The Autobiography of Sant Bahinabai

By Chandrakant Kaluram Mhatre

Sant Bahinabai (1628-1700) was just three years old when she was married off to a 30 year old widower. Here starts a long series of hardships that Bahinabai had to brave out for the better part of her life. Hardly had she turned seven, when she had to leave their native place along with her family and go in search of livelihood from village to village and town to town, and that too on foot. No one knew when or where the next meal would be. To worsen the matters, Bahinabai's short tempered husband accompanied her family during these seemingly endless journeys and Bahinabai was subjected to the most brutal form of domestic violence at the hands of her husband from a very tender age (even when she was three months pregnant). This travesty of a married life continued for almost a decade and her birth in the so-called higher caste did next to nothing to alleviate Bahinabai's misery, just like millions of women before and after her. What makes Bahinabai's sufferings significant is the fact that she gave them a voice in her poems and became the first woman autobiographer of India. Her autobiography ranks very high among those works that document the lives of survivors of domestic violence, apart from being one of the oldest, if not THE oldest, such an account in the history of world literature. With its uninhibited attacks on patriarchy, Bahinabai's autobiography predates all the feminist texts in the world. This book also contains Bahinabai's translation of Vajrasuchi Upanishad, which makes her the first woman translator of India.

• Language: English
• Publisher: Sitaram Mhatre Foundation
• Release date: Jan 2, 2023
• ISBN: 9788196091101

Chandrakant Kaluram Mhatre

Chandrakant Kaluram Mhatre (MA, BEd, MPhil, PGDT, ST, NET) is a professional translator from Navi Mumbai, Maharashtra. His book One Hundred Poems of Chokha Mela is a prescribed text for MA (Hon) in English programme of the University of Mumbai. Some of his other books include One Hundred Poems of Tukaram, The Autobiography of Sant Bahinabai, Niwadak Sant Chokha Mela (Marathi) & Sant Bahinabainche Atmacharitra. Presently, apart from translating Marathi Bhakti Poetry into English, he is leading a team of proofreaders working on Sitaram Mhatre Foundation's "Bhakti Literature in Unicode" Project. For more information, visit: https://www.sitarammhatre.foundation/shabdaagar  

Book preview

THE

AUTOBIOGRAPHY

OF

SANT

BAHINABAI

Translated & Introduced by

CHANDRAKANT KALURAM MHATRE

SITARAM MHATRE FOUNDATION

Copyright © 2023 Sitaram Mhatre Foundation

All rights reserved.

THE AUTOBIOGRAPHY OF SANT BAHINABAI

Translated & Introduced by

Chandrakant Kaluram Mhatre

Publisher:

SITARAM MHATRE FOUNDATION

Registered Office:

Sitaram Smaran, 896,

Sector 19B, Koparkhairane,

Navi Mumbai 400709

www.sitarammhatre.foundation

Email: [e-mail]

First Edition: January 2023

ISBN ​(Paperback) 978-81-960911-1-8

ISBN ​(eBook) 978-81-960911-0-1

Cover, Typesetting & Book Design:

