Everything about Tukaram totally explained
Tukārām was a prominent
Marathi religious poet in the
Hindu tradition in
India.
He was born and lived most of his life in
Dehu, a town close to
Pune city in
Mahārāshtra, India. He was born to a couple with the family name
Āmbile and first names
Wolhobā and
Kanakāi. Through a tradition in India in bygone days, Tukaram's family name is rarely used in identifying him. Rather, in accord with another tradition in India of assigning the epithet "sant" (संत) to persons regarded as thoroughly saintly, Tukaram is commonly known in Maharashtra as Sant Tukaram (संत तुकाराम).
Scholars assign various birth years to Tukaram: 1577, 1598, and 1608 CE. The year of Tukaram's death --1650 CE-- is much more certain.
Tukaram's first wife,
Rakhumābāi, had died in her early youth. Tukaram and his second wife,
Jijābāi (also known as
Āvali), had three sons:
Santu or
Mahādev,
Vithobā, and Nārāyan.
Religious life and poetry
Tukaram was a devotee of Lord
Vittala (or
Vithobā) --an incarnation of Lord
Krishna, who in turn, was an incarnation of Lord
Vishnu-- in
Hinduism.
Tukaram is considered as the climactic point of the so-called
Bhāgawat Hindu tradition, which is thought to have begun in Maharashtra with
Nāmdev.
Dnyāneshwar,
Nāmdev,
Janābai,
Eknāth, and
Tukaram are revered especially in the
wārakari (
वारकरी) sect in Maharashtra.
Whatever information about the lives of the above "saints" of Maharashtra comes mostly from the works
Bhakti-Wijay and
Bhakti-Leelāmrut of
Mahipati. Mahipati was born 65 years after the death of Tukaram, (Tukaram having died 50 years, 300 years, and 353 years after the deaths of Ekanath, Namdev, and Dnyaneshwar, respectively.) Thus, Mahipati undoubtedly based his life sketches of all above "sants" primarily on hearsays.
Tukaram's public relgious discourses ("कीर्तने") used to be mixed, by tradition, with poetry, which included some of his own compositions. His discourses focussed on day-to-day behavior of human beings, and he emphasized that the true expression of religion was in a person's love for his fellow human beings rather than in ritualistic observance of religious orthodoxy, including mechanical study of the
Vedās. His teachings encompassed a wide array of issues, including the importance of the ecosystem. Tukaram worked for his society's enlightenment in the "warakari" tradition, which emphasizes community service and musical group worship.
Like Namdev, Janabai, and Eknath, Tukaram wrote in Marathi a large number of devotional poems identified in Marathi as
abhang (
अभंग). A collection of 4,500
abhang known as the
Gāthā is attributed to Tukaram.
Mantra Geetā, a Marathi translation in
abhang form of the Sanskrit
Bhagavad Geetā, is also attributed to him. It is an interpretation of Geeta from a
Bhakti (
भक्ती) --devotional-- perspective.
Further Information
Get more info on 'Tukaram'.
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