The Mother Figure in Marathi Bhakti Literature : 1

            The Mother Figure in Marathi Bhakti Literature : 1

It is the first day of the lunar month known as Ashadha in Sanskrit as well as Marathi. It is that day of the year again when we remember the first line of Kalidasa's "Meghdootam". The rich poetry in that famous line and poem we have not managed to `sustain' though.

The Ramtek knoll near Nagpur may now not be as picturesque as it was in fourth/fifth century CE. The celestial beauty of the skies as in the "Meghdootam" may no longer mist-ify our urban souls.

And, yet, come Ashadha, and a deep yet transluscent river of deep devotion and ardent affection never seems to go dry in Maharashtra, however arid lives may turn, with or sans Covid. This mighty yet gentle force that fuses the Marathi mind beyond all differences belongs to the unique Bhakti poetry of the Marathi sant parampara and the `wari'. the annual holy pilgrimage to Pandharpur.

Central to this poetry of ardour and reverence is the  mother metaphor. In our blog, hence, beginning from today till the Ashadhi Ekadashi, let us explore the maternal motif in Marathi bhakti poetry. Let us concentrate on the post Chakradhar Swami, past the Mahalamba era.

Let us begin with the epoch of the Jagatmauli, the  mater universalis, Sant Dnyaneshwara. He graced this dismal place called earthly life for just twenty-one years (1275-96). The brightest of the brilliant, he was harassed endlessly. He had to face impossible indignities. Yet he was the first to radicalise the dormant societal structures by making elite knowledge accessible to the commonest of the common (wo)man, thereby shattering orthodoxies of knowledge making and distribution. Thence tumbled all the differences destroying the societal soul. No wonder, a tender youth of twenty-one, he symbolises the arch maternal feel, `mauli', the gentle, the mellow, the forgiving, the gracious, the Mother.

Not just the mother though! One can say the entire familial feel is alive and pulsating in the credo, the catchphrase that ends each one of his "abhanga", namely, " baap rakhumadevi vara". The parental/baap and the conjugal/var pulsate in this `tagline' as the Z-generation might like to call it.

Note how this great philosopher poet, who could so inspire the dumbest of the dumb animals, a he-buffalo,to rattle off the Veda Richas effortlessly, uses words. the "var" in the byword that ends each of his "abahnga" could be both the consort, and it signifies the superior as well. 

The " maye" in many a compositions by him means similarly both an intimate appeal to Lord Vitthala as the mother figure and it could as well be a reference to the deceptive `maya' that takes the devotee away from his own self and its unity with the godhead, beneath all appearances, beyond all dualisms, with the very principle.

In fact, the maternal home, the 'maher' is a strong leitmotif in his writings. Such familial tropes as `maher' or `sansar" feel familiar for the common man and include the intimacy, the affection, the togetherness the Lord shares with the devotee. Yet another mode he uses is the god as the child. Tender affection spills brimful beyond the lines when he uses the child simile or when he refers to the Lord indulgently as "Vithai" or "Krishnai". 

Such is the exqusite grace of his rich oeuvre, which addressed his elder brother as "gurumauli", that like the baby Krishna's tiny mouth, it contains capably the entire universe itself . No wonder, he is not merely the "kaivalya rajyachakravarty", the emperor of the realms of  episteme, of the divine ecstasy.  Rather, he is the mother of mothers, the jaganmauli.

pratima@ ever grateful to Aai for granting us the `Pandharpur born'                     status