Kabir

(mid-15th c.?) A poet who is widely
regarded as one of the greatest northern
Indian religious figures. Kabir is among
a group of central and northern Indian
poet-saints known as Sants who shared
several tendencies: emphasis on individualized, interior religion leading to a
personal experience of the divine; disdain for external ritual, particularly
image worship; faith in the power of the
divine Name; and a tendency to ignore
hierarchical distinctions between
castes. Kabir strongly adhered to these
beliefs—in his writings he uncompromisingly attacks any sort of religious
practice based on habit or tradition,
including asceticism, special modes of
dress, fasting (upavasa), image worship,
caste, and scripture.
In his poetry, Kabir identifies himself
as belonging to a caste of weavers (julaha),
and according to tradition he supported
himself through this occupation. Kabir’s
history makes it difficult to link him with
a particular religion. In Arabic, the name
Kabir (“Great”) is one of the names given
to Allah in the Qur’an, identifying him as
a Muslim. However, his poetry reveals
his great knowledge of Hindu religious
life. It is generally believed that the
members of Kabir’s julaha community
were recent converts to Islam who had
not yet been fully assimilated. Kabir’s
poetry, however, clearly shows that he
considered himself neither Hindu nor
Muslim. Part of Kabir’s popularity
undoubtedly stems from his blunt,
passionate affirmation that real
religious attainment is only gained by
internal, individual experience of the
divine, to which he gives the name Ram.
This is not the god-king who is the hero
of the Ramayana, but a name for the
indescribable, absolute Supreme
Reality. Both of these emphases reflect
the influence of the Nathpanthi
ascetics, who also stressed internal
experience and yoga.
In one of his songs, Kabir once boasted
that he had been so absorbed in the
divine that he had never put pen to
paper. His songs remain popular even
today, and many of his shorter epigrams
have become proverbial sayings. Kabir’s
oldest attested poetry survives in three
major collections: one in the Adigranth,
the Sikh scripture also known as the
“Primal Book”; one collected by the
Dadupanth, the religious organization
founded by the Sant poet-saint Dadu;
and the Bijak, which was compiled by
the Kabirpanth, a religious community
that claimed Kabir as its guru (religious
preceptor). The significant differences
328
Kabandha
among these collections indicate that
they have no single source. For further
information see Charlotte Vaudeville
(trans.), Kabir, 1974; Linda Hess and
Shukdev Singh (trans.), The Bijak of
Kabir, 1983; John S. Hawley and Mark
Juergensmeyer (trans.), Songs of the
Saints of India, 1988; Nirmal Dass, Songs
of Kabir from the Adi Granth, 1991; and
David Lorenzen, Kabir Legends and
Ananta-Das’s Kabir Parachai, 1991.