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TITLE : MIRABAI AS A BHAKTI SAINT

NAME: APEKSHA GANDOTRA

E-MAIL: ANVIKSHAPEKSHA@GMAIL.COM

PHONE NO. : 9971096668

BIOGRAPHICAL NOTE

A History Research scholar with academic qualifications of Graduation, Post-Graduation,

M.Phil. In Medieval History from Delhi University and UGC NET qualified. Currently,

pursuing PhD at AISS from Amity University, Noida. Scholar of Medieval Indian History

with interest in Gender & Feminist History. Have completed Research Thesis on Mira Bai

during M.Phil. and now the Research on Jodha Bai is underway. Published an article on

“Gender Depiction in Visual Art “in the book Titled History and Historiography by Ashu J

Nair & Srotoswini Borah.

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Mirabai as a Bhakti Saint

It was very difficult to think about the best-known devotional poets of North India-the great

bhakti voices who emerged on the stage of history in the course of the fifteenth and sixteenth

centuries. Mirabai. Surdas, and Kabir are the trio whose bhakti voices were revered with

Surdas, a poet's poet and legendarily blind, standing at the centre of the group1. Known

primarily and justly for his Krishna lyrics, Surdas is a poet of unusually wide range, flanked

on one side by Mirabai, with her ecstatic devotion to Krishna expressed in a woman’s voice,

and on the other by Kabir, whose gripping first-person persona picks up where Sur's leaves

off. For five hundred years the lives and words of North India's key bhakti poets-including

these three and more-have served as major points of reference in religious celebrations and

cultural debates that transpire in India itself.

In the order adopted by Amar Chitra Katha to rank the poet-saints of medieval centuries, the

following is the order- Mirabai 36, Guru Nanak 47, Kabir 55, Tulsidas 62, Surdas 137 and

Guru Ravidas 350. 2

Unquestionably Mirabai comes first, a judgement that would be confirmed by the number of

commercial films made about her since the inception of Indian sound and Cinematography.

Mira's bhakti is made consonant with her fulfilment of a woman's dharma. The text asserts

reclaiming that she would perform her 'household duties' fully before turning her attention to

'her divine husband her Gopala-whom she had brought with her to Chittor.

The concept of Bhakti was not a new one in the Indian tradition. It is as old as Hinduism

itself. But when we talk of Bhakti movement in the context of socio-religious background it

has a different connotation. The genesis of the Bhakti movement lies in the social evils

1
Hawley, S. John. Three Bhakti voices: Meerabai, Surdas and Kabir in their time and ours. Oxford University
Press.2005.
2
Hawley, S. John. Three Bhakti voices: Meerabai, Surdas and Kabir in their time and ours. Oxford University
Press.2005.p.140
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prevalent in the-then Hindu society. Hindu society in due course of time became full of many

social anomalies like rigidity of caste system, irrelevant rituals and religious practices, blind

faiths and social dogmas. The society also suffered from polytheism, segregation, severe

economic disparity due to castes, untouchability etc.

The religion itself was monopolized by the Brahmins who themselves led a degenerated and

corrupt moral life. Common men in general had developed an averse attitude towards these

social evils and were in need of a liberal form of religion where they could identify

themselves with simple religious practices. Therefore, popular dissatisfaction against the

existing social religious evils was a major catalyst behind the spread of Bhakti movement all

over India for a long period of time. The Bhakti movement helped at the revival of Hindu

religion and liberation of the people from the monopoly and injustices of the priestly classes.

An assessment of Mira through her poetry will be significant to understand her perspective.

The phase of Bhakti is also important as much of the developments around the contemporary

times can be studied through them. The relation of Mira and Bhakti will be significant

enough to explore Mira and her life.

