Creating Kabīr
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Creating Kabīr Understanding the use of Kabīr through the lens of Sanskritization By Felix Rosén Uppsala University Department of theology History of Religions 30 Credits, Master Thesis, Spring 2021 Supervisor: Billing, Nils Grading Teacher: Borgland, Jens Email: [email protected] Abstract The so called Bhakti movement spread, during the Late Medieval period, like wildfire across the South Asian subcontinent and acted like a catalyst for the development of nirguṇī-traditions. These newly emerging nirguṇī-traditions rallyd men and women alike, preaching for the abolation of the varṇa-system, for Muslim-Hindu unity, devotion to the one omipresent godhead, nirguṇa. Among these traditions, a man named Kabīr came and claimed the leading position, a position that history still, to this day, gives credit as being one of the most, if not the most, important figure amongst the of the North Indian bhakti preachers. Kabīr’s teachings came to be, after his passing, the foundation for the establishment of the Kabīr Panth (Path of Kabīr) a by now well known tradition. However, at an early stage of formation, the Kabīr Panth began to separate into many branches, which all started to produce their own literature regarding several contrasting retellings of Kabīr’s life, his poems, and the installation of rituals and praxis. As a consequence of the various legends along with myths created, following the schism between the main branches, Kabīr’s life and legacy came to be displayed and understood rather differently. This study does not only demonstrate how Kabīr is perceived within the various branches, most prominent that of the Kabīr Chaurā and Dharmadasī branch, and what attributes, human and divine, are given him. Throughout the study it is also shown how these perceptions of Kabīr, may be understood as forms of, to various degrees, fostering of Sanskritization in order to gain upward momentum within the Indian socio-religious ladder of hierarchy, more commonly known as the varṇa-system. Keywords: Kabīr, Nirguṇa, Saguṇa, Sanskritization, Bhakti, Sants, Dharmadas, Varṇa. Introduction 1 Purpose and research questions 2 Material and methodology 4 Theoretical approach 7 Previous research and demarcation 9 1 Kabīr and his times: Bhakti and the emergence of Santism 11 The Sants and the concept of Saguṇa and Nirguṇa bhakti 13 Kabīr in myth and legends 15 Discussion: Life of Kabīr 21 2 Kabīr Panth: Praxis and rituals 23 The Founders and the śākhās 23 “Then they slay souls and worship stones” 27 Reflections and critique 33 3 36 The cosmology within the Anurāg Sāgar and the Bījak of Kabīr 3.1 Kabīr in the Anurāg Sāgar 40 Sat Yuga - Incarnation of Sat Sukrit 41 Treta Yuga - Incarnation of Maninder 42 Dwapar Yuga - Incarnation of Karunamai 43 Kali Yuga - Incarnation of Kabīr 45 Summary: Anurāg Sāgar 47 3.2 Kabīr in the Bījak of Kabīr 48 Ramainī 49 Śabda 51 Sākhī 53 Summary: Bījak of Kabīr 55 4 Creating Kabīr: Final remarks and conclusion 57 References 61 Attachments 63 Introduction “Nearly all new religious movements necessarily arise within a context of serious changes in economic and social conditions, that is to say a situation of socio-economic dislocation and conflict. In part they protest against these changes and against the social and economical injustices that accompany them. They also however, embody attempts to come to terms with these changes, to create a new value system in which they can be accommodated and their negative, exploitative impact made bearable.”1 During the beginning of the 15th century, a movement, based on the 8th century teachings of South Indian Bhakti (personal veneration towards the Godhead) started to spread in North India. Together with the revolutionary ideas found both within the social and the spiritual sphere of Indian society, a great struggle against the injustice of the varṇa-system, i.e caste-system, and elitism was made ablaze. The many men and women who together went against the Orthodox teachings of not only the Hindu tradition, but also that of the Muslim faith. They preached for the abolation of the varṇa-system, for Muslim-Hindu unity, devotion to the one omipresent godhead, nirguṇa. They contested the idea of almost all popular practises of the current Hindu traditions found, which many times, boiled down to the abolishment of image worship, saguṇa, anti-pilgrimage, and against the varṇa-based sentiment of religious purity versus impurity. These men and women who lit the fire of defiance in the heart of the poor, sparked the flames for greater change within the religious landscape of the South Asian subcontinent and burned down the ladder of social stratification −they were the Sants. Among these Sants, one man, whose teaching is regarded as the very essence of Medieval nirguṇa bhakti movement was called Kabīr: “I've burned my own house down, the torch is in my hand. Now I'll burn down the house of anyone who wants to follow me.”2 Kabīr, accroding to many traditions, was born into the low-caste family of Julāha, Muslim weavers, whom under influence of the Vaiṣṇava guru Rāmananda,3 started preaching for the 1 Lorenzen, David in Schomer, Karine & McLeod, William Hewat (red.) (1987). The Sants: studies in a devotional tradition of India. Berkeley: Berkeley Religious Studies, p 293. 