family of Saiyads, the Khan honorific being no more than a re¬
minder of an % honour bestowed on a distinguished ancestor by the
monarch. (It is, however, the view of several scholars that the
Khan at the end of the name was the customary honorific used
by Pathans and that Raskhan was in fact a Pathan). In either
case, whether he was a scion of a Saiyad family or a Pathan,
there is little controversy about his full name having been Saiyad
Ibrahim—though the reasons for there not being much contro¬
versy on that point is only the absence of enough data for serving
as a base for controversy.
There is no record of his year of birth. Conjectures, there¬
fore, have to be based on whatever material can be found. Such
material is available in the 252 Vaishnavon-ki-Varta, the Bhakta-
mala, the Shiva Singh Saroj and Raskhan’s own works, and on
the basis of this material Raskhan is believed to have been born
some time from 1590 to 1615 Vikrami, i.e. between 1533 and 1558
A.D. It is risky to try to pin-point the date of our poet’s birth
any more sharply.
Raskhan may or may not have belonged to a royal family

as some scholars believe his reference to Badsa-bans in his famous*
doha in the Prem-Vatika but, as we have noted above, there is
little room for doubt that he was well born. It is a safe enough
assumption, therefrom, that his early education was sound and
thorough. Also, his works give unmistakable evidence of a rich
• r.
and varied working vocabulary and mastery of language and
idiom. They also show beyond question that he not only knew
Hindu mythology exceedingly well but had also a more than
nodding acquaintance with the Sanskrit language. In fact it is
obvious that he knew Sanskrit very well.
At some stage of his early life Raskhan appears to have^4eft

his home town and gone to Delhi. We do not know why~he
went to Delhi any more than we know when he went there, bift
what we do know is 0 that bitter disillusionment, frustration and
sorrow were in store for him in the capital. Says Raskhan in the
Prem-Vatika (composed in or about 1614 A.D.) :
Dekhi gadar hit Sahibi, Dilli nagar masan,

Chhinahin Badsa-bans-ki, thasak chhori Raskhan.
Prem-niketan Sribanahin, ai Govardhan dham,
Lahyau saran chit chahi kai, Jugal sarup Islam.
Tori manini tain hiyo, phori mohini man,
Premdeva-ki-chhabihi lakhi, bhaye Miyan Raskhan.
These dohas clearly furnish autobiograpical details. Without

entering into a maze of academic discussions, interpretations
controversies we can safely understand from these couplets that
Raskhan saw Delhi reduced to a shambles due to the struggles
: for the throne, and in sheer disgust gave up in a moment the pride
of his blue blood. And turning away from the alluring damsels
to whom he had until then been attracted, he came away to Braja.
RASKHAN 77
The 252 Vaishnavon-ki-Varta to which reference has been

made above, records some facts respecting Raskhan in the 218th
Varta. According to it Raskhan was a Pathan who lived in Delhi
and was deeply in love with the handsome son of a bania. He
was so much in loVe with* the bania’s son that he would follow
him like a shadow, partake of what the lad left untasted in his
plate and at all times serve him like a slave. Society forwned
upon Raskhan and people derided him. One day he happened
to overhear a conversation between some Vaishnavas when he
passed by the spot where they were sitting and talking. One of
them was saying, “One should love God as Raskhan loves that
bania boy”. “What were you saying about me ?” Raskhan stop¬
ped and asked the Vaishnavas, and they told him what they were
saying. “But one must see the Lord” said Raskhan, “before one
can love him.” The Vaishnavas handed him a picture of Srinathji.
Raskhan looked at the picture and swore that he would not touch
a .morsel of food until he saw that face. Immediately he mounted
his horse and made for Vrindavan where he went from temple
to temple and looked at each idol. But he did not see the like¬
ness of that picture. Then he went to the shrine of Srinathji,
donning a deceptive garb. The high priest was, however, not
deceived, and he had Raskhan thrown out. He then went away
and lay at Govind Kund, shunnning food and drink and pining
for a darshan of Srinathji. His devotion at length bore fruit
andSrinathji not only gave Raskhan his darshan but also directed
the Goswamiji to* accept Raskhan as his disciple. Raskhan from
that moment went on becoming more and more engrossed in
the object of his devotion and “composed many a kirtan, kavita
and doha.”
Of course the 252 Vaishnavon-ki-Varta is not history and

what it says can only be accepted after examination. But what
may safely be taken to be correct is that .Raskhan was a well-
educated and cultured young man about town who was devoted
to the pleasures of the flesh and was of a romantic disposition, that
something cause’d him to leave Delhi and seek solace at the feet
of Srinathji in Vrindavan and that he became a disciple of

Vitthalnathji.
Regarding his romatic entanglements of early life there are two

main stories : one, that he was in love with the son of a bania and,
the other, that he had lost his heart to a lady who was haughty
and proud and difficult to please. One story is that he suddenly
made up his mind to become a bhakta of Sri Krishna as a result
of being overwhelmed by a perusal of a Persian translation of
Srimadbhagavata. Yet another story is that on the way to the
Holy Land in the company of other Haj pilgrims Raskhan made
a halt at Vrindavan and suddenly decided never to leave that spot
and spend the rest of his life at the feet of Sri Krishna.
A recent research scholar has questioned what has always

been taken for granted, viz. that Raskhan abjured Islam and
turned a Hindu before, or in the process of becoming a Vaish-
nava devotee. There seems, however to be little more than
academic interest in this matter. For whether or not Raskhan
went through the formality of giving up Islam and embracing
Hinduism, there is not the slightest room for doubt that from a
worldly person he turned into a bhakta, and an important enough
Vaishnava to find honourable mention in the Bhaktamala and
the 252 Vaishnavon-ki-Varta. A fuller tribute than the one in the
Bhaktamala has been paid to Raskhan in the more recent Nav
Bhaktamala of Goswami Radhacharan, and another handsome
tribute has been paid to him along with several other Muslim
poets of Hindi by Bharatendu Harishchandra. These, however,
add nothing to our knowledge of Raskhan’s life-story.
The date of Raskhan’s death also is a matter of conjecture.

Scholars, however, are generally agreed that he must have passed
away some time in the first quarter of the seventeenth century.
Raskhan wrote no epic, nor was he the author of any other

variety of long poetic composition. He composed only stray
RASKHAN 79
lyrics. The only ‘book’ he has left behind is the Prem- Vatika,
but even that is a string of dohas rather than a sustained work.
In the 53 couplets it comprises Raskhan has given us a poetic
dissertation on the essence of bhakti, realised as love. The design
may be said to be that of Pope s Essay on Man. Like Pope’s
work, Raskhan’s Prem-Vatika • is also a sequence of couplets
which are also complete units in themselves. But there the pa¬
rallel ends, for nothing could be farther from Pope’s cold, steely
sharpness than Raskhan’s inspired lyricism. If Pope’s couplet
is a shining, finely cut diamond, Raskhan’s is a short snatch of
a love song. The thought-content is part and parcel of Raskhan’s
poetic rapture ; the lucidity of the style is evidence of the single-
mindedness of the poet’s devotion. Of course it is proof also of
his mastery of his craft and of the language. The rest of Ras¬
khan’s verse consists only of stray pieces, mostly in the savaiya
metre, which have been collected and published by various scho¬
lars under various titles. It cannot, however, be said for certain
that every poem that is popularly ascribed to him was actually
composed by him, nor that every poem composed by him must
have seen the light of day.
\
Worthy of note is the somewhat intriguing fact that whereas

compilers of sectarian tracts have unhesitatingly included Ras¬
khan’s name in the most distinguished galaxy of Vaishnava
bhaktaSy historians of Hindi literature have, while giving him an
honoured place as a poet, kept him out of their lists of bhakta
poets. Obviously this is not due to any delicacy they might have
felt on the ground of his being a Muslim. If any delicacy was
to be felt it should have been felt by the authors of such works
as the 252 Vaishnavon-ki-Varta, Bhaktamala etc. rather than by
historians of literature. Raskhan was fully steeped in the bhakti
tradition and was thoroughly acquainted with the esoteric princi¬
ples underlying the bhakti cult. His life too was in every respect
that of a bhakta. His poetry is replete with Krishna’s name and
his deeds, and it breathes devotion to Krishna and renunciation
of earthly pursuits.
What, then are the features of his poetry which distinguish

it from the poetry of those of the bhakta-poets whom the scholars
have always labelled as such ? One distinction is that unlike
most of the other bhakta-poets Raskhan composed but few songs.
Jayadeva and Vidyapati, to mention but two Krishna-bhakta poets,
provide a sharp contrast to Raskhan in this respect. He revels
in descriptions of Krishnaleela as they did but he composes
kavitgs and savaiyas instead of padas. Unlike many of the
bhakta-poets, again, Raskhan is not interested in proselytizing.
He had no use for denominational or sectarian divisions of
religious faith. He owed allegiance to no camp and asked
none to follow him. Utterly unconscious of self, without fear
and without ambition, asking nothing of the world and with¬
holding nothing from God, Raskhan went through life drunk,
as it were, with the love of Sri Krishna. His poetry breathes his
philosophy of the sheer ecstasy of love, at once the end and the
means to that end.
The 252 Vaihnavon-ki-Varta makes mention of Raskhan’s
connection with the Pushtimargi branch of Vaishnava bhakias,
but in one respect he strikes a rather odd and lonely figure in
the company of Pushtimargi bhaktas by almost totally focussing
his attention on the amorous sports of the youthful Krishna of
Vrindavan and ignoring, more or less, Krishna’s earlier life, the
childhood pranks which inspired so many of the Vaishnava poets.
Nothing else touched or appealed to Raskhan so much as the
image of Krishna and the belles of Vrindavan and he poured out
his heart in singing of the loves of the Gopikas and their idol.
Love, pure and simple and utterly uninhibited, being his theme,
and the traditional kavita and savaiya being his favourite metres,
it is perhaps not surprising that Raskhan should have come to
be regarded by scholars as a poet who was also a great bhakta
rather than a bhakta who was also a great poet.
Another proof, if proof were needed, of Raskhan having
been a single-minded bhakta and not a poet whose ambition
was to shine as one, is furnished by the fact that he not only
RASKHAN 81
made no effort to write anything but these^ strays lyrical pieces,

he did not even care to write on any but the one aspect of
Krishna’s life and personality which he adored.
Poetry came fo him easily and naturally; he wrote because he
had to, because it was an irresistible urge, his natural and spon¬
taneous mode of self-expression. There is therefore, an easy
grace, a natural flow in his verse which no amount of practice
could give one. Consequently, too, the principal ornament of
his poetry is its lack of adornment. Those who seek in Raskhan’s
poetry verbal and metrical mastery will be. amply rewarded, but
they will not help observing that there is never any attempt to
embellish or to strain after a figure of speech. Such figures of
speech as are to be met with are achieved effortlessly and seem
to be the natural result of the happy blending of maft.er and
manner which is the triumph of Raskhan’s virtuosity.
His marvellous gift of describing the amorous sports of
Krishna and the Gopikas as vividly ns if he were broadcasting
a running commentary on what was taking place before his very
eyes, has given rise to the legend that the Lord actually indulged
in these games to enable his devotee to witness them. The theme
has attracted many, but few have achieved such a happy combina¬
tion of graphic detail and lyric fervour. That in his principal
glory, his forte, and in this matter, if in none other, he stands
unsurpassed.
Adored by the masses and honoured by the scholars, Raskhan
was a poet the like of whom was never known before or since.
He discarded the pa da in which Surdas and the other Krishna
bhakta-poets had sung and re-fashioned the oldtime savaiya and
kavita, those favourite metres of the ancient bards of the early
years of Hindi poetry, and turned them into vehicles of the most
mellifluous and soulful lyricism.
His place among Hindi poets is unique and unchallengeable.
He has left but a slender volume of verse behind, but the poems
it contains will last as long as the Hindi language does.
TUKARAM
Prabhakar Machwe
The great Marathi saint-poet Tukaram, of the seventeenth

century, is considered by the masses in Maharashtra as the
pinnacle of the temple of Bhakti, of which the foundation was
laid by Jnaneshwar or Jnanadeva. Unlettered and pot having
the least pretention to scholarship, not even belonging to the
higher caste, his father being a pedlar by profession, this rustic
mystic composed thousands of exquisite lyrics. The metre he
chose for such spontaneous outpourings was Abhanga, a run on
couplet with three and a half feet, with the first three rhyming.
The popular adage is:

