unsuccessful, devoted himself to the worship of the idol Viṭhoba or Viṭṭhal, whose chief shrine is at Pandharpûr. At the temple of this idol at Dehu, near Puna, Tukaram spent the greater part of his life improvising these endless Abhangas, which were collected by his disciples. He eventually started off on a pilgrimage, and as he never returned, having probably died on the road, his followers chose to believe he had ascended to heaven. His doctrine is a reflexion of the Vaishnava creed, popularized in Bengal by Chaitanya a little before Tukaram's time; and the name of the idol Viṭhoba is a corruption of विष्णुपति, through the vulgar pronunciation Bishtu or Biṭṭhu, common in Eastern India. There is nothing very original or striking in Tukaram's poems, which are very much like the ordinary run of religious verses in other Indian dialects. The following may be quoted as a specimen of his simplest style :—
दिवट्या छत्री घोडे । हें तों बर्यांत न पडे ॥ १ ॥
॥ ध्रु[1] ॥ आंता येयें पंढरिराया । मब गोविसी कासया ॥ छ ॥
मान दंभ चेष्टा । हे तों गुकराची विष्टा ॥ २ ॥
तुका म्हणे देवा । माझे सोडववणे घांवा ॥ ३ ॥
“Torches, umbrellas, horses,—these are of no value, why now, O lord of Pandhari, dost thou entangle me in them? Honour, pomp, show,—these are mere pig’s dung. Tuka says, O god, hasten to deliver me.”
It is, perhaps, unfair for a foreigner to give a judgment on such works as these, which certainly enjoy immense popularity in their own country, being “household words” to men of all classes.
After Tukoba, as he is familiarly called, the chief author is Mayur Pandit, or Moropant (A.D. 1720), who is by some considered as superior to Tukoba, and whose poems are highly esteemed. The Marathas have also a copious Anacreontic literature, which perhaps might better be called Rabelaisian without the wit, and with twice the amount of impurity.
- ↑ ध्रुपद, or "Chorus"; it is repeated after each verse.
