Historical Period17c CE
1608–1649 CE
📷 Anant Shivaji Desai, Ravi Varma Press · Public domain · source
Deities
Tukārām of Dehu
Sant Tukārām — the farmer-saint of Maharashtra
Sant Tukārām — the farmer-saint of Maharashtra
Sant Tukārām Mahārāj (1608–1649) — the great Marāṭhī Bhakti poet, composer of 4,500+ abhangs (devotional songs). He was from a merchant-farmer family in Dehu near Pune, spent his life singing to Viṭṭhala of Pandharpur. Tradition: at the age of 41, he ascended to Vaikuṇṭha bodily — the spot at the Indrāyaṇī river where this happened is now a pilgrimage-shrine. Each year the Pālakhī of his pāḍukās (sandals) is carried from Dehu to Pandharpur in the Āṣāḍhī Wārī — the 22-day, 250-km pilgrimage. Tukārām's abhangs are sung by every Vārkarī and are the spiritual backbone of Marāṭhī culture.
Rām Kṛṣṇa Hari / Jai Jai Rāma Kṛṣṇa Hari
Every tradition in India — textual, oral, tribal, regional, syncretic — deserves first-person recognition. This entry honours Hindu on its own terms.
