Mirabai

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Mirabai

Mirabai ( Devanagari : मीराबाई, Mīrābāī ; * around 1498; † 1546 ) was an Indian mystic and poet . Her very personal ecstatic love, price and lamentation songs have remained alive through the centuries and are still recited, sung and broadcast on the Indian radio stations on the Indian subcontinent by Hindus , Sikhs , Muslims and Christians alike. There are numerous book editions as well as CDs with settings of the songs and Mirabai's life is the subject of a feature film.

Life

Born as the daughter of the Rajput ruler of Merta in northern India, Mirabai devoted herself to the worship of Krishna as a child and regarded herself as his wife for many lives. In 1516 the princess was married to the son of the ruler of Mewar (now in Rajasthan ), a prince of the Rajputs from the Sisodiyas clan, without being able to defend herself against this political marriage. Mirabai explained to her young husband Bhojraj that she was Krishna's wife and refused to consummate the marriage. While her husband showed understanding, had her built a temple, and married a second wife, the refusal aroused the displeasure of the royal family-in-law. This displeasure was compounded when Mirabai neglected the worship of the patron goddess of the Sisodiyas. When Bhojraj died in armed conflict thirteen years later, his brother, as the successor of her husband, demanded that her commit suicide by means of poison. She is said to have drunk the cup without damage. Legend has it that Krishna turned the poison potion into nectar . She also survived two assassinations and was temporarily held prisoner. Finally, Mirabai left the royal court and wandered for two years until Vrindavan , the place of Krishna's childhood, where she sought refuge with the saint and guru Sanantan . Your further life is in the dark. According to some sources, she is said to have died in 1546, others say that she lived twenty years longer.

plant

Meera's Temple in Chittorgarh , Rajasthan

Mirabai is one of the poets of the Bhakti tradition, a mystical-religious movement in northern India in the 13th – 17th centuries. Century The followers of this path broke away from the fixed rituals and ceremonies of Brahmanism and the strict caste thinking . For them there was no difference before God and one wanted to approach him directly, without observing strict rites or the mediation of priests. This bhakti tradition can be compared with the Muslim Sufis and the Christian nuns who call themselves the 'bride of Christ', for example in the verses of the Catholic mystic Teresa of Ávila .

Mirabai has worshiped Krishna since childhood . In her love verses she praises the beauty of her lover, addresses him as wife, lover and servant. She always calls him with different names - for example 'darker', because of his dark complexion (according to Hindu tradition, Krishna is blue in skin). Many of Mirabai's verses allude to the legendary episodes of Krishna's childhood and youth in Vrindavan and Braj. She often writes from the point of view of the cowherd women, who were all in love with Krishna, the woman's favorite, and who repeatedly forgave him for his teasing and pranks. Over a thousand songs by Mirabai have come down to us. The text-critical Chaturvedi edition limits the selection of verses to 202 that can be considered authentic.

Mirabai was already a well-known figure when she sang her praises, the Bhajan and Kirtan , in front of pilgrims in Mewar in the temple outside the palace complex. It stands to reason that the pilgrims carried their songs beyond Rajasthan, where generations, colored in the respective regional languages, passed on them orally and often freely copied them. Her songs probably became popular in large parts of northern India even before she left Rajasthan to live in Braj (now West Uttar Pradesh , border region with Rajasthan) and Dwarka (Gujarat).

Oral traditions and the poet's biography have resulted in her verses being transmitted in several languages, mainly Rajasthani , Braj and Gujarati . Traces of Punjabi , Hindi and even Eastern languages ​​can be found in them. Almost all of Mirabai's verses have been preserved as songs whose tone sequences ( ragas , raginis) are fixed. The verses are written in meters, the strict form of which was not always maintained in favor of the setting. The first line of the songs serves as the title and is also the refrain. The last line always mentions the name of the poet and is therefore her seal.

bibliography

Mirabai Museum, Merta, Naugur District
  • Mirabai: love fool. The verses of the Indian poet and mystic .. Translated from the Rajasthani by Shubhra Parashar. Kelkheim, 2006 ( ISBN 3-935727-09-7 )
  • Caturvedī, Ācārya Parashurām (a): Mīrāʼnbāī kī padāvalī. (16th edition), Prayāg 1976
  • Alston, AJ: The Devotional Poems of Mīrābāī. Delhi 1980
  • Bly, Robert / Hirshfield, Jane: Mīrābāī: Ecstatic Poems. Boston, Massachusetts 2004
  • Levi, Louise Landes: Sweet On My Lips: The Love Poems of Mirabai. New York 1997
  • Schelling, Andrew: For Love of the Dark One: Songs of Mirabai. Prescott, Arizona 1998
  • Goetz, Hermann: Mira Bai: Her Life and Times. Bombay 1966

Movie

Web links

Commons : Meera (Mirabai)  - Collection of images, videos and audio files

Individual evidence

  1. ↑ Legend of Mira Bai retold by Anjali Panjabi in The Times of India of October 4, 2002
personal data
SURNAME Mirabai
ALTERNATIVE NAMES Meera; Mira; Mirabei; Meerabai; Mīrābāī; मीराबाई (Devanagari)
BRIEF DESCRIPTION Indian mystic and poet
DATE OF BIRTH around 1498
DATE OF DEATH 1546