Ovi of Jnanesh, Abhanga of Tukaram,
Sloka of Vamana and Ary a of Moropant.
Nobody could excel in these particular verse patterns men¬
tioned against each of these four devotional poets, though many
others used them freely.
As in the case of many other saints in the mediaeval age, the
exact dates of the birth and death of Tukaram are a matter of
controversy amongst scholars. Some of the scholars give the date
of Tukaram’s birth as follows.
Rajwade — 1568 A.D.
Bhave — 1577 A.D.
Pangarkar — 1608 A.D.
Family chronicles — 1598 A.D.
The date of Tukaram’s ‘ascent to heaven’ is unanimously
accepted as Phalgun Vaidya 2, in the year 1650 A.D.
He was bom in Dehu, near Poona, in a low caste family of
traders, which was very poor. His father’s name was Bolhoba
TUKARAM 83
and mother’s name was Kanakai. His family name is mentioned

in some records as Ambite, and in others More. The first twenty-
one years of his life were uneventful. He was unsuccessful as a
trader and tortured in his married life, having taken two wives.
The second one Jijai was the nagging type. His parents died
when he was young. The first wife Rakhumabai died for want
of food in a dire famine. His son Santu did not live long. He
wandered in vain to various places, but his heart was not in busi¬
ness. In 1619 A.D. came the illumination, when he was initiated
by one Babaji Chaitanya in a dream.
With this Guru’s blessings his life was transformed. Now

he left his mundane trade and started performing Kirtans at Dehu,
Lohegaon and Poona. His deity was Vithoba of Pandharpur.
As he became more and more popular amongst his devotees,
there arose a group of malicious and mischievous critics and
calumniators. They showered tirade of baseless allegations and
charges on him. One such critic, Rameshwarabhatta’s objection
was : how could a person from the low caste imitate and perform
Kirtan, which was a prerogative of Brahmins ? Mambaji Gosavi
was jealous of Tukaram’s poetic genius. He tried to propagate
that it was Mambaji’s compositions which Tukaram plagiarized
and sang. They even conspired to throw away his Gatha, the
manuscript of 3000 poems, in the nearby river Indrayani. But
they all miraculously came up. Those who tried to drown
Tukaram’s works were themselves drowned in popular resentment
and neglect.
Tukaram is supposed to have met Shivaji and Samartha Ram-

das also. But these are more or less legendary beliefs. When
his end drew nearer, he invoked Vishnu, and believers think
that he was taken by God to heaven, bodily. There is no samadhi
or memorial at the place of his death. There is a temple in Dehu,
where Varkaris, the sect which follows these saints, make an
annual pilgrimage on foot, collectively singing and chanting,
along with the Dindi or palanquin.
Tukaram as a poet of devotion, has charmed the poor, illi¬

terate masses of Maharashtra for the last four centuries. Tukaram
has left a distinguished galaxy of disciples and poets, from
various castes and professions, Niloba and Rajai and so on.
Tukaram’s strength as a poet lies in his unornamented language,
almost like a straight cry of spiritual anguish, full of sincerity
and simplicity. This directness and appeal to all levels, cuts
across all divisions, social or economic, in the Marathi speaking
society.
Dr. R. D. Ranade writes about him in his Mysticism in Maha¬

rashtra, reprinted as Pathway to God in Marathi Literature
(Bharatiya Vidya Bhawan, 1961, page 282-83) :
“There is no other instance in the whole galaxy of

Marathi saints, barring perhaps Namdeva, which can
be regarded as illustrative of this human element
which we find in Tukaram. Jnanadeva is a light
that dazzles too much by its brilliance. Tukaram’s
light is an accommodative, steady, incremental light
which does not glitter too much but which soothes
our vision by giving it what it needs. It is for this
that we say that the humanistic and personistic element
in Tukaram is more pre-dominant than in any other
saint.”
Acharya Vinoba Bhave made a selection of Tukaram’s Hymns
and wrote an introduction to them in Marathi, in 1968. Here
is an excerpt from his Introduction :
“The respect given to Tulasidas in Hindi provinces, is
what Tukaram is given in Maharashtra. Their songs
have reached every house. Yet there is a great
difference. Tulasidas is like a Guru to the villagers;
Tukaram for us is like mother.
“Tukaram was not a scholar. He must have repeated

thousand times the sayings and songs of Jnanadeva,
TUKARAM 85
Namdeva, Eknath and Kabir. He confessed that

he was illiterate, amongst scholars. Yet his words
have a power which is unprecedented in Marathi.
It attracts and touches the heart of a common man.
Tukaram’s poems are like flowing Ganga, it purifies
everyone, it is easily accessible. For advising children,
the mother has not to have training in linguistics.
The same is true of Tukaram.”
There are many books in Marathi on Tukaram. The late

P.M. Lad was writing a biography which he could not complete.
But he edited the authorized version of Tukaram’s Gatha. The
works of Dr. V. B. Kolate and Dr. H. R. Divekar give a very
good estimate in Hindi of Tukaram’s iife and work. Prof. G.B.
Sardar’s book in Marathi is by far the best critical estimate.
Tukaram is also valued because of the social content in his poems,
his criticism of false gurus and fake traders in religion. Recently
a novel has been written on him in Marathi.
Rabindranath Tagore translated Tukaram’s poems, which are
referred to in Jyotirindranath Tagore’s Bombai Prabas. There
are French translations of Tukaram’s poems published by
UNESCO. In English, besides the Psalms of Maratha Saints
by Macnicol, recently my book on Tukaram’s poems has been
published by United Writers, Calcutta.
Tukaram is a remarkable saint poet; he is very simple, yet
very deep. He uses sometimes slang and low language, but he
is forthright and so modern. He has nothing to hide, his poetry
is so transparent. Emotion and thought content are fused to a
heightened degree of mystic vision.
Ten Abhangas of Tukaram are given here with their proximate

literal translations •
(1) {Mar an majhe mar an gele)

My death -died, I was made immortal
Identity erased, Name and address gone
Body consciousness desolated, Flood came and went

Life remained patient, Tuka says, real Festival
Of the basic, loan repayed.
(2) (Taruvar Bijapoti)
The tree is in the womb of the seed
The seed remains after the tree is no more
So it has happened to you and me
The one contains the other
The ripple on the water, Water the body of the ripple,
Tuka says, the shadow of reflections vanishes where
it begins.
(3) (Stavuniya nara)

Praising man soiled whole life
Forgetting Narayana all sins followed
He who gifted life His honour defied,
Tuka says, such words whosoever listen, be deaf.
(4) {Gajarachi pungi)

Like pipes carved out of carrots are these new Yogis
They cram a lot but they only accumulate Ego
Knowledge little, pride great
Tuka says, such hypocrites should be beaten and shoed.
(5) (Sukh pahatci javapade)

Pleasure like a barley grain, Pain like a mountain
Remember Him, remember, Follow what the saints say
Half of life stolen by sleep, childhood, old age, disease
Tuka look ahead, Don’t wear a yoke and move in a rut.
(6) (Kam nahin kam)

No work, no work, Look I am workless
All actions useless, Just looking Lsit
Meaningless attachment world cries at this fun
And suddenly, suddenly Tuka detached from the world.
TUKARAM 87
(7) (Nahi santapan milte hati)

Sainthood is not available in bazaar,
One has to wander in forests and dens.
It cannot be bought by piles of wealth,
It is neither in the sky nor in the underworld
Tuka says, it is received by paying one’s life
Otherwise all else is bragging.
(8) (Nabhomaya jale jal)
The water has become full of sky,
All differences are lost in one
What is the use of dissecting water
Its ripples subside in the same water.
Who will free here whom ?
One is binding oneself
Tuka says, an age is over,
Setting has reached rising.
(9) {Tu majhi mauli)
You are my mother,
You are my shadow,
I am intensely waiting, O Panduranga,
You are my only one,
The elder and younger all in one.
You are my kith and kin.
Tuka says, my life is with you.
Without you all directions are deserted.
(10) (Amhi jato amuchya ganva)
We go back to our village,
Please take our Ram Ram.
Yours and mine this meeting only,
From here our lives part with each other
Now you keep that mercy,
I bow to your feet
Sing Rama-Krishna, Rama-Krishna,
Tuka is leaving for the heaven.
SAMARTHA RAMDAS
Prabhakar Machwe
Sri Samartha Ramdas Swami is one of the five most revered

saint-poets of Maharashtra, the other four being Jnaneswar,
Namadev, Tukaram and Eknath. He is well-known for his epic
work Dasbodh and for his frank and forthright criticism of the
social conditions in his time. His style is full of vigour and virility,
almost oratorial and rhetorical. He composed verses e.g. Manache
Shlok (slokas addressed to oneself) which became almost household
songs. He uses a conversational and dramatic idiom. There is
profound devotion and ardent fervour for his deity and religion.
He founded several maths and temples of Rama and Maruti
(Hanuman). He met Shivaji twice and legend goes that Ramdas
was a kind of guru and mentor to Shivaji.
In Marathawada, a part of Maharashtra which was previously
under the Nizam of Hyderabad, there is a small village named
Jamb. Three and a half centuries ago, a Kulkarni (tax collector)
named Suryajipanf Thosar lived there; he was a great devotee of
Surya, the Sun-God. He was blessed by the Sun-god with two
sons through his wife Ranubai named Gangadhar and Narayan.
In their family the worship of Rama had been followed tradi¬
tionally for many generations. Narayan was bom on Chaitra
Navami of Saka 1530 (1608 A.D.), which was the Ramanavami.
Young Narayan after thirty-six years became Ramdas, and later
well-known as Samarth (the Powerful or Efficient). The cult of
his disciples is called Ramdasi Panth.
There are many legends describing young Narayan as very
learned, strong and naughty. As his father was a holy man, many
people used to come to him to get the Mantropadesa, the divine
spell. Young Narayan requested his father to bless him with
the mantra, but Suryajipant gave it to the elder brother. After
SAMARTHA RAMDAS 89
the death of his father, Narayan begged of his elder brother who
also did not oblige him with the mantra. There is a line in
Dasbodh (19:6:6) which says that even “brothers do not help
brothers”. All these circumstances led to his becoming self-
reliant and also a lover of quietude. He began to shun family
bonds.
The legend given by Dinkar Swami, a disciple of Ramdas, in
Swanubhava Dinkar corroborate the divine inspiration and bene¬
diction Ramdas received at an early age. When he was eleven, a
messenger of the King came to his house, when Gangadhar and
Suryaji were both not at home and forcibly dragged Narayan to
a road outside the village. He saw that a couple of very brilliant
persons were sitting in a palanquin, surrounded by several attend¬
ants. These divine persons in human garb called the young
boy and asked him in some Rajputi (probably Hindi) dialect—
“Where is your father ?*' When Narayan said that the father had
gone out, he was called to come closer to the palanquin. His
head was patted and a letter was given to him to be delivered to
the father. As soon as Narayan received the letter his condi¬
tion way totally changed. He began trembling, could not stand,
became spell-bound. He suddenly saw the Rama Panchayatan :
all the four brothers and Hanuman too. There was a strong gale
and Rama gave the advice in the form of Mahavakya and left
the young Narayan in the hands of Hanuman. At the same
time a lightning-like robe was wrapped around Narayan, giving
him a letter in one hand and the arrow (Rama Rana) in the other.
Rama disappeared. The father and elder brother searched for
Narayan. He was found in an unconscious state near a grove of
trees outside the village. As soon as the letter was seen by the
father, he went into Samadhi. Even Gangadhar underwent the
same experience, dedicated his ‘pen’ to God and left his tax-
collector’s work. Narayan became dumb for one year and after
this period of silence, began to speak in verses.
Another legend says that at an early age of twelve his marriage
was arranged. But he had taken a vow of remaining a celibate
for his whole life. So when young Narayan was ushered to the
marriage-dias and as the Brahmins shouted Shub Mangal Savadhan
(It is an auspicious occasion, let all know), Narayan took the
word Savadhan literally to mean ‘Beware’ and ran away from that
place without even casting a glance on the bride. He left his
home and all the family ties for good.
He want to Takli near Nasik, where he spent twelve years in

penance and then travelled for twelve more years. Thus at the
age of thirtysix he was recognized by the world as Swami Ramdas
Not much is known about his hard penance and disciplined medi¬
tation, nor about his travels and pilgrimages. He must have seen
and visited many holy places in the South. He was very fond of
music as he composed his songs in several Rcigas. It is the general
belief that Ramdas was an incarnation of Hanuman who is one of
the Acharyas of music, according to Puranas. From the writings
of Ramdas one can see that he not only knew music and other
fine arts, but was also a keen observer of nature. After completing
his pilgrimage Ramdas lived in Brahmaranya in Mahabaleshwar
at the source of the river Krishna. He travelled on the banks of
this river where he found a temple in Bahe village, without any
idol. So he brought up the image from under the water and
installed it. In this way he established many Maths, renovated'
many temples and spread the message of the devotion to Rama
and Hanuman. He used to spend his days as a recluse in moun¬
tain caves, where he composed his great work Dasbodh. From
1644 to 1681 he spent 37 years of his life in the work of organizing
temples and propagating religious spirit. The last four or five
years of his life were spent in Rajayoga when it is said that Shivaji
accepted his discipleship. Shivaji died in 1680, Ramdas on February
2, 1681 at Sajjangarh, where his temple and Samadhi are still
worshipped as holy places.
Ramdas was a prolific writer. Besides his Dasbodh which is

an epic of. 200 samasas, each consisting of 20 verses, he composed
Manache Shlok, many abhanagas and padas and Karunashtak,
SAMARTHA RAMDAS 91
Dasbodh is his magnum opus, which expounds the philosophy of

devotion or Bhaktiyoga. It contains discussion on several prob¬
lems connected with Bhakti, Jnan and Vairagya. For Bhakti it is
necessary to have a deity (which in the case of Ramdas was Rama
and Hanuman) and the deity needs a temple and along with temple
there are festivals and many other connected things. In the begin¬
ning there are invocations to Ganapati, Saraswati and descriptions
of a saint and a great poet. Along with that he describes the
attributes of a proper listener. He goes on discussing the ethical
problems of goodness and evil, duties in a family, filial piety and
marital loyalty, and then discusses Devakarana and Rajakarana
(the affairs of god and the affairs of politics).
Ramdas is a Vaishnava devotee of Rama, belonging to the
Varakari Panth in Maharashtra— a group of devotional people
who did not believe in caste-distinction and worked for the unity
of Hindu society against alien opposition. Ramdas’s association
with Shivaji added greater determination and discipline in keeping
the vows of celibacy and service to the people. Legend says
that Shivaji gave 200 horn (golden coins) as annuity to many of
the Ramdasi temples. Ramdas had Kalyan as his most devoted
disciple. He had also Venu and Akka as two female devotees.
Venu has some poetry to her credit; she seems to have composed
Kirtans also.
Dasbodh discusses the ultimate problems of metaphysics and

