Return to the index of "Other Women's Voices."
Updated 07-31-08
Mirabai /Meerabai
(c.1498-aft.1550)
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"IT'S TIME TO TAKE MY SONGS INTO THE STREET."
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Because of her late date and her social status, more is known about Mirabai than about earlier Indian women poets. She was born in Rajasthan to a Rajput noble family, and was married in about 1516 to the heir-apparent of the ruler of Mewar. Her husband died before he could attain the throne, and he left no heir.
In 1527, the Rajputs opposed a Muslim invasion from Afghanistan.
Mirabai's father was killed in battle; her father-in-law was
wounded in the same battle and died the next year. Mewar got
a new child-ruler, who with his mother, made life at the court
difficult for Mirabai.
Tradition says that Mirabai left the court in her 30s and became
a wandering mendicant, and that she was rejected by traditional
gurus because she was a woman. Her poems show her a devotee of
Vishnu in his incarnation as Krishna (whom she calls Giridhara
or Girdhar --- literally, "lifter of mountains").
Modern scholars accept over 200 poems (bhajans) as hers, but more than 1300 have been attributed. She may have written in Gujarati, but her poems were almost immediately translated into Hindi and other languages, and sung at first over the north, later in the south. She has remained immensely popular throughout India, and many English translations of her poems have been made.
On this page you'll find:
Links to helpful sites online.
Excerpts from translations in print.
Information about secondary sources.
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1. A number of sites have Mirabai translations; there is some repetition, but there are also different interpretations of the same poem:
(a) On this page, links to 13 poems; at the bottom, you can link to a Volume 2 and a Volume 3, which will bring you a total of 35 Mirabai poems, by various translators, including A.L. Alston, Andrew Schelling, and Daniel Ladinsky.
(b) Links to 34 poems, by various translators.
(c) Links to 17 poems, each given with Hindi script and commentary by Swami Radhanandaji.
(d) Click on "Bhakti" for 14 poems, translated by Alston.
(e) Links to 13 poems, including translations by Schelling and by Robert Bly.
(f) Seven poems; Mirabai is the second poet given.
(g) Links to six poems given in transliterated Hindi and translation.
(h) Click on "Excerpt" for six poems translated by Schelling; each starts with the transliterated Hindi of the first line.
(i) On this page, "Life without Hari is no life, friend" and links to three more: "Sister, I had a dream that I wed," "I'm colored with the color of dusk" (all translated by John Stratton Hawley and Mark Juergensmeyer), and "I am pale with longing for my beloved," translated by Nita Ramaiya.
(j) Two poems: "It is raining in the month of Savan," and "I am crazy with pain"; the poems are also given in script and transliterated Hindi.
(k) At the bottom of the page, "How can I sleep without Krishna?" translated by R. Parthasarathy.
(l) Near the bottom of the page, "I have talked to you."
(m) "O friends on this path," from a 2004 collection by Bly and Jane Hirshfield.
(n) "Mira is dyed deep in the love of Hari," translated by Alston.
(o) Use your browser's search function to go to "Mirabai" for "Having beheld Thy beauty," translated by Alston (for more from Alston, see under "In print").
(p) Lines from a longer poem, "Like polish melting into gold."
2. Essays, etc.:
(a) A transcript of a 2002 talk by Vasanti Mataji, "Viraha in Bhakta Meera's Songs," which discusses the poems' recurring theme of separation from the divine (viraha); several poems are translated, wholly or in part.
(b) A 2006 essay by Bryan Aubrey which looks at Mirabai's poetry in the context of the Sanskrit scriptural work, the Bhagavad Gita. You can also link to other brief essays that deal with the Bly translation, "All I Was Doing Was Breathing": a line-by-line analysis ("Poem Summary") and descriptions of the poem's themes and style; here is the poem itself (not given at the above site).
(c) A 1997 essay, "Mirabai: The Rebellious Rajput Rani," by Bill Garlington, on Mirabai's rejection of the role she was expected to fill. Several poems are quoted in translation.
(d) In Lindsey Harlan's 1992 book, Religion and Rajput Women: The Ethic of Protection in Contemporary Narratives, see Chapter 7, "The Bhakt Paradigm: Mira Bai," which gives the traditional story of Mirabai's life that is told in Rajahstan today and tells how she is viewed by modern Rajahstani women. You can link to a glossary for the few terms that are not explained in the chapter itself.
3. A bibliography (partially annotated) of Mirabai translations and studies through 2004.
4. Reviews(for excerpts from the translation, see below, "In print"; for information on the study's treatment of Mirabai, see "Secondary sources"):
(a) Frederic and Mary Ann Brussat on Bly's and Hirshfield's 2004 translation, Mirabai: Ecstatic Poems.
(b) Sayantan Dasgupta on John Stratton Hawley's 2005 study, Three Bhakti Voices: Mirabai, Surdas, and Kabir in Their Times and Ours.
5. For historical background:
(a) An essay on the bhakti movement, on those who write of a personal devotion to a deity; Mirabai is among the poets discussed.
