Three centuries after Jnaneshwar, devotional poetry had another full flowering in Western India. Tukaram Maharaj was a merchant and householder who seemed to fail at everything. Bankruptcy, the death of his first wife during a famine, and castigation by the Brahmin orthodoxy forced him into isolation―and there he poured out his longing and devotion in hundreds of songs. At first regarded as mad, musicians, singers, and ordinary villagers began to gather around him by the hundreds to hear his kirtans, celebrations of the Name of God. Tukaram’s songs seem to have possessed some magical ability to exactly capture the devotional, egalitarian feeling of the community of bhaktas. In this brilliant pioneering study of Tukaram by the philosopher and mystic R. D. Ranade, written in the 1930s, Ranade describes what he refers to as the Hegelian dialectic of Tuka’s life and poetry: his withdrawal from society, his dark night of the soul, and his emergence from humiliation, confusion and doubt into the state of mystical knowledge and inner joy. While Jnaneshwar always writes from the lofty mountain top of spiritual realization, Tukaram takes us with him on the journey itself, with all its subtle ordeals and breakthroughs. Tukaram is an important poet, one whose stature in Marathi literature is comparable to that of Shakespeare in English. Ranade’s study is an indispensable introduction.

Tukaram

Ranade, R. D.

Biographies & Memoirs

State University of New York Press

This book contains Volume VII of R.D. Ranade’s comprehensive guide to Indian mysticism. This volume covers most of the important mystical saints in the Maharashtra, giving a full discussion of each, together with philosophical comparisons. “Indian Mysticism: Mysticism In Maharashtra - History Of Indian Philosophy” is highly recommended for students of philosophy and Indian mysticism, and would make for a worthy addition to collections of allied literature. Contents include: “Bhanudasa”, “Janardana Swami”, “Date of Ekariatha”, “Ekanatha's Life”, “Ekanatha's Works”, “The Abhangas of Bhanudiisa”, “The Abhangas of Janardana Swami”, “Ekanatha on his Spiritual Teacher”, “Ekanatha's Moral and Spiritual Instruction”, etcetera. Many vintage texts such as this are becoming increasingly rare and expensive, and it is with this in mind that we are republishing this volume now, in an affordable, modern, high-quality edition. It comes complete with a specially commissioned new biography of the author.

Indian Mysticism: Mysticism In Maharashtra - History Of Indian Philosophy - Vol VII

Politics & Social Sciences

Philosophy

Moran Press

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