In the Brahmanical world-view, the principle of rebirth earlier was acceptable in all visible

communities. After passing through chaurasi (84) lakh forms (yoniya) of birth - death cycle,

human birth is received. In human form only, a life gets the chance to get salvation by

performing saadhnaa through either Knowledge, karma, yagya, tap etc. to get salvation. Ved

maarg was considered the upmost maarg of salvation. In ved maarg along with yagya-yajan

formal knowledge thinking can also be included. Due to illiteracy, ved maarg was not

available to womens and SC/ST rather, its excesses were committed. Just before the bhakti
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movement, religions like Jainism and Buddhism arose to take people out from the clutches of

all visibly orthodox and devious religious customs.

Pandit Hazari Prasad Dwivedi3 thinks that ‘the biggest weakness in Hindi literature is its

rookhapan and the disrespect for a family life. Still this strong element proved to be very

helpful in lifting and making pure the religious environment of north India.’ In the beginning

of hindi literature’s in mahayaan shakha also the effect of bhakti had started coming. Lord

Buddha’s idol worship had become prevalent. Even after living in the house, getting salvation

had been started considered as possible. Buddhism went on getting influenced with

Hinduism. The point of saying is that devotion had started rising in the religions which

challenged the supremacy of social equality and brahmins. The tradition of devotion in north

india is very ancient. In veda’s Vishnu, Indra, Shiva, Marut, Savita etc. natural powers have

been praised and they have been prayed to have a happy and prosperous life. Slowly-slowly a

vast form of these godly powers was envisaged and all the powers were considered the

expansion of the same. In vaishnav religion praise, gratitude, request, meditation etc. can be

seen in vedic mantras. The Vedas have been considered as incomparable. The rishis were

visualizers of mantras not the creators.

What is known today as Bhakti movement had its genesis in the south of India in the 6th

century. It is characterised by the writings of its poet-saints, many of whom were female, that

extolled passionate devotional love for the divine. The Bhakti Movement gained momentum

from the 12th century in the central western regions of India, then moved northward, coming

to an end roughly in 17th century.

3
Dwivedi, Prasad Hazari. Hindi Sahitya Ki Bhumika. Raj Kamal Prakashan, Delhi,2005, p.38
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Mirabai,4 or Mira is said to have been born into a ruling Rajput family. Mirabai’s poetry tells

of her vision of Lord Krishna when she was a child; from that point on Mira vowed that she

would forever be his bride. Despite her wishes, she was married into another princely family

at a young age. Yet the numerous legends surrounding Mira tell of an undying devotion

towards Krishna, her true husband.

Because of Mirabai’s singular focus and intense devotion of her husband, she can be

perceived as simply upholding the wifely duties of women and patriarchal norms in general.

On the other hand, she remains for many a symbol of resistance of social order of the day.

Most legends about Mira mention her disregard for social and family conventions, her

devotion to god Krishna, her treating Krishna as her husband and her being persecuted for her

religious devotion.

The hostility increased as Mira refused to commit sati. She became more detached,

frequenting the temple, discoursing with sadhus, and dancing before the deity as she wrote in

one of her poems. Mirabai’s poems, composed in passionate praise of Krishna, are known as

bhajans and are popular across India.

The more popular a creator is, the more is the lifetime of his/her work. Mira's songs were

lyrical so, they were verbally being publicized and circulated from one province to another by

monks, saints and singers. Mira also creates creative awareness, so her songs have not only

been transformed by various creative minds of different sections, rather after being created

against her feelings have been promoted in the name of Mira. Munshi Devi prasad5 has

4
Kishwar, Madhu.” Traditional Female Moral Exemplars in India”: Education About Asia, Vol. 6, No. 3, Winter
2001.
5
Prasad, Devi Munshi.Mirabai ka Jivancharitra.Bangiya Sahitya Parishad.Kolkatta.1954.
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mentioned about four creations of Meera – 1. Narseeji ro mahero 2. Geet govind ki teeka 3.

Footkar padd 4. Raag sortha padd sangrah.

