Return to the index of "Other Women's Voices."
Updated 05-13-09
Janabai /Jana Bai / Jani (bef.1270-1350)
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"O LORD, YOU BECOME A WOMAN."
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Janabai was born in a Maharashtra village to a family of the
lowest, sudra, caste. When she was a young child, her
mother died and her father (shortly before his own death) took
her to the city of Pandharpur, where she became a servant in
the household of Varkari devotees of Vitthal, an incarnation
of Vishnu. A son of the family, Namdev, became one of the chief
Varkari poets, writing in vernacular Marathi and teaching equality
of all --- regardless of caste or gender --- before God. Janabai
cared for the young Namdev and remained his servant, his dasi,
throughout her life. Tradition says that they died on the
same day.
Janabai composed over 340 devotional songs, abhangs; they survived by being included in collections of Namdev's own works. Some of Janabai's songs tell of the lives of her fellow Varkari and of the various incarnations of Vishnu, but the most distinctive are those that tell of her personal relationship with the god Vitthal. Janabai seldom speaks of erotic desire for the god (as some of the other bhakta poets do); she more often sees Vitthal as her mother (a view not uncommon among the Varkaris), but also as her fellow-serving maid, and ultimately herself.
Although Janabai's abhangs are still widely sung in Maharashta, only about 40 appear to have been published in English. But from these, and from those online, you can hear her distinctive voice.
On this page you'll find:
Links to helpful sites online.
Excerpts from translations in print.
Information on secondary sources.
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1. In English:
(a) Five poems, translated by Anjali Yardi: "My lovely grindstone," "When Jani sweeps the floor," "Mother died, Father died," "A storehouse of sins," and "As I mill and pound the grain".
(b) A link to the text of Nicol Macnicol's 1919 Psalms of Maratha Saints; One Hundred Eight Hymns Translated from the Marathi; there see #s 23-15 (about half-way down the page) for three poems: "To holy Pundlik I give" (Pundlik was an earlier devotee of Vitthal), "Dispassion's mill, with earnest mind," and "Of God my meat and drink I make." You can also download the whole book as a PDF file.
(c) In this collection of hymns, #2 and #12 show, in transliterated Marathi and in English, two Janabai poems still sung in Maharashtra temples: "Arise, O Panduranga, it is now dawn," and "O, Sawalya, what shall I give you to eat?" ("Panduranga" and "Sawalya" are names for Vitthal.)
(d) A brief essay by Sivananda Saraswati that includes a prose translation of two of Janabai's abhangs: "Let me undergo as many births in this world as You please," and "Give me only this gift, O Hari."
(e) Use your browser's search function to go to "Janabai" for a biography and an alternative version (in verse) of one of those given just above, "O Lord Hari, grant this boon."
(f) "What I eat is divine," translated by Rajeshwari V. Pandharipande (for more from Pandharipande, see below, under "In print").
(g) Go to the second use of "Janabai" for "Lord, out of compassion for your devotee."
(h) After an introduction, "Cast off all shame," translated by Vilas Sarang.
2. Use "Select saint" to go to "Janabai"; then "Search" will take you to links to 19 abhangs in Marathi script.
3. Reviews (for more on the books, see "Secondary sources"):
(a) Ludo Rocher of Romilla Thaper's 2004 history, Early India: From the Origins to A.D.1300; and another review, by Kesavan Veluthat.
(b) Nilanjan Sarkar on Vijaya Ramaswamy's 1997 study, Walking Naked: Women, Society, Spirituality in South India (and on another book by the same author).
4. For historical background:
(a) An essay, "Bhakti Poets," on those who write of a personal devotion to a deity; Janabai is among the poets discussed.
(b) A brief essay on the Varkari followers of Vishnu in Maharashtra.
(c) Although Janabai is not mentioned, 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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[This collection contains Rajeshwari V. Pandharipande's
essay "Janabai: A Woman Saint of India," which translates
34 abhangs (and paraphrases others) and which discusses
the poems' themes and their historical background. (See
the book's table of contents online.):]
Women saints in world religions / edited by Arvind Sharma (McGill
studies in the history of religions). Albany: State University
of New York Press, c2000. (xi, 244 p.)
LC#: BL488 .W65 2000; ISBN: 0791446190, 0791446204
Includes bibliographical references and indexes
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[ Sarah Sellergren's essay in this collection, "Janabai and Kanhopatra: A Study of Two Women Saints," includes 13 of Janabai's poems (all but one translated by Sellegren), four of which are not in Pandharipande. Sellergren's focus is on what the abhangs reveal of the lower-caste poet's life. The essay also discusses the poetry of Kanhopatra, a writer of the 1400s. (See the book's table of contents online.):]
Images of women in Maharashtrian literature and religion /
edited by Anne Feldhaus. Albany: State University of New York
Press, c1996. (vi, 281 p.: ill.)
LC#: HQ1742 .I536 1996; ISBN: 0791428370, 0791428389
Includes bibliographical references and index
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"No room for the lowly inside."
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[Although Namdev and his followers emphasized the equality of all, Janabai was still a servant and not a family member. The first lines are addressed to Namdev (in the Marathi original his wife and mother are named):]
Your wife and mother stay at your feet
and sons are placed proudly in front,
this woman is kept on the doorstep---
no room for the lowly inside.
