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Glossary
Part II of V (Says Tuka) |
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| Brick, the: |
this has been used as a proper
noun because it refers to "the Brick" on which
the image of Vitthal at Pandharpur stands and is an integral
part of the iconography of Vitthal; the Marathi word for
brick is "veet", and some folk-etymologists would
derive the word Vitthal itself from it; the mythological
significance of "the Brick" , is the following
story: Pundalik, a resident of Pandharpur and a devotee
of VishnuNitthal was visited by God Himself, who had heard
of Pundalik's total dedication; Pundalik was so absorbed
in his own work that he threw a brick that was handy in
the direction of his divine visitor, asking him to stand;
after that, Pundalik forgot all about God whom he had kept
waiting, while he remained absorbed in his own work; God
would not leave without Pundalik's permission; he has remained
standing on the brick ever since; twenty-eight eons are
said to have elapsed since Pundalik asked God to wait on
the brick; this is how God is found in Pandharpur where
his devotees can visit Him; "the Brick" may mean
Vitthal Himself in Tukaram's poetry; Tukaram worships Vitthal's
feet, which are placed on "the Brick", in humility;
because God stands on it "the Brick" itself is
sacred. "the Brick" is also the "base"
or "foundation" of God in this world, and as such
it is a symbol of Bhakti itself, which is the foundation
of the Whole Being or Brahman for the Bhakta; "the
Brick" is also a symbol of God's patient, obedient,
and respectful attitude towards a true Bhakta,
epitomized by the story of Pundalik; the Varkari Bhakta-poets
consider Pundalik as the arch-Bhakta and founder of the
sacred site and image at Pandharpur.
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| Chandal: |
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another term designating a low-caste,
a Shudra; originally, a mixed caste of illegitimate progeny
of Shudra male and Brahmin female parents; as such, bastards
born of prohibited intercaste liasons; a derogatory term
used for the lowest born, for the unscrupulous,
the sinful, the wicked, the corrupt, and the criminal-minded.
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Colour:
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the colour of Vishnu is dark blue, the
colour of the sky itself, which is the colour of his avatara,
Krishna; Krishna literally means "the dark one"
or even "the black one"; sometimes, in poetry,
the colour of Krishna is compared to "a dark blue
rain cloud", a monsoonal association with its evocative
effect on the Indian mind and its pastoral significance
for herdsmen; Krishna was a herdsman, too; the colour
of the image of Vitthal is black; the dhotar or loin-garment
of Vitthal is yellow silk; the name Pandurang, used for
Vithoba or Vitthal was first used in 1270 according to
Deleury: its origin is obscure; but Pandurang is close
to the Sanskrit word "pandura", which means
"yellowish-white" or "fawn-coloured";
in both Sanskrit and Marathi, "anga" means body,
Another significance of colour needs to be pointed out
in the context of Tukaram's visual imagery, especially
when he is describing his experience of beatitude: when
Tukaram meditates on
Vitthal's form, the image becomes a formless expanse of
luminous blue that turns into an intense incandescence;
but when he describes the effect of his initiation into
the state of beatitude induced by his Guru Babaji, Tukaram
describes a state of ecstasy in which he begins to see
luminous ripples in five colours: red, yellow, blue, white,
and black: these colours vibrate, pulsate, and keep changing
from one into the other in a rhythmic manner.
One more thing to remember is that in Marathi the verb
"rangane" which means "to be coloured"
also refers to the experience of being absorbed in any
activity in such a way that one's very appearance is "coloured"
by it; this applies to devotion, worship, the act of singing
and dancing, the act of chanting the names of God, and
in Tukaram's case, the act of creating poetry or "speaking"
in that special sense; in all these, "one is coloured
by what one thinks of and does" or "one's very
being is coloured by one's awareness"; any performance
that becomes increasingly exciting or absorbing is described
in Marathi, literally, as something "that is becoming
more and more colourful" or "is gaining colour";
"getting coloured by Bhakti- rasa" is another
typical expression.
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Dehu:
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| Tukaram's native village; this
is situated on the banks of the river Indrayani; it is part
of the earliest or one of the earliest-known agricultural
belts in Maharashtra, it is accessible by rail from Bombay
or Pune via the Dehu Road Railway Stat,ion; by road, it
is just an hour's drive from Pune; Tukaram's ancestral house
with its shrine is still here and his descendants live there;
it also has another temple of Vithoba and several smaller
shrines; "the pool" in the river Indrayani where
Tukaram's manuscripts were sunk and then miraculously restored
is one of the landmarks; another landmark is the place at
which Vishnu's chariot of light is believed to have descended
to lift Tukaram bodily off to heaven; Dehu, along with Pandharpur
and Alandi, is one of the three sacred places Varkari pilgrims
regularly visit; the Bhamachandra hill, where Tukaram meditated
for fifteen days and received enlightenment, is also near
Dehu and so is the Bhandara HiIl where Tukaram wrote his
poems; the landscape and the people Tukaram has described
belong to Dehu, which stiIl retains recognizable traces
of its features as they must have been in Tukaram's time.
