WORK
FEATURED TRANSLATION PROJECT
Marathi Dalit Saint-Poets (14th Century)
Translations of the abhang of Sant Soyrabai, Karmamela, Nirmala, and Banka into English, attentive to the austerity, immediacy, and performative force of a tradition shaped by caste, labour, and devotion. (Read more about the project)
A winner of English PEN Presents X SALT Award 2025
“A vital, underrepresented body of Bhakti poetry brought into contemporary English with clarity and ethical commitment.” — English PEN
TRANSMISSION MAP
A long-term vision of Marathi literary inheritance in translation: women saint-poets, Dalit and Shudra Bhakti voices, oral and devotional traditions, anti-caste thought, historical prose, and major works of Marathi intellectual life.
(Explore the transmission map)
POETRY
The City of Graves
This is an on-going bilingual poetry manuscript that traces the erasure of agrarian and ecological worlds, and of an entire way of life, during the making of Navi Mumbai. Drawing on memory, oral histories, and lived landscapes, the work attends to what remains—beneath, within, and despite the city.
दोन आगरी कविता । Two Agari Poems
Two poems in the Agari (āgarī) dialect presented with facing English versions, exploring language, memory, dispossession, displacement, ecological loss, and the erosion of a way of life by the forces of so-called development.
FICTION
Upon the First Day of Monsoon
A short story from Nine (2015), a collection portraying women from the northern coast of Maharashtra amid land loss, urbanization, and the making of Navi Mumbai. Set on the first day of monsoon after village fields have been forcibly acquisitioned, the story follows Parvati’s restless memory of cultivation and the generative force of labour, season, and land.
TRANSLATIONS
One Hundred Poems of Tukaram (2015)
Curated, translated and annotated 100 abhang of Sant Tukaram (17th C) into English
Wrote an exploratory introduction (14 pages) grounded in critical caste studies
First ever book-length English translation of Marathi Bhakti poetry that seeks to retain the poetic form and performative force of the source abhang
Included in M.A. English Studies programme at the Central University of Tamil Nadu since June 2022
One Hundred Poems of Chokha Mela (2015)
Curated, translated and annotated 100 abhang of Dalit saint-poet Chokha Mela (14th C) into English
Wrote an exploratory introduction (10 pages) grounded in critical caste studies
Prescribed as a core text in M.A. (Honours) English programme at the University of Mumbai in June 2022 and retained in the revised NEP curriculum introduced in June 2024
The Autobiography of Sant Bahinabai (2023)
Edited, translated and annotated 106 abhang of Sant Bahinabai (17th C) into English
Wrote an extensive critical introduction (32 pages) engaging with women's studies, trauma studies, and critical caste studies
First English translation that presents Bahinabai's autobiography as a cohesive narrative from the perspective of a survivor of domestic violence
Includes an English translation of Bahinabai's Marathi rendering of the Vajrasuchi Upanishad, an anti-caste text
Selected shorter works
Marathi translation of “What Makes Oral History Different” by Alessandro Portelli — published by Sitaram Mhatre Foundation (Read)
Marathi translation of W. B. Yeats' poem "The Tower" — published in Hakara Journal (Read)
Marathi translation of William Shakespeare's Sonnet 18 (Read)
ESSAYS & RESEARCH
"Dhavalaas of Coastal Maharashtra"
An essay on dhavalā (धवला), ritual and folk songs performed by Agari women priests (dhavalārī / धवलारी) of the Agari community of coastal Maharashtra, exploring oral tradition, performance, memory, and regional cultural worlds. (Read)
"Sant Bahinabai, Her Autobiography, and the Question of Translation"
A long-form critical essay exploring Bahinabai as autobiographer, translator, anti-caste social commentator, feminist precursor, and abhang poet, while also articulating a philosophy of translation rooted in literary responsibility, form, and cultural inheritance. (Read)
Oral history initiative: Memoirs of the Project-Affected People
Writing and research engaging with the social histories of land and displacement. (Read)
Computational work on the Dnyaneshwari, the foundational text of the Varkari tradition
BHAKTI PERFORMANCE & ORAL TRADITION
Sant Chokha Mela Arati
An original Marathi arati dedicated to Sant Chokha Mela, the Dalit saint-poet whose abhangs gave powerful voice to devotion, caste humiliation, and resistance to caste discrimination. Composed and translated by Chandrakant Kaluram Mhatre, the arati was presented at the Chokhamela Gatha Parayan organized by Sitaram Mhatre Foundation on 4 June 2024. (Read / Watch)
Pakhawaj Accompaniment: Varkari Bhajan
A performance of Sant Dnyaneshwar’s abhang “Sakal Mangal Nidhi / Shri Vitthalache Nam Adhi” from Sitaram Mhatre Foundation’s Tukaram Beej Celebration, 2024, featuring Chandrakant Kaluram Mhatre on pakhawaj within the living Varkari Bhajan tradition. (Watch on YouTube)
Marathi Literary Recitation: Govindagraj Birth-Centenary Audio Archive
An archive of Marathi poetry recitations created to commemorate the birth centenary of Govindagraj / Ram Ganesh Gadkari, bringing his poems into voice through cadence, oral performance, and literary remembrance. (Listen on SoundCloud)
ONGOING PROJECTS
English translation of VR Shinde’s भारतीय अस्पृश्यतेचा प्रश्न (1933) as The Problem of Untouchability in India (ongoing)
Jotiba Phule’s Brahmananche Kasab / The Cunningness of the Brahmins — An English translation of Jotiba’s 1869 anti-caste work exposing Brahmanical authority, ritual exploitation, and the everyday mechanisms of caste power. (ongoing bicentenary project)
Marathi translation of W. B. Yeats’s 1928 poetry collection The Tower (ongoing centenary project)