Marathi Dalit Saint-Poets (14th Century)
Selected Poems of Sant Soyarabai, Karma Mela, Nirmala and Banka
This collection—a winner of the English PEN Presents X SALT Award 2025—brings together the selected works of four Dalit poets who attained sainthood in the face of extremely casteist environment of the 14th Century Maharashtra. Born in the Mahar community, Soyarabai, her son Karma Mela, her husband’s sister Nirmala and Nirmala’s husband Banka gave voice through their poetry to the centuries of injustice inflicted upon them in the name of untouchability. Together, with the head of their family, Sant Chokha Mela, they laid the foundations of Dalit literature that changed the literary landscapes of India.
What English PEN's readers say
"Chandrakant Mhatre’s translations of the poems of Soyrabai, Karma Mela, Nirmala, and Banka bring into English a vital, yet underrepresented body of 14th-century Marathi Bhakti poetry. These translations demonstrate deep engagement with the source texts and a clear ethical commitment to making the voices of the saint-poets accessible to contemporary Anglophone readers."
"Mhatre’s translations remain faithful to the spirit and emotional force of the original poets, for whom acts of devotion are inseparable from experiences of deprivation, caste humiliation, ritual exclusion, and the longing for divine justice. Mhatre successfully conveys the starkness, urgency, and intimacy with which these poets address Vitthal, preserving the performative, oral abhang tradition within the Bhakti lineage."
"The translations may come across as austere, even deliberately plain. This restraint is purposeful. By avoiding embellishment or lyric inflation, by using simple, everyday language, these songs of working, largely illiterate communities are presented with precision, repetition, and moral insistence, bringing out their literary worth."
"The extensive annotations and contextual notes are a major asset. They enable readers unfamiliar with the cultural and historical context of 14th-century Maharashtra to grasp the significance of caste hierarchies, temple exclusion, gendered labour, and Varkari philosophy without overburdening the poems themselves."
"In the completion of this project of translation, there is a strong potential to resonate with contemporary readers engaged with questions of caste, gender, and social justice, and Mhatre achieves that."
(View the English PEN project page)
About the Poets
Sant Soyarabai was born in Mahar community in the 13th century Maharashtra. She was married to the Dalit saint-poet Chokha Mela and considered herself his disciple. Like him, Soyarabai was a Varkari i.e. an ardent devotee of Lord Vitthal, who faced endless atrocities at the hands of caste supremacists who resented her spiritual aspirations. In her poems, she questioned the very basis of untouchability viz. the notion of ritual purity and pollution and criticised prevalent caste-based discriminatory practices, making her one of the earliest Dalit women poets to openly resist caste oppression.
Sant Karma Mela was the son of Soyarabai and Chokha Mela. He, too, was a Varkari, but his critique of caste-based discrimination is sharper and more confrontational than his contemporaries. He raises so many uncomfortable questions about caste inequalities that his poems are not recited by even the Varkaris.
Sant Nirmala, Chokha Mela’s younger sister, was also a Varkari. Apart from portraying the toll that caste oppression took on Dalit women’s lives, she has also written significant biographical poems about Chokha Mela.
Sant Banka was Nirmala’s husband and a Varkari. He considered Chokha Mela as his spiritual Guru and wrote many biographical poems about Chokha Mela and Soyarabai.