Mirabai
Mirabai
Meera,
better known as Mirabai (मीराबाई;
c.1498–c.1547) and venerated as Sant Meerabai, was a
16th-century Hindu mystic poet and devotee of Krishna. She is
a celebrated Bhakti saint, particularly in the North Indian Hindu
tradition.
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Mirabai Personal |
|
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Born |
c. 1498[1] |
|
Kudki, Kingdom
of Marwar (modern-day Pali district, Rajasthan) |
|
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Died |
c.
1547 (aged 48–49) |
|
Dwarka, Gujarat
Sultanate |
|
|
Religion |
Hinduism |
|
Spouse |
Bhojraj Singh
Sisodia |
|
(m. 1516;
died 1521) |
|
|
Known for |
Poems, Bhakti for Krishna |
|
Other names |
Meera |
|
Meera
Bai |
|
|
Mira |
|
Mirabai was born into a Rajput royal
family in Kudki (modern-day Pali district of Rajasthan)
and spent her childhood in Merta. She is mentioned in Bhaktamal,
confirming that she was widely known and a cherished figure in the Bhakti
movement culture by about 1600 CE.
Most legends about Mirabai
mention her fearless disregard for social and family conventions, her devotion
to Krishna, her treating Krishna as her husband and being persecuted by
her in-laws for her religious devotion. She has been the subject
of numerous folk tales and hagiographic legends, which are
inconsistent or widely different in details.
Millions of devotional hymns in
passionate praise of Krishna are attributed to Meerabai in the Indian
tradition, but just a few hundred are believed to be authentic by scholars, and
the earliest written records suggest that except for two hymns, most were
written down only in the 18th century. Many poems attributed to Meera were
likely composed later by others who admired Meera. These hymns are commonly
known as bhajans, and are popular across India.
Hindu temples, such as in
Chittorgarh fort, are dedicated to Mirabai's memory. Legends
about Mirabai's life, of contested authenticity, have been the subject of
movies, comic strips and other popular literature in modern times.
Biography
Authentic records about Meera
are not available, and scholars have attempted to establish Meera's biography
from secondary literature that mentions her, and wherein dates and other
moments. Meera unwillingly married Bhoj Raj, the crown prince of Mewar,
in 1516. Her husband was wounded in one of the ongoing wars with the Delhi
Sultanate in 1518, and he died of battle wounds in 1521. Both her father
and father-in-law (Rana Sanga) died a few days after their defeat in the Battle
of Khanwa against first Mughal Emperor Babur.
After the death of her
father-in-law Rana Sanga, Vikram Singh became the ruler of Mewar. According to
a popular legend, her in-laws tried many times to assassinate her, such as
sending Meera a glass of poison and telling her it was nectar or sending her a
basket with a snake instead of flowers. According to the hagiographic
legends, she was not harmed in either case, with the snake miraculously
becoming a Krishna idol (or a garland of flowers depending on the
version). In another version of these legends, she is asked by Vikram
Singh to go drown herself, which she tries but she finds herself floating on
water. Yet another legend states that the third Mughal emperor Akbar
the Great came with Tansen to visit Meera and presented a pearl
necklace, but scholars doubt this ever happened because Tansen joined Akbar's
court in 1562, 15 years after she died. Similarly, some stories state
that Guru Ravidas was her guru (teacher), but there is no
corroborating historical evidence for this. Some versions suggest this could
likely have happened. Others disagree.
The three different oldest
records are known as of 2014 that mention Meera, all from the 17th century
and written within 150 years of Meera's death, neither mention anything about
her childhood or circumstances of her marriage to Bhojraj nor do they mention
that the people who persecuted her were her in-laws or from some Rajput royal
family. Nancy Martin-Kershaw states that to the extent Meera was
challenged and persecuted, religious or social conventions were unlikely to
have been the cause, rather the likely cause was political chaos and military
conflicts between the Rajput kingdom and the Mughal Empire.
Other stories state that Mira
Bai left the kingdom of Mewar and went on pilgrimages. In her last years, Meera
lived in Dwarka or Vrindavan, where legends state she
miraculously disappeared by merging into an idol of Krishna in 1547. While
miracles are contested by scholars for the lack of historical evidence, it is
widely acknowledged that Meera dedicated her life to Lord Krishna, composing
songs of devotion, and was one of the most important poet-saint of the Bhakti
movement period.
Poetry
A number of compositions by
Meera Bai continue to be sung today in India, mostly as devotional songs (bhajans)
though nearly all of them have a philosophical connotation. One of her
most popular compositions remains "Paayoji maine Ram Ratan dhan paayo"
(पायो जी मैंने राम रतन धन पायो।,
"I have been given the richness of Lord Ram's blessing"). Meera's
poems are lyrical padas (metric verses) in Rajasthani
language. While thousands of verses are attributed to her, scholars are
divided in their opinion as to how many of them were actually penned by Meera
herself. There are no surviving manuscripts of her poetry from her time,
and the earliest records with two poems credited to her are from early
18th-century, more than 150 years after she died.
Hindi and Rajasthani
The largest collection of poems
credited to her are in 19th-century manuscripts. Scholars have attempted to
establish authenticity based on both the poem and Meera being mentioned in
other manuscripts as well as from style, linguistics and form. John
Stratton Hawley cautions, "When one speaks of the poetry of Mirabai, then,
there is always an element of enigma. (...) there must always remain a question
about whether there is any real relation between the poems we cite and a
historical Mira."