(b) Although Mirabai is treated only briefly (see "Meerabai"), this 2001 essay by Madhu Kishwar, "Traditional Female Moral Exemplars in India," is a useful introduction for western readers to the roles of women---both deities and devotees.
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[Andrew Schelling has translated 220 poems by Mirabai; his book has a brief introduction, glossary, bibliography, and an annotated discography. (See the book's table of contents online.):]
For love of the Dark One: songs of Mirabai / Andrew Schelling;
illustrated by Mayumi Oda. Boston: Shambhala Publications, 1993.
(155 p.: ill. 13cm.)
LC#: PK2095.M5 A6 1993; ISBN: 0877738726
[Revised 1998 edition: 093425284X]
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"Thick overhead clouds of the monsoon, a delight to this
feverish heart."
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[The "dark one" is Krishna:]
Thick overhead
clouds of the monsoon,
a delight to this feverish heart.
Season of rain,
season of uncontrolled whispers---the Dark One's returning!
O swollen heart,
O sky brimming with moisture---
tongued lightning first
and then thunder,
convulsive spatters of rain
and then wind, chasing the summertime heat.
Mira says: Dark One,
I've waited---
it's time to take my songs
into the street. [p.65]
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"Keep up your promise!"
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Take my arm
and keep up your promise!
They call you the refugeless refuge,
they call you redeemer of outcasts.
Caught in a riptide
in the sea of becoming,
without your support I'm a shipwreck!
You reveal yourself age after age
and free the beggar
from her affliction.
Dark One, Mira is clutching your feet,
at stake is your honor! [p.80]
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"Turn back? Because the wretched stare and see nothing?"
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This infamy, O my Prince,
is delicious!
Some revile me,
others applaud,
I simply follow my incomprehensible road.
A razor-thin path
but you meet some good people,
a terrible path but you hear a true word.
Turn back?
Because the wretched stare and see nothing?
O Mira's lord is noble and dark,
and slanderers
rake only themselves
over the coals. [p.100]
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[A.J. Alston has translated about 200 of Mirabai's poems. The introduction and notes are helpful:]
The devotional poems of Mirabai / translated with introduction
and notes, A.J. Alston. Delhi: Motilal Banarsidass, 1980. (x,
144 p.)
LC#: PK2095.M5 A224 1980
Translated from Hindi. Bibliography: p. 143-144. Includes index.
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"Fools sit on thrones as kings, while the wise beg their
bread."
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[Bhaktas are devotees --- of Vishnu or Shiva --- who rejected
or ignored the traditional rituals of the priestly Brahmins:]
Strange are the decrees of fate.
Behold the large eyes of the deer!
Yet he is forced to roam the forests.
The harsh crane has brilliant plumage,
While the sweet-voiced cuckoo is black.
The rivers flow in pure streams,
But the sea makes them salt.
Fools sit on thrones as kings,
While the wise beg their bread.
Mira's lord is the courtly Giridhara:
The king persecutes the Bhaktas. [p.
114]
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"Strange is the path when you offer your love."
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Do not mention the name of love,
O my simple-minded companion.
Strange is the path
When you offer your love.
Your body is crushed at the first step.
If you want to offer love
Be prepared to cut off your head
And sit on it.
Be like the moth,
Which circles the lamp and offers its body.
Be like the deer, which, on hearing the horn,
Offers its head to the hunter.
Be like the partridge,
Which swallows burning coals
In love of the moon.
Be like the fish
Which yields up its life
When separated from the sea.
Be like the bee,
Entrapped in the closing petals of the lotus.
Mira's lord is the courtly Giridhara.
She says: Offer your mind
To those lotus feet. [p.114-5]
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"...decorate my hair-parting with pearls or leave... scattered
locks unkempt."
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Go to the place where the Beloved abides,
Go to the place where you may find him.
If the Beloved tells me,
I will put on a red sari,
If he tells me,
I will don the ochre robe.
I will decorate my hair-parting with pearls
Or leave my scattered locks unkempt,
Either according to his wish.
Mir'a's lord is the courtly Giridhara,
She says: Harken to the praises of my King. [p.96]
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[This translation by Shreprakash Kurl has 50 Mirabai poems and a useful glossary of Vaisnava terms:]
The devotional poems of Mirabai. Trans. by Shreprakash Kurl.
Calcutta: Writers Workshop, 1973. (87p.)
LC:PK2095 .M5 A25; ISBN: 0882537229
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"Do not leave me alone, a helpless woman."
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Do not leave me alone, a helpless woman.
My strength, my crown,
I am empty of virtues,
You, the ocean of them.
My heart's music, you help me
In my world-crossing.
You protected the king of the elephants.
You dissolve the fear of the terrified.
Where can I go? Save my honour
For I have dedicated myself to you
And now there is no one else for me. [p.44]
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"I do not care about social norms."
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I will fasten the bells of his love to my feet
And dance in front of Girdhar.
Dancing and dancing I will please his eyes;
My love is an ancient one.
My love is the only truth.
