The Poetry of Mirabai

De: Mirabai

Narrado por: Ghizela Rowe, Eve Karpf, Libby Brunton

Mirabai was a Rajput princess born to the Rathore clan in 1498 in Kudaki, Rajasthan, in northern India. Despite being one of the most significant saints in the Bhakti tradition and an immensely popular Hindu mystic and religious poet, very few facts are actually known about her life including her date of birth.

It is clear that her mother died when she was very young and she was greatly influenced by her father, also a worshipper of Krishna. From a young age, Mirabai’s devotion to Krishna was absolute surrender and complete devotion. It was only with great reluctance that she entered a marriage, arranged by her uncle, to Prince Bhoj Raj of Chittor in 1516.

The marriage ended after 5 years with the death, in quick succession, of her husband and then father-in-law, who was her protector.

Her now public display of faith, mainly demonstrated by attending religious meetings, or Satsangs, with their devotional singing and dancing, brought persecution by her remaining in-laws who insisted she stop. On hearing that her brother-in-law, Vikramaditya, the then king of Chittor, might harm or even kill her, she fled.

She travelled through northern India expressing her love for Krishna with some 1300 bhajans or sacred songs, usually composed with a simple rhythm and a repeated refrain. Her use of everyday language, infused with a sweetness of emotion and charm brought her a growing respect and popularity

It is popularly believed that she spent her last years as a pilgrim in Dwarka Gujarat and miraculously merged with the image of Krishna in 1556.

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