Bahinabai
Encyclopedia
Bahinabai or Bahina or Bahini is a Varkari
female-saint from Maharashtra
, India
. She is considered as a disciple of another Varkari poet-saint Tukaram
. Born in a brahmin family, Bahinabai was married to a widower at a tender age and spent most of her childhood wandering around Maharashtra along with her family. She describes, in her autobiography Atmamanivedana, her spiritual experiences with a calf and visions of the Varkari's patron deity Vithoba
and Tukaram. She reports being subjected to verbal and physical abuse by her husband, who despised her spiritual inclination but who finally accepted her chosen path of devotion (bhakti
). Unlike most female-saints who never married or renounced their married life for God, Bahinabai remained married her entire life.
Bahinabai's abhanga compositions, written in Marathi
, focus on her troubled marital life and the regret being born a woman. Bahinabai was always torn between her duties to her husband and her devotion to Vithoba. Her poetry mirrors her compromise between her devotion to her husband and God.
As per the account, she was born in Devghar or Devgaon near Ellora in northern Maharashtra, where she spent her childhood. Her parents, Aaudev Kulkarni and Janaki were brahmins, the Hindu
priest class, and considered their first child Bahinabai as a harbinger of good fortune. Bahinabai started reciting the names of God from an early age, while playing with her mates.
Bahinabai was married at the age of three with a thirty year old widower called Gangadhar Pathak, who she describes as a scholar and "an excellent jewel of a man", but stayed with parents until she reached puberty as per the custom. When Bahinabai was about nine years old, she with her parents and husband, had to leave Devghar due to a family dispute. They wandered with pilgrims along the banks of river Godavari and begged for grain, as customarily wandering holy men do. They visited Pandharpur
, the city which hosts the chief temple of Vithoba, in this period. By the age of eleven, she with her family finally settled in Kolhapur. She was "subjected to the demands of married life" at this age, but she was not into it.
. Here, Bahinabai's husband was gifted a cow, who soon gave birth to a calf. Bahinabai reports a spiritual encounter with the calf. The calf, in Varkari literature, symbolizes a person who has attained the highest state of yogi
c concentration in the previous birth, but due to some fault, is forced to take birth as a calf. The calf followed Bahinabai wherever she went. Bahinabai with the calf also attended the Kirtana of the famed swami
Jayaram. Jayaram patted heads of the calf and Bahinabai. When Bahinabai's husband heard of the incident, he dragged Bahinabai by her hair, beat and tied her up in the house. Following this, the calf and the cow gave up food and water leading to the former's death. At its burial, Bahinabai fainted and lay unconscious for days. She awoke with her first vision of the Varkari's patron deity Vithoba and later of her contemporary poet-saint Tukaram. Following the incident, she had another vision of the duo that revived her from the sorrow of the calf's death. In these visions, Tukaram fed her nectar and taught her the mantra
"Rama-Krishna-Hari". Thereafter, Bahinabai pronounced Tukaram as her guru. In her visions, Tukaram initiated her into the path of bhakti
(devotion) and instructed her to recite the name of Vithoba. Some people considered her behaviour as a sign of madness, while others considered it a mark of sainthood.
Bahinabai's husband dissuaded her by saying that she being of a Brahmin, should not listen to the lower caste Shudra Tukaram. However, Bahinabai did not find happiness in the life of a dutiful wife and turns to bhakti, at the same time serving her husband. As her fame spread, her husband is portrayed to have been jealous of the attention Bahinabai received. Her hot-tempered husband is reported to have abused, beaten and confined Bahinabai to the cattle-shed. When all methods fail to deter her, he decided to leave Bahinabai, who was three months pregnant at the time. However, he could not do so as he suffered a burning limbs sensation lasting a month, on the day of departure. Finally, he repented and was convinced of Bahinabai's faith and devotion to God. At the same time, Bahinabai realized her neglect of her husband and decided "serving him was more important than devoting herself to (another) god." Bahinabai writes:
The family of Bahinabai went to Dehu
, the home-town of Tukaram and paid their respects to him. Here, the brahmin Bahinabai's acceptance of the lower caste Sudra
Tukaram as her guru, agitated local brahmins, which led to harassment of the family and threatening of ostracism. In Dehu, Bahinabai gave birth to a daughter, who she named Kasibai. But, she was distressed and mediated suicide. Tukaram in her vision, stopped her and blessed her with poetic powers and prophesied that she would have a son who was a companion in her previous birth, thus Bahinabai is believed to have started composition of poetry, the first of which were dedicated to Vithoba. Consequently, she had a son, who she named Vithoba, the exact time of his birth is not provided, but he is mentioned in a later part of her autobiography.