Mirabai's6 Malar and garvageet are also mentioned in two other compositions . The above

mentioned compositions have not been considered authenticated from the angle of language,

emotions etc. As per Bhagwandas Tiwari7 who is doing research on Mira’s literature

the authenticated phraseology of Mira are existent in dakor and kashi’s handwritten copies.

In dakor and Kashi’s handwritten copies Mira’s original posts number 103 is there, in

mira’s sudha sindhu in cumbersome prashepon obtained from gay’s tradition mira’s

naamdhari 1312 post is there, then in domestic and international hand written gutka’s,

choupadiee’s and verbal tradition mira’s lord girdhar naagar or mira’s lord hari’s

uninterrupted prints 5197 posts are there8. Aacharya parshuram chaturvedi has compiled 201

posts in ‘Mirabai’s padavali’.

While pursuing Mira’s poems scholars have certainly done a mistake. By completely viewing

Mira’s life and poems as separate, evaluation of Mira’s life has been done. Mira was fully

dedicated towards Krishna, she expresses only the deep perception of devotion in her songs

but she takes support of many other poetry stereo and symbols like Kabir’s, Tulsi s and

others. Mira’s personality got developed from the inspirations of bhakti movement. Bhakti

saadhna not only showed the freedom way to Dalits and women’s but also suggested the

6
Sharma, Ramkishore and Sharma, kumar Sujeet.Meerabi ki Sampoorna Padavali.Lokbharti
Prakashan.Allahabad.2013.p.44
7
Tiwari,Das Bhagwan.Mirabai ki pramanik Padavali.Prayag Sahitya Hindi Sammelan.1973
8
Tripathi,Vishwanath.Mira ka kavya.Vani Prakashan.2010.p.44
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option to live their life respectfully. In the Bhakti movements, women take on the qualities

that men traditionally have. They break rules of Manu that forbid them to do so. A

respectable woman is not, for instance, allowed to live by herself or outdoors, or refuse sex to

her husband- but women saints wander and travel alone, give up husband, children and

family9.

In whole Bhakti movement, the situation of Mira is shown distinctly. Mira got successful

with hard struggle in getting widespread popularity in her time for raising voice against

mentality of man for woman and for making her widow lofty.

Mira is great devotee of Krishna. Her devotion is mellifluence. She assimilated the feeling of

Gopi with complete devotion. Kantabhav had special status during Bhakti-era. Kabir-like

saint was also overwhelmed with this feeling. Mira depicts the Krishna who is not only

beautiful but also is a source of coition energy. Mira was raised in a royal family. Besides

natural death of worldly husbands, she also experienced untimely death of husbands while

fighting the war. Mira had specific impact of death hovering on warrior Rajputs on her heart.

Her own husband died untimely. In the end, Mira was resolved to opt indestructible husband.

Mira considered herself as form of Radha or Gopi. She had been devotee of Krishna since

birth, therefore her love is very old.

Mira has images of Mira’s eleven fascinations described in Narad Bhakti Sutra10 . It is not

appropriate to judge that Meera might have made her clean thoughts according to study of

Shastra. But she learnt all possible mediums and ways of feeling of service from her

9
Ramanujan,A.K. Talking to God in the mother tongue.Manushi Publications.New Delhi.1989.p.9-14
10
Prabhavananda Swami,trans.Narad Bhakti Sutra.Shri Publications Trust.2009.
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contemporary devotees. Some of the Mira’s fascinations are described in Narad Bhakti Sutra.

These are enumerated below-

1. Gun Mahatmyaskti – It is natural tendency of heart to get attracted towards qualities.

Krishna is pitiful, he emancipateswithout doing discrimination of high or low cast.