epistemology in a popular manner The body is castigated as an
obstruction in the way to truth. It is to be used only as a tool.
The world, for Ramdas, is not an illusion, but a battlefield. He
discusses the relationship of body and mind, the individual and
his family, and prescribes devotion as the only way to attain"
salvation. Emancipation from the cycle of births is not easy;
there, are many hurdles on the way. He discusses them in detail:
how to conquer the ego, how to control lethargy and slovenli¬
ness. Then he goes on to describe nine kinds of Bhakti. He
gives in detail the importance of finding the real Gur-u, who can
help the devotee to reach his siddhi. In the path to self-realiza¬

tion the conflict between duties to the family and to God, the
contradiction of this-worldliness and other-worldliness has to be
resolved. Whether action preceded knowledge or otherwise is
another problem. According to Ramdas, there is no inherent
dichotomy between the two : one can be worldly-wise and active
in the material stature and also spiritual at the same time. Ramdas
does not preach renunciation and running away from the world.
In fact Ramdas’s advocacy of Balopciscina is almost like worshipp¬
ing Wille Zur Macht (Will to Power).
As far as the poetic qualities of Ramdas are concerned, he is
forthright and full of great power. He does not care for linguistic
sophistication or decorative figures of speech. In his writings
the erotic (Sringar) is avoided scrupulously, the heroic (Vira)
is extolled. His descriptions are very graphic, they are excellent
examples of his minute observation of different people and situa¬
tions. He is very fond of aphorisms and subhashitas. He uses
freely words from other languages. Even Persian and Urdu
words are used in abundance. He coins new words and changes
many colloquial idioms with a new meaning and their local habi¬
tation suddenly becomes universal and acquires charm. He does
not care much for the rigidity of Sanskrit prosody. He is exces¬
sively repetitive, may be because his poetry is mostly ‘addressed*
to an audience, which needed to be coaxed or subjected to con¬
tinuous hammering. There is a bulk of writing under the name
of Ramdas of stray lyrics, hymns, an incomplete Ramayana>
Anandabhuvan (a description of the land and conditions), Pan¬
chikaran, Sapta^amasi and Akmeram, three philosophical treatises
and Sagunadhyana, Nirgunadhyana and Manaspuja, three small
verse-books on ways of meditation and worship. His poetry
comes closest to kirtana, a kind of discourse accompanied with
music. So it has its own portions devoted to popular exposition
filled with anecdotes and parables. Yet the impact of his writing
is tremendous. Much of the militancy of Hindu revivalism in
Maharashtra can. be attributed to Ramdas’s verses. His
SAMARTHA RAMDAS 93
descriptions of the wanton destruction done by alien invaders are

provocative, Shivaji respected this saint and savant. According
to a legand Ramdas gave political precept to Shivaji.
The English rendering of a few poems of Ramdas are given

here :
Description of famine at Panhalgarh fort :
Costs rose very high at Panhalgarh
Then whole world came to sorrow due to it
When will god be merciful one does not know
Even after great searching not a single grain
Sold cattle, clothes, utensils
The priests sold silken wraps and dhoties
Sold all the kitchen pots, mortar and pestles
Sold even the bamboos and fences
So many castes, so many negotiations
Yet no work gets successfully done
Sold so many swords and sheaths
Sold shields and lances, horses and camels
Sold ornaments of so many women
Of rich and beautiful ladies
Even under such stress and duress
It was He who protected Samartha.
His advice to Shivaji is given in a poem :

As the body is decorated with, good dress and ornaments
Let the internal be decorated with reason and thought.
A beautiful brilliant body, well dressed and decorated
is not proper without the cleverness within.
One should not be short-tempered, one should be patient

One should not trust braggarts and liars and lazy persons
Take hold of every opportunity, never miss the chance

If one waits for the chance politics is changed
Excess should be avoided, every point exploited
One should not be too haughty, one should be reasonable
One should trust in God, in Tulaja-Bhavani, yet rely on
one’s intelligence
One should be ever vigilant, I need not tell more, suggestions
are enough.
(Dasbodh : 11th Dashak, 6th Samasa)
Attributes of a fool are described in the following poem :
Many are the attributes of a fool who may be literate
But some are obvious, please listen attentively

One who leaves his family and runs after women is a fool
One who takes a harlot as a friend is a fool

One who lives in father-in-law’s house and marries without
enquiring the bride’s family-pedigree is a fool
One who tries to boss without any power is a fool.
One who praises oneself, one who has to suffer in one’s own
land, one who praises only his forefathers is a fool
One who laughs without reason, one who does not listen to
wisdom, one who has many enemies is a fool
One who discards one’s own people and befriends the enemy
is a fool
One who sleeps in a group of many waking people, one who
eats much at another’s place is a fool .
[Dasbodh : Second Dashak, first Samasa)
BHADRACHALA RAMADAS
V. Raghavan
* ^
It was the time when the Qutub Shahis were ruling in Gol-
conda. Although these rulers were Muslims, they were, great
patrons of the local language Telugu and the local arts of music
and dance. The best of them, Malik Ibrahim patronized Telugu
writers and the Tburamu’ figuring in many Telugu songs is this
Malik Ibrahim. His son Muhammad Quli Qutub Shah became
attracted to a devadasi, proficient in music and dance, named
Bhagamati, and named after her as Bagnagar the city which came
to be known later as Hyderabad. Later, Kshetragna, a devotee of
Muvva Gopala, came to the court of Abdulla Qutub Shah; this
poet, music-composer and authority on Rasa and Alamkarasastra
had a contest in the Golconda court on the subject of nayika-
nayaka-bhava with another scholar Tulasimurti and in this con¬
nection composed under the patronage of the Padshah and by the
grace of Muvva Gopala, 1100 pa das.1 Evidently at this time the
Padshah of Golconda became much interested in this nayika-
nayaka-bhava which has also much to do with the phase of devo¬
tion called Madhura-bhakti and music compositions based on it.
One of the divines, connected with the court as preceptors, at the
dargah at Gulbarga of Gezu Daraz, Shahraja or Bade Akbar Shah,
also evinced keen interest in the subject and a text entitled Srin-
garamanjari in Telugu and Sanskrit versions was produced on this
subject.2
In the time of the successor Abul Hasan known as Tani
Shah, Hindu-Muslim unity had grown farther; not only were his
1. See his pada in Devagandhari, Vedukato.
2. This very erudite work: on nayika-nayaka-bhnva, in its Sanskrit version, was
discovered and edited by me for the Archaeological Department of Andhra
Pradesh. 1951.
See also my article‘Hyderabad as Centre of Sangita\. Journal of the Music
Academy, Madras XVI. 1945 pp 116—20
Ministers Hindu, the two brothers Akkanna and Madanna, but

many Muhammedan officials freely participated in Hindu festivals.
It is this Muhammedan ruler Abul Hasan Tani Shah who
figures in the story of Sri Ramadas. It would be necessary to say
something about the history of Abul Hasan to understand the
background of this ruler in proper perspective. Abdulla Qutab
Shah was thinking of giving his daughter in marriage and natu¬
rally his thoughts went to the dargah of Gezu Daraz at Gulbarga
whose divines had always advised the rulers. Shahraja or Bade
Akbar Shah was in charge of the Dargah at that time; Abul Hasan,
a young boy, who descended on the side of the mother of Abdulla,
was studying at the dargah. The boy had been under Shahraja’s
tuition for twelve years. Abdulla took a sudden decision to
bestow his daughter on him and later the kingdom also.
Abul Hasan was more popularly known as Tani Shah which

means a jovial king. But deep below his gaiety, there was all that
he had imbibed in his stay in young age in the religious atmos¬
phere of Gulbarga. The maturity of spirit was due also to the
rare experience he had in his dealing with Ramadas, in the sight
of Sri Ramachandra which he was blessed with. It is not a matter
of wonder that through his Bhakti to Rama, Ramadas attained
salvation, the wonder is that Ramadas took with him the Muham¬
medan Ruler.
Dhcinyudai Tapi Shah neevu
nannu kannayya padamulu kanula
kannavu
So did Ramadas himself exclaim and felicitate Tani Shah on
the divine darshan with which he was blessed.
The time of Tani Shah is 1674-1699 A.D. Traditionally

Kabirdas of Banaras is said, by Harikatha performers, to have
been the guru of Ramadas but this is not possible as Kabir, a
disciple of Ramananda, flourished between 1440 and 1518 A.D.
Further there is nothing hazy about the figure of Ramadas who
BHADRACHALA RAMADAS 97
is a well known name in Telugu history and literature. All that he

wrote, his time, his life, these are all known to us authoritatively,
more authoritatively than the life and career of Tyagaraja who
lived much nearer our time. We can visit Golconda and see the
hill and the place where Ramadas was imprisoned and the hole by
which food is said to have been dropped for him.
In 1832 A.D. one Varada Ramadas who described himself
as a descendant of our Ramadas, made a representation to
Chandulal, Dewan of the Nizam of Hyderabad, that he should be
appointed to look after the Rama temple at Bhadrachalam and
got his request granted. In confirmation of the historicity of the
whole story of Ramadas and the Muslim Ruler, we have had the
continuing practice of the Nizam of Hyderabad making a grant
for the conduct of the festival of the temple of Rama at Bhadra¬
chalam. It was reported in the papers that during the anti-Hindu
agitations and activities of Razakars and their leader Kasim Rizvi,
the Nizam stopped the grant to the Bhadrachalam temple, but
soon realized that it was a wrong act and restored the grant.
Tani Shah had a Brahmin Minister named Madanna. Madanna
had a sister Kamamba who was given in marriage to Linganna
Mantri. Ramadas was the son of Linganna. His real name was
Gopanna. They belonged to the family surnamed Kancharla
whose members were spread all over South India. One of the
stotras written by Ramadas is the Bhadrachala Dasarathi Sata-
kam and in this Ramadas gives at the beginning biographical
details about himself. They belonged to the place called Nela-
kondapalli in the former Nizam’s dominion. His gotra was Atri,
Veda Suklayajus and as stated above, the house-name was
Kancharla.
Allana Linga mantri sutudu
Atrigotraludu Adi-sakha
Kancharla Kulodbhavunduna
Prasiddhudanai Bhagavadankitamuga-
yall kavul nutiyimpa rachiyinchidi
Gopa-Kavindrudan Jagadvallabha
neeku dasudanu Dasarthi Karunapoyohidhi
In this same text he mentions his guru as Raghunatha
Bhattacharya :
Acharyula kellu mrokki vinatangudanai
Raghunathabhattarucharyuluku anjaletti.
This guru was a Srivaishnava of the ‘Sesha’ family.

Because of his Rama-Bhakti, this Gopanna came to be known
as Ramadas. The whole family was devoted to Bhakti and its
propagation. According to an unpublished document3, his uncle
the Minister Madanna arranged for a Yakshagana troupe to tour
from village to village, enacting puranic stories and spreading
Bhakti. Ramadas continued this tradition, courting the company
of Bhaktas, arranging for Bhajanas and festivals. Ramadas must
have had initiation and Mantropadesa from some great soul and
progressed in the spiritual path to such an extent that he saw
Rama in all beings and things, a state which he himself expressed
in one of his songs :
Ant a Ramamcyam, i jagadanta Rama may am (Varali).
By constantly inviting Bhagavatas and entertaining and attend¬
ing upon them, Ramadas spent much and gradually became
reduced to poverty. Thereupon, through the good offices of his
uncle Madanna, he got from the Nawab the Tahsildarship of the
jirka of Bhadrachalam. He was discharging his duties well in this
office for some time.
The Rama shrine for which Bhadrachalam was well-known
was in a damaged state. Ramadas felt that he should repair the
temple and provide the Rama Image here with new jewels. Upto
that time Ramadas was prompt in remitting the revenues of his
division to the Central Treasury but after his mind turned to the
renovation of the Rama shrine, the collections came to be direc-
3. The Machupalle Kaifiat of 1502 A.D. See my Bhagavata Mela Nataka
in the Journal of the Indian Society of Oriental Art, V. Calcutta, 1937 p. 167.
| BHADRACHALA RAMADAS 99
ted towards the Rama shrine and not to the Padshah’s exchequer.
In one of his songs on Bhadrachala Rama and His temple there,
Ramadas describes the golden pinnacles of the towers of this
temple, the bejewelled flagstaff, the tank, the garden, the surround¬
ing shrines, the Agrahara etc. From this song which refers to
Bhadrachala as Vaikuntha on earth in this Kali age (Kali Yuga
Vaikunthamu Bhadrachalaniloyamu) we may see the nature and
extent of improvement that Ramadas had effected in the temple.
In a further song of lament in Saveri that he sang in imprison¬
ment (Sita Ramaswami na jesina neramuleni) he asks “What
wrong did I do ? Did I make the earrings, the rings for all the
ten fingers, the diadem, for myself ? It is for your acceptance.
Oh Sita-Rama, that I did all this !” From this again we see that
he spent large sums of money on the decorations of the Image of
Rama at Bhadrachalam.
The revenues had not been remitted for a long time and notices
sent from time to time produced no response. Then the State
officials had Ramadas arrested and thrown into the prison in
Golconda. That he suffered in the prison for twelve years is
mentioned by him in a song of.his in Anandcihhairavi '•
Emitiki dayaradu Sri Ramulu nannu