Chandrakant Kaluram Mhatre

To my baby sisters,

Chandrakala, Aruna & Grishma

Contents

Title Page

Copyright

Dedication

Introduction

|| 1 || Devgaon is the place

|| 2 || Devgaon is the place - 2

|| 3 || Aauji Kulkarni

|| 4 || There were celebrations

|| 5 || Other girls would play

|| 6 || Brahmins would arrive

|| 7 || My father belongs

|| 8 || My dear parents

|| 9 || Four years after

|| 10 || Having seen Godavari

|| 11 || Asking for alms

|| 12 || On Chaitra Pornima

|| 13 || My husband asked us

|| 14 || All settled down

|| 15 || Went to Pandhari

|| 16 || Hirambhat

|| 17 || Husband would conduct

|| 18 || Chanting Lord’s name

|| 19 || All the Vedas call out

|| 20 || A woman’s body

|| 21 || What sins committed

|| 22 || My being has undergone

|| 23 || This body

|| 24 || Strides of Fate

|| 25 || My parents and brother

|| 26 || My brother, my companion

|| 27 || Origin of detachment

|| 28 || Filled with penitence

|| 29 || Like the deer fallen

|| 30 || On one occasion

|| 31 || With parents and brother

|| 32 || You may torture my body

|| 33 || To his heart’s content

|| 34 || Wouldn’t eat fodder

|| 35 || Jayram Swami

|| 36 || Dwadashi went by

|| 37 || Soon the news reached jayram swami

|| 38 || Opening my eyes

|| 39 || Fish without water

|| 40 || Who can incinerate

|| 41 || Cannot utter a word

|| 42 || Great lamentation

|| 43 || Attained contentment

|| 44 || Jayram eminent

|| 45 || Jayram Swami bewstowed

|| 46 || A glance of grace

|| 47 || Such was amazement

|| 48 || My husband would say

|| 49 || My husband had made

|| 50 || He’d say, O mind

|| 51 || What can be done

|| 52 || If husband goes away

|| 53 || Upon husband’s Taking up detachment

|| 54 || Vitthal is of rocks

|| 55 || My husband had resolved

|| 56 || Then arrived an elderly brahmin

|| 57 || My husband regained his health

|| 58 || The mother of the calf

|| 59 || Today my life has become fruitful

|| 60 || Noontime was nigh

|| 61 || Mambaji Gosavi

|| 62 || Kirtan in the temple

|| 63 || Mambaji Gosavi said to my husband

|| 64 || One day on the way

|| 65 || Mahadaji Kulkarni

|| 66 || My devotion

|| 67 || Apaji Gosavi

|| 68 || Apaji Gosavi read the letter

|| 69 || Mambaji’s heart

|| 70 || The cow from Kolhapur

|| 71 || Rameshwar Bhatt

|| 72 || Mahadaji Kulkarni had sheltered us

|| 73 || Sins amassed exhausted

|| 74 || The verandah of the temple

|| 75 || Knew no meditation

|| 76 || Joy overwhelmed

|| 77 || Describing that Bliss

|| 78 || I felt I shouldn’t get up

ABHANG AT NIRYAN

|| 79 || Farewell to Rukmini

|| 80 || Receiving the letter

|| 81 || I have listened earnestly

|| 82 || Holy waters, pilgrimages

|| 83 || Godavari, Bhagirathi

|| 84 || What holy waters

|| 85 || At my final moments

|| 86 || Seventy-two years

|| 87 || Thirteen births

|| 88 || At the time of death

|| 89 || Facing the North

|| 90 || With the blessings of the Saints

Appendix I

Appendix II

Appendix III

SOURCE TEXTS

About The Author

Books By This Author

Introduction

Thanks to its Varkari heritage, Maharashtra has a very long tradition of women poets, beginning with the likes of Muktabai and Janabai as early as in the final decades of the thirteenth century. When the rest of the world was busy keeping its womenfolk far, far away from the literary world, poets after poets in Maharashtra were joining this pantheon of women poets to ensure that this unique cultural phenomenon does not get brushed aside as an aberration by the powers that be. Thus, we have Soyarabai, Nirmala, Kanhopatra, too, expressing themselves in what can be termed as the lyrics of the highest order. Not only did they get an opportunity to express themselves but their compositions were also written down and preserved for the centuries to come - no matter how subversive these expressions were. Janabai’s abhang throwing open challenge to the patriarchy were as revered in this land as Soyarabai’s abhang documenting the brutalities of caste discrimination. No wonder then that this glorious tradition of Varkari women poets culminated in the multifaceted Bahinabai (or Baheni as she calls herself) of the seventeenth century.

​How multifaceted was Sant¹ Bahinabai (संत बहिणाबाई)? Here is a glimpse: Bahinabai was born on 25 September 1628 and she breathed her last at noon on 27 September 1700. How can I be so sure about these dates? Bahinabai herself has documented these details in her autobiography. Of course, she is not the first Indian autobiographer; that laurel resides with Sant Namdev who predates her by more than 300 years. However, she is definitely the first Indian woman to write an autobiography. A simple Google search and you will come back at me with Rassundari Devi’s Amar Jiban. You can do better than that if you dig deeper. What did you find? Amar Jiban was published in 1876. Now consider the literary fact that Bahinabai completed her autobiography on 27 September 1700 and it had been in circulation for a whopping 176 years before Amar Jiban saw daylight! It is settled then that Sant Bahinabai is the first woman autobiographer of India. That may not be sufficient to call someone multifaceted though, so consider this: Bahinabai translated Vajrasuchi Upanishad from Sanskrit into Marathi and it has been in circulation for the last three hundred years, which makes her one of the very first women translators in the entire world. Needless to mention, Sant Bahinabai is the first woman translator of India. Now, if I have piqued your curiosity enough, let’s get all serious and try to understand and appreciate the immense contribution this woman poet has made to enrich our world.

Who was Sant Bahinabai?

Sant Bahinabai should not be mistaken with the 20th century Marathi poet Bahinabai Chaudhari. Sant Bahinabai or Bahinabai Pathak (aka Bahinabai Siurkar) was born in a brahmin family of Devgaon village in the Aurangabad District of Maharashtra. Her father was Aauji Kulkarni (आऊजी कुळकर्णी) and her mother’s name was Janaki (जानकी). Shockingly, even by the abysmal standards of the seventeenth century, Bahinabai’s parents married her off to a thirty-year-old widower when she was just a toddler. Here starts a long series of hardships that Bahinabai had to brave out for the better part of her life. Hardly had she turned seven, when she had to leave their native place along with her family and go in search of livelihood from village to village and town to town, and