Finally the family moved to Shirur
, where Bahinabai practised a vow of silence for a while. In 1649, on Tukaram's death, Bahinabai revisited Dehu and fasted for eighteen days where, according to the traditional account, she was blessed with a vision of Tukaram again. She then visited the saint Ramdas
and stayed in his company until his death in 1681. Afterwards she returned to Shirur.
In last sections of her autobiography, Bahinabai says she has "seen her death". She prophesied her death and wrote a letter to Vithoba, her son, who had gone to Shukeshwar to perform last rites of his wife. On her death-bed, Bahinabai told Vithoba (her son) that he had been her son throughout her twelve previous births and also in her current (thirteenth) birth, which she believed was her last. Further, she narrated the tale of her twelve previous births, which are recorded in her autobiography. She died in 1700, at the age of 72.
, Sad-guru
, sainthood, Brahman
hood, and devotion. Bahinabai's abhanga compositions also focus on her troubled relationship with her husband, the conflict between husband and wife, and to certain extent its resolution. She even portrays her husband's hostile and harmful feelings with empathy. Unlike many of the woman-saints of the period, Bahinabai remained married her entire life, dutifully serving her husband, balancing her roles pativrata (a devoted wife) and virata (the detached). Bahinabai does not revolt against social traditions and believed denouncement of the world is not the solution to a woman's suffering. Her poetry reflects her compromise between her devotion to her husband and her god Vithoba.
Bahinabai also comments on the duties of a married woman. Some abhangas extol the merits of a pativrata, others advocate pure devotion to God which may lead to the ire of society. Others advocate the compromise. She also speaks of pravrtti (action) and nivrtti (quiescence), personified as wives of manas (the mind). Both of them argue over their own superiority, winning a particular moment in the debate and finally reconciling and together directing the mind to its ultimate goal. In her own life, Bahinabai sought to balance these two: pravrtti - the duties of a virtuous wife and nivrtti - renunciation of the world.
Bahinabai sometimes curses his fate of being born as a woman, which author Tharu interprets as "her scepticism, her rebelliousness and her insistent refusal to abandon her aspiration for the truth". She regrets her female birth as she was kept away from the knowledge of the holy scriptures like Vedas
and sacred mantra
s, by the male-dominated brahmin society. Bahinabai sings in her abhanga:
At times, Bahinabai's abhangas call out to her god Vithoba (Panduranga, Hari) to help her to balance her twin roles. Bahinabai's wisdom can be summed up in her words as: "A woman's body is a body controlled by somebody else. Therefore the path of renunciation is not open to her." Bahinabai's philosophy reveals the social status of the seventeenth century Indian woman, who was supposed to no existence apart from her husband.
She has also composed a text called Pundalika-Mahatmya, which details the legend of Vithoba and devotee Pundalik, a central figure in Varkari tradition.
Varkari
Varkari is a Vaishnava religious movement within the bhakti spiritual tradition of Hinduism, geographically associated with the Indian states of Maharashtra and northern Karnataka. Varkaris worship Vithoba , the presiding deity of Pandharpur, regarded as a form of Krishna, an Avatar of Vishnu...
female-saint from Maharashtra
Maharashtra
Maharashtra is a state located in India. It is the second most populous after Uttar Pradesh and third largest state by area in India...
, India
India
India , officially the Republic of India , is a country in South Asia. It is the seventh-largest country by geographical area, the second-most populous country with over 1.2 billion people, and the most populous democracy in the world...
. She is considered as a disciple of another Varkari poet-saint Tukaram
Tukaram
Sant Tukaram was a prominent Varkari Sant and spiritual poet during a Bhakti movement in India.Sant Tukaram was born and lived most of his life in Dehu, a town close to Pune in Mahārāshtra, India. He was born to a couple with the family name "More", the descendent of the Mourya Clan with first...
