Tukaram

(1598–1650) Poet and saint in the
Varkari Panth, a religious community
centered on the worship of the god
Vithoba, at his temple at Pandharpur in
the modern state of Maharashtra.
According to tradition, Tukaram was a
shudra (in traditional Hinduism, there
are four main social groups, the shudras
being the lowest and least influential)
born in the small village of Dehu, where
his father was a petty merchant.
Tukaram continued in the family business, which eventually failed because he
had little interest in worldly life. He
longed instead for the life of a renunciant, in which he could completely
devote himself to God. As with many of
the other bhakti saints, he is reported to
have suffered considerable persecution
by traditionally minded brahmins, who
were uneasy about a person of his low
status gaining spiritual greatness. An
unlettered man, he is most famous for
the songs known as abhangs, which are
still widely sung in Maharashtra. He had
many disciples, including the poet-saint
Bahina Bai, and according to tradition,
he ended his life by being taken up to
heaven in a chariot of fire. For further
information see G. A. Deleury, The Cult
of Vithoba,1960; and Justin E. Abbott
(trans.), The Life of Tukaram, 1980.