Emitiki rakshimpavu Sri Ramulu
Parulanu ne vedabonu Sri Ramulu
nike karmula sachi yunnanu
parrendentlu aye nedu
bandikhanalena yuntinanu
It was during this twelve years of prison-life to which he had

been condemned by the Padshah that Ramadas sang most of
his moving songs. Why had Ramadas to suffer so long in this
manner, when his own uncle was Minister ? Firstly, Minister
i *
Madanna could not go out of the way and do anything to save

his nephew who had spent state money excessively on the Tem¬
ple ; nor could the uncle have had that large amount of money
that his nephew had spent, to be paid to the State and release
his nephew.
The State officials must have from time to time beaten Rama-
das for the payment of dues. This is clear from the cries of pain
that we hear in the Asaveri song :
Appappa debbaluku talalera
Ramappa Goppuna nannadukora
Gopanna believed that whatever the treatment he received,

Rama always stood by his side armed with Chakrayudha (the
discus) and he had nothing to be afraid of :
Takku vemi manaku Ramudu Okkadu undavaraku
Prakka toduka Bhagavantudu munu
Chakradhariyai sakutsu nuntaka (Nadanamakriya)
Rama alone constituted his wealth and strength ; in happiness

or misery he was always with Rama.
Kalimi balami naku ilalo nee vani para pala varinchidi ni
palamunchinanu neellamunchinna nee
Pala patiti-nika jalamu cheyaka. (Surati or Yaman kalyani)
Recalling how, in their times of distress, He appeared before

Gajendra and Panchali, he asks Rama in a song in Natakuranji
where He was and why He was not coming to him when he was
suffering like that •
Edunnado Bhadradrivasudu
Edunnado napali Ramudu edunnado
“What shall I do if you do not protect me, O Rama* the pur¬

pose of whose avatara is to protect those who take refuge in you?”
Saranenna janamula pirapira brochedu
Birudu galgina torave O Rama
Paripari vidhamula muralida vinaka
Nannara marachesina Harininne mandu
(Kambhoji-Katakatanidu)
At one moment he lays all his burden on Rama, declaring in a

mood of strength ”1 belong to Rama, why should I be afraid?
All my burden is His.”
Ramuni varamu makemi vicharamu
Swami neede bharamu Dasarathe jeevadharamu
( Anandabhairavi)
“Although in the turn of the wheel of fortune, we now suffer,

we have always faith in Rama; why should we resort to any other
person for any purpose?”
Ramuni varamainamu
Itaradula ganana cheyamu
Graha gatulaku verava pomu
Maku kaladu Daivanugrahamu
(Nadanamakriya )
“Rama, why do you not speak? Are words pieces of gold? Would
you be casting away the pearls if you utter a few words? I have
never lost the thought of your Name even in my dream.”
Paluku bangara mayana kodandapani
Kalalo nee namasmarana matava chakkani Tandri
( Anandabhairavi)
Finding Rama silent, he calls upon Sita to speak to Rama on
his behalf, in Nannu brova (Kalyani) and Ramachandrulu (Asaveri).
Ramachandrulu napai chalamu
Chesinaru Sitamamma cheppavamma (Asaveri)
Finding no improvement in his situation, for a moment he
appears in his wailings as if his faith was slipping. “Are ypu so
devoid of grace ? Why is Goddess Parvati doing Japa your
Name? Why do Prahlada and other devotees have faith in you ?”
Adaranaleni nee Name-mantra-japam
Adrija emani jesira Rama?
In another mood, he regrets that, being in prison, he is not
able to perform the worship of Ram^t in proper form and goes
through its required details mentally (doing what is called

manasika-puja) in a song Rama Rama manasa in Kalyani.
The moment of succour from Rama then arrives. Rama and
Lakshmana put on the guise of two employees under Ramadas,
enter one night the apartment of Tani Shah* pay him the entire
dues that Ramadas owed and ask for a receipt. Tani Shah is
stunnend. The extraordinary effulgence and charm of the two ser¬
vants overpower Tani Shah. All of a sudden, the dues of several
years being paid together, all in gold, at that time of night, the
appearance of the two who brought the money, and their dis¬
appearance,—all these revolve in Tani Shah’s mind and make him
decide that two servants are none else than Rama and Lakshmana
whom Ramadas had been worshipping. Tani Shah then ran to
where Ramadas was imprisoned and reported to him the miracu¬
lous darshan he had. Ramadas congratulated the King : “Tani
Shah ! You are blessed, you have seen face to face Rama whom
I am yet to see.”
Dhanyudu Tani Shah neevu nannu
Kannayya padamulu kanula
Kannavu
Tani Shah, on his part expressed his gratitude to Ramadas,
loaded him with enormous money, put him on a palanquin and
sent him to Bhadrachalam to continue his devotion and service
to Rama. To keep guard over his devotee and the riches he was
taking, Rama and Lakshmana walked, bow in hand, on either
side of the palanquin ! So says Ramadas in his song Ramudu gal-
adu in Nadanamakriya.
Rama blessed Ramadas too with darshan for which Rama¬
das had been yearning (Rama nee muddu momu joopara). In
the ecstacy of the sight of Rama, Ramadas sang Kanti needu
Ramula kanukonii needu. Taking humiliation and honour as
equal, deeming as friends even those who subjected him to suf¬
fering, Ramadas, exemplifying the Gita-ideal of equanimity—
Tulya-ninda stutih, Tulyo manapamanayoh and Tulyo mitranpa-
kshayoh, became the recipient of the grace of the Lord in full
Evaru dooshinchinanemi, mecchi

Evaru bhooshinchimnemi.
Aparadha mulanenchuvaru maku
upakarulai yunnavaru (Bilahari)
In addition to these songs, as already noted, Ramadas wrote

on Sri Rama at Bhadrachala, Sataka stotra in Telugu entitled
Dasarathi Sataka, is considered as one of the best compositions in
this class. Ramadas has shown his literary gifts here and worked
in many sound effects. “To me Rama alone is God; there is none
to equal Him—this I can proclaim by beat of drum placed on
the back of the elephant”—When he says this in one of the
verses here, Ramadas produces the sound effect of tom-tom by
repetition of the syllables ‘ndu’ and ‘du’—
Pandana bheemudu artajana bandhavudu
Ujjayala—bana-toona Kodandakalaprachanda
bhuja-tandava keertikai Ramamurtikin
Rendava sati daivaminka vedanutsun
Kadakatti bherika tanta-tatanta tanta
Nirutambun ajandamuninda mattu-vetandamu
Nekki tsadetanu Dasarathi karunapayonidhi
“My poetry is fit for dedication to God alone, I will not let my¬
self down by employing it for the flattering of man” says he in
another verse.
Masokoni reku pandalakoni mauktikamul
Vela posinatlu dur—
Vyasanumu jenti kavyamo duratmula—
Kicchiti mosamayye
Na rachnaku Poota-vritti sukarambuga chekurntalu
Vak-sudharasamulu chelkan
Padyamuga rangamunandu nalimpa vaiya
Santa samunu jenti Bhadragiri Dasarathi
Karunapayoni dh i
Ramadas was equipped in Sanskrit also and using twenty-four

names of the Lord—Kesava, Narayana etc., he has summarily
104 DEVOTIONAL PCETS AND MYSTICS
set forth the whole Ramayana story in the form of a prose-poem,

a Choornika.
Ramadas gained a noteworthy place in the tradition of the
galaxy of Rama-bhaktas. His songs on Rama spread all over the
country. His life, his sufferings and his obtaining in the end
the blessing of Rama become a common story among the people.
His songs on Rama showed the way to the other great Telugu
Rama-bhakta who was born in Choladesa,1 Sri Tyagaraja. Tyaga-
raja salutes Ramadas at the very outset in his Prahlada Bhakti-
vijaya. In two of his pieces Tyagaraja has made a special refe¬
rence to Ramadas, his sufferings and the blessings of Rama that
he eventually received. In the Kirtana, “Kshirasagara sayana”
in Devagandhari, Tyagaraja says that he had heard of how Rama
liberated Ramadas from the prison :
Dheerudu Ramadasuni bandhanamu
Teerchinadi vinnanura
In Emit ova, Tyagaraja says “Had I been Ramadas, Sita would
have come forward to speak to you on my behalf.” The ideas and
expressions in Ramadas’s songs are echoed by Tyagaraja in seve¬
ral songs; these I have separately dealt with in another article
of mine entitled Ramadasa and Tyagaraja.2 It is to be noted
that, apart from the vogue the songs of Ramadas enjoy in devo¬
tional congregations (Bhajana) some of them continue to be sung
in Karn^tic music recitals. Portions from several of his songs
have already been quoted above. The following song may be
giveh to show the style of Ramadas and his treatment of the
, subject of devotion to Rama.
“O ye common folk of the world ! Why not buy the medicine
of Rama-jogi ? (the mendicant from whom medicines and antido¬
tes could be had; the prescription meant here, as given by God
Rama is himself, His Name and Worship). When, with love,
1. Tamil Nadu
2. See Journal of the Madras Music Academy, Vol. XXXIX. pp 106-III
Also my Introductory Thesis, Spiritual Heritage of Tyagaraja. pp 3, 144 II
Edn. 1966. and my ‘Forerunners of Tyagaraja in Kriti-composition' Talk on
AIR, Vijayawada, printed in the Souvenir of the Rasika Ranjani Sabha,
Madras 1968-69.
you take this remedy of the Rama-mendicant, it completely des¬

troys pride, jealousy, avarice, and the accumulation of Karmas.
The remedy of Rama-jogi, which is unequalled in the world and
destroys the formidable fetters of life, the re medy which cannot
be obtained even by spending crores of rupees and is ever re¬
membered by the unequalled devotees of the Lord; the remedy
at Bhadradri (the shrine in Andhra for renovating which out of
state funds, the Saint was imprisoned), and which helps attain¬
ment of salvation and which is ever worshipped with devotion
by Ramadasa.”
SHAH ABDUL LATIF
Motilal Jotwani
Shah Abdul Latif has been aptly called the people’s poet.
Many poets emerged on the literary scene of Sindh before and
after Shah Abdul Latif but none understood its people, their
sorrows and pleasures, their feelings and aspirations more than
Shah Abdul Latif. His was the first great attempt to represent
the Sindhi people—both Hindu and Muslim—in the language,
which was their own, which they spoke in and outside the home.
He remains the greatest Sindhi poet till today. The people of
Sindh will continue to recite or sing his baits and wais
as they have done for more than two hundred years. Even those
who have left their land in the wake of partition continue to
love and recite them.
/ ■ / ■
Shah Abdul Latif was born in Hala (Sindu) in a notable Sayyid

family which traces its original line to Herat. One of his ancestors
belonging to Herat came to India with Amir Taimur. He settled
in Sindh at Hala (Old) and married in a family of local Sindhi
Hala tribe. The exact dates of Latif’s birth and death are not
established. But the evidence leads us to' believe that he was
born in 1689 and died in 1752. There were many historical -
changes in Sindh in the poet's life-time, the major change being
that of transfer of power from Moghul to Kalhoro rule in Sindh.
But Shah Abdual Latif had little concern with transient politics.
The contemporary history passed through the crucible of his
mind and expressed itself in his Kalam ; he, by expressing himself,
gave the most vocal expression to his times. Thus, he was the
most representative Sindhi poet of his age. Besides, there was,
as we have observed, an inner integrity in his life and work, His
life was a piece of poetry and his poetry an unconscious record
of his life. The two were the constituent parts of one organic
SHAH ABDUL LATIF 107
whole. He was the author of one work and we ought to read all
his Surs in order to appreciate any one of them. A man of
Ishq Haqiqi or the True Love, in his life, his Risalo is one long
wail of firaq or separation.
All his biographers are agreed that he was devoted to spiri¬
tual life almost from his childhood. Contemplative by nature,
he showed little liking for worldly comforts and remained more or
less in seclusion. It is said that when he was barely six and was
taught the alphabet, he would not go beyond the first letter Alif.
Alif stands for Allah or God, and oneness with Him. But his
father, Shah Habib, was a man of worldy prudence, he said to
him. “The opening letter of the alphabet ‘Alif’ is the Alpha and
Omega of knowledge. I also know this mystic truth. But one
should not dislike school instruction”.
Shah Abdul Latif, it seems, paid heed to his father’s advice
and rose to be a learned man of his times—a man having com¬
plete mastery over his mother-tongue Sindhi and good knowledge
of Arabic, Persian, Hindi and other languages of his time and
clime. The Risalo unmistakably shows] that he had studied the
Quran and the Traditions, Sufism and Vedantism, partly due to
his academic training befitting a scion of the Sayyids and partly
due to his personal observation of life in the company of Jogis
and Sannycisins in his young age. His natural feeling, later in
the grown-up life, was that more book learnedness was no aid to
the knowledge of Allah in His varied manifestations :
Learn the letter ‘Alif’, forget all other learning ;
Purify your heart, how many pages shall you read ?
This should not lead us to believe that he was an illiterate
person for such diatribes against book-learning were a common
feature of all Sufi poetry. Another bait, in quick succession, not
only testifies to his knowledge of ‘Alif’ in particular, but also of
alphabet in general. He says :
O scribe ! as you write ‘Alif’ and ‘Lam’ together.
So our Beloved is close to our soul.
Mir Ali Sher Qan’i Thattawi, who wrote in Persian an account

