Abhang - अभंग
जे का रा़ंजले गांजले, त्यासी म्हणें जो आपुले
तोचि साधु ओळखावा , देव तेथेंची जाणावा ।।१।।
मृदु सबाह्य नवनीत, तैसे सज्जनांचे चित्त
ज्यासी अपंगिता नाही , त्यासी धरी जो हृदयी ।।२।।
दया करणें जे पुत्रासी, तेची दासा आणि दासी
तुका म्हणे सांगु किती , त्याची भगवंताच्या मूर्ति ।।३।।
English translation by Mahatma Gandhi while imprisoned in Yerwada jail, 1930
Know him to be a true man, who takes to his bosom
Those who are in distress, know that God resides in the heart of such a one.
His heart is saturated with gentleness through and through
He receives as his only those who are forsaken
He bestows on his man servants and maidservants the same affection he shows to his children
Tukaram says ; what need is there to describe him further ? He is the very incarnation of divinity.
That which Mahatma Gandhi has translated from Marathi to English is an Abhang of
Sant Tukaram.
Abhang ( अभंग ) literally means that which cannot be broken ( अ / भंग ); that which is a flawless, non-ending , continuous, non-interrupting process of poetry. Abhangs are devotional poetry in praise of Lord Vitthal of Pandharpur.
These abhangs were composed in Marathi, it's various dialects, khandeshi.
Abhangs taught the people the path to reach God was through personal devotion and not through rigid rituals, worship or traditions.
Worship of God was a personal interaction between the devotee and the Lord.
The Abhangs strove to bring the path of salvation within the grasp of each and every individual.
It made worship of the Lord attainable by even the illiterate,ignorant rural population who were previously unable to understand Sanskrit shlokas, mantras or books due to lack of literacy and access.
These were sung by devotees on the way to pilgrimage to Pandharpur for a darshan of Lord Vitthal.
They referred to Lord Vitthal as Vithoba, Panduranga and Mauli ( Mother )
These originated from Paithan, Pandharpur, Mangal Veda, Alandi and spread through entire Maharashtra due to the Varkari movement.
Varkari Saints in the forefront of this revolutionary movement included Sant Eknath, Sant Tukaram, Sant Dnyaneshwar,Sant Namdeo, Sant Eknath, Samarth Ramdas, Sant Nivruttinath, Sant Sopandeo, Sant Muktabai.
Each and every Sant down the centuries carried forward the Varkari tradition.
Abhangs made the common folk believe in the power of personal worship , without any discrimination on the basis of caste, creed, class, race, sex.
They sought to emphasize the path of bhakti, devotion and love towards the Lord without following any blind rituals, religious practices prevalent in those times.
Samarth Ramdas took this tradition of Namsankirtan to Thanjavur, in the South of India.
Abhangs were so integrated in the culture there that they became an integral part of Carnatic and bhajan concerts.
Sant Tukaram Ganapathi Maharaj used to give his discourses on Lord Vitthal in the local Tamil language followed by the singing of Abhangs in Marathi.
Some of the modern day artists who are carrying forward the legacy of the Abhangs across the country include -
Pandit Bhimsen Joshi
Pandit Jayateerth Mevundi
Hariharan
Shankar Mahadevan
Aruna Sairam
Ranjani and Gayatri
Manjusha Patil Kulkarni
Lata Mangeshkar
Suresh Wadkar
Kavasam Bakthi
Mahesh Kale
Sudhir Phadke
Jitendra Abhisheki
Abhangs are easily accessible nowadays on various platforms like youtube, online digital music platforms like gaana.com, spotify etc.
( Pictures courtesy - wikipedia and the hindu.com )
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