A History of the Mahrattas v1.c5.s4.12

v1.c5.s4.12

From Jnānēshvar we pass to Nāmadēva (Nāmdēv or Nāma), who is the earliest representative of a new school of Marāthī poetry known generally as the *Bhakti* school. Romantic glorification of *Bhakti* or Spiritual Devotion is the theme of Nāmdēv and his successors, who strove to break down the barriers which for ages had debarred the populace from all access to any more knowledge than a man's particular *guru* or spiritual guide could or would communicate. Of Nāmadēva's actual life and circumstances no authentic record remains, but passages in his *abhangas* indicate that he was born about A.D. 1270, his father being by caste a Shimpī or tailor, that he was a Saiva, and that he led a lawless life as a youth, but later, being filled with remorse at the sight of the sufferings which his misconduct had caused, he foreswore evil and embraced the service of God. Dr. Farquhar holds that Nāmadēva flourished about a century later than A.D. 1270, basing the suggestion upon Sir R. Bhandarkar’s *Vaisnavism, Saivism, &c.*, page 92, and upon other considerations. He probably flourished about 1420 A.D.¹ Nāmadēva used the *abhanga* measure,² a modification of the ovi metre, and wrote with such passion and intensity that he inspired a whole congregation of minor poets, including his wife, mother, his maidservant Janabāī, whose extant poems almost equal her master’s in fervour, his sons, his daughter, and his sister. Nor was his example emulated only by his family. Among others whom his genius likewise inspired were Samvatya of the Mālī or gardener caste, Naraharī of the Sonār or goldsmith caste, Gora who was a Kumbhār or potter, and lastly Chōka Mēla, who belonged to the degraded Mahār population and must have been wholly illiterate. ‘That he (Chōka Mēla), too, burst into striking poetry is evidence that Nāmdēv’s influence acted as a strong force in awakening the devotional imagination of Mahārāshtra,’ levelling all differences of caste and class, and establishing ‘a spiritual democracy where all had equal rights and all could eat together, drink together, dance together and sing together.’³ Nāmadēva, as Dr. Farquhar points out, was influential in the Punjab as well as in the Marāthā country, as is proved by his hymns in the *Granth* and by a shrine dedicated to his memory and still in use at Ghuman in the Gurdaspur District. Besides the *abhangas*, which are very popular with the peasantry of Mahārāshtra and which usually end with the words *Nāma mhane*, ‘Nāma said,’⁴ Nāmadēva composed a good deal of other poetry, chiefly epics based upon Purānic myths and poetical lives of the saints; but his devotional *abhangas*, framed in the measure which was later perfected by Tukārām and vibrating with an intensely human note of appeal, constitute the chief source of his fame and popularity. In his verse the influence of Islam first appears in the Deccan. He and those who followed him criticized idolatry with some severity, but continued the use of idols.