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…there is an amazing multiplicity in the living traditions of Kabir. He inhabits many cultures and opposing social paradigms, and yet refuses to be contained or defined by any one of them. On these journeys I have met upper-caste Hindus deeply offended by the assertion that Kabir speaks especially for Dalits, and Dalit activists who scorn research on Kabir by Brahmin scholars. Hindu lovers of Kabir uncomfortable with the term Sufi being linked with him, and Sufi singers who guffaw with laughter at the very thought that Kabir was not a Sufi! Atheist activists who use Kabir couplets as slogans and devout Kabir Panthis who deify him with temples and aartis. The sociology of the many Kabirs itself becomes a fabulous device that pushes us towards opening up our minds and hearts.

The rest of Shabnam Virmani’s article can be read here at the Kabir Project website.

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• Ud Jayega Hans Akela

Abhang:
literally,
1. Absolute; eternal, immutable, ceaseless, unbroken;
impeccable, etc
2. Immortal, primordial; another name for Brahman; inviolable, etc
3. a Marathi metre; also, any metrical compostion in this metre

The abhang is the favourite metre of all Varkari poets since the thirteenth century and unlike classical Sanskrit-based metres it is native to Marathi speech and its colloquial forms. It is extremely flexible. It consists of four lines and each line contains three to eight syllables. It has a fluid symmetry maintained by internal or end rhymes and often designed to be sung. It originates most probably in oral folk poetry. Poets such as Jnanadev, Namdeo and Tukaram have given it a classic status in Marathi poetry.

Varkari (वारकरी)
is one who makes a “vari,” (edited to add: it sounds more like “wari”) which in Marathi means, “round trip” or “pilgrimage” or “regular visit to a place and return from it”; a Varkari is vowed and committed to undertake, twice every year, a pilgrimage to Pandharpur to attend the Ashadhi and the Kartiki festivals of Vitthal.

The above was excerpted from my mother’s yellowing copy of the late great Dilip Chitre’s Says Tuka. This book is out of print, but if one is interested in Abhangs, it’s a must read.

Mahdeobuwa Shahabajkar talks a little about the Varkari Sampradaya in the video below:

This video features Mahadeobuwa Shahabajkar and ensemble singing religious music of the Varkari Sampradaya, an important sect of the Bhakti movement from Maharashtra. Followers of the Varkari sect sing abhangs and other song forms attributed to saint-poets like Dnyaneshwar, Namdeo, Eknath, Tukaram. Because of its obvious influence from Hindustani classical music, the most appropriate label for this kind of presentation would be “sangit bhajan”, which is what the singers calls it in the interview. Use of the term “sangit bhajan” (rather than simply “bhajan”) indicates that he emphasizes musicality in addition to the text being sung…from the notes on youtube by Underscore Records-
link

A brief glimpse of a Pandharpur Waari (pilgrimage):

SOME USEFUL LINKS:
aathavanitli-gani
Abhang Amrit
Abhang Sankirtan
Abhangs: Vakari Sampradaya
Sant Tukaram Ke Barah Abhang (HINDI)
Ramadaskrut abhang.
Alanati Classics – Bhaktha Tukaram
Tukaram
Tukaram
Marathi Poets: Kanhopatra, Arun Kolatkar, Arun Krushnaji Kamble, Dilip Chitre, Dnyaneshwar, Tukaram, Vilas Sarang, Savitribai Phule
Bahina Bai and Her Abhangas

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• The Abhang 5-My Tongue, Learn to Chant His Name
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• The Abhang 2- Sawale sundara, The Dark, Beautiful One
• Introducing Yourself to Indian Classical Music 15: Bhajan Break

Philip Pullman on his latest book: The Good Man Jesus and the Scoundrel Christ causing offence:

“No one has the right to live without being shocked.
No one has the right to spend their lives without being offended.

Nobody has to read this book. Nobody has to pick it up. Nobody has to open it. If they have to open it and read it, they don’t have to like it. And if you read it and dislike it, you don’t have to remain silent about it. You can write to me, you can write to the publisher, you can write to the papers, you can write your own book, you can do all those things but there your rights stop.

No one has the right to stop the writing of this book. No one has the right to stop it being published, sold or bought or read.”

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• Freedom of Expression-an easy concept to understand, why don’t we get it?

Thus, we have people defending the opposition to Hussain saying he “hurt Hindu sentiments” by painting Hindu goddesses in the nude, without outrightly condemning the threats he faces or the violence he has had to face at his exhibitions.

Then you have those opposed to Taslima Nasrin saying that what she said about Islam and the Prophet is factually incorrect when discussing the violence her article provoked.

Others object to comparing Hussain and Nasrin because they think the calibre of the work is so different, one cannot compare them.

I may think Hussain’s paintings are superior to Nasrin’s writings, but that is neither here nor there as far as this debate is concerned. On the debate aired on NDTV today, only Javed Anand seems to have understood this and kept forecefully reiterating this point.

Everyone has their own opinion on the quality of the work. But that is not the point. The point is that they (Hussain and Nasrin) should be free to express through their paintings and writings what they want to and we should be free to criticise their expression, without resorting to violence and threating a person’s safety or destroying their work.

As for our “sentiments” (what an awful word) these days, whether Hindu or Muslim, they seem to be remarkably weak, wishy washy creatures. Time to start working on these easily outraged emotions perhaps, before we start attacking people for what they write and paint.

On Hussain’s being granted Qatari citizenship Umm, who lives in Doha, has said it best.

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