Mira
16th-century Hindu mystic poet and devotee of Krishna, celebrated as a Bhakti saint.
via Wikipedia: Mirabai · see source
Meera, better known as Mirabai and venerated as Sant Meerabai, was a 16th-century Hindu mystic poet and devotee of Krishna. She is a celebrated Bhakti saint, particularly in the North Indian Hindu tradition. She is mentioned in Bhaktamal, confirming that she was widely known and a cherished figure in the Bhakti movement by about 1600. In her poems, she expressed the madhurya bhava towards Krishna. Most legends about Mirabai mention her fearless disregard for social and family conventions, her devotion to Krishna, and her persecution by her in-laws for her religious devotion. Her in-laws never liked her passion for music, through which she expressed her devotion, and they considered it an insult to the upper-caste people.
Quick Facts
- Role
- None (non-canonical)
Lore & Background
Mirabai was born into a Rathore Rajput royal family in Kudki (modern-day Beawar district of Rajasthan), and spent her childhood in Merta. She was the daughter of Ratan Singh Rathore and granddaughter of Rao Dudaji of Merta, making her a great-granddaughter of Rao Jodha and a cousin of Jaimal Rathore. Mirabai had an arranged marriage with Bhoj Raj, the crown prince of Mewar, in 1516. Her husband was wounded in one of the ongoing wars with the Delhi Sultanate in 1518, and he died from battle wounds in 1521. Both her father and father-in-law (Rana Sanga) died a few days after their defeat in the Battle of Khanwa against Babur, the first Mughal Emperor. After the death of Rana Sanga, Vikram Singh became the ruler of Mewar. According to a popular legend, her in-laws tried to assassinate her multiple times. These attempts included sending Mirabai a glass of poison and telling her it was nectar, and sending her a basket with a snake instead of flowers. According to hagiographic legends, she was not harmed in either case, with the snake miraculously becoming, depending on the version, a Krishna idol or a garland of flowers. In another version of these legends, she was asked by Vikram Singh to drown herself. When she attempts to do so, she merely floats on the water. Yet another legend states that the third Mughal emperor, Akbar, came with Tansen to visit Mirabai and presented her with a pearl necklace. Scholars doubt this happened, as Tansen joined Akbar's court in 1562, 15 years after Mirabai's death. Similarly, some stories state that Ravidas was her guru (teacher), but there is no corroborating historical evidence for this. As of 2014, the three oldest records that mention Mirabai are all from the 17th century and were written within 150 years of Mirabai's death. None mention anything about her childhood, the circumstances of her marriage to Bhojraj or whether the people who persecuted her were her in-laws or from some Rajput royal family. Nancy Martin-Kershaw states that to the extent that Mirabai was challenged and persecuted, religious or social conventions were unlikely to have been the cause, rather the likely cause was political chaos and military conflicts between the Rajput kingdom and the Mughal Empire. Other stories state that Mirabai left the kingdom of Mewar and went on pilgrimages. In her last years, Mirabai lived in Dwarka or Vrindavan, where legends state she miraculously disappeared by merging into an idol of Krishna after being poisoned by her brother-in-law in 1547. While miracles are contested by scholars for the lack of historical evidence, it is widely acknowledged that Mirabai dedicated her life to Krishna, composing songs of devotion, and was one of the most important poet-saints of the Bhakti movement period.
Reader's Guide
Mirabai's poetry is characterized by the madhurya bhava towards Krishna, expressing a personal relationship with him as her lover, God, and mountain lifter. Her poems are lyrical padas in the Rajasthani language, with the most common meter being the mātric (syllabic) poetic line, and rāgas attributed to allow singing. Key themes include love, salutation, separation (viraha), and dissatisfaction with the world. Her poetry frequently invokes the epithet Girdhar nagar ('Mountain bearer') and emphasizes total surrender. In viraha poems, she occasionally characterizes Krishna as a detached yogi or renouncer who seduces lovers only to leave them in agony, using nature imagery like the arrival of the monsoon and cries of peacocks and cuckoos. One of her most popular compositions is 'Payoji maine Ram Ratan dhan payo' ('I have been given the richness of God's name blessing'). Her style combines impassioned mood, defiance, longing, anticipation, joy, and ecstasy of union, always centred on Krishna. Mirabai is often classed with the northern Sant bhaktis. The earliest datable reference to Mira is a poem in her praise in Nabhadas's Bhaktamal (c. 1600). Only two poems attributed to her have been found in manuscripts from before the early 18th century; the most extensive collection exists in 19th-century manuscripts. Scholars are divided on authenticity, with John Stratton Hawley noting an 'element of enigma' about whether poems cited relate to a historical Mira.
Elsewhere in Defiance of the Fall
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