Meera said these ancient references in the company of nobles and saints and she had

complete devotion towards God’s qualities in her heart. Where other devotees present

generalised form of worldly discomforts, there Mira mentions deep personal and

touching context. One who has become enemy for all family, one’s prayers expresses

condition of one’s heart. Mira says-

Girdhari sharnan thaari aaya, rakhyan kirpa nidhan|

Ajamil apradhi taaryan neech sdaan||

Doobtan gajraj rakhyan ganka chadyan vimaan|

Avar adham bhuta then taaryan bhakhya sunnat sujaan||

2. Roopa Sakti – Heart is greedy for charm. To make his natural tendency god-oriented,

it is essential to have precious beauty. When devotee sees par excellence beauty, then

he gets lost in it forever. Beautiful body, charming eyes, great heart has absorbed in

Mira’s heart. So many images of Krishna’s acts emerge in her mind. The eyes got still

seeing figure of Madan Mohan. Natwar nagar Krishna’s posture of flute playing is

very captivating. Mira’s heart has become follower in Krishna’s acts. Mira says-
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Mha mohanro roop lubhaani|

Sundar badan kamal dal lochan, baanka chitwan nenaa smaani|

Jamna kinaare kanha dhenu chrawan, banshi bjawan meetthan vani|

Tan, mann, dhan girdhar par varaan, charan kanwal Mira bilmaani|

3. Pooja Sakti – Mira used to offer prayers and pay obeisance in the temple of Krishna

She dances in Hari’s temple. She prays after keeping various bhogs in front of idol.

Mira says-

Thein jeemya Girdharlal|

Mira daasi arj karyan che, mhaaro lal dyaal|

Chappan bhog chateesan beenjan, paawan jann pratipal|

Rajbhog arogyan Girdhar, sanmukh rakhan thaal|

Mira dasi sarnan jyaashi, keejyaan beg nihaal||

4. Samarna sakti – All devotees accepted the greatness of remembering the God. Prayer

is the bridge between sagun and nirgun. Alike Kabir, Tulsi etc., Mira also believed

that sins of life get destroyed through prayers. That is why Mira always remembers

her adorable Krishna. Meera says-

Mharo mann saanwro naam ratyaan reen

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Saanwron naam jpaan jag praani, kotyaan paap katya ri

Janam ri khtaan puraani, naam syaam matya ri

Kannak ktoraan imrit bharyaan peevtan koon natya ri

Mira re prabhu hari avinasi, tann mann Shyaam pattya ri

Everything visible in this world is destructible. Nothing gets proved through pilgrimage,

prayers, by taking vows in Kashi etc. All types of pageantries get appeared false in front of

prayers of God. Therefore, Mira says –

Bhaj mann charan kanwal avinaasi|

Jetaayi deesan dharan gagan maa, tetaai uthi jaasi||

5. Dasya skti – It is indicated earlier that Mira’s power of devotion is an ideal state of

feeling of desire. Mira wants to be devotee of his indestructible husband as expected

out of a noble Rajput lady. Her feeling of devotion is immortal towards Krishna.

Besides feeling of desire, ultimate feeling of service is also expressed in her stanzas.

She prays to Girdhari that he let Mira serve him. To express her desires she says,

Mhane chakar rakhaji, giridhari lala chakar rakhaji |

Chakar rehsaya baag lagasyu nit uth darsan pasyu ||

Brindavan ro kunj galeen ma gobind leela gansyu |

Chakri mein darsan pasyu, sumiran pasyu kharchi||

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. 6 Virha skti – The soreness of separation in Mira’s devotion is very touching and natural.

Mira’s life is waste without Shyaam. Since she sacrificed her everything upon Krishna’s

beauty, she has no interest in eating. She remains bewildered in the wait for arrival of lover.

She feels that she will lose her life by agonizing without lover. She spends sleepless nights

without Krishna. Her body has become emaciated in separation. Mira has adapted many

feelings of ultimate separation through normal life. Her wonderful coordination of life-

realization and people-realization happens in stanzas of separation. Mira’s pain is pain of all

devotees and of also that detached lady whose lover has left her.