. Born in a brahmin family, Bahinabai was married to a widower at a tender age and spent most of her childhood wandering around Maharashtra along with her family. She describes, in her autobiography Atmamanivedana, her spiritual experiences with a calf and visions of the Varkari's patron deity Vithoba
Vithoba
Vithoba , also known as Vitthala and Panduranga , is a Hindu god, worshipped predominantly in the Indian states of Maharashtra, Karnataka, Goa and Andhra Pradesh. He is generally considered a manifestation of the Hindu god Vishnu or his Avatar Krishna...
and Tukaram. She reports being subjected to verbal and physical abuse by her husband, who despised her spiritual inclination but who finally accepted her chosen path of devotion (bhakti
Bhakti
In Hinduism Bhakti is religious devotion in the form of active involvement of a devotee in worship of the divine.Within monotheistic Hinduism, it is the love felt by the worshipper towards the personal God, a concept expressed in Hindu theology as Svayam Bhagavan.Bhakti can be used of either...
). Unlike most female-saints who never married or renounced their married life for God, Bahinabai remained married her entire life.
Bahinabai's abhanga compositions, written in Marathi
Marathi language
Marathi is an Indo-Aryan language spoken by the Marathi people of western and central India. It is the official language of the state of Maharashtra. There are over 68 million fluent speakers worldwide. Marathi has the fourth largest number of native speakers in India and is the fifteenth most...
, focus on her troubled marital life and the regret being born a woman. Bahinabai was always torn between her duties to her husband and her devotion to Vithoba. Her poetry mirrors her compromise between her devotion to her husband and God.
Early life
Bahinabai has written an autobiographical work called Atmamanivedana or Bahinibai Gatha, where she describes not only her current birth but also twelve previous births. The first 78 verses of the total 473 trace her current life.As per the account, she was born in Devghar or Devgaon near Ellora in northern Maharashtra, where she spent her childhood. Her parents, Aaudev Kulkarni and Janaki were brahmins, the Hindu
Hindu
Hindu refers to an identity associated with the philosophical, religious and cultural systems that are indigenous to the Indian subcontinent. As used in the Constitution of India, the word "Hindu" is also attributed to all persons professing any Indian religion...
priest class, and considered their first child Bahinabai as a harbinger of good fortune. Bahinabai started reciting the names of God from an early age, while playing with her mates.
Bahinabai was married at the age of three with a thirty year old widower called Gangadhar Pathak, who she describes as a scholar and "an excellent jewel of a man", but stayed with parents until she reached puberty as per the custom. When Bahinabai was about nine years old, she with her parents and husband, had to leave Devghar due to a family dispute. They wandered with pilgrims along the banks of river Godavari and begged for grain, as customarily wandering holy men do. They visited Pandharpur
Pandharpur
Pandharpur is an important pilgrimage city on the Bhimā river in Solāpur district, Maharashtra, India. The Vithoba temple attracts about half a million Hindu pilgrims during the major yātrā in the month of Ashadh ....
, the city which hosts the chief temple of Vithoba, in this period. By the age of eleven, she with her family finally settled in Kolhapur. She was "subjected to the demands of married life" at this age, but she was not into it.
Later life
In Kolhapur, Bahinabai was exposed to Hari-Kirtana songs and tales from the scripture Bhagavata PuranaBhagavata purana
The Bhāgavata Purāṇa is one of the "Maha" Puranic texts of Hindu literature, with its primary focus on bhakti to the incarnations of Vishnu, particularly Krishna...
. Here, Bahinabai's husband was gifted a cow, who soon gave birth to a calf. Bahinabai reports a spiritual encounter with the calf. The calf, in Varkari literature, symbolizes a person who has attained the highest state of yogi
Yogi
A Yogi is a practitioner of Yoga. The word is also used to refer to ascetic practitioners of meditation in a number of South Asian Religions including Jainism, Buddhism, and Hinduism.-Etymology:...
c concentration in the previous birth, but due to some fault, is forced to take birth as a calf. The calf followed Bahinabai wherever she went. Bahinabai with the calf also attended the Kirtana of the famed swami
Swami
A swami sometimes abbreviated "Sw." is an ascetic or yogi who has been initiated into the religious monastic order founded by Adi Sankara, or to a religious teacher.The Oxford English Dictionary gives the etymology as...
