This book presents the life stories and poems of six well-known saint-poets of North India–Ravidas, Kabir, Nanak, Surdas, Mirabai, and Tulsidas–who have contributed more to the religious vocabulary of Hinduism in North India today than any voices before or since. In worship, in education, even in politics, modern Hinduism sings their tune. For half a millennium, these saints’ poems have circulated from the banks of the Yamuna to the rice fields of Bihar and back to the deserts of Rajasthan. They have provided a language for many of life’s most vivid concerns–cruelty and loneliness, status and intimacy, hope and infatuation, and the maddening transitoriness of it all. With biographical and interpretive essay on each poet and a selection of representative verses in original translation, this book offers a complete introduction to a literature that transcends the boundaries we associate with religion, and those of India as well. This new edition of the Songs of the Saints of India will appeal to travellers, students, and anyone eager to hear the ‘music’ of North Indian religion and see its hidden contours. It will also be of interest to all those in the fields of Indian literature, culture, religion, history, and South Asian studies.
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