Voices of Bhakti

Voices of Bhakti Showcasing poetry on religion, caste, and gender from South Asia (and beyond). Curated by Nikhil Man

This vachana in Kannada is attributed to the 12th-century poet-saint Akka Mahadevi.Translator Manu Devadevan writes, “Th...
13/02/2026

This vachana in Kannada is attributed to the 12th-century poet-saint Akka Mahadevi.
Translator Manu Devadevan writes, “The vachanas were poems composed in the 11th and the 12th century by Shaiva saints, whom tradition identifies as sharanas, proteges of Shiva … The surviving poems are over 20,000 in number, but close to 90 percent of them are attributed to the 130-odd pioneers of the 11th and the 12th century. Among the pioneers, about half a dozen lived between c. 1050 and 1150 CE. The rest were active in the later half of the 12th century.”
“The Lingayats regard the vachanas as their sacred literature. Within the extant corpus, the poems of Basava, Allama Prabhu and Akka Mahadevi are conferred a pride of place and held in special esteem.”
“Historians regard the work of the sharanas as an ingenious regional expression of the larger South Asian bhakti devotionalism. This assessment, however, is placed within a narrative that is the stuff of romances. The 12th century is represented as one of intense religious ferment, characterized by widespread dissent and protest from a section of the Shaivites against oppressive orthodox beliefs and conventions … But as it turns out, the narrative is a fine blend of fact and fiction, drawing extensively upon hagiographic accounts from later times.”
“Sources from the 12th century point to many an instance of dissent against the orthodoxy, but there is no evidence for large-scale unrest across the region … What cannot be called into question, though, is the revolutionary attitude towards religion that the sharanas brought into effect. Their work changed the religious narrative of Karnataka in irreversible ways.”
“It is neither uncommon today for Lingayats to go on pilgrimage, nor hard to find sharanas travelling to pilgrim centres like Srisailam in the hagiographies. But the sharanas developed an attitude of reticence towards pilgrimage.”

Bay Area-based dancers, musicians, and artists: Save the date for an upcoming series of events organized through Commun...
10/02/2026

Bay Area-based dancers, musicians, and artists: Save the date for an upcoming series of events organized through Community Engagement Residency, designed to help you explore the world of South Asian poetry. More information to come soon!

Vibhishana, a Guardian Deity of Sri LankaThis verse is in praise of Vibhishana, the brother of Ravana, from the Ramayana...
03/02/2026

Vibhishana, a Guardian Deity of Sri Lanka
This verse is in praise of Vibhishana, the brother of Ravana, from the Ramayana epic.
In Sri Lanka, Vibhishana has been incorporated into Sinhala Buddhism as one of the island’s four guardian deities, a protector of Buddhism, and as this verse mentions, “King of Gods.”
This verse comes from the “Saelalihini Sandesaya” (The Starling’s Message), a poem from 15th-century Sri Lanka that is remembered as “a masterpiece of classical Sinhala literature.” This verse specifically references Vibhishana’s shrine at the important Buddhist temple at Kelaniya, near modern-day Colombo.
Scholar John C. Holt writes:
“Given the sensuous nature of this 108-stanza poem abounding in Hindu and Vedic imagery, it may be surprising that it was written by perhaps the most eminent Buddhist monk of the era.”

“Sri Rahula … the fifteenth-century “master of six languages” and intimate confidant of Parakramabahu VI’s Kotte court, who founded an academy of higher learning that drew students from throughout much of the South Asian world.”
“The poem itself, regarded as a masterpiece of classical Sinhala literature, is essentially a request to a beautiful bird (Saelalihini) to make a pilgrimage to the shrine of the great deity Vibhisana (brother of the Ramayana antagonist Ravana and one of the four guardian deities of Lanka) in order to plead with the deity to bestow a male child on Ulukudaya Devi, the daughter of Parakramabahu VI, to be an heir to the throne and so continue the royal lineage of Kotte.”
“... this poem, significant as an example of the genre of “messenger poems” introduced from India, reflects in its descriptions the degree to which the high culture of the royal court had become familiar with the details of Sanskrit Hindu literature.”

Vibhishana, a Guardian Deity of Sri LankaThis Sinhala verse is in praise of Vibhishana, the brother of Ravana from the R...
03/02/2026

Vibhishana, a Guardian Deity of Sri Lanka
This Sinhala verse is in praise of Vibhishana, the brother of Ravana from the Ramayana epic.
In Sri Lanka, Vibhishana has been incorporated into Sinhala Buddhism as one of the island’s four guardian deities, a protector of Buddhism, and as this verse mentions, “King of Gods.”
This verse comes from the “Saelalihini Sandesaya” (The Starling’s Message), a poem from 15th-century Sri Lanka that is remembered as “a masterpiece of classical Sinhala literature.” This verse specifically references Vibhishana’s shrine at the important Buddhist temple at Kelaniya, near modern-day Colombo.
Scholar John C. Holt writes:
“Given the sensuous nature of this 108-stanza poem abounding in Hindu and Vedic imagery, it may be surprising that it was written by perhaps the most eminent Buddhist monk of the era.”