Jayaram. Jayaram patted heads of the calf and Bahinabai. When Bahinabai's husband heard of the incident, he dragged Bahinabai by her hair, beat and tied her up in the house. Following this, the calf and the cow gave up food and water leading to the former's death. At its burial, Bahinabai fainted and lay unconscious for days. She awoke with her first vision of the Varkari's patron deity Vithoba and later of her contemporary poet-saint Tukaram. Following the incident, she had another vision of the duo that revived her from the sorrow of the calf's death. In these visions, Tukaram fed her nectar and taught her the mantra
Mantra
A mantra is a sound, syllable, word, or group of words that is considered capable of "creating transformation"...
"Rama-Krishna-Hari". Thereafter, Bahinabai pronounced Tukaram as her guru. In her visions, Tukaram initiated her into the path of bhakti
Bhakti
In Hinduism Bhakti is religious devotion in the form of active involvement of a devotee in worship of the divine.Within monotheistic Hinduism, it is the love felt by the worshipper towards the personal God, a concept expressed in Hindu theology as Svayam Bhagavan.Bhakti can be used of either...
(devotion) and instructed her to recite the name of Vithoba. Some people considered her behaviour as a sign of madness, while others considered it a mark of sainthood.
Bahinabai's husband dissuaded her by saying that she being of a Brahmin, should not listen to the lower caste Shudra Tukaram. However, Bahinabai did not find happiness in the life of a dutiful wife and turns to bhakti, at the same time serving her husband. As her fame spread, her husband is portrayed to have been jealous of the attention Bahinabai received. Her hot-tempered husband is reported to have abused, beaten and confined Bahinabai to the cattle-shed. When all methods fail to deter her, he decided to leave Bahinabai, who was three months pregnant at the time. However, he could not do so as he suffered a burning limbs sensation lasting a month, on the day of departure. Finally, he repented and was convinced of Bahinabai's faith and devotion to God. At the same time, Bahinabai realized her neglect of her husband and decided "serving him was more important than devoting herself to (another) god." Bahinabai writes:
I'll serve my husband - he's my god ...
My husband's my guru; my husband's my way this
is my heart's true resolve.
If my husband goes off, renouncing the world,
Pandurang (Vithoba), what good will it do me to live among men? ...
My husband's the soul; I'm the body ...
My husband's the water; I'm a fish in it.
How can I survive? ...
Why should the stone god Vitthal (Vithoba)
and the dream saint Tuka (Tukaram)
deprive me of the happiness I know?
The family of Bahinabai went to Dehu
Dehu
-Demographics: India census, Dehu had a population of 5340. Males constitute 52% of the population and females 48%. Dehu has an average literacy rate of 77%, higher than the national average of 59.5%: male literacy is 83% and, female literacy is 72%. In Dehu, 11% of the population is under 6 years...
, the home-town of Tukaram and paid their respects to him. Here, the brahmin Bahinabai's acceptance of the lower caste Sudra
Shudra
Shudra is the fourth Varna, as prescribed in the Purusha Sukta of the Rig veda, which constitutes society into four varnas or Chaturvarna. The other three varnas are Brahmans - priests, Kshatriya - those with governing functions, Vaishya - agriculturalists, cattle rearers and traders...
Tukaram as her guru, agitated local brahmins, which led to harassment of the family and threatening of ostracism. In Dehu, Bahinabai gave birth to a daughter, who she named Kasibai. But, she was distressed and mediated suicide. Tukaram in her vision, stopped her and blessed her with poetic powers and prophesied that she would have a son who was a companion in her previous birth, thus Bahinabai is believed to have started composition of poetry, the first of which were dedicated to Vithoba. Consequently, she had a son, who she named Vithoba, the exact time of his birth is not provided, but he is mentioned in a later part of her autobiography.
Finally the family moved to Shirur
Shirur, Maharashtra
Shirur is a municipal council in the Pune district of the Indian state of Maharashtra.Shirur is located on the boundaries of the Pune and Ahmednagar districts on the banks of the River Ghod. The town is also known as Ghodnadi to distinguish it from similar places with the same name...
, where Bahinabai practised a vow of silence for a while. In 1649, on Tukaram's death, Bahinabai revisited Dehu and fasted for eighteen days where, according to the traditional account, she was blessed with a vision of Tukaram again. She then visited the saint Ramdas
Ramdas
Ramdas or Ram Das may refer to:*S. A. Ramadass, a MLA from Karnataka, India*Samarth Ramdas or Samartha Ramdas Swami, a 17th-century Hindu saint from Maharashtra, who was a devotee of Lord Rama and the spiritual guru of Maratha king Shivaji*Ramadasu, a 17th-century Hindu devotee from Andhra...
and stayed in his company until his death in 1681. Afterwards she returned to Shirur.