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| Deva: |
also "dev" in Marathi;
God; also god or gods; Tukaram employs this word in different
senses; often, it is a form of address to the image of Vitthal,
but to Tukaram Vitthal not only contains the specific form
in which Vishnu visited Pandharpur and stood on
"the Brick" at Pundalik's instance but also Vishnu
in all his avataras, including that of the Buddha to whom
Tukaram makes a reference in a poem not translated here;
the mythology of Vishnu and the lore of Krishna are both
included in Tukaram's frame of
reference; but Tukaram's God is also the Supreme Being in
a monotheistic sense, the Creator and the Ruler, not dissimilar
from the Judaeo-Christian-Islamic "Father"; but
Tukaram uses all three genders for God; at the highest level,
he conceives God as a form
of total being, the Whole Being or the Cosmic Self of which
the human individual is a part; Tukaram's mysticism had
both native Marathi and traditional Hindu origins but it
was also influenced "by Sufi thought, and Buddhism;
the traces of these influences are
subtly diffused over his work; one has found an existentialist
current in Tukaram's thought that is constant and growing;
though he obviously began as 'a simple devotee, he evolved
into a monotheistic mystic, and finaIly into a mystic who
went beyond theism itself; in some poems, Tukaram has described
his whole relationship with God as a game of "make-believe"
or as "play-acting", assigning roles that are
mutuaIly reversible. In each poem,
God has a specific image and role; there are no fixed rules
or definitions that Tukaram foIlows; it is worth bearing
in mind that in many poems, Tukaram sees himself as an irreverent
atheist or as one making fun of an anthropomorphic idea
of God. Ekadashi:
literaIly, "the eleventh (day)"; Maharashtra foIlows
the Hindu lunar calendar in which one half of the month
is the part of the waxing moon and the other is the phase
of the waning moon; thus the month is divided into "the
bright fortnight" and "the dark fortnight";
Ekadashi is the eleventh day of the bright fortnight of
the month; the Varkaris regard this as Vitthal's day, and
fast on it; the Ekadashi days in the months of Ashadha and
Kartika are the days of the festival of Vitthal in Pandharpur
and a Varkari has to make a pilgrimage to the sacred city
on these days; of the two, Ashadhi Ekadashi is the bigger
festival; hundreds of thousands of Varkaris march to Pandharpur
from allover Maharashtra to take part in the festival; many
of them carry their own rumba-like string instruments and
cymbals made of brass, and chiplyas or veenas; singing and
dancing all the way to Pandharpur; they chant bhajans or
witness keel1an performances and play games or perform dances
which are all "enactments of devotion"; this is
a form of a "total theatre" in a ritual event
in which everybody participates and the poetry of saints
is sung from memory as a part of the performance; Ekadashi,
even in months other than Ashadha and Kartika, is a holy
day; Tukaram refers to his own performance of keel1an on
every Ekadashi in his own shrine ofVitthal in Dehu; he also
makes a pointed reference in another poem to his fasting
and keeping awake when he was facing a total financial disaster
after the famine, thus serving Vitthal even in times of
personal adversity.
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| Eknath: |
| was born in 1533 and died in
1599; he lived in Paithan; he is one of the "Great
Quartet" of Vithoba's Poets-Jnanadev, Namdeo, Eknath
and Tukaram; to paraphrase Bahinabai, a younger poetess
and contemporary of Tukaram, the temple of the Varkari Bhakti
movement was founded by Jnanadev, its walls were built by
Namdeo, Eknath built its pillars, and Tukaram was its spire;
a prolific poet, Eknath produced work in many genres; he
also produced a carefully researched and corrected edition
of the Jnaneshwari. |
| Garuda: |
| "the devourer", "the
bird of fire", or "the bird of the sun";
Vishnu's vehicle; this could be the "chariot of fire"
or "chariot of light" in which Vishnu carried
Tukaram away to Vaikuntha, his heavenly residence, according
to the Varkari tradition. |
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| Gopala: |
"cow-raiser"
or "cow-protector", a name of Krishna used for
Vitthal by Tukaram in many poems; the name is also used
for Krishna's boyhood playmates who were herdsmen like him;the
self that protects them; likewise, the "cows"
are the milkmaids or "gopis" with whom Krishna
flirted and had clandestine affairs; Tukaram's allegorical
sequences of poems "in the manner of an adultress"
and "Krishna and his playmates playing hide-and-seek
using black blankets" are based on these aspects of
Krishna lore.
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