of Sindh and its main cities and holymen in the Tuhfatul-Kiram
(A.D. 1767) fifteen years after the saint-poet’s death, regards
Shah Abdul Latif as an “ummi”. He does so out of great devo¬
tion to him and brings him near to the Prophet, who also is said
to have been an “ummi”. The word “ummi”^ as\it is mentioned
in the Quran for the Prophet befone revelation, has been incor¬
rectly translated as “illiterate” by almost all the Sindhi commenta¬
tors of the Quaran. This word is the opposite of ahl al kitab, or
man of Law given by God. As the Prophet did not know the
Law of God previous to the revelation of the Quran, he was
referred to as an “ummi”1.
Shah Abdul Latif was an “ummi” in the sense that he was
not an “ahl al-kitab” (man of Law), though the kitab (Law) in
the form of the Quran he knew so well. In the main, he was a
great man of tariqah and not of shariah in the strict sense of
the term.
The Holy Quran in Arabic, Rumi’s Mathnawi in Persian and
Shah Abdul Karim’s baits in Sindhi—all in manuscript form,
these were Shah Abdul Latif’s never-failing friends with whom he
conversed day by day.
Every dejected lover is a poet. It may not be true in every
case, but it was certainly the frustration in love which helped to
mature Latif’s mind. When he was about twenty he chanced to
visit the ailing daughter of Mirza Mughal Beg. The Mirza was
a descendant of Chengiz Khan, therefore a choleric by blood. He
had great faith in Sayyid Shah Habib. So he sought Sayyid
Shah Habib’s blessings for his daughter. Being himself unwell
Shah Habib sent his son to offer on his behalf the blessings of the
Sayyids. Shah Abdul Latif saw the ailing daughter and was struck
by her beauty. He lost his heart there and then. The poet in
him was on his lips now. He held her little finger in hand and
said, as if in a dream :
1Cf■ Studies in Islam, Vol. II.p.62. M, Ajmal Khan rightly argils that
the word “ummi” has nothing to do with '‘illiteracy”.
‘One whose finger is in the Sayyid’s hand need no fear, no fall.'

And within a few days she recovered from her illness. But
Mirza Mughal had taken ill of young Latif’s words. He did not
say anything to the Sayyids but adopted such means as compelled
them to leave Kotri for Haweli, bag and baggage. The Sayyids
had built Haweli not very far from Kotri.
Shah Abdul Latif was restless. The longing of love and the
pangs of separation would not allow him peace of mind. One
day he left his house without informing his parents, and got into
the company of some jogis and sarmyasins with whom he travelled
for three years, through Sindh, Gujarat, Rajasthan, etc. The
years he thus spent widened his outlook and experience and had
a sobering influence on his mind. He saw life at first hand and
the insight he thus gained helped him to create the immortal
characters of Sasui, Marui, Sohni, etc.' Later he was to mention
in his works all the places he had visited and the difficult jour¬
neys he had undergone. What Sasui experiences while plodding
the weary way in the hot sands of Thar, was only a part of his
own recollection. In Sasui Punhu, as in his other tales of Lila
Chanesat, Mumal Kano, Sohani Mohar, etc.. Shah Abdul Latif
embodied what he had himself experienced and felt.
When Shah Latif was 23, Mirza Mughal lost his life in an
armed encounter with the robbers who had forced their way in
his house. The women of the house attributed this misfortune
to the displeasure of the Sayyids. They offered them Mirza’s
daughter for Latif. Thus Latif won in the end what he had des¬
paired of. Meanwhile the earthly love had led him to a taste of
the divine one.
His life thereafter was simple and homely and was spent mainly
in contemplation and in composing verses. Nature was his best
companion. He loved all and helped many a distressed person.
He was highly honoured in his life and people would come from
far off places to listen to his winged words. He died in 1752.
110 bEVOTIONAL POETS AMD MYSTICS
Now let us remove the scaffolding of the biographical account

of the saint-poet. It was not without its purpose here, for it will
help.up io comprehend and enjoy his poetry better. His utter¬
ances, in the form of baits were compiled and designated by his
disciples as the Shah-Jo-Risalo, or the Shah’s Message. His
Risalo is not a philosophical treatise, but it propounds through
the love-songs the doctrine of advaita (non-dualism).
The external realities or objects also have existence. But that

is an unreal one. Objects appearing in a dream are known to be
unreal when the dream is over. Likewise, the ‘variety of objects*
of waking life becomes unreal when nescience or lack of know¬
ledge in the waking life is overcome by the Real Awakening or
Realisation. The following two baits will illustrate Sankara’s
view. Shah Abdul Karim, great grandfather of Shah Abdul
Latif, says :
O friend ! all dreams are unsubstantial, no one should trust

a dream ;
Asleep, we were together ; when I was awake, he was no

longer there.
When Sasui was dreaming, Punhu was with her. When she
got up, she found that he had been driven miles away from her.
But that is not the Real Awakening. She gains It at last, and says
in Shah Abdul Latif’s Sur Sasui Abri:
As* I turned inwards and conversed with my soul,
There was no mountain to surpass and no Punhu to care
for;
I myself became Punhu . . .
only while Sasui, did I experience grief.
* * *
I was misled by waham or maya ; or else, I was Punhu

myself...
SHAH ABDUL LATEF 111
Sasui now is in a state where Kech (Punhu’s native place) and

Bhambhor (her own place) are reconciled in the One Original
Abode and where she feels complete non-attachment with her
worldly relatives. Realisation is possible only by becoming one
with the object of realisation, by becoming what one would like
to become. In that case knowledge will not be of the form,
“I know this”, but “I am this”. Realisation is an intimate know¬
ledge in the form, “I am Brahman” or “I am Huqq”, and then
there is no transmigration as before. If one living here does
not know the self, then there is for him or her endless misery in
the form of birth, old age, death, etc. One who ‘dies’ before
death, who while living gives no consideration to body, lives
eternally in Him. Shah Abdul Latif also says :
Who die before death, never will destroyed by dying be—
Who live ere second life they see will live eternally.1
A person, who has attained the Realisation, never ceases to
be what he Really is. In other words, he never ceases to be
the One, though he is in his individual form. An ordinary earthly
existence is but a sleep and a forgetting.2 When a person is
really aware of it, he has a negative gain in the sense that he has
removed the wrong notion about himself. In Shah Abdul Latif’s
Sur Mumal Rano, Mumal, Rano’s wife, under a spell of igno¬
rance, sleeps during her husband’s absence with her sister clad
in man’s (Rano’s) attires and thus satisfies her desire of being
with him. Rano comes to her palace and goes back. Mumal comes
to know of this and weeps drops of blood for him. Now her
eyes know no sleep and her being knows no forgetting. And her
mind does not get distracted by the worldly objects. She says,
“I shall die without you”. Her mind becomes still like the flame
of a lamp by which she waits for the True Self in whom she
yearns to be merged :
1. Translated by Elsa Kazi, Risalo of Shah Abdul Latif, Hyderabad (Sindh).
1965, p. 132:
2. Cf. Wordsworth Ode to Immortality, “Our birth is but a sleep and a
forgetting".
The whole night my lamp did burn; the dawn bursts in rays now.
O Rano, come back to me; I shall die without you.

I’ve depatched all the crows of Kak Palace as messengers to.
you.
Mumal receives a message that Rano will come to her at

dawn (the Awakening !). Then there are for her no distinctions
of forms, classes or castes, etc.
A message new and great from Rano was received last night;
We received a divine gift from the Giver Himself—
Ask not for caste ; whoever comes, he is welcome.
Liberation, which is another name for Realisation, comes to

Mumal now. She is free from the bondage of body and mind.
It is a stage that does not admit of any distinction. She sees
everything in herself, and herself in everything. She is the entire
world, and the entire world is she :
Whither need I drive the camel ? AT around is His glory ;

Kak Palace is within me and also the gardens here.
There is nothing but peace, nothing but Rano everywhere.
Mumal achieves the union, or the immensity of life, which

is without beginning or end. Shah Abdul Latif’s Marui lives
right from her early age in this immense reality, which the Chief¬
tain Umar’s offers of fine clothes and delicious victuals cannot
shatter. She says :
Befor God created universe, saying : “Be”,
And we were not yet separated from Him, my relationship
began there and then ;
O my Beloved, I still hold this cognition in me.
Marui is aware a Turiya, the Truth, in her life. Even as the

thirst for silver does not remain when nacre is known, she never
feels any desire for non-self (clothes, food and other material
things) when the Self is cognised by her. At last Lila kills her
thirst for diamond-necklace; Mumal, too, gives up the attach¬
ment with her ‘person’, cognises Rano in herself and thus realises
Turiya, the Truth, or Shantih, the Peace That Passeth Under¬
standing. The Truth beyond cannot be described :
Whoever saw the Truth, he spoke nothing : h§r realized the
s; Peace.
It is not for nothing that the last bait of the Sur Mumal Rano
(quoted last but two above) closes with the words :
There is nothing but peace, nothing but Rano everywhere . .

like the formal ending of the Upanishad : Shantih Shantih Shantih.
This, however, does not mean that the Absolute is a nothingness
or a contentless void. Instead, It is, as stated earlier, the Peace
That Passeth Understanding. This is what is meant by Nahi
or Adam, or Sunj (Nothingness) in Shah Abdul Latif’s Sur
Ramkali. It is the experience of Peace, inexpressible and indes¬
cribable :
The yogis became again the Whole, their only concern;
Whose seat is in Nothingness, I cannot live without them.
* * *
Where there is no heaven and no trace of the earth,

Where the moon and the sun neither rise, nor descend.
That far the yogis have set their tryst with the Supreme
Knowledge, and they see the Lord in Nothingness,
The stage described in the bait given above is the same as

that in the Kathopanishad: “Where neither sun nor moon, nor
stars shine, nor does lightning strike”. Shah Abdul Latif craves
and longs for the yogis, the human beings in whom inhere the
divine qualities, and with whom he travelled far and wide in our
country.
He says :
The yogis pack their bags with hunger

and prepae themseleves for junj or ananda,
They desire not the food,
but lustily pour the thirst in their cups and sip it,
They flog their minds
until they be like beaten flax.
Thus, they wade through the wasteland
and at last are near regeneration and fertility.
In another bait of the same Sur the saint-poet says :
Take advantage of their presence,

be with them and enrich your experience,
Soon they’ll go a journey to the thought-of distant land,
leave this world of pleasures and reach the holy Ganga.
It is a wasteland on which we live, and Shah Abdul Latif

alludes to the Ganga in the above-quoted bait. According to a
Puranic myth, the sacred Ganga waters emanate from the matted
locks of the Lord Siva’s head and fertilize the barren land. The
Ganga, stands for the soul’s regeneration through divine ecstasy.
The Sur Ramkali makes it clear that a part of Shah Abdul

Latif’s heritage is derived from the tradition of the Nath Yogis.
But of course, the poet did not favour mere physical practice of
the yogic exercises (sadhana) without real spiritual attunement
(bhakti). As such, there is no reference in his poetry to the
entire method of penance as practised by the Nath Panthis. His
is the bhavatmak rahasyavada (mysticism with emotion or devo¬
tion as the basis) and not the sadhanatmak one (mysticism based
on the yogic exercises). His yogis are the spiritual people, away
from the physical pleasures. They hear the subtle sound pervad¬
ing the Universe, the unstruck sound or the Anahata Nada :
They wear loin-cloth and need no ablutions,

And hear the subtle call that sounded before the advent of
Islam.
They sever all ties and meet their guide, Gorakhnath.
The Anahata Nada, or Sabda, in its ultimate sense is the

same highest symbol Om of the Upanishads. The Mula Mantra of
the Jap-Ji by Guru Nanak, who is popularly described as a Guru
of the Hindus and a Pir of the Muslims, opens with this highest
mystic syllable, Ek Omkar Sat-Nam, Kartar, Purkha .... Shah
Abdul Latif also says :
Constantly contemplate on this Word, the cure of all your

misery
Keep meem in your mind and put alif before it.
The reference here is to both the sacred sound Om (Om when

written in the Arabic script begins with the letter alif and ends
with meem) and Muhammad-after-Allah (meem for Muhammad
and alif for Allah). Shah Abdul Latif had remained in the com¬
pany of wandering Jogis, believing in the unity of being. San¬
kara’s advaita and the Sufis’ wahdah al-wujud are strikingly similar
in their metaphysical quest.
That the poet is deeply influenced by the Indian mystic method

is evident also from the fact that he, unlike the Islamic mystics,
describes himself (or for that matter the seeker) in the role of
a female lover and depicts God as the Man (Purus). Kabir says,
“Rama is my Husband. I am His little bride.” Malik Muham¬
mad Jayasi describes himself in the role of a male lover and
depicts the Beloved God as a woman. Like Kabir and unlike
Jayasi, Shah Abdul Latif becomes Sasui, Mumal, Nuri, Sohni,
Lila, Marui and Sorath and feels the pangs of separation, seeks
the union with God and is finally united with Him. This ex¬
plains why the saint-poet has not thought of describing the beauty
of his heroines. It is Punhu, Rano, Tamachi, Mehar, Chanesar,
Khetsen and Diyach who are the very images of beauty in his
poetry. Sohni tells her friends :
If you were to see Mehar’s face but once.

