Sant Tukārām
17th century · Dehū, Maharashtra · Vārkarī
Tukārām of Dehū, near Pune, was born into a family of small traders and knew famine, debt and the loss of loved ones. In his suffering he turned wholly to Viṭṭhala and poured out thousands of abhaṅgas — honest, searching, humorous and loving — collected as the Tukārām Gāthā.
His songs mock hypocrisy and caste pride and teach that God is reached by the name and by a pure heart. They are sung by lakhs of Vārkarīs on the annual pilgrimage (vārī) to Pandharpur, when his pālkhī sets out from Dehū. He is often called “Jagadguru” Tukārām.
Tradition says that orthodox critics, angry that a non-Brahmin was writing on spiritual matters, forced Tukārām to sink his notebooks in the Indrāyaṇī river. He sat fasting on the bank, and after thirteen days the notebooks rose to the surface, dry and whole.
17th century · Dehū · Tukārām Gāthā · Pandharpur vārī