In last sections of her autobiography, Bahinabai says she has "seen her death". She prophesied her death and wrote a letter to Vithoba, her son, who had gone to Shukeshwar to perform last rites of his wife. On her death-bed, Bahinabai told Vithoba (her son) that he had been her son throughout her twelve previous births and also in her current (thirteenth) birth, which she believed was her last. Further, she narrated the tale of her twelve previous births, which are recorded in her autobiography. She died in 1700, at the age of 72.
Literary works
Apart from her autobiography, Bahinabai composed abhangas, which deal with various subjects like praise of god Vithoba, AtmanĀtman (Hinduism)
Ātman is a Sanskrit word that means 'self'. In Hindu philosophy, especially in the Vedanta school of Hinduism it refers to one's true self beyond identification with phenomena...
, Sad-guru
Guru
A guru is one who is regarded as having great knowledge, wisdom, and authority in a certain area, and who uses it to guide others . Other forms of manifestation of this principle can include parents, school teachers, non-human objects and even one's own intellectual discipline, if the...
, sainthood, Brahman
Brahmin
Brahmin Brahman, Brahma and Brahmin.Brahman, Brahmin and Brahma have different meanings. Brahman refers to the Supreme Self...
hood, and devotion. Bahinabai's abhanga compositions also focus on her troubled relationship with her husband, the conflict between husband and wife, and to certain extent its resolution. She even portrays her husband's hostile and harmful feelings with empathy. Unlike many of the woman-saints of the period, Bahinabai remained married her entire life, dutifully serving her husband, balancing her roles pativrata (a devoted wife) and virata (the detached). Bahinabai does not revolt against social traditions and believed denouncement of the world is not the solution to a woman's suffering. Her poetry reflects her compromise between her devotion to her husband and her god Vithoba.
Bahinabai also comments on the duties of a married woman. Some abhangas extol the merits of a pativrata, others advocate pure devotion to God which may lead to the ire of society. Others advocate the compromise. She also speaks of pravrtti (action) and nivrtti (quiescence), personified as wives of manas (the mind). Both of them argue over their own superiority, winning a particular moment in the debate and finally reconciling and together directing the mind to its ultimate goal. In her own life, Bahinabai sought to balance these two: pravrtti - the duties of a virtuous wife and nivrtti - renunciation of the world.
Bahinabai sometimes curses his fate of being born as a woman, which author Tharu interprets as "her scepticism, her rebelliousness and her insistent refusal to abandon her aspiration for the truth". She regrets her female birth as she was kept away from the knowledge of the holy scriptures like Vedas
Vedas
The Vedas are a large body of texts originating in ancient India. Composed in Vedic Sanskrit, the texts constitute the oldest layer of Sanskrit literature and the oldest scriptures of Hinduism....
and sacred mantra
Mantra
A mantra is a sound, syllable, word, or group of words that is considered capable of "creating transformation"...
s, by the male-dominated brahmin society. Bahinabai sings in her abhanga:
The Vedas cry aloud, the PuranasPuranasThe Puranas are a genre of important Hindu, Jain and Buddhist religious texts, notably consisting of narratives of the history of the universe from creation to destruction, genealogies of kings, heroes, sages, and demigods, and descriptions of Hindu cosmology, philosophy, and geography.Puranas...
shout
"No good may come to woman."
I was born with a woman's body
How am I to attain Truth?
"They are foolish, seductive and deceptive -
Any connection with a woman is disastrous."
Bahina says, "If a woman's body is so harmful,
How in this world will I reach Truth?"
At times, Bahinabai's abhangas call out to her god Vithoba (Panduranga, Hari) to help her to balance her twin roles. Bahinabai's wisdom can be summed up in her words as: "A woman's body is a body controlled by somebody else. Therefore the path of renunciation is not open to her." Bahinabai's philosophy reveals the social status of the seventeenth century Indian woman, who was supposed to no existence apart from her husband.
She has also composed a text called Pundalika-Mahatmya, which details the legend of Vithoba and devotee Pundalik, a central figure in Varkari tradition.