O God, how I want your embrace!
when will you call dasi Jani your own? [Sellegren,
pp. 218-19]
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"Help celebrate the festival of the powerless."
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[It is Vitthal to whom the orphan Janabai turns; he becomes her mother. "Hari" and "Gopala" are names of Vitthal; "Rukmini" is his wife:]
Mother is dead, father is dead
now Vitthal, take care of me.
O Hari, my head is itching
I am your child
and have no one of my own.
Vitthal says to Rukmini,
"There's no one to care for my Jani,"
Taking oil and comb in his hands
he combs and braids my hair;
finishing the braid he knots it.
I say, now please rub my back.
Jani says, O Gopala,
help celebrate the festival
of the powerless. [Sellegren,
p.217]
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"You must accept those who surrender to you."
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[Vitthal must accept not only Janabai, but all who come to him. "Ganga" is the river Ganges:]
If the Ganga flows to the ocean
and the ocean turns her away,
tell me, O Vitthal,
who would hear her complaint?
Can the river reject its fish?
Can the mother spurn her child?
Jan says,
Lord,
you must accept those
who surrender to you. [Sellegren,
p.222]
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"Mother Vitthal watches over Jani over and over again."
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[Janabai's abhangs repeatedly turn the male god Vitthal into a woman, a mother:]
The bird flies to the end of
the horizon
and brings food for its young.
The mother-eagle wanders in the sky
but hastens back to her young
Mother is busy with her work
and yet her mind never leaves her child.
Mother monkey jumps over a tree
with her child holding on to her stomach.
Similarly, mother Vitthal watches over Jani
over and over again. [Pandharipande,
p.160]
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"You leave your greatness behind you."
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[Vitthal becomes not only a woman but a serving woman, the lowest within the lowest caste. Samsara is the cycle of rebirth:]
Jani has had enough of samsara,
but how will I repay my debt?
You leave your greatness behind you
to grind and pound with me.
O Lord you become a woman
washing me and my soiled clothes,
proudly you carry the water
and gather dung with your own two hands.
O Lord, I want
a place at your feet,
says Jani, Namdev's dasi. [Sellegren,
p.221]
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"There is nothing empty of divine."
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[For Janabai, the divine is inseparable from other reality: Janabai become Vitthal, Vitthal becomes Janabai. Her use here of the word "Vithabai" creates a feminine form of the masculine name "Vitthal":]
What I eat is divine
What I drink is divine
My bed is also divine
The divine is here, and it is there
There is nothing empty of divine
Jani says---Vithabai has filled
everything from the inside out. [Pandharipande,
p. 161]
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"We the devotees are the source of your strength."
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[Her relationship with Vitthal allows Janabai to scold him:]
I have no fascination for you, God!
I am not going to serve you any more!
You are not magnanimous
Why do you carry this false pride
of greatness?
What will you gain by getting angry with me?
We the devotees are the source of your strength.
You have no power of your own.
Hari, haven't I understood your secret? [Pandharipande,
pp.174-75]
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"By my life I will not let you go."
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[And to speak of imprisoning him. "Pandhari" is the city of Pandharpur; so'ham means "I am he," total identification with Vitthal:]
I caught the thief of Pandhari
by tying a rope around his neck.
I made my heart the prison cell
and locked him up inside.
I bound him firmly with the Word,
I fettered his holy feet,
I thrashed him, whipped him
with the word so'ham
while Vitthal complained bitterly.
Sorry, O Lord,
says Jani,
by my life I will not let you go. [Sellegren,
pp.223-24]
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"Jani's victory was proclaimed in the entire world."
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[Here the speaker-scribe is Vitthal, speaking to Jnanadeva, Namdev's teacher; Janabai's abhangs are worthy to be recorded by a god:]
"I wrote down Jani's words
as she uttered them,
Jnanadeva! let it be
known to you,
this has not made me
any less divine!
The absolute truth
is the paper, and
with ink of eternity
Vitthal writes on it
Incessantly
with Jani."
Jnanadeva smiled
at these words
and clapped.
Jani's victory was
proclaimed in the
entire world. [Pandharipande,
pp.173-74]
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[Volume 1 of this collection includes Christopher Shelke's "Janabai as a Mystic and Hagiographer," which looks at the total extant corpus to see how Janabai presents herself and the other holy people she praises. Shelke quotes parts of a number of her abhangs in his own translation. (See the table of contents of both volumes online.):]
The banyan tree: essays on early literature in new Indo-Aryan
languages / edited by Mariola Offredi. New Delhi: Manohar, 2000.
(2 v.: ill.)
LC#: PK2903 .I58 2000; ISBN: 8173042772 (set), 8173043424
(v.1), 8173043434 (v.2)
International Conference on Early Literature in New Indo-Aryan
Languages (7th: 1997: Venice, Italy). Includes bibliographical
references
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[Vijaya Ramaswamy's study has a brief section on Janabai's use of language (pp.222-25), which gives a half dozen of her poems, by various translators. (See the book's table of contents online.):]
Ramaswamy, Vijaya. Walking naked: women, society, spirituality
in South India. Shimla: Indian Institute of Advanced Study, 1997.
(x, 257 p.)
LC#: HQ1393 .V55 1997; ISBN: 8185952396
Includes bibliographical references and index
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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 Janabai is a part. 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 05-13-09