You would no longer sleep comfortably beside your hus¬
bands.
And would not wait to pick up earthen jars as an aid to
swim.
But plunge in the river long before me.
Again like Kabir, he refers to Rama as Impersonal God

(Nirguna). The allusion to Rama in Shah Abdul Latif’s poetry
is not like the description of Rama in Tulsidasa’s Ramacharita
Manasa in which God is contemplated and envisioned as personal
God (Saguna).
The religion of the saint-poet even as of his other contemporary

poets all over India was essentially of a man in direct relation¬
ship with God and not of a particular religious group looking to¬
wards the scriptural instructions and injunctions. As is abund¬
antly evident from his poetry, he did not hold the traditional view,
of forming a part of any particular religious community.
TAYUMANAVAR
S. Sachidanandam PiJlai
The seventeenth century was a period of turmoil in the history
of South India. The. local chieftains were often quarrelling among
themselves, and the East India Companies of European nations,
not content with trade, were interfering in local politics and were
adding to the confusion. Christian missionaries were also active
in the propagation of their religion. Such were the times when
saints appeared on the scene and guided the people. Tamil Nadu
produced one of the greatest among them, Saint Tayumanavar,
who combined a statesman’s ability, with spiritual greatness.
At Vedaranyam in the south of the Tanjore district, there was
a gentleman named Kedilippa Pillai who belonged to the vellala
(agricultural) community. The prince in one of his tours saw
Kedilippa Pillai working piously and efficiently as a trustee of
the Siva temple at Vedaranyam. It struck him that this gentle¬
man would be able to manage the palace affairs quite well and
invited him to do so. Kedilippa’s son had been given in adoption
to his elder brother who was childless and thus became childless
himself. He prayed earnestly to Lord Siva at Tiruchirapalli, who
is known as God Tayumanavar for a son. This prayer was granted
and Kedilippa Pillai’s wife Gajavalli gave birth to a son and the
boy was naturally called after the benign deity—Tayumanavar1.
He was born in the year 1705.
The handsome, intelligent boy grew up and mastered three
languages—Tamil, Telugu and Sanskrit. His writings show that
he was well versed in all the schools of philosophy then prevalent.
His devotion to God and thirst for God-realisation grew despite
the duties in the palace. On the death of his father Tayumanavar
had naturally to take duties at the palace and became known for
1. Also known as Tayumanar.
his diligence. There were often threats and attacks from the
Arcot Nawab’s soldiers and Maharatta marauders and it was not
easy to withstand all these. On one such occasion when the
enemy attack was proceeding outside, Krishnappa Naik of Madu¬
rai, who was ruling in the South, met with his death. His queen
was a masterly woman and the situation was saved somehow.
Tayumanavar had to continue in his post at the queen’s request.

His task was now harder than before. A palace supervisor had
not only to manage all the court affairs—financial, social, religious
and what not—but had also to be a confidant of the ruling
sovereign. Here came the hitch : the queen found minister Tayu¬
manavar to be admirable not only in the qualities of his head and
heart,,but also for his personal charm. Tayumanavar, however,
was a man of probity and decided to get away from the awkward
situation.
His younger brother, Arulayya, who later became his disciple,

was there to help out Tayumanavar. He told his respected elder
brother that a horse was waiting outside the city gate to take
him to Ramnad, a comparatively peaceful part of the country.
Tayumanavar decided that he should seize the opportunity and
left the palace. On reaching Ramnad he was welcomed by the
Rajah of the place who arranged for the Saint’s quiet stay in
meditation, untrammelled by worldly distractions.
After spending some time in that peaceful place, Tayumanavar

felt the need to travel to other places of pilgrimage. His visit to
Chidambaram is worthy of special mention. At this place is the
ancient temple where Lord Siva manifests His cosmic dance and
souls released from wordly bondage are supposed to dwell in the
ethereal space there in the sanctum. It was about this time, if not
earlier, that the Saint began to compose his famous hymns which
apart from their richly suggestive Tamil idiom, are set to various
tunes whose haunting melody is surcharged with high wisdom and
intense devotion. Many of these songs have come down to us,
thanks to the diligent care of his disciple, his younger brother
TAYUMAMANAVAR 119
Arulayya. In connection with his visit to Rameswaram a miracle

has been recorded. There was no rain at all in that region for a
long time, and the people naturally prayed to Saint Tayumanavar
to relieve them-of their sufferings. The holy man took pity on
them and pronounced a stanza in Venba metre, which may be thus
rendered : “O clouds, if it is true that the Siva faith is the true
faith, if the Deity inculcated by it is the Lord who has the crescent
moon on His head, if the real path be the control of senses and
immersion in bliss—then may you pour down the rain !”
As he was finishing the stanza a cold breeze sprang up, dark
clouds filled the sky and heavy showers accompanied by thunder
an-o lightning deluged the parched-up land.
In the meantime, news of the happenings at Tiruchi had reach¬

ed Tayumanavar’s relations at Vedaranyam. His mother especially
was anxious that he should lead a householder’s life and hence
she sent his elder brother Sivachidambaram to find him out at
Ramnad and persuade him to return home So Sivachidambaram
travelled all the way via Tiruchi to Ramnad : ft was not very
difficult to trace the journey of Tayumanavar and Arulayya as
the saintly brother had been observed and welcomed by many on
the way. So finally Sivachidambaram reached the hut where
Tayumanavar was dwelling and conveyed to him his mother’s
wish. Tayumanavar was unwilling to enter again the worldly
life but his respect for his mother as well as his Guru's hint that
he should lead a house-holder’s life before final initiation, com¬
pelled him to accede.
It was a happy coincidence that Tayumanavar’s bride was a

girl after his own heart, modes^ and devoted to her husband.
She bore him a son named Kanakasabhai reminiscent of the Chid¬
ambaram shrine. She left this world of sorrows not long after
confinement; the boy was taken care of by Sivachidambaram, and
also Arulayya who later initiated him in the spiritual life.
Tayumanavar was now free to devote himself exclusively to
God. Ramnad, the former centre of his austerities, irresistibly at-
tracted him. There he could sit under a tamarind tree in self¬

absorption, forgetting the world for days together. Another disciple
who joined the Saint’s service is known as Kodikkarai Jnani. He
has recorded that Tayumanavar left this world in the middle of
January, 1742. The manner of his disappearance is shrouded in
legends but his historic intervention in the Portuguese invasion,
shortly before his demise, should be mentioned. Setupati, the
king of Ramnad, and his kinsman Kattaiya Thevar had a mis¬
understanding which grew into enmity. Taking advantage of the
situation the Portuguese came with a navy to Rameswaram island
and hoisted their flag on the famous temple. Setupati did not
know what to do but our Saint who sympathized with the world’s
troubles, could not sit quiet. Reconciling with the royal kinsmen,
he caused an army under Setupati’s lead to proceed to Rames¬
waram. But wishing to avoid bloodshed he went in front and
spoke to the Portuguese and their missionaries about the sin of
human slaughter. The latter were touched but the captain of
the navy stood out. However, he too submitted on hearing that
the Dutch were attacking his ships. Tayumanavar impressed on
his people the need for unity; peace was restored and it was
celebrated as a great victory.
The life and teachings of Saint Tayumanvar have a signific¬

ance for modern times. In early days he was deeply concerned
witli warring creeds and schools of philosophy, and his own
dialectic powers must have been great. Initiated by one in the
line of disciples of the great mystic, Saint Tirumular, he practised
silent meditation and attained great spiritual heights, acquiring
the power of reconciliation of various schools of thought. Even
after becoming an ascetic and a man of realisation, he followed
the tradition of pilgrimage to sacred places, singing an inspiring
hymn in each place. '
We may ask now whether he did nor favour a particular school

to shape his own teaching. In his writings we can see a distinct
leaning towards pure Advaita, quite different from the theory of
TAYUMANAVAR 121
illusion. This is natural as Saiva Siddhanta was developed in Tamil

Nadu by Saint Meikandar and his followers according to which,
in addition to the three functions of Deity viz. creation, sustenance
and dissolution, we are introduced to the ideas of concealment
and the action of grace. First there is the idea and realization of
the Transcendent and Immanent, Paraparam. Tayumanavar says
in Paraparakkani that it is by divine grace that the Lord mani¬
fests and governs this earth and other worlds. But being the Abso¬
lute, He is above all things material. A mountain of bliss, He is
both Immanent and Transcendent. To His devotees He is ever
near, knowing their innermost thoughts and wishes and fulfils
them by showering His grace. He can be described as the most
precious treasure of man or the Highest Knowledge we can con¬
ceive. It is to realise Him that the Saint travelled to several sacred
places and abodes of saints. His graceful look and consolatory
word are prayed for, so that our anxieties may cease for ever. But
his fundamental prayer was that we should never forget Him; also
that we may consider all beings as our own and be compassionate
to them. Even physical immortality is possible by perfection in
Kundalini Yoga, but to still the unstable mind is a higher achieve¬
ment. Above all He gives us sell-knowledge.
The result of this highest realization is the immersion in Bliss.

Tayumanavar had an intense experience of bliss and he describes
it in unique terms. God appeared to him as the joy filling the
whole universe within and without. Sometimes it is felt as a
Hood or something indescribable of which conjugal bliss (however
inferior) is indicated as a symbol. Indeed Tayumanavar sings
about the union in love with the Divine Being as many other saints
have done, e.g. in the Song of Songs and Gita Govinda.
An apposite point for the proper comprehension of Indian

culture is his synthesis of Vedanta and Saiva Siddhanta. It should
be brought home to certain circles in the South that Tayumanavar
upholds the greatness of Upanishadic doctrine by which many
kings and saints had achieved salvation. He speaks of the various
schools of philosophy as rivers which flow from different directions

into the one ocean of Truth. Similarly, he says out of his experi¬
ence that all forms of Yoga are subsumed into the supreme Yoga.
He has pointed out clearly that Dvaita, the doctrine of duality,
which indeed embraces all multiplicity, is only a step to arrive at
Advafta, the doctrine and experience of unity. ‘Hearing’ (sravana)
is charya, ‘contemplation’ (manana) is kriya, and ‘realization’
or sure experience is Yoga ; this explains the similarity or even
identity of the methods of Vedanta and Siddhanta. To quote from
his Paripurna Anandam (the Full Bliss) : “My work is always
Thy work, my individuality is not separate from Thee and hence
I am not foreign to Thy being. This is the way to reconcile
Vedanta and Siddhanta, to be sure !” (stanza 5). Obviously the
“emotional integration” of the followers of different paths was no
problem to Saint Tayumanavar. A very telling symbolism he
makes use of is that the horse of Agama gallops on the road of
the Veda !
While on this topic we may mention that Tayumanavar in all
his writing does not set much store by the various stories of God
and the Godly in the Puranas. At least some of these stories are
apt to mislead us, with the fast changing mentality of modern
times. Hence this. Saint always emphasises the original principles
which enlighten us about God and the things that are holy. It
shows how a man who successfully took a prominent part in the
important affairs of this world could also find himself quite at
home among highly abstract principles. ‘God has neither caste
nor family, birth nor death, bondage nor release; form, form¬
lessness nor any name !’ (Pond Vanakkam, Stanza 5). As he is
timeless He is without any distinction of day or night. There is
no limitation or defect in Him, so He is the integral, Purnam.
A homely representation of these fundamental truths is also
possible. We the ordinary souls are compared to cows or animals
in general—Pasu; our state of bondage is the rope, pasam; the
Lord who releases us is Pad. In fact Pasupati, which is a
name of Siva, points to the One who is our Overlord.
TAYUMANAVAR 123
He takes care of us, ‘feeds* us and shelters us, always sees to it

that we do not go astray. As we grow thus under His protection
some of the souls become gradually ‘ripe’—pakva or fit for salva¬
tion; then He releases such souls from bondage. But as He is
gracious and impartial to all, He brings up solicitously even those
who ‘ripen’ rather slowly; hence no one is outside the pale of sal¬
vation or moksha for ever. Needless to say, the Lord does not
look for any return for this act of grace, although it is natural
for the released souls to feel grateful and henc^ bounji to Him
(not bound to the world as before) for all the time thence. But
does He come before us in person ? That happens only to the
most highly evolved souls who are capable of superhuman efforts
(tapas) for the purpose; to all others who are thirsting for grace,
He sends his emanations or saints according to the need of each
soul. Indeed one form of Siva is Dakshinamurti or the Teacher
who illumines by silence. This form of God is represented as a
young person sitting under a banyan tree, surrounded by four
aged sages who are the eternal wise men. These four are utterly
devoid of egotism aed can, by their blessings, give the light and
bliss of salvation to thousands of souls.
Many of Tayumanavar’s songs are surcharged with emotion

and show a close intimacy with God. Perhaps a good specimen
is the famous song beginning Ponnai matarai from which we may
cull a few stanzas.
“Lord of my life who hast sought me, I was seeking

gold, women and land ! Henceforth I will seek only
Thfee and the pure ether of Thy grace.”
“Thou hast said that whatever is called mine is really
Thine, so I have consecrated it all to Thee. O life of
this poor one ! If Thou should’st subject me again to
grief, how can I be saved ?”
“Without proper behaviour or good qualities, ignorant
of the way of Thy grace, can this little one be saved ?
Eating poison thou dids’t come forth as nectar ! It is

time to see my Father’s high status . . .”
“O Lord, doubtless Thou hast made my body and its
actions harmonise with the'inner spirit. False though I
be, when will the falsehood of my mind cease and
result in the full and true bliss ?”
“Dwelling in me as my life, won’t it be moral for Thee
to wipe off sorrow from my mind ? My mind knows
only to think of Thy graceful face of intense
beauty ...”
Tayumanavar had experience of these great ones and when
he was dwelling in a hut near Ramnad in his later life, he spoke
about their wonderful knowledge and power to his disciples
Arulayya and Kodikkarai Jnani.
Mention must be made here about the siddhas—the perfect
ones—whom Tayumanavar adored. They made their bodies and
minds perfect by following Ashtanga (or Raja) Yoga of the sage
Patanjali.
Tayumanavar’s intense yearning for realization will be evi¬
dent from the four stanzas in which he quotes a word or phrase
from the hymns of the first four great Saivite saints, asking poig¬
nantly when he will attain their sublime realization. The means
for such attainment is revealed as abiding in unity and the conse¬
quent bliss by initiation of the one word “sit quiet !” (Anandakka-
lippu, 14)
He says that his desire is to propagate the gospel of “non¬
killing” throughout the world (Paraparakkanni, 54). He prays for
divine grace so that he may have the compassion born of consider¬
ing his life as quite similar to the lives of all (Ibid, 65).
We shall conclude by echoing Tayumanavar’s sentiment that
the service of saints is the surest and easiest means to attain the
state of Bliss.
The author is grateful to Shri S. Krishnan for assisting him in the prepara¬
tion of this article.
RAMALINGA SWAMI
K. R. Srinivasa Iyengar
Over one hundred years ago, on 30 January 1874, Vallalar