I do not care about social norms
Nor do I keep my family's honour.
I cannot forget, even for a moment,
The beauty of my lover.
I am dyed in Hari's colour. [p.40]
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[Robert Bly and Jane Hirshfield give their versions of Mirabai in this collection of 50 poems (25 by Bly, 24 by Hirshfield, and one on which they have collaborated). Each poet provides a brief introduction, describing his or her personal responses to Mirabai. The book also includes a 32-page "Afterword" by John Stratton Hawley, which describes the textual history of Mirabai's writing and the early traditions about her life; his bibliographic notes will lead you to earlier studies. (See the book's table of contents online.):]
Mirabai: ecstatic poems / versions by Robert Bly and Jane
Hirshfield. Boston, Mass: Beacon Press, c2004. (103 p.: ill.;
19 cm)
LC#: PS3552.L9 M57 2004; ISBN: 080706386X
Includes bibliographical references (p. 97-99)
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"Now you want me to climb on a jackass?"
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[By Bly, who titles his version "Why Mira Can't Come Back to Her Old House":]
The colors of the dark One have penetrated Mira's
body; all the other colors washed out.
Making love with the Dark One and eating little,
those are are my pearls and my carnelians.
Meditation beads and the forehead streak, those are
my scarves and my rings.
That's enough feminine wiles for me. My teacher
taught me this.
Approve me or disapprove me: I praise the Mountain
Energy night and day.
I take the path that ecstatic human beings have taken
for centuries.
I don't steal money, I don't hit anyone. What will you
charge me with?
I have felt the swaying of the elephant's shoulders;
and now you want me to climb on a jackass? Try
to be serious. [p.21]
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"Even Mira's Lord is trapped."
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[By Hirshfield, with the title, "The Flute":]
The song of the flute, O sister, is madness.
I thought that nothing that was not God could
hold me,
But hearing that sound, i lose mind and body,
My heart wholly caught in the net.
O flute, what were your vows, what is your practice?
What power sits by your side?
Even Mira's Lord is trapped in your seven notes. [p.13]
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"No fear remains, no absence, no drought."
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[A collaboration by Hirshfield and Bly, titled "No more drought":]
Today, let the rainclouds open---
Mira's Lord is at home.
Even the finest mists can fill the dry tanks,
And long searching has brought me my love.
No fear remains, no absence, no drought---
He has returned.
Mira says to her husband from previous lifetimes,
Even the cattle drink this rising water. [p.66]
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[John Stratton Hawley's study includes four chapters on Mirabai, discussing what we know of the poet, how we know it, and how her work has been treated over the centuries. In the process Hawley gives his translation and close reading of 22 of Mirabai's poems. Note the index of translated poems (p. xvi), because a few of the translations are found elsewhere in the book. (See the book's table of contents online.):]
Hawley, John Stratton. Three Bhakti voices: Mirabai, Surdas,
and Kabir in their times and ours. Delhi; Oxford: Oxford University
Press, 2005. (432 p.: ill.)
LC#: PK2907.B53 H29 2005; ISBN: 019567085X
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[Andrew Schelling's essay in this collection "'Where's my
beloved?': Mirabai's Prem Bhakti Marg" is more detailed
than the brief introduction to his 1993 translation (above).
Schelling shows how Mirabai's work differs from those of earlier
religious poets in its more thorough incorporation of the tradition
of love poetry. He translates the prem bhakti marg of
the essay's title as "path of romance and worship"
(p.56). (See
the book's table of contents online.):]
Vaisnavi: women and the worship of Krishna / edited by Steven
J. Rosen. Delhi: Motilal Banarsidass Publishers, 1996. (301 p.)
LC#: BL1175.A49 V35 1996; ISBN: 8120814371
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[This collection contains A.K. Ramanujan's essay "On
Women Saints," a valuable analysis of the similarities and
differences in the lives of the women saints in India, including
Mirabai:]
The Divine consort: Radha and the goddesses of India / edited
by John Stratton Hawley and Donna Marie Wulff (Beacon paperback;
734). Boston: Beacon Press, 1986, c1982. (xviii, 414 p., [16]
p. of plates: ill. (some col.)
LC Call No: BL1225.R24 D58 1986; ISBN: 080701303X
Papers presented at a conference held June 1978 at Harvard University,
sponsored by the Center for the Study of World Religions. Includes
index. Bibliography: p. 383-403.
[ Originally published: Berkeley, Calif.: Berkeley Religious
Studies Series, c1982. ISBN: 0895811022]
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[Romila Thapar's history of India to 1300 provides useful background information on religious and other aspects of Indian history. Note especially pages 348-57 on the rise of the devotional movement (bhakti) of which Mirabai is a later representative. The book has a helpful chronology and glossary. (See the book's table of contents online.):]
Thapar, Romila. Early India: from the origins to A.D. 1300.
Berkeley: University of California Press, 2004. (555 p.)
LC#: DS436.A3 T43 2004; ISBN: 0520238990
Includes bibliographical references and index
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Updated 07-31-08