Kiti he Marti, Kiti he Radti,
How much death, How much weeping.
Who is that laughing on the sky?
We look and we wonder: What is truth?
And so many pining for a lie?
What is death? What is grieving?
At whom do we aim our thoughtless laughter?
Who has been spared? Who is leaving?
Our fate is common in the hereafter.
Soyra says: I find it odd
Not one among them remembers God.
Sant Soyrabai, Translated by J. Pinto and Neela Bhagwat
In the late thirteenth century, the saint poetess Soyarabai lived near Pandharpur. She belonged to the Varkari tradition of saint-poets who belonged to many different castes. She was the wife of a relatively better known poet Chokhamela. The appeal of the movement, in Kosambi’s words was its emphasis on spiritual transcendence beyond the caste and gender hierarchies of Brahmanism, which plagued the daily lives of people. A religious philosophy which provided an egalitarian devotional space appealed to the most oppressed sections. Soyrabai and her sister in law wrote of family, daily existence and their devotion to god Vithoba, pilgrimage to Pandharpur, married life and attempts to find freedom in it. Her poetry conveyed poverty, often referring to the leftover food which was distributed among the Dalits after religious feasts. She complained to god that there was a discrimination even between devotees saying how some were not allowed to enter temples.
Soyrabai framed large literature using blank verse of her own devising. She wrote much but only about 62 works are known. In her Abhanga (a form of verse employed by saint poets) she refers to herself as Chokhamela’s Mahari, accuses god for forgetting Dalits and of making their lives bad. Her most basic verses concern the simple food she gives to the god and describe her devotion. She voices her objections to untouchability.
Eleanor Zelliot, who worked extensively on the topic of saint-poets of the medieval period, and also translated a lot of Soyrabai’s works, believed that only few of Soyrabai’s Abhangas have survived despite the fact that she wrote many. This happened because preservation was only through oral traditions, most pilgrims only sang those songs which they thought were the best for the pilgrimage.
पंढरीचे ब्राम्हणे चोख्यासी छळीले । तयालागीं केले नवल देवें ॥१॥
सकळ समुदाव चोखियाचे घरी । रिध्दी सिध्दि द्वारी तिष्ठताती ॥२॥
रंग माळा सडे गुढीया तोरणे । आनंद किर्तन वैष्ण्ववांचे ॥३॥
असंख्य ब्राम्हण बैसल्या पंगती । विमानी पाहती सुरवर ॥४॥
तो सुख सोहळा दिवाळी दसरा । वोवाळी सोयरा चोखीयासी ॥५॥
The Brahmins of Pandhari harassed Chokha. God was surprised at this.
Everyone gathered at Chokha’s house. Wealth and Power stood at the door.
Rangoli at the entrance, flags at the gate. Joyous Kirtan of Vaishnavas.
The celebration was like Diwali and Dusshera. Soyara waves the lights of arati before Chokha.
(Translation: Eleanor Zelliot)
Although Soyrabai’s poetry reflected caste based discrimination, it was also challenging Brahmanical patriarchy by talking about daily life and struggles within the marriage. Her writings can be considered as one of the earliest works in terms of feminist consciousness in India.
Soyarabai believed that “The body only can be impure or polluted, but the soul is ever clean, pure knowledge. The body is born unclean and so how can anybody claim to be pure in body? The body has much pollution. But the pollution of the body remains in the body. The soul is untouched by it.”
Eleanor Zellliot thought of her as a true mystic, “… finding at times the words to describe the indescribable, words that recall the poetry of mystics of many cultures.” She described Soyarabai as, “A fourteenth century Untouchable woman seems to have risen above the problems of low birth to sing the immersion in the divine.”