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Description
"Mirabai (born c. 1500) is among the most well-known and loved of the Hindu women saints devoted to Krishna. Her devotion to her Lord is absolute, as her life and songs attest. Her story is a romantic tale of star-crossed lovers—one human, the other divine—marked by perseverance and triumph in the midst of great suffering. Songs sung in her name speak of the joys and trials of the devotional life and evoke the full range of romantic love, from the devastating longing that marks separated lovers and the blazing anger of a woman betrayed to the sweet and intoxicating pleasures of union. This woman of the sixteenth century has inspired and captured the imagination of fellow devotees across the centuries, so much so that her story has been told and retold in innumerable forms and more than a thousand songs have been sung in her name. Within the context of the wider Krishna tradition, this exemplary devotee provides an important bridge between the idyllic and eternal world of Braj, where the gopis and Radha sport with Krishna, and the world of samsara, wherein ordinary people must practice their devotion to the amorous Dark Lord."
ISBN
9780195148923
Publication Date
6-18-2007
Publisher
Oxford University Press
City
New York, NY
Keywords
Mirabai, Hinduism, saint, Krishna
Disciplines
Hindu Studies | History of Religions of Eastern Origins | South and Southeast Asian Languages and Societies | Women's Studies
Recommended Citation
Martin, Nancy M. “Rajasthan: Mirabai and her Poetry.” In Krishna: A Source Book. Edited by Edwin Bryant. New York: Oxford University Press, 2007. Pages 241-254.
Copyright
Oxford University Press
Included in
Hindu Studies Commons, History of Religions of Eastern Origins Commons, South and Southeast Asian Languages and Societies Commons, Women's Studies Commons
Comments
In Edwin F. Bryant (Ed.), Krishna: A Source Book.