The Autobiography of Sant Bahinabai (2023)
Edited, translated, annotated and introduced by Chandrakant Kaluram Mhatre
Sant Bahinabai (1628–1700) endured prolonged domestic violence from an early age after being married off as a toddler to a thirty-year-old widower. The abuse continued even when she was three months pregnant. What makes her life and work extraordinary is that she gave voice to these experiences in her poems, producing what is perhaps the first autobiographical account by a woman in India. Her writings stand among the earliest literary testimonies of domestic violence and contain some of the most powerful critiques of patriarchy in premodern Indian literature. A contemperory and follower of Sant Tuakaram, she has also documented Tukaram's persecution at the hands of the caste-supremacists, which she herself witnessed during her stay in Dehu. Bahinabai also translated the Vajrasuchi Upanishad, an anti-caste Sanskrit text, into Marathi, making her one of the earliest known women translators in India.
Featured Poem
मंबाजी गोसावी भ्रतारासी म्हणे
Source Text
मंबाजी गोसावी
भ्रतारासी म्हणे
तुम्ही शिष्य होणे
स्त्रियायुक्त
माझा हेत आहे
तुम्हीही हरिभक्त
दिसता विरक्त
उभय वर्गे
ऐकोनी ते गोष्टी
दोनचार वेळा
मग त्या प्रांजळा
सांगितले
आम्ही अनुग्रही
आहो जी पूर्वीच
न वाटे त्या सत्य
गोष्ट काही
भ्रतारे त्याप्रती
सांगीतले सर्व
कोल्हापुरी पूर्व
वर्तले जे
ऐकोनीया द्वेष
संचरला मनी
म्हणे काय स्वप्नी
समाधान
नाही गुरुसेवा
घडली जोवरी
हस्तक हा शिरी
सद्गुरूचा
तोवरी तो गुरू
कासयाचा खरा
शुद्राचीया अंतरा
ज्ञान कैचे
स्वप्नींचा अनुग्रह
गुरू केला शुद्र
तोही बळीभद्र
ज्ञानहीन
तुम्हांसी वाळीन
ब्राह्मणाचे पंक्ती
तुम्ही गुरुभक्ती
नका सांगू
बहिणीम्हणे ऐसे
मंबाजी बोलीला
द्वेषही मांडीला
तेच क्षणी
●🙙🙛●
Target Text
Mambaji Gosavi
Said to my husband,
"Become my disciple
Along with your wife.
"This is my desire'
You, too, are devout;
Both of you look
So detached."
Listening to the same
On several occasions,
My husband told him
Honestly,
"We've been initiated
Already long ago."
He would not believe
Any of it.
My husband told him
Everything of the past:
What happened earlier
At Kolhapur.
On listening to that account,
He was filled with hatred;
Saying, "Is there satisfaction
In dreams?
"Until service unto Guru
Has not been rendered,
Until the Sadguru has not
Placed hand on head,
"How can that Guru
Be considered genuine?
How can a Shudra* ever
Be knowledgeable?
"Initiation in dreams
A shudra as Guru—
That too a peasant
Utterly ignorant!
"I will get you banished
From the ranks of the Brahmins.
Don’t you dare to talk to me
Of devotion to Guru!"
Baheni says thus
Mambaji denounced,
Began to persecute us
From that moment.
●🙙🙛●
*Tukaram was born in a so-called lower caste viz. kunabi (कुणबी), as such the caste-Brahmins considered him incapable of and ineligible for receiving / imparting spiritual knowledge.
SELECTED PoemS
My father belongs / To the great Maunas clan
मौनस गोत्र माझ्या / पित्याचे वरिष्ठ
(Read)
What sins committed / During previous lives
काय पाप केले / पूर्वील ये जन्मी
(Read)
With parents and brother / Returned afterwards
पिता माता बंधु / समवेत बिऱ्हाडी
(Read)
Now if we say / Caste makes the brahmin
आता याती लागी / म्हणावे ब्राम्हण
(Read)