Bhakti Saint Poets of India

They belonged to various castes and communities, spoke a varied language and dialiects and came from different professions. We had Kabir the weaver, Namdev the tailor, Akho the goldsmith, Goro the potter and Chokhmela the mahar who rebeled against the exploitative caste system and exclusiveness of organised religions. While Eknath and Gyandev, the Brahmins from Maharashtra, Chaitanya Mahaprabhu from Bengal, and Shankardev from Assam strived for bringing about reform and transformation of religion. Namdev, Tukaram and Chokhamela from Maharashtra, the Lingayat Basavanna, Akka Mahadevi and Allamaprabhu from Karnataka spoke of a novel tradition based on equality of all mankind. Then there was Mirabai and Narasinh Mehta – who, intoxicated with the love of God, faced pain and suffering by singing and dancing to thier beloved Lord. They belong to no one religion or tradition. They belong to this country and its people. They did not write high philosophies in Sanskrit, but preached and sang in the common dialect and their poetry survived hundreds of years of oral tradition. The Santvani (song of the saints) of this land still vibrates in its air and ether, if we could only tune in…..