“Sri Rahula … the fifteenth-century “master of six languages” and intimate confidant of Parakramabahu VI’s Kotte court, who founded an academy of higher learning that drew students from throughout much of the South Asian world.”
“The poem itself, regarded as a masterpiece of classical Sinhala literature, is essentially a request to a beautiful bird (Saelalihini) to make a pilgrimage to the shrine of the great deity Vibhisana (brother of the Ramayana antagonist Ravana and one of the four guardian deities of Lanka) in order to plead with the deity to bestow a male child on Ulukudaya Devi, the daughter of Parakramabahu VI, to be an heir to the throne and so continue the royal lineage of Kotte.”
“... this poem, significant as an example of the genre of “messenger poems” introduced from India, reflects in its descriptions the degree to which the high culture of the royal court had become familiar with the details of Sanskrit Hindu literature.”

This Malayalam verse is by Poikayil Appachan (1879-1939), an anti-caste activist, poet, and spiritual leader from Kerala...
29/01/2026

This Malayalam verse is by Poikayil Appachan (1879-1939), an anti-caste activist, poet, and spiritual leader from Kerala who founded a religious movement called the Prathyaksha Raksha Daiva Sabha (PRDS, or “the assembly of immediate salvation”).
Naveen Prasad Alex notes that Appachan’s movement “rejects both the Bible and Christian theological concepts while also distancing itself from Brahminic spiritual traditions … Unlike the mainstream notions of salvation, this ideology envisions liberation as a realization achieved within one’s lifetime, not in an afterlife.”
Born into a Dalit family, Alex writes that “Appachan rejected Hinduism because he saw it as a system fundamentally built on caste hierarchy, where the oppressed could never attain true equality … He understood that any attempt at reform within Hinduism would still be constrained by its deep-rooted Brahmanical structure, making liberation for the marginalized impossible.”
“Appachan embraced Christianity under the name Yohannan, believing in the promise of an egalitarian Christian world (Swami & Anil 2021). He hoped that Christianity could offer liberation from the discrimination faced by him and his community, seeing evangelism as a path to emancipation. However, he soon realized that neither his deep knowledge of the Bible nor his commitment to the gospel earned him recognition among Savarna Christian groups (Swami & Anil 2021, Jose 2018).”
“Appachan first joined the Mar Thoma Church but encountered severe caste discrimination there — for instance, while others were served food at the table, he was made to sit on the floor (Jose 2018). He later engaged with the Brethren and Verpadu churches, yet found no significant difference in their treatment of Dalit Christian believers (Swami & Anil 2021; Jose 2018). Appachan, an organic intellectual, was compelled to seek a path of liberation beyond religion.”
“The realization that Christianization could not ensure social emancipation led Appachan to break away from the established churches and founded the Prathyaksha Raksha Daiva Sabha (Swami & Anil 2021).”

This Punjabi verse, translated by , is attributed to Mian Muhammad Bakhsh, a Punjabi Sufi poet who lived from 1830 to 19...
02/01/2026

This Punjabi verse, translated by , is attributed to Mian Muhammad Bakhsh, a Punjabi Sufi poet who lived from 1830 to 1907 CE.
Although this couplet is often said to be from his magnum opus “Saif-ul-Mulook”, could not find it within two different editions of the book. However, the verse does appear in a book of excerpts of Bakhsh’s poetry.
provides a further explanation of the poem:
“The main theme is that outcomes are not within our control, only putting in effort is.
It’s up to God to perform the miracle of transforming efforts into results.
We are like the gardener who patiently waters the plants and hopes for them to grow, but the divine plan may not align with our plans.
This line echoes the ancient Bhagavad Gita, which also talks about how we are entitled to our labor but should not expect or be attached to specific outcomes.”
is a global hub and community for qawwali, ghazal, and Sufi music lovers. Follow them on Instagram and learn more at khusrau.com!