Ramalinga Swami, the apostle of Samarasa Suddha Satya San-
marga or the universal religion of humanity, retired to a room
in the ‘Abode of Siddhi’ near Vadalur not far from Chidambaram
in South India, and was never seen again alive or dead. By a
curious coincidence, seventy-four years later, 30 January 1948
was to be the day of martyrdom of Mahatma Gandhi, another
prophet of human unity and universal well-being. In some impor¬
tant respects, Gandhiji’s ministry and martyrdom were a con¬
tinuation and partial fulfilment of Ramalinga Swami’s great
mission in life. They were both essentially men of God, and
if Ramalinga ultimately identified Reality with Arutperum-Joyti
or the Light Divine. Gandhiji too finally saw God as Truth and
had a particular fascination for Newman’s celebrated hymn ‘Lead
Kindly Light!’ Ramalinga and Gandhiji are surely among the sup¬
reme benefactors of humanity— Vallalars—angels and ministers of
Grace-r-who come down from time to time to apply correctives
to the fallen human condition and make efforts to raise it up.
Again, like Ramakrishna Paramahamsa in Bengal, like Daya-

nand Saraswati in Western India, Ramalinga Swami in Tamil
Nadu was also a prophet of the dawn of Renascent India after
the darkness and bleakness consequent on the trauma of British
conquest and the subsequent national humiliation. The country
no doubt needed economic, political, social and cultural rejuvena¬
tion, but more basically still what the country needed was a
moral and spiritual regeneration, and men like Ramakrishna,
Dayanand and Ramalinga were the potent power-houses of such
The free English renderings from Ramalinga Swami's original Tamil
poems are by the author.
resurgence. Ramakrishna took the Kingdom of Heaven by

violence and brought it down, Dayanand was an evangelist and
organizer of genius, and Ramalinga was the poet of sovereign
compassion, the apostle of universal love, benevolence and har¬
mony. Then came Swami Vivekananda who carried the Para-
mahamsa’s message to the ends of the world; Narayana Guru in
Kerala who brought about a social and religious revolution;
Ramana Maharshi in Tamil Nadu who embodied in himself the
utter poise of the Infinite; Gandhiji himself, and Sri Aurobindo
the Prophet of the Life Divine. It Ramalinga Swami anticipated
Gandhiji’s acute social concern and his enfranchising universal
love, he also shared Sri Aurobindo*s vision of Supramental Light
and his dream of revolutionary change and physical transforma¬
tion. On the other hand, Ramalinga harked back too (so one
might think) to the Tamil mystics of earlier age—Tirumoolar,
Manikkavachakar, Sambandhar, Appar, Sundarar, Pattinattar,
Arunagiri, Tayumanavar—and was a God-intoxicated God-
realized hymnist whose Tlruarutpa has already taken its place
along with Tirum indiram, Tevaram, Tiruvachakam and other
classics of mystic and devotional poetry.
Ramalinga’s ‘life’ is briefly told. He was born at Marudur

near Chidambaram on 5 October 1823, as the youngest of his
father’s five children. The privileges of birth, affluence and
formal education were not Ramalinga’s and his life ran a course
unconventional and unpredictable. When he was taken as a child
of five months to the Temple of Chidambaram, he had an ex¬
perience which he was to recall in later years as follows :
When my mother took me as a baby

To the sanctum at Tillai—
You revealed to me, as the curtain rose,
All the transcendental Truth;
Sheer God knowledge ripened in my nonage,
O my soul’s sap and Home 1
RAMALINGA SWAMI 127
Losing his father early, he migrated with the family to Madras

after a very brief interregnum at Ponneri. In the Muthialpet
area in Madras City, Ramalinga grew up under the guardianship
of his elder brother Sabapathy and his wife, and often felt attrac¬
ted, as iron to the magnet, to the Lord in the Kandakottam tem¬
ple. As a boy of nine, while still living in his brother’s house*
Ramalinga had a singular experience. Looking into the mirror in
his room he saw, not his own reflection, but the Lord at Tiruttani:
Six beautiful faces, twelve shoulders

Matching and imperious :
The whole crowned by a garland of flowers—
And ravishing lotus-feet.
With his sharp battle-axe, he was mounted
On his majestic peacock.
All lit by aura of Grace—thus I saw
Thanika’s Lord in the glass.
In the coming years, Ramalinga was constantly God-intoxi¬

cated, and spent much of his time either in silent contemplation
or in fulsome praise of the Lord in one or another of His aus¬
picious Forms. Although he had no regular schooling, he be¬
came quickly intimate with the classics of Saiva devotional litera¬
ture, and gave impromptu discourses before large congregations,
carrying conviction by the fervour of his voice and the force of
his winning personality. He also composed songs with extem¬
poraneous ease almot since his ninth year, pouring forth song
after song comprehending the entire gamut of bhakti or God-
love. There are occasional hints in his verse relating to some
of his boyhood experiences :
Once when as a boy I slept all alone

On a pial, and slipped down,
Wasn’t it You that held me up in Your arms,
And then gently let me down ?
Once as I lay asleep on a pial.
A boy wearied and hungry,

You brought me a plate of the choicest food
And fed me so graciously ....
• Sambanda ! Immortal Siva-Guru !
Refuge of the devotees !
In the days of my green and callow youth
When I had no light within
And I lacked the steady light of knowledge
And strength of experience,
You led me up to narrow path of Grace,
With no slipping afterwards.
It is not surprising that, although married at a young age to
his elder sister’s daughter, Ramalinga should have soon turned
away from married life, the call Divine being far stronger.
Ramalinga’s ‘inner’ life—which was infinitly more significant
than his‘outer’existence—was a journey and a quest, a fairly
protracted struggle with its vicissitudes of defeat and success,
gloom and ecstasy; and it may also be described as a movement
from Muruga at Kandakottam to Muruga at Tiruttani, thence
to Tyagesar at Tiruvottriyur, and finally to Nataraja at Tillai
(Chidambaram). Ramalinga’s ardour for the Divine—whether
as Muruga, Tyagesar or as Nataraja—was more compelling than
an ardent bride’s for her Lord, and indeed many of Ramalinga’s
song-sequences are couched in the traditional language of bridal
mysticism. Here, for example, the ‘Bride’ (Ramalinga) confides
to her comrades with assurance and candour :
He will come, my friends, riding a peacock;
Bhaktas will receive largesse :
My friends, He is crowned with unsullied fame;
Let’s sing His glories and dance.
Here is another charming piece of disarming naivete :
I spoke fair to the great lord at Otri:
“Come to my house and take food,
And after the siesta you may go.”
RAMALINGA SWAMI 129
He came, I served Him with food.

But He only said, “You have deceived me !”
Oh my friend, what did He mean ?
In other poems, however, as in the famous Mahadevi Malai

for example,—it is rather the mystic and the pantheist that
speaks to us. The verses seem to have torrentially tumbled out
of Ramalinga’s lips, and there is rich improvisation as well as
utter ease and naturalness in the poetic utterance. Here are a
few stanzas :
O Lord ! Thou art seed, sprout, seedling,

The pith and marrow of all,
Foliage, fruit and their beneficiary :
Thou art segment and fulfilled whole,
Essence, experience, bliss,
Poise of universal witness self ;
Thou art pearl, ruby and sole
Immortal Diamond : . . .
O Lord ! Thou art gold, jewel, adornment
Without and within,
And purity;
Thou art earth, mountain and sea.
Moon, Sun and the Heavens ;
Thou art beginning, end, and the realm between—
From the cloud-burst of Thy Grace issue
The full resonant thunder,
The lighning-flash
And flooded bliss ...
Thou art indeed my life, O lord,
The life of my life and my soul’s mate ;
Thou art my own mother and father both,
My priceless possession,
My heart’s love.
My code of Dharma,
My kith and kin;
Thou art my Guru elect, my bliss of union

My whole existence
And my Lord Protector.
Of the vicissitudes of his spiritual journey, again, many of the

confessional asseverations speak movingly :
Entangled in the mire of worldly life

I wriggle and forget You :
Bear with me yet, and forgive, O My Lord
Of Thanikachalam Hill ....
I was once vile beyond comparison
Yet You have refashioned me
A flame-like mind in a golden body
With supreme understanding :
You’ve led me to all realizations
And ecstatic ananda :
How shall I describe Your benefactions ? . . .
Thinking of the great Sun’s diurnal course
And the dreaded run of Time,
Grieve not worried about the God of Death
And his angry attention.
Remember Markandeya’ victory,
and chant Namas-sivaya ....
The name of the Lord is the sure refuge
Of all those that hasten to Him . . .
O this great effulgent Grace bestowed on me
By the Lord’s boundless mercy :
He launched me as a mother in the world
To do my great ministry, 0
And gave me a deathless golden body
And a matching soul within.
RAMALINGA SWAMI
131
It is probable that, attaining the middle stage of his life,
Ramalinga felt he had enough of the hurry and noise and strife of
the metropolis, reacted strongly against its derailments and distrac¬
tions, and decided definitively to respond to the call of the Lord
at Tillai. Visiting the temple, he experienced again the mystical
tremendum of his childhood recognition, adoration and ecstasy
in the presence of Nataraja. He settled down for a few years
at Karunguzhi, but he travelled also a good deal, gave discourses
and indited songs. His vision of Reality grew new dimensions,
he continually saw the Divine in Man and circumambient Nature,
. and he seized the ultimate equation of Creator with his Creation.
Ramalinga would have none of the man-made divisions of caste,
creed, dogma or ritual; and he eloquently preached against all
forms of bigotry, cruelty and human inequity. More and more
he visualized Reality or the Divine as pure and puissant Light—
Arut-perum-Jyoti and saw in its realization alone the clue to
life-transformation including the possible transformation of the
human body. From our flawed life to life in love—than life
charged with Grace—and, as the apotheosis, life suffused with
delight or ananda ! Ramalinga took also several practical steps
in the last period of his life to advance the realization of his
ideal of human harmony and global well-being. He gave a
central place in his scheme of life to the play of compassion, and
he saw that the mystic vision of Arut-perum-Jyoti was allied to
the complementary power of Tanip-perum-Karunai (uniquely
sovereign compassion) :
Every time I saw crop withering,

I withered too; as often
As I saw hungry destitute beggars,
I too fainted with hunger :
The sight of chronic victims to disease
Made me tremble like a leaf;
And the defeat of the meritorious

Has made me wilt in pain ...
Compassion has overwhelmed me as oft
As I’ve mixed with living beings ...
My life’s run and soul of compassion are one
Not wholly different things;
My life must cease when my compassion dies—
I swear this at Your feet.
He established the Samara sa Veda Sanmarga Sangha in 1865,

and the Satya Veda Dharmasala two years later. The same year
saw the publication of a collection of his songs and mystical
outpourings called Tiru-Arutpa (The Golden Book of Grace),
and this both consolidated Ramalinga's popularity as a singer-
saint and provoked a somewhat acrimonious controversy. It
was thought by some people that the use of the word Arutpa
by Ramalinga was rather sacrilegious, since it sought to put
the book on par with Tevaram and Tiruvachakam. Opinion
was for a time sharply divided between orthodoxy led by the
formidable Arumuga Navalar and the followers of Ramalinga
Swami. It is said, however, that when there was an actual con¬
frontation in the court, Navalar too, like the rest, rose to greet
the serene white-clad Ramalinga Vallalar. It was only some
years after Ramalinga’s passing away that Tiru-Arutpa could win
universal acceptance, both as a body of hymns and as poetry
compounded at once of radiant sincerity, sparkling clarity and
honeyed sweetness.
From his boyhood almost, Ramalinga had been composing

songs as the mood or occasion dictated, and six thousand of
these verses have been collected and enshrined in the Six Books
of Tiru-Arutpa. But it is fairly certain that a large number, as they
were extemporaneously sung, were never actually recorded, or
the records could not be traced at the time the collection was
RAMALINGA SWAM! 133
prepared for the press. Even so Tiru-Arutpa is a truly impres¬

sive and inspiring body of devotional poetry, and the definitive
Ooran Adigal's edition of 1972 has arranged the songs and song
sequences for the first time in their strict chronological order.
The one perennial theme is the Divine, but Ramalinga plays
numberless variations on it, using with marvellous dexterity about
thirty varieties of metrical form and many popular tunes. Re¬
petition, refrain, assonance, alliteration, rhyme, all appear as
naturally as leaves spring up on a tree in the season of spring.
And yet it is the bliava, the utter earnestness and sincerity, the
total absorption in the Divine, the complete identification with all
humanity and all life that made Tiru-Arutpa wholly worthy of
the name, a rare testament of Divine love that strikes a respon¬
sive chord in seasoned scholar and unlettered commoner alike.
The very qualities of spontaneity, emotive richness and mellifluous
sweetness that make the songs immediately so moving and effec¬
tive also made them untranslatables the more so into a language
like English with its own poetic tradition and structural idiosyn-
cracies. The renderings, to be readable at all, have to be freely
experimental. My English renderings in the course of this essay
are such tentative experiments, and here are a few more :
O Thou Mountain within love’s grasp : .

