Sant Soyarabai
Sant Soyarabai (Marathi: संत सोयराबाई ) was woman saint belonged to Mahar caste in 14th century Maharashtra, India. She followed her husband Chokhamela who was popular saint.[1][2]
She framed large literature in the way of blank verses of her own. She has written vast literature but now only about 62 are known.[1] In her Abhang she, mentions herself as Chokha’s Mahari, accuses god for forgetting Untouchables and making life bad. Her most simple lines concern the simple food she gives the god. Her poems describe her devotion towards god and voice against untouchability.[3]
As an Untouchable saint she says “The body only can be impure or polluted, but the soul is ever clean, pure knowledge. The body is born unclean and so how can anybody claim to be pure in body? The body is full of pollution. But the pollution of the body remains in the body. The soul is untouched by it.”[1]
Annually she travelled at Pandharpur for pilgrimage with her husband. They were harassed by orthodox Brahmins but they never lost faith and peace of mind.[1]
References
- ↑ 1.0 1.1 1.2 1.3 Stewart-Wallace, editorial advisers Swami Ghananda, Sir John (1979). Women saints, east & west (1. U.S. Ed. ed.). Hollywood, Calif.: Vedanta. pp. 61–61. ISBN 0874810361.
- ↑ Zelliot, Eleanor (2008). "Chokhamela, His Family and the Marathi Tradition". In Aktor, Mikael; Deliège, Robert. From Stigma to Assertion: Untouchability, Identity and Politics in Early and Modern India. Copenhagen: Museum Tusculanum Press. pp. 76–86. ISBN 8763507757.
- ↑ Mikael, edited by Aktor, (2008). From Stigma to Assertion : Untouchability, Identity & Politics in Early & Modern India. Copenhagen: Museum Tusculanum Press. pp. 81–85. ISBN 8763507757.