Sura, the Goddess of AlcoholThese Sanskrit verses are describing Sura, the goddess of alcohol (also called Varuni). She ...
31/12/2025

Sura, the Goddess of Alcohol
These Sanskrit verses are describing Sura, the goddess of alcohol (also called Varuni). She is associated with the famous myth of the churning of the cosmic ocean — these verses describe her emerging from the ocean along with amritam (nectar of immortality).
These verses come from a Ta***ic Buddhist text called the Samvarodaya Ta**ra — specifically, the chapter titled “Explanation of Surā (Alcohol)” (Vāruṇīnirdeśa-paṭala). These verses are part of a longer explanation of Ta***ic rituals involving various types of alcohol, to be conducted between a teacher and initiated disciple.
In Tibetan Buddhism, this text is associated with another important ta***ic Buddhist text, the Laghusaṃvara / Chakrasamvara Ta**ra. Scholar David Gray writes that the Cakrasamvara Ta**ra was likely composed during the late eighth or early ninth century CE.
Gray notes that “There were a great many additional texts associated with the Cakrasamvara tradition translated into Tibetan, including a dozen commentaries on the root ta**ra, a number of closely related ‘explanatory ta**ras’ and their commentaries, and many dozens of ritual texts.”
The text featured in this post, the Samvarodaya Ta**ra, was one such “explanatory ta**ra”.
According to Gray, the Cakrasamvara Ta**ra itself “is a relatively short work of approximately 700 stanzas in 51 chapters. It is a text that is known by several different titles ... In India, it was commonly called ‘Samvara Light’, Laghusamvara.”
“It is a rather cryptic text, focusing on elements of practice, but generally failing to give sufficient information to enable one to successfully undertake these practices. This is typical of esoteric Buddhist literature, and was almost certainly intentional.”
“Scriptures such as the Cakrasamvara Ta**ra were not meant to provide a full accounting of the tradition’s practices, but merely hint at these, as the ‘secret’ to be attained by those who are properly initiated by a master. Only then would the master disclose the full details of practice to the initiated adept.”

A Persian-Tamil Poem on Vishnu’s Muslim BrideInspired by this illustration by Srihari Tote (._draws), Prathik Murali () ...
28/12/2025

A Persian-Tamil Poem on Vishnu’s Muslim Bride
Inspired by this illustration by Srihari Tote (._draws), Prathik Murali () composed this poem in a mixture (manipravalam) of Persian and Tamil!
In the transliteration, Persian words are indicated in italics.
In an essay (linked in comments), Nabi H. Ali () writes more about this fascinating figure, the “Muslim bride of Vishnu”. She is said to have been a princess of the Delhi Sultanate who fell in love with an image of Vishnu from South India. Today she is known by multiple names across south India: Bibi Nachiyar, “‘Thulukka Nachiyar’ (‘Turkic Bride’) as well as ‘Bibi Nanchari’ (in Telugu) and ‘Surathani Nachiyar’ (‘Sultana Bride’).”
Bibi Nachiyar’s story “ties Islam with the Bhakti movement together long before their famed interactions in the north. As someone learning Islamic mysticism while still harboring a soft side for Bhaktism, Bibi Nachiyar to me is as much Majnoon to Layla and Sohni to Mahival as she is Andal and Meerabai to Krishna; she abandons her earthly form and merges with her Beloved through the unbearable yet sweet pangs of physical separation. When her entry into the temple becomes taboo, she exceeds society’s unfair boundaries by annihilating herself in the One within.”
“For what it’s worth, even when she is used as an anti-Muslim trope, Bibi Nachiyar exists in places where ‘No Non-Hindus Allowed’ signs are put up. Through her proximity to Perumal, she demands respect as his consort, from both him and his community—which is how she avoids the scrutiny and dehumanization meted out against her family. In Sri Rangam, her husband wears a lungi for her and eats her butter rotis. His devotees refrain from making idols of her. She doesn’t contain the same impurities of touch I and my fellow Muslims usually do in conservative Brahmin spaces. And for whatever reason, forces of communal discord have yet to succeed in censoring these rights of hers. It is not entirely a win, but just bittersweet, just is what it is.”

This is a Hindi Christmas carol, published in the 2023 anthology “Indian Christmas: Essays, Memories, Hymns”, edited by ...
25/12/2025

