Sant Tukaram was a prominent Varkari
SantSant is an Indian term derived from a Sanskrit verb that means both "to be good" and "to be real". From the fifteenth century the term has often referred to those who sing the name of God and worship Him, particularly the bhakti poets of Marathi...
and spiritual poet during a
BhaktiIn 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...
movement in
IndiaIndia , 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...
.
Sant Tukaram was born and lived most of his life in
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...
, a town close to
PunePune , is the eighth largest metropolis in India, the second largest in the state of Maharashtra after Mumbai, and the largest city in the Western Ghats. Once the centre of power of the Maratha Empire, it is situated 560 metres above sea level on the Deccan plateau at the confluence of the Mula ...
in
MahārāshtraMaharashtra is a state located in India. It is the second most populous after Uttar Pradesh and third largest state by area in India...
, India. He was born to a couple with the family name "More", the descendent of the Mourya Clan (Āmbile) with first names Bolhobā and Kanakāi. In accordance with an ancient Indian tradition, Tukaram's family name is rarely used in identifying him. His real name is Tukaram Vhilhoba Aambe. Rather, in accord with another tradition in India of assigning the epithet "sant" (संत) to persons regarded as thoroughly saintly, Tukaram is commonly known in Maharashtra as Sant Tukaram (संत तुकाराम). He is known as
Bhakta Tukaram to South Indian people.
Scholars assign various birth years to Sant Tukaram: 1577, 1598, 1608 and 1609 CE. The year of Sant Tukaram's death —1650 CE— is much more certain.
Sant Tukaram's first wife, Rakhumābāi, died in 1602. her early youth. SantTukaram and his second wife, Jijābāi (also known as Āvali), had three sons: Santu or Mahādev, Vithobā, and Nārāyan.
Dilip Purushottam Chitre, a well known Marathi Scholar, identifies Tukaram as the first modern poet of Marathi. Chitre believes that Tukaram was the first acceptable saint who denied caste hierarchy in Hindu religion and attacked rituals present in Hindu Dharma.
Spiritual life and poetry
Sant Tukaram was a devotee of god Vitthala or
VithobaVithoba , 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...
, a form of
KrishnaKrishna is a central figure of Hinduism and is traditionally attributed the authorship of the Bhagavad Gita. He is the supreme Being and considered in some monotheistic traditions as an Avatar of Vishnu...
.
Sant Tukaram is considered to be the climactic point of the
Bhagabata Hindu tradition, which is thought to have begun in Maharashtra with
NamdevSant Namdeo or Bhagat Namdeo was born on October 29, 1270 in the state of Maharashtra village of Narasi-Bamani, in Hingoli district . His father, a calico printer/tailor, was named Damshet and his mother's name was Gonabai...
.
DnyaneshwarDnyāneshwar , also known as Jñanadeva , was born into a Deshastha Brahmin Kulkarni family.He was a 13th century Maharashtrian Hindu saint , poet, philosopher and yogi of the Nath tradition whose works Bhavartha deepika teeka ,...
, Namdev,
JanabaiJanābāi was a Marāthi religious poetess in the Hindu tradition in India, who was born likely in the seventh or the eighth decade of the 13th century. According to folklore, she died in 1350....
,
EknathEknath was a prominent Marathi scholar and religious poet. He is called a "sant" in the Marathi tradition as are most other religious poets...
, and Tukaram are revered especially in the
VarkariVarkari 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...
(वारकरी) sect in Maharashtra. Most information about the lives of the above saints of Maharashtra comes from the works
Bhakti-Wijay and
Bhakti-Leelāmrut of
MahipatiMahipati was an author who wrote in Marāthi biographies of the prominent Hindu saints who had lived between the 13th and the 17th centuries in Mahārāshtra, India....
. Mahipati was born 65 years after the death of Tukaram, (Tukaram having died 50 years, 300 years, and 353 years after the deaths of Ekanath, Namdev, and Dnyaneshwar, respectively.) Thus, Mahipati undoubtedly based his life sketches of all the above "sants" primarily on hearsays.
Namdev as Guru
Saint Tukarm accepted Sant Namdev as his Guru. One of his abhanga is proof for this.[नामदेवे केले स्वप्नामाजी जागे....सवे पांडुरंगे येवूनिया.] Namdev gave knowledge, who came along with Lord Vitthal in Dream of Tukaram.
In films
Sant Tukaram was also the subject of a biopic, title
Sant Tukaram, made in 1936 by V. Damle and S. Fattelal of the
Prabhat Film CompanyPrabhat Film Company popularly known as Prabhat Films was an Indian film production company and film studios, formed in Kolhapur, Maharashtra, India in 1929, towards the end of silent films' era, by the noted film director V. Shantaram, along with V.G. Damle, K.R. Dhaiber, S. Fatelal and S.B...
, starring Vishnupant Pagnis as the lead, and released on December 12, 1936 at the Central Cinema in
MumbaiMumbai , formerly known as Bombay in English, is the capital of the Indian state of Maharashtra. It is the most populous city in India, and the fourth most populous city in the world, with a total metropolitan area population of approximately 20.5 million...
. The film was a big hit, and broke all previous records by running continuously for 57 weeks. It also had won an award at the 5th Venice International Film Festival in 1937, and still remains a part of film appreciation courses. It is preserved at the
National Film Archive of IndiaThe National Film Archive of India was established as a media unit of the Ministry of Information and Broadcasting in February 1964. Its three principal objectives are* To trace, acquire and preserve for posterity the heritage of Indian cinema;...
.
The story of Tukaram was also made in Telugu as
Bhakta TukaramBhakta Tukaram is a 1973 Telugu Biographical film produced by Anjali Pictures based on the life of saint poet Tukaram. Akkineni Nageswara Rao played the title role with great devotion. The music score of P. Adinarayana Rao and songs of Ghantasala and others is one of the highest levels in Indian...
in 1973 by
Anjali PicturesAnjali Pictures is an Indian film production house owned by famous music director P. Adinarayana Rao and versatile film actress Anjali Devi.-Films Produced:* Pardesi * Poongothai , Tamil version of Pardesi.* Anarkali...
.
Akkineni Nageswara RaoAkkineni Nageswara Rao , also known as ANR, is a Telugu cinema actor from Gudivada, Andhra Pradesh. Nageswara Rao has worked in several genres of films in his 70-year acting career, including mythological, social, and drama films...
played the title role with great devotion.
Dr. Raj Kumar played the role of 'Santa Tukarama' in the Kannada language.
Book
Renowned Indian author, poet, sculptor and painter Dilip Chitre (18 September 1938 - 10 December 2009) has translated writings of Sant Tukaram into English in the book titled
Says Tuka for which he was awarded the
Sahitya Akademi award in 1994.
Says Tuka was later translated into other languages.
External links