40 Facts About Namdev

Namdev lived as a devotee of Lord Vitthal of Pandharpur.

Namdev is widely regarded as the founder of Varkari tradition.

Namdev was influenced by Vaishnavism and became widely known in India for his devotional songs set to music.

Namdev's philosophy contains both nirguna brahman and saguna brahman elements, with monistic themes.

Namdev's legacy is remembered in modern times in the Varkari tradition, along with those of other gurus, with masses of people walking together in biannual pilgrimages to Pandharpur in Maharashtra.

Namdev is recognised in the North Indian traditions of the Dadu Panthis, Kabir Panthis and Sikhs.

Some hymns of Namdev are included in the Guru Granth Sahib.

Namdev is, according to Christian Novetzke, "one of the most prominent voices in the historical study of Maharashtrian Sant figures".

Namdev was married to Rajai and had a son, Vitha, both of whom wrote about him, as did his mother, Gonai.

Namdev was born into what is generally recognised as a Shudra caste, variously recorded as shimpi in the Marathi language and as Chhipa, Chhimpa, Chhimba, chimpi in northern India.

The Lilacaritra suggests that Namdev was a cattle-thief who was devoted to and assisted Vithoba.

Namdev is generally considered by Sikhs to be a holy man, many of whom came from lower castes and so attracted attention as social reformers.

Scholars note that many miracles and specifics about Namdev's life appear only in manuscripts written centuries after Namdev's death.

The birth theory with Namdev floating down a river, is first found in Mahipati's Bhaktavijay composed around 1762, and is absent in all earlier biographies of Namdev.

Mahipati's biography of Namdev adds numerous other miracles, such as buildings rotating and sun rising in the west to show respect to Namdev.

In Namdev biographies published after 1600 through the end of the 20th century, new life details and more miracles increasingly appear with the passage of time.

Namdev's Immaculate Conception miracle mentioned in later era manuscripts, adds Novetzke, is a story found regularly for other sants in India.

The literary works of Namdev were influenced by Vaishnava philosophy and a belief in Vithoba.

Namdev was thus among those responsible for disseminating the monotheistic Varkari faith that had emerged first in Karnataka in the mid-to-late 12th century and then spread to Pandharpur in Maharashtra.

Namdev's style was to compose simply worded praise for Vithoba and to use a melodic device called samkirtana, both of which were accessible to common people.

Namdev's padas are not mere poems, according to Callewaert and Lath.

Namdev's songs were composed to be melodious and carry a spiritual message.

Namdev's bhajans, note Callewaert and Lath, deployed particular species of Raag, used Bhanita, applied a Tek and a meter than helps harmonise the wording with the musical instrument, all according to Sangita manuals refined from the 8th to 13th centuries.

The songs and music that went with Namdev's works were usually transmitted verbally across generations, in a guru-sisya-parampara, within singing gharanas.

Callewaert and Lath state that, "each single song of Namdev is a musical and textual unit and this unit is the basis for textual considerations".

Namdev's work is known for abhangs, a genre of hymn poetry in India.

Namdev's poems were transmitted from one generation to the next within singing families, and memory was the only recording method in the centuries that followed Namdev's death.

However, of these only 25 are found in surviving Namdev-related manuscripts of Rajasthan.

The literary works not composed by Namdev, but attributed to Namdev were partly a product of this historical suffering and political situation in Deccan region of India.

However, this is an observation based on hymns for which Namdev is not definitively known to the author, and might well be interpolated.

In north India, Namdev is considered as a nirguna bhakta, in Marathi culture he is considered a saguna bhakta.

Namdev's songs suggested the divine is within oneself, its non-duality, its presence and oneness in everyone and everything.

Namdev was among those responsible for disseminating the Vithoba faith that had emerged first in the 12th century Namdev used the Marathi language to compose his poetry, which made it accessible to the wider public.

Namdev thus played a role, states McGregor, in shaping the religious base for the "premodern and modern culture of north India".

The songs of Namdev, called kirtans, use the term loka, which Novetzke states is a reference to "we the people" and the "human world" as a social force.

Namdev is considered one of the five revered gurus in the Dadupanth tradition within Hinduism, the other four being Dadu, Kabir, Ravidas and Hardas.

The Niranjani Vani, which is their scripture just like the scriptures of Dadu Panthi and Sikhs, includes poetry of Namdev, and is dated to be from the 17th and 18th centuries.

Namdev is one of the revered holy men in Sikhism as well.

Namdev's legacy continues through the biannual pilgrimage to Pandharpur, near Bhima river, in Maharashtra.

Namdev's paduka are among those of revered sants that Varkari communities from various parts of Maharashtra carry with a palkhi to the Vithoba temple in Pandharpur, every year in modern times.