This is a Hindi Christmas carol, published in the 2023 anthology “Indian Christmas: Essays, Memories, Hymns”, edited by Jerry Pinto and Madhulika Liddle.
Writing separately for the Tribune, Liddle writes about her family’s Christmas celebrations in Saharanpur, Uttar Pradesh.
“But, come evening, we would all gather around in the huge drawing room and sing Christmas carols.”
“Our family has always been bilingual, with almost everybody at ease with both English and Hindi. Our Christmas music reflected that, but I think we always sang the Hindi carols with more joy and much greater gusto. ‘Hark! The Herald Angels Sing’ was solemn; ‘Sun Aasmaani Fauj Shareef’ had a joyous vigour to it. ‘O, Come, All Ye Faithful’, likewise, was marked by a certain gravity, which was leavened somewhat with happy fervour in its Hindustani version, ‘Ae Sab Imaandaaron’.”
Writing about North Indian Christian devotional music, she notes that “The languages used are Punjabi, Urdu, Hindi/Hindustani, Dogri, Pahari, etc … But as much as the language, the music, the lyrics and their compositions, even down to the idioms used, may be very local. The Hindi hymns I mentioned earlier are a few which are direct translations from English hymns; there is, in addition, a huge array of hymns and carols which are completely indigenous, and have a long pedigree. In Hindi-speaking areas, for instance, among the most popular old carols are the ones like ‘Kya Din Khushi Ka Aaya, Rehmat Ka Baadal Chhaaya’ … all resoundingly local, down to the delightful ‘Aage-Aage Taara, Peechhe-Peechhe Pandit Log’ reference in the last-named hymn.”
“Similarly, of course, there are hundreds of songs in other languages that are sung at Christmas time — by carolers going door-to-door in the weeks before Christmas; by choirs in churches and at choral gatherings; by families and friends gathering to celebrate.“
“Dhols, harmoniums and clapping, by the way, are common accompaniments to Christmas carols in some of the smaller, more ‘local’ churches even in large cities like Delhi.”

“All the Pure is Impure”This song is by Ravidas, a major figure within North Indian bhakti traditions. Living in 15th- o...
17/12/2025

“All the Pure is Impure”
This song is by Ravidas, a major figure within North Indian bhakti traditions. Living in 15th- or 16th-century Varanasi, Ravidas was a Dalit cobbler, belonging to the Chamar caste. In this song, he questions notions of “purity” and “pollution”, which are foundational to caste.
Today, Ravidas is revered by communities across north India, particularly but not limited to Punjab. Around 40 of his songs, including this one, are included in the Sikh holy text, the Guru Granth Sahib.
Ravidas is also often portrayed as the guru of Meerabai, the legendary Rajasthani princess and bhakti poet.
How did Ravidas see himself in relation to other bhakti traditions and figures?
Translator and scholar John Stratton Hawley tells us that “Ravidas himself indicates the bhakti family in which he felt he belonged by naming in his poetry several of his predecessors in the faith.”
“One of the names he gives is that of Namdev, a fourteenth-century saint of western India who was a tailor and a member of the relatively low caste associated with that profession.”
“Another was Trilocan, also from the west.”
“A third—and the name he mentions more frequently than any other—was Kabir, the crusty fifteenth-century iconoclast who, like Ravidas, lived in Benares. Kabir too came from the lower echelons of society. He was a weaver and belonged to a caste, the julahas, many of whose members had found their place in Hindu society sufficiently distasteful that they had turned to Islam.”
“In mentioning these three as recipients of divine grace along with himself, Ravidas underscored his sense of solidarity with a tradition of bhakti that flowed with particular animation in the lower ranks of society.”

These lines in Braj Bhasha were written by the poet Raskhan (16th-17th centuries CE). Born into a Muslim family, he beca...
10/12/2025

These lines in Braj Bhasha were written by the poet Raskhan (16th-17th centuries CE). Born into a Muslim family, he became a devotee of Krishna later in his life. In this verse, Raskhan expresses his desire to be close to Krishna even in future births as a human, animal, stone, and bird. This particular verse comes from his work known as the Sujān-Raskhān. As a poet signature, Raskhan refers to both Krishna and himself as “Raskhāni”, which can also be read as “mine of rasa”.
Scholar Heidi Pauwels writes that according to hagiographies, Raskhan was “a Muslim convert to Krishna bhakti.” He is said to have left Delhi due to the city’s political instability at the time, taking refuge in the Braj region.
In verse 50 in his “Prem-vatika”, Raskhan describes himself as “miyan”. Pauwels writes that according to another scholar, C.M. Naim, “in this time period ‘miyan’ connotes a convert, i.e., a low-caste, Muslim. Rakshan then may here be punning that from a low-caste Muslim, through his conversion to Krishna bhakti, he has turned into a ‘Khan’, refering to his poetic name Raskhan, which in Braj means ‘mine of rasa’ but the last part of which could be taken also to be the surname for an Afghan immigrant.”
Translator and scholar Rupert Snell writes that “In a poem entitled Prem-vāṭikā, Raskhan alludes to his leaving Delhi following an insurrection which turned the capital into a ‘burning-ground’, and perhaps dateable to the 1550s.”
“The Prem-vāṭikā is in dohās; but Raskhān is best known for his poems in the savaiyā and kavitt quatrain metres...”
“They portray Kṛṣṇa as cowherd and as lover, sometimes as saviour, their overall mood being celebratory and playful; even in a virah context the tone remains bright and light-hearted, quite free of the mournful plangency of poets such as Mīrā.”

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