In her poems, Krishna is a yogi
and lover, and she herself is a yogini ready to take her place by his side into
a spiritual marital bliss. Meera's style combines impassioned mood,
defiance, longing, anticipation, joy and ecstasy of union, always centred on
Krishna.
My Dark One has gone
to an alien land.
He has left me behind, he's never returned, he's never sent me a single word.
So I've stripped off my ornaments, jewels and adornments, cut my hair from my
head.
And put on holy garments, all on his account, seeking him in all four
directions.
Mira: unless she meets the Dark One, her Lord, she doesn't even want to live.
— Mira Bai,
Translated by John Stratton Hawley
Meera speaks of a personal
relationship with Krishna as her lover, lord and mountain lifter. (Sanson Ki
Mala Pe Simru Main Pi Ka Naam) is written by Meera Bai Shows her
dedication towards Lord Krishna.The characteristic of her poetry is
complete surrender.
After making me fall for you so
hard, where are you going?
Until the day I see you, no repose: my life, like a fish washed on shore,
flails in agony.
For your sake I'll make myself a yogini, I'll hurl myself to death on the saw
of Kashi.
Mira's Lord is the clever Mountain Lifter, and I am his, a slave to his lotus
feet.
— Mira Bai,
Translated by John Stratton Hawley
Meera is often classed with the
northern Sant bhaktis who spoke of Lord Sri Krishna.
Sikh literature
Prem Ambodh Pothi, a
text attributed to Guru Gobind Singh and completed in 1693 CE,
includes poetry of Mira Bai as one of sixteen historic bhakti saints important
to Sikhism.
Mirabai's
compositions
·
Raag Govind
·
Geet Govind
·
Govind Tika
·
Raag Soratha
·
Meera Ki Malhar
·
Mira Padavali
Influence
Scholars acknowledge that Meera
was one of the central poet-saints of the Bhakti movement which was during a
difficult period in Indian history filled with religious conflicts. Yet, they
simultaneously question the extent to which Meera was a canonical projection of
social imagination that followed, where she became a symbol of people's
suffering and a desire for an alternative. Dirk Wiemann, quoting Parita
Mukta, states,
If one accepts that someone very akin to
the Mira legend [about persecution and her devotion] existed as an actual
social being, the power of her convictions broke the brutal feudal
relationships that existed at that time. The Mira Bai of the popular
imagination, then, is an intensely anachronistic figure by virtue of
that anticipatory radical democracy which propels Meera out of the historicity that
remains nonetheless ascribed to her. She goes beyond the shadowy realms of the
past to inhabit the very core of a future which is embodied within the
suffering of a people who seek an alternative.
— Dirk
Wiemann / Parita Mukta, On Meera
The continued influence of
Meera, in part, has been her message of freedom, her resolve and right to
pursue her devotion to deity Krishna and her spiritual beliefs as she felt
drawn to despite her persecution. Her appeal and influence in Indian
culture, writes Edwin Bryant, is from her emerging, through her legends and
poems, as a person "who stands up for what is right and suffers bitterly
for holding fast to her convictions, as other men and women have", yet she
does so with a language of love, with words painting the "full range of
emotions that mark love, whether between human beings or between human and
divine".
English
versions
Aliston and Subramanian have
published selections with English translation in India. Schelling and
Landes-Levi have offered anthologies in the USA. Snell has presented
parallel translations in his collection The Hindi Classical Tradition.
Sethi has selected poems which Mira composed presumably after she came in
contact with Saint Ravidas. and Meera Pakeerah.
Some bhajans of Meera have been
rendered into English by Robert Bly and Jane Hirshfield as Mirabai:
Ecstatic Poems.
Popular
culture
Composer John Harbison adapted
Bly's translations for his Mirabai Songs. There is a
documentary film A Few Things I Know About Her by Indian film
director Anjali Panjabi.
Two well-known films of her
life have been made in India, Meera (1945), a Tamil
language film starring M. S. Subbulakshmi, and Meera a
1979 Hindi film by Gulzar. Other Indian films about her
include: Meerabai (1921) by Kanjibhai Rathod, Sant
Mirabai (1929) by Dhundiraj Govind Phalke, Rajrani Meera/Meerabai (1933)
by Debaki Bose, Meerabai (1936) by T. C. Vadivelu Naicker
and A. Narayanan, Sadhvi Meerabai (1937) by Baburao
Painter, Bhakta Meera (1938) by Y. V. Rao, Meerabai (1940)
by Narasimha Rao Bhimavarapu, Meera (1947) by Ellis
Dungan, Matwali Meera (1947) by Baburao Patel, Meerabai (1947)
by W. Z. Ahmed, Meerabai (1947) by Nanabhai Bhatt, Girdhar
Gopal Ki Mira (1949) by Prafulla Roy, Raj Rani Meera (1956)
by G. P. Pawar, Meera Shyam (1976), Meera Ke Girdhar (1992)
by Vijay Deep.
Meera, a
2009 Indian television series based on her life aired on NDTV Imagine.
The novel Cuckold by Kiran
Nagarkar features her as one of the central characters.
Shree Krishna Bhakto Meera, a
2021 Indian Bengali mythological television series based on her life is
currently airing on Star Jalsha.
Meera Bai's life has been
interpreted as a musical story in Meera—The Lover…, a music album
based on original compositions for some well known Meera bhajans, released 11
October 2009.
The Meera Mahal in Merta is a museum dedicated to telling the story of Mirabai through sculptures, paintings, displays and a shaded garden.
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