36 Facts About Bahinabai

Bahinabai or Bahina or Bahini was a female Varkari saint from Maharashtra, India.

Bahinabai is considered a disciple of the Varkari poet-saint Tukaram.

Bahinabai describes, in her autobiography Atmamanivedana, her spiritual experiences with a calf and visions of the Varkari's patron deity Vithoba and Tukaram.

Bahinabai reports being subjected to verbal and physical abuse by her husband, who despised her spiritual inclination but who finally accepted her chosen path of devotion.

Unlike most female-saints who never married or renounced their married life for God, Bahinabai remained married her entire life.

Bahinabai's abhanga compositions, written in Marathi, focus on her troubled marital life and the regret being born a woman.

Bahinabai was always torn between her duties to her husband and her devotion to Vithoba.

Bahinabai has written an autobiographical work called Atmamanivedana or Bahinibai Gatha, where she describes not only her current birth but twelve previous births.

Bahinabai started reciting the names of God from an early age, while playing with her mates.

Bahinabai was married at the age of three with a thirty-year-old widower called Gangadhar Pathak, who she describes as a scholar and "an excellent jewel of a man", but stayed with parents until she reached puberty as per the custom.

When Bahinabai was about nine years old, she with her parents and husband, had to leave Devghaon due to a family dispute.

Bahinabai was "subjected to the demands of married life" at this age, but she was not into it.

In Kolhapur, Bahinabai was exposed to Hari-Kirtana songs and tales from the scripture Bhagavata Purana.

When Bahinabai's husband heard of the incident, he dragged Bahinabai by her hair, beat and tied her up in the house.

At its burial, Bahinabai fainted and lay unconscious for days.

Bahinabai awoke with her first vision of the Varkari's patron deity Vithoba and later of her contemporary poet-saint Tukaram.

Bahinabai's husband dissuaded her by saying that she being of a Brahmin, should not listen to the lower caste Shudra Tukaram.

However, Bahinabai did not find happiness in the life of a dutiful wife and turns to bhakti, at the same time serving her husband.

Bahinabai's hot-tempered husband is reported to have abused, beaten and confined Bahinabai to the cattle-shed.

The family of Bahinabai went to Dehu, the home-town of Tukaram and paid their respects to him.

In Dehu, Bahinabai gave birth to a daughter, who she named Kasibai.

Tukaram in her vision, stopped her and blessed her with poetic powers and prophesied that she would have a son who was a companion in her previous birth, thus Bahinabai is believed to have started composition of poetry, the first of which were dedicated to Vithoba.

Finally the family moved to Shirur, where Bahinabai practised a vow of silence for a while.

In 1649, on Tukaram's death, Bahinabai revisited Dehu and fasted for eighteen days where, according to the traditional account, she was blessed with a vision of Tukaram again.

Bahinabai then visited the saint Ramdas and stayed in his company until his death in 1681.

In last sections of her autobiography, Bahinabai says she has "seen her death".

Bahinabai prophesied her death and wrote a letter to Vithoba, her son, who had gone to Shukeshwar to perform last rites of his wife.

On her death-bed, Bahinabai told Vithoba that he had been her son throughout her twelve previous births and in her current birth, which she believed was her last.

Apart from her autobiography, Bahinabai composed abhangas, which deal with various subjects like praise of god Vithoba, Atman, Sad-guru, sainthood, Brahmanhood, and devotion.

Bahinabai even portrays her husband's hostile and harmful feelings with empathy.

Unlike many of the woman-saints of the period, Bahinabai remained married her entire life, dutifully serving her husband, balancing her roles pativrata and virakta.

Bahinabai's poetry reflects her compromise between her devotion to her husband and her god Vithoba.

Bahinabai speaks of pravrtti and nivrtti, personified as wives of manas.

Bahinabai sometimes curses her fate of being born as a woman, which author Tharu interprets as "her scepticism, her rebelliousness and her insistent refusal to abandon her aspiration for the truth".

At times, Bahinabai's abhangas call out to her god Vithoba to help her to balance her twin roles.

Bahinabai has composed a text called Pundalika-Mahatmya, which details the legend of Vithoba and devotee Pundalik, a central figure in Varkari tradition.