Sant Tukaram
सन्त तुकाराम
Sant Tukārāma
Maratha grocer-poet whose Marathi abhangas became the voice of the Warkari pilgrimage to Pandharpur
1608 CE – 1649 CE · Born at Dehu, Pune district, Maharashtra
Tradition
Warkari sampradaya — Saguna Vaishnava Bhakti
Guru
Babaji Chaitanya (vision-initiation)
Principal works
- • Tukaram Gatha (~4,500 abhangas)
- • Sandh-abhangas (compositions on dusk meditation)
Signature verse
जे का रंजले गांजले। त्यासि म्हणे जो आपुले॥ तोचि साधु ओळखावा। देव तेथेचि जाणावा॥
je kā raṁjale gāṁjale, tyāsi mhaṇe jo āpule, tochi sādhu oḷakhāvā, deva tetheci jāṇāvā
The one who calls the oppressed and wounded his own — that one alone is to be recognised as a saint, and there alone is God to be known.
— Tukaram Gatha
Life and work
Tukaram was born into a Maratha grocer (kunbi) family at Dehu on the Indrayani river. He lost his parents young, watched his first wife die in famine, and saw his trading business collapse — the cumulative grief turned him decisively to Vitthala of Pandharpur, the family deity of the Warkari sampradaya already by then nearly four centuries old. He composed his abhangas in plain rural Marathi while continuing to live as a householder grocer in Dehu, and the verses spread through the kirtan tradition across the Deccan. His public success drew the hostility of the Brahmin pandit Rameshwar Bhatt, who obtained an order from the Pune mamlatdar that Tukaram throw his manuscripts into the Indrayani river; the abhangas, tradition records, floated up unharmed after thirteen days, an event that converted Rameshwar Bhatt into a disciple. Tukaram blessed the young Shivaji Maharaj at Pandharpur, refusing to accompany him into royal service. Tradition holds that he was taken bodily to Vaikuntha by a celestial vimana from the Indrayani ghat in 1649; his sandals and tulsi mala are still preserved at Dehu. His abhangas are the lyrical backbone of the modern Warkari pilgrimage to Pandharpur.
Key teaching
A true saint is recognised by compassion for the lowly; the God of the Warkari is met not at the top of any hierarchy but at the side of the suffering, and the daily kirtan in the company of the bhaktas is itself the pilgrimage.
Associated places
- • Dehu (birthplace, Tukaram mandir, Indrayani manuscript ghat)
- • Pandharpur (Vithoba shrine)
- • Bhandara hill (composition site)
- • Lohgaon (Rameshwar Bhatt episode site)
Modern relevance
Tukaram abhangas are sung daily on the Pandharpur Ashadhi and Kartiki wari pilgrimages by ~700,000 Warkaris each season, in Marathi schools and temples, and have crossed into the Hindi belt through translation. Tukaram films and television serials have been continuous fixtures of Marathi popular culture.