A revised edition of the prescribed text for "Indian Literature in Translation" course of M.A. (Honours) in English & M.A. (Honours with Research) in English programmes of the University of Mumbai ******************************************** Sant Chokha Mela (13th-14th century) - संत चोखामेळा in Marathi - was born in the Mahar community which lay at the bottom of the caste hierarchy prevalent in the contemporary society. Of course, he was not to have any education even in the remotest sense of the word. Yet, such was the influence of the two founding fathers and other saints of the Varkari Sect that Chokha Mela could compose poetry of the highest order. Poetry that has stood the test of time for last seven hundred years and has become the finest example of the expression of human angst caused by the oppressive societal norms. Each poem by Chokha Mela, or Chokhoba as he was fondly called by his peers, stands testimony to the inhuman treatment that was meted out to large sections of society in the name of religion. Each of his poems is a cry of the bereaved soul that has been deprived of its humanness itself. Each of the poem is a powerful statement against the repression that a handful carried out against the masses. Such is the intensity of these poems that their reader feels the very angst that the Poet must have undergone. Such is the grip that these poems take over the reader's mind that one feels their guts being wrenched, remembering the agony of the Poet's expressions long after the poems have been read and the book kept aside.

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.

A revised edition of the prescribed text for "Indian Literature in Translation" course of M.A. (Honours) in English & M.A. (Honours with Research) in English programmes of the University of Mumbai ******************************************** Sant Chokha Mela (13th-14th century) was born in the Mahar community which lay at the bottom of the caste hierarchy prevalent in the contemporary society. Of course, he was not to have any education even in the remotest sense of the word. Yet, such was the influence of the two founding fathers and other saints of the Varkari Sect that Chokha Mela could compose poetry of the highest order. Poetry that has stood the test of time for last seven hundred years and has become the finest example of the expression of human angst caused by the oppressive societal norms. Each poem by Chokha Mela, or Chokhoba as he was fondly called by his peers, stands testimony to the inhuman treatment that was meted out to large sections of society in the name of religion. Each of his poems is a cry of the bereaved soul that has been deprived of its humanness itself. Each of the poem is a powerful statement against the repression that a handful carried out against the masses. Such is the intensity of these poems that their reader feels the very angst that the Poet must have undergone. Such is the grip that these poems take over the reader's mind that one feels their guts being wrenched, remembering the agony of the Poet's expressions long after the poems have been read and the book kept aside.

An untouchable in fourteenth century western India, Chokhamela was cast out of temples because of his status. But his poetry captures this waiting, on the threshold of Hindu temple, without anger, without self-pity. Chokhamela belonged to the varkari tradition of Maharashtra, a sect that worshipped the god Vitthal but questioned the medieval orthodox Hinduism. The varkari tradition emphasizing simplicity is still alive in India today. Chokhamela's verses are remembered not only because he was one of the very first writers in India of the untouchable class. His questionning of his marginality along with his realization of the god's need and love for him, are themes that continue to resonate today.

The present book is an English translation of Mahipati's Marathi poem Bhakta-Vijaya which records the legends of Indian saints, irrespective of their difference in caste, community, creed, language and place of origin. Thus we have the record of different saints - Yayadeva, Jnanadeva, Namadeva, Ramananda, Tulasidasa, Kabir, Suradasa, Narsi Mehta and Guru Nanakadeva. A lot of information is available on Ekanath-the greatest scholar-philosopher-saint-poet-cum-social reformer and the towering personalities Tukaram and Ramadasa. It also records the miraculous and fascinating legends of several saints, how they spread the Bhakti cult, how they struggled against discrimination between man and man and how they tried to uproot the malpractices which prevailed in the name of Religion in those days.

Kekavali is the most popular work of the great Marathi poet Moropanta (1729-94). He was the most prolific writer of the period having to his credit thousands of verses comprising of about seventy-five thousand couplets in `Ovi` metre on various mythological themes. He is, however, specially remembered for his outstanding poem Kekavali composed in `Prthvi` metre. Even after a long span of two centuries the lure of Kekavali is still on the public mind and the poem continues to be read widely even today.A vivid portrayal of the sense of mental agony of the poet for his frailties, of his acute longing for emancipation, of his heartfelt implorings to the Almighty for His grace and the ingenious way in which he has pleaded his case for early liberation quoting chapter and verse from mythological anecdotes in his support, have all gone to make Kekavali a truly great poem!