2 Hess, L. & Singh, S. (2002). The Bijak of Kabir. New York: Oxford University Press, p 152. 3 Both the dates of Kabīr’s birth, family belonging and influence of Rāmananda are contested and will be further explained at a later stage of this study. 1 equality of man, unity amongst religion and the destruction of the worldly illusions of caste, religious rituals and scriptures. The teachings of Kabīr, as well as those of his contemporaries, such as Guru Nānak, Ravidas, Dudu etc, gave the low-born masses and families a voice and the freedom to find their own way towards both spiritual and social liberation, which would come to break the shackles held by upper-caste rulers and their religious supremacy. Though Kabīr may have been both loved by many after his passing, the more hated him during his lifetime. This was due to his harsh and rough rhetoric against the institutionalized religious traditions of his era. It was also this critical approach towards social injustice and religious monopoly that made followers, both Hindu and Muslims alike, to start a full on dispute as to whom he belonged to after his passing: “A famous legend about Kabir shows his Hindu and Muslim followers massed for combat after his death, each side demanding to take charge of the body. But before the first blow is struck, someone removes the shroud to discover that a heap of flowers has replaced the cadaver. The two religious groups divide the flowers, and each goes off to bury or burn its half according to prescribed rituals.”4 From the teachings of Kabīr came the establishment of the Kabīr Panth (i.e the path of Kabīr), however, just as the story of Hindus and Muslims fighting over Kabīr’s bodie, so to does the members and branches of the Kabīr tradition fight amongst each other as to who Kabīr was and to whom he gave the sole right to spread his teaching. The two main rivaling branches of the Kabīr Panth are those of Kabīr Chaurā Maṭh and the Dharmadasī branch. Both contest each other as to whom Kabīr belonged and, as will further explored in this study, not only who Kabīr was, but also what he was since different forms of attributes are given him in order to either humanify or deify him. Purpose and research questions The Purpose of this paper is to examine how followers of Kabīr, Kabīr Panthī, construct the image of Kabīr and themselves, in accordance with their literature, myth, rituals and religious practices. This will be done by doing a comparative study between the two main scriptures of the Kabīr Chaurā Maṭh in Banaras and that of the Dharmadasī branch of Chhattisgarh,̣ as well 4 Hess, L. & Singh, S. (2002). The Bijak of Kabir. s 4. The two religious groups referred to are those of Muslim and Hindu followers. 2 as their rituals, praxis and their socio-religious milieu. This will in turn, hopefully, shed new light on how followers of these branches may reimagine or recreate their own identity in the image of Kabīr’s, which often mirrors that of high-caste customs, ideology, legends, myth and rituals. In order to investigate how and why low-born masses may mirror the customs of the high-born caste, within the Indian system of social hierarchy, the theory of Sanskritization established by the sociologist Mysore Narasimhachar Srinivas will be used.5 The socio-religious movements brought into play by Kabīr and his contemporaries has never been a coherent movement throughout the Late Medieval period up until today. However, even if the tradition of Kabīr and the Sants may differentiate, some aspects are shared between them. These aspects are those of believing in an omnipresent nirguṇ-creator, which upon personal relations and devotion are possible and a shared tradition of dissent and protest against the religious elitism, the social hierarchy of caste found within the varṇa-system and ideological hegemony. Since there is great diversity among both past and present followers of Kabīr and the Sants, and there is no monolithic unity in how one is to understand Kabīr. The question at hand, that may spark interest, is not rather who Kabīr truly was historically, but to whom he belonged and which attributes are found within his poems, writings and socio-religious legacy. Linda Hess in her “Bodies of song” (2015) brought forward the question, “Is Kabir a blazing social revolutionary or a promoter of detached spiritual quietism? Is he both? Or neither?”6 The question can rather be boiled down to ‘whose Kabīr?’, since depending on perspective, social, economical or religious power in the society as a whole, Kabīr may attain different attributes and/or become an instrumental tool by his followers for different struggles both social as well as spiritual.