Meerabai, also known as Meera was born in a village, Kudki, to a 15th century royal Rajasthani Rajput family. She was the daughter of Ratan Singh, the Rajput ruler and losing her mother at an early age, was brought up by her grandfather, Rao Dudaji. The spiritual and the devotional fervour within her began to be revealed from an early age. She would pluck flowers, offer them at god’s feet and join the prayers, thereby, engaging herself in the divine practises from the very beginning of her life. Every religious matter was of a great interest to her and she adopted all the fundamental customs which were centered on the worship of God be they preparing garlands or joining the family priest in worship. Her divine inclination gradually became an indispensable part of her personality and her devotion reached a stage wherein she annihilated herself from the rest and adopted Lord Krishna as her whole world. Meera rested all her love, her faith, her devotion with Krishna and found in Him her sole refuge. This love grew to such an extent that she accepted Him as her husband. She says:
jake sir more mukut, mero pati soye
One who wears the peacock crown
Is my husband (Chaturvedi: 23)
She started behaving like a perfect devotee who knew nothing more than the presence of Lord around. She would carry out her day to day activities with Krishna by her side, in the form of idol, never letting Him apart. This tendency of hers worried her family and she was forced into marriage with Bhoj Raj, prince of Chittor. A spark of rebellion was ignited within her and it came to the forefront in the form of poetry that she narrated giving space to her devotion, her love and her experiences as well. It was customary for the bride to lea...
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...igin-regional, religious, political or social. There is always a connection that literature shares with life.
Works Cited
Alston, A. J. The Devotional Poems of Mirabai. Delhi: Motilal Banarasidass, 1980.
Bahadur, Krishna. Mirabai and her padas. New Delhi: Munshiram Manoharlal publishers, 2002.
Behari, Bankey. Bhakti Mira. Bombay: Bharatiya Vidya Bhawan, 1971.
Chaturvedi, B. Meera Bai. Delhi: Books For All, 2002.
Kishwar and Vanita. “Poison to Nectar: The Life of Mirabai”. Manushi Jan.1989: 75-90.
Martin, Nancy. “Mirabai Comes to America: The Translation and Transformation of a Saint”. The Journal of Hindu Studies. Oxford: Oxford University Press, 2010.
Nilsson, Usha. Mira Bai. Delhi: Sahitya Academy, 1969.
Sharma, Ambika. The Divine Incarnation. Delhi: Sarup and Sarup, 2002.
Subramanium, Krishna. Mystic Songs of Meera. New Delhi: Abhinav Publications, 2006.
Religion plays a major role in the day to day lives of the early settlers in America. So much so, that early colonial writers use it as a form of literary persuasion. John Smith and William Bradford were two such writers.
Ismail, M. (2008, February). Literature is the mirror of society. Campus Notes, 1(13), 1-10. Retrieved from
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