O sovereign Power inhabiting Love’s hut :
Thou Omnipresence caught in Love’s net :
Nectar held in Love’s hand :
Ocean contained in Love’s pitcher :
Thou Light of Knowledge that’s love.
Thou Effulgence packed in atomic Love,
Thou Lord Supreme incarnate in Love.
I’ll sing, or I’ll bend,
If Thou wiliest I should :
I’ll dine, or be humbled, or sleep,
Or keep awake and active,

If you must have it so :
What’s it that by itself
my insignificance can do ?
Like the generations of plantain-trees
Are the line of devotees.
Am I not one in their unending line ?
How is it, then, I suffer ?
Can you countenance it ?—Is it proper ?
Has it Your divine sanction ?
O my Lord Dancer in Golden Hall,
Am I not your son indeed ?
I can no longer endure this burden
Of totality of pain.
Turn here and now your effulgence of Grace
And end my night of sorrow—
O my blissful Dancer-King, wear this garland
Of praise for my well-being :
For impartially you charge with delight
The learned and unlearned :
You concede the rare gift of sight alike
To those who see, and won’t see ;
You are Bounty, and it flows equally
To the puissant and the weak ;
You are Reason, that guides the perceptive
And the unreasonable ;
O Justiciar abiding with the pure
As well as the pernicious :
Thou Goodness that must decree the good
Of gods, as also titans !
RAMALINGA SWAMI 135
My mind of adamant has now melted

And thirsts for communion;
The intellect is stilled, Love wells up and
Overflows : This is the time.
For a change, there is this bit of light-hearted musing by

Ramalinga on being invited to a wedding :
Nor shoes nor shirt spotless white :
Nor fresh dhoti, nor style :
Nor cash in hand, nor bulky frame :
No home, no daring—
O my mind, how will you enact
The Wedding Guest ?
On the other hand, Ramalinga had no doubt at all regarding

his role as Messenger of God *.
I’ve been vouchsafed
The Grace of God
And sent to sow the seed
Of the way of Truth
In the flawed hearts
Of the world’s hypocrites—
To help them attain here
The bliss of Divine Life
It was not, however, Ramalinga Swami’s aim any more than

it was the Buddha’s, Guru Nanak’s or Ramakrishna Parama-
hama’s—to establish an entirely new religion. He rather aimed
at affirming and bringing out the throbbing warmth at the heart of
all true religious experience. He felt strongly that caste, creed,
blind custom, dogma, superstition, ritual or dialectics should not
divide man from man, or raise barriers between man and God.
He founded Satya Jnana Sabha (presently amplified into Samarasa
Suddha Sanmarga Satya Jnana Sabha) in 1872 at Vadalur, and
it was housed in a specially constructed octagonal building where
the Ultimate was symbolized as Jyoti or Light. The Sabha was
to be a place of prayer where people drawn from diverse religions,

sects, castes and creeds could transcend all doctrinal adhesions
and constrictions and breathe the ambience of the Love Divine
(Tanip-perum-karunai) and bask in the sovereignty of the Light
Divine (Arut-perum-Jyoti). In his own culminating experience,
Reality had come to him as the Light Divine at the heart of all
creation, a Light feeding and fed by the Love Divine; and it was
Divine Grace that compelled the play of both Light and Love.
Thus Arut-perum-Jyoti became Ramalinga’s mantra of mantras,
the mul-mantra, and in his Arut-perum-Joyti Ahaval and else¬
where he made these grand affirmations :
\
Grace the supreme Light! Grace the supreme Light !

Grace the supreme Light! The Grace !
Crowned on Agama, on the Veda crowned,
And soaring higher : the Grace !
Who helped me beyond the seven oceans.
Of birth and bondage ? the Grace !
Biggest of the big, smallest of the small.
Rarest of the rare; the Grace !
Centred in my mind, diffusing global
Illumination : the Grace !.
O great mystery of creation out
Of earth, womb, sweat, egg: the Grace 1
The Light Divine that knows
No beginning, middle or end
Has wholly mingled in
My heart’s blood-stream ;
I too have become the Permanent.
Beyond caste, creed or dogma ;
In the High Street of Pure Existence
I bear witness to You !
What Ramalinga wished to see securely established was a

new society whose members were electrically free from all
RAMALINOA SWAMI 137
man-made limitations, and living in the enfranchizing and har¬

monizing play of Light and bound to one another by the vibra¬
tions of the universal force of Love, He preached too—in this
anticipating Sri Aurabindo—that the summum bonum of life was
not an escape into another world of felicity or Nirvana, a Kailasa
or Vaikuntha, but rather the winning of an Earthly Paradise.
Here, for example, is one of his moving exhortations :
Come, O worldly men

Grovelling in misery :
Through constant brooding
And steady understanding—
Melting in emotion,
Bathed in Perennial tears
Filled with love—
Imploring the soul’s Lord,
Nectar of Grace,
Delight of Being,
King of Enlightenment—
Know that you can all gain
The deathless life ....
This is the time to enter
The golden Life Divine.
And yet the heights of realization reached by the Saint in

the course of a career wholly dedicated to Love of God and
Service to Man were not to be reached in a sudden canter by
common humanity. It is therefore hardly to be wondered that
many of his disciples and followers fell short of his expectations,
driving him at *last to lock up the Sabha and take away the key
to Siddhivilaham or ‘Abode of Siddhi’ which was his own modest
residence. For himself, however, there was no need for any jour¬
neying farther, for he had arrived and won the Lord. Tradition¬
ally Ramalinga composed the magnificent Anubhava-Malai (The
Garland of Relization) on 30 January, 1874, the last day of his
life. By its very nature, the pull of the human soul towards Siva,
of pasu for pati, of Ramalinga Swami for Nataraja evokes a
measure of erotic imagery, though not to the same degree as in
the imagined Radha-Krishna relationship. There are thus passages
in Anubhava-Malai that are cast in the purest nayika-nayaka-
bhova and are full of the music of bridal mysticism without the
slightest taint of mere eroticism :
My eyes had met, and when our hands were linked,

I was lost to my senses ;
I knew why Veda says God-experience

Surpasses all human joys ;
Whenever I recall that moment’s bliss

Of Divine communion,
Once more that ecstasy floods me again,

As if happening only then.
It was when my Spouse took me visibly
I thrilled quaffing elixir ;
But how shall I in words express the joy

Of the inner union ?
No mere humdrum sensory affair this,

But pure God experience—
There was no separativity ;
I was IT, and both were ONE.
In an earlier poem too Ramalinga had recorded :
Faster and faster I mounted steps,

I sipped nectar in amaze;
My mind softened and melted, tears flowed free,
And thoughts simmered in delight.
RAMALINGA SWAMI 139
Then illuminative wisdom welled up

And I saw the Supreme Lord,
And instead of my useful skin-and bone,
I had a golden body.
He had arrived, and he would have gladly guided others too

to the goal; such, as he saw it, was also his mission ;
People are fair in form yet foul within,
but God’s Grace has missioned me
To scatter the seeds of truthful living
Among the hypocrites’ hearts,
Alchemise and make them experience
The Life Divine here and now.
Yet he had to realise at last that people—including many of

his immediate disciples—were not as yet ready for the quantum
leap that would change the current egoistic mentality swearing
by division and separativity and enacting inequity and misery
into a new consciousness that would be wedded to the true Light
and practise compassion and grace. The average run of huma¬
nity still wanted short-cuts and miraculist mumbo-jumbo, and
not the bigger change and spiritual transformation. Ramalinga
Swami therefore decided to withdraw from the scene. It is
agreed that Ramalinga entered his room about midnight on
30th January, 1874 and was never seen again. When the room was
opened days later, even his clothes had disappeared. During his
last years he had often speculated and spoken on the ideal and
actual possibility of physical transformation and immortality, and
perhaps he had gone far in his sadhana of change and transfigura¬
tion. Writing in 1939, Sri Aurobindo made a pointed reference
to Ramalinga Swami : “There was a Yogi sometime ago in this
region who thought it, but he hoped when the change was com¬
plete, to disappear in Light”. Did Ramalinga at last merge in
the Arut-perum-Joyti—the Great Effulgence—which in his last
days he had invoked so often :
Earnestly I sought from you

The Elixir of Immortality :
Give it now ;
Else You’ll be blamed
For the loss of my life :
Tell me, my Lord.
Whether You want the blame or me.
In one of the verses in his final song Anubhava-Malai, Rama-

linga almost makes a quick summary of his life ;
In my nonage He made me indite songs

In praise of His holy feet;
He dismissed my numerous transgressions
As youthful frivolities ;
The great Dancer-King took me in marriage
And wholly mingled in me.
How may 1 find words to describe the bliss
Of this ecstatic union ?
It is a condition of blessedness
Decreed by the Grace Divine.
The verse that by tradition was the very last uttered by him
may serve as his requiem :
Fools praised me as I blabbed in my folly,

Yet You gave all I desired ;
Banishing all fear, I feed on nectar,
And a blissful sleep is mine.
It was a particular kind of Light—liberating, light-giving, love-

radiating—that Vallar Ramalinga Swami inuoked in our midst,
particularly at a time of heavy mist and darkness, and over one
hundred years after his passing, that Light burns brighter than
ever.
ULTURAL LEADERS OF INDIA
With the decline of Hindu Kingdoms

institutions of Dharma and Bhakti faced
At that time came on the scene a line of sai
mystics who brought the wisdom of the
the common people. They successfully a<
medium of song in spreading wisdom a||;
In this volume* an attempt has

present the contributions of these devoti
mystics for the emotional integration of»
‘ to different
country. With satire and sarcasm a
language with similes and symbols, the
against hypocrisy and corruption and c
and rituals. These minstrels of God
morale of the people and
spiritual values over mundane pursuits.
PUBLICATIONS D1
MINISTRY OF
GOVERNMENT OF INDIA
;v>:
■r.: ■•'■ft
w&

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SURDAS ft NARASIMHA MEHTA ft MIRA RUPA GOSWAMliM

HARIDASAS ft RAHIM ft JAYASI « »TUKARAM

SAMARTH RAMDAS ft BHADRACHALA RAMADAS

Surdas# Narasimha Mehta# Mira# Rupa Goswamin#

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PUBLISHED BY THE DIRECTOR PUBLICATIONS DIVISION

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Printed at Ashoka Offset Works, Delhi -110 035

The object of the series is to offer the general reader authentic

Volumes already published

At the end of the classical age, in the post-Sankara period

This Volume, the second part, on the Devotional Poets and

Among the writers of these articles are, besides University

Thanks are due to these authors who have participated in the

Here is one more open book of God-realisation !

Masti Venkatesha Iyengar

Shamsher Bahabur Singh

(The late) Bala Krishna Rao

(The late) V. Raghavan

(The late) S. Sachidanandam Pillai

Prof. K. R. Srinivasa Iyengar,

Malik Muhammad Jayasi 67

Shah Abdul Latif 106

Ramalinga Swami 125

Surdas, the blind bard and afdent apostle of Krishna Bhakti,

The Movement did not aim at establishing a new religion or

the development of the Indian languages. Their teachings—tender

Surdas’s life, as that of many other poets of the age of

The facts, however, can be fairly adduced to establish that

in Mathura. Thence he shifted to ‘Gau Ghat’, said to be bet¬

Sur’s literary fame rests on three major volumes of poetic

Scihitya-Lahari is a collection of Sur’s verses remarkable for

Sur-Sagar is the most significant work of Surdas and marks

verses are a homage to Lord Krishna, describing His life and

Krishna Bhakti is the warp and woof of Surdas’s poetry which

In the depiction of Radha, Surdas has scored- over other

There is, in the works of Surdas, a happy blending of poetry

Surdas’s contribution to the devotional life of his country and

An amorphous vernacular becomes the language of a region

And the dearest bhojan of Gandhiji was written by Narasimha :

This is, indeed, a good poem of moral ardour and self-discip¬

In all this cosmos, Thou art but one,

In another hymn in the same lofty strains Narasimha urges

♦Translation by Manilal C. Parekh.

paring well with great utterances which sing of God’s infinite

•Translation by Manilal C. Parekh.

him. Not only the names of the Gopis mentioned by Narasimha,

latter day akhyan of Bhalan and Nakar. Chronologically, there¬

As in the case of so many other seers and saints of India the

miracle. The Indian mind fondly believes in the extraordinary

“You are no Master, nor am I your favoured servant, if

The other authentic autobiographical poems are Mamerun,

ever may be the rational explanation of God’s assistance in each

Narasimha, by caste a Nagar Brahmin, was born at Talaja,

The autobiographical poems arud Sudamachcirita and also

The genuine Padas in the other collections of his poems

The Krishnalila padas are found in different collection. They