This feeling is expressed well in the verse mentioned below –

Heri mha to dard diwaani mhaaran dard na jaanyan koy|

Ghayal ri gat ghayal jaanyan, heeydo agan sanjoy||

The indiscriminate love of Mira was nurtured by her through the innocent feelings and

constant meditation. She says-

Ansuwaan jal seench prem bel booyan|

Dadh math ghrt kaad layaan daar dyan chooyan||

Similarly, there is a mention of other fascinations like Kantaskti, Sakhyaskti, Vatsalyaskti

Atamnivedan and Navadha bhakti (which means nine types of devotion mentioned in

Bhagwat Puran).

Sharvanm kritan vishnoh smaranm paadsevnm|

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Archanm vandam dasym skhym atamnivedm||

Shravan, kirtan, smaran, paadsevan, archan, vandan, daisy, sakhy, aatmniveda, all forms of

navdha bhakti exist in poems of Mira.

To conclude, it can be said that the Bhakti, 11 (devotion), comes in many flavors and

transcends a devotee to completely forget herself. According to some Hindu schools of

thought, five kinds of emotions can arise in bhakti: shanta, dasya, sakhya, vatsalya and

madhurya. These bhavas arise in one’s heart subconsciously, and one should go towards

whatever resonates with his or her temperament. Mirabai’s poetry falls under Madhurya

Bhava, as she thought of the Lord as her beloved. In Swami Sivananda’s words, The lover

and the beloved become one. The devotee and God feel one with each other and still maintain

a separateness in order to enjoy the bliss of the play of love between them. This is oneness in

separation and separation in oneness. Lord Gauranga, Jayadeva, Meera and Andal had this

bhava.” With Madhurya Bhava comes viraha vedana , the agony of separation from the

beloved.

Thus, Mirabai belonged to a strong tradition of bhakti (devotional) poets in medieval India

who expressed their love of god openly. The immense popularity and charm of her lyrics lies

in their use of everyday images and in the sweetness of emotions easily understood by the

people of India. But to answer as to what prompted the various women bhaktas to reject

family life and marry god can be easily pinned on gender, until one thinks of male bhakti

11
Subramanian,L.C. and Ward Mariellen.The life and legacy of a poet-saint.published in Educational Insight
Magazine: Web edition(Oct-Dec 2017)Mirabai’s Soulful love Of God
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Saints -who weren’t spared either. Kabir too was persecuted. Society has never been kind to

the questioners, the seekers, the outliers.

REFERENCES

1 Dwivedi, Prasad Hazari. Hindi Sahitya Ki Bhumika. Raj Kamal Prakashan, Delhi,2005,
p.38
2 Hawley, S. John. Three Bhakti voices: Meerabai, Surdas and Kabir in their time and ours.
Oxford University Press.2005.p.46
3 Kishwar, Madhu.” Traditional Female Moral Exemplars in India”: Education About Asia,
Vol. 6, No. 3, Winter 2001. p.50
4 Prabhavananda Swami,trans.Narad Bhakti Sutra.Shri Publications Trust.2009.p. 10-20
5 Prasad, Devi Munshi.Mirabai ka Jivancharitra.Bangiya Sahitya
Parishad.Kolkatta.1954.p.48
6 Ramanujan,A.K. Talking to God in the mother tongue.Manushi Publications.New
Delhi.1989.p. 9-14
7 Sharma, Ramkishore and Sharma, kumar Sujeet.Meerabi ki Sampoorna Padavali.Lokbharti
Prakashan.Allahabad.2013.p.44
8 Subramanian,L.C. and Ward Mariellen.The life and legacy of a poet-saint.published in
Educational Insight Magazine: Web edition(Oct-Dec 2017)Mirabai’s Soulful love Of God.
p.3 -5
9 Tiwari,Das Bhagwan.Mirabai ki pramanik Padavali.Prayag Sahitya Hindi
Sammelan.1973.p.10-20
10 Tripathi,Vishwanath.Mira ka kavya.Vani Prakashan.2010.p.44

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