Satsang with Ananta Ananta
Apparatus

परिशिष्ट

Pronunciation, glossary, abhanga index, bibliography, method

अ.Method आ.Pronunciation इ.Glossary ई.Abhanga concordance उ.Bibliography

Method, in brief

This volume is an English study of Sant Janabai, gathering her surviving abhangas, her place in the Vārkarī sampradāya, and the modern scholarship that has kept her voice in circulation. The thirteen chapters and the Life are our prose. The Abhangas page presents seventy-two abhangas in a combined reader-and-source format: readable English renderings with expandable Marathi and line-by-line source panels. Irlekar's Marathi monograph remains the fullest single treatment of her work in any language and has been a sustained companion throughout. Other principal sources include Christian Lee Novetzke (Columbia University Press, 2008 and 2016), Irina Glushkova in The Indian Economic & Social History Review (2021), Nitya Pawar in the Palgrave Encyclopedia of Medieval Women's Writing (2022), Philip Constable in Modern Asian Studies (1997), and Justin E. Abbott's 1933 English translation of Mahipati's Bhaktavijaya. Where a specific reading, ordering, or interpretive move follows a named scholar, the chapter footnotes say so at the point of use. This is a reader's edition, not a critical one; the trail is named so the reader may walk it. Further on the work itself: see About this volume.

The Marathi text in the Abhangas source panels is taken from the Internet Archive's Tesseract OCR layer of the Irlekar 2002 edition (DLI item 2015.448804) and minimally re-formatted for stanza display. Diacritic-level OCR slips that do not change sense have been left in place. Substantive transcription errors, where caught, are noted on the relevant abhanga. Translation conventions follow Dilip Chitre's Says Tuka and the Murty Classical Library of India: short lines, Indic vocabulary kept, no padding for English meter, line numerals in the margin every fourth line.

The translation register operates on two tiers. Devotional vocabulary that the reader may not know (bhāva, vatsalya, sakhya, madhura, dāsī, saguṇa, viraha, sādhanā, dīkṣā, gathā, abhanga) is romanised plain and glossed at first mention. Technical terms of Vedānta and Yoga that carry doctrinal weight (sañjīvana samādhi, daśama-dvāra, brahmaikya, abheda-bodha, sākṣātkārī, nirguṇa) keep their diacritics. We write for the Advaita reader who is learning bhakti, not for the Sanskritist who already has it.

॥

Pronunciation, the names you will meet most often

Approximations for an English ear. Marathi pronunciation; tap the syllable in capitals.

  • JanabaiJUN-aa-baa-ee
  • Vitthalvi-TTHUL
  • Vithobavi-THOH-ba
  • PandharpurPUN-der-poor
  • PandurangPAAN-doo-rung
  • NamdevNAAM-dev
  • JnaneshwarDNYAA-nesh-wer
  • MuktabaiMUK-taa-baa-ee
  • Nivrittini-VRUT-tee
  • Sopanso-PAAN
  • Mahipatimuh-HEE-puh-tee
  • ChandrabhagaCHUN-dra-bhaa-gaa
  • GangakhedGUN-gaa-khed
  • AlandiAA-lun-dee
  • abhangauh-BHUNG
  • bhaktiBHUK-tee
  • bhāvaBHAA-va
  • vatsalyaVUT-sull-ya
  • sakhyaSUKH-ya
  • madhuraMUD-hoo-ra
  • dasiDAA-see
  • sagunaSUG-oon
  • nirgunaNEER-goon
  • brahmaikyabrah-MIKE-ya
॥

A short glossary, gloss-tier terms

abhanga
The Marathi devotional song-form, characteristic of the Varkari tradition. Short verses with a refrain, sung as kīrtana.
bhāva
The affective stance the devotee takes toward God. The classical bhakti tradition recognises five (śānta, dāsya, sakhya, vātsalya, mādhurya).
vatsalya
Parental tenderness. The bhāva of the parent toward the child-form of God. Yashoda for Krishna; in Janabai, the household members for the infant Vitthal.
sakhya
Friendship's love. The bhāva of the companion. Janabai uses it for Jnaneshwar.
madhura
The bride's love for the bridegroom. The "sweet" bhāva, taken in the Varkari tradition as the deepest devotional register.
dasi
Maidservant. The self-chosen lowest position. In bhakti, dāsya-bhāva is the love of the servant for the master, and the most common register of Janabai's signature line.
saguna
God with form, qualities, and name. The personal Vitthal of Pandharpur is saguna.
nirguna
God without form, beyond qualities. The Brahman of the Upanishads.
viraha
The love that burns in absence. The longing of the devotee for the Lord, or, in Janabai, the longing of the Lord for the devotee.
sadhana
Spiritual practice; the means of the path.
diksha
Formal initiation by a teacher. Janabai never received one in the conventional sense.
gatha
A collected gathering of a saint's verses. The Janabai Gatha, the Namdev Gatha, the Tukaram Gatha.
kīrtana
Devotional singing, usually communal, narrating the bhakti of the Lord.
varkari
Literally "one who undertakes the vāri." The pilgrimage tradition of Pandharpur, which Janabai's tradition belongs to.
vāri
The pilgrimage on foot to Pandharpur, undertaken twice yearly.
sākṣātkāra
Direct realization, the immediate seeing of what doctrine names from a distance. (Diacritics retained as a precision-tier term.)
brahmaikya
The state of identity with Brahman. The Advaita summit. (Diacritics retained.)
sañjīvana samādhi
The "living entombment" chosen by Nāth and Varkari saints, in which the saint enters samādhi while still alive and does not return. Jnaneshwar took it at Alandi at twenty-one.
daśama-dvāra
The "tenth door" or Brahmarandhra, the crown aperture above the nine bodily orifices. Goal of the kuṇḍalinī's rise in Nāth-yoga.
॥

Abhanga index, with concordance to Irlekar 2002

The core translated verses by gathā number, each linked to its card on the Abhangas page, with the page in Dr. Suhasini Yashwant Irlekar's 2002 monograph (Maharashtra Rajya Sahitya Sanskruti Mandal, Mumbai, 149 pages) where each verse is discussed. The first thirty entries below are the abhangas anchored in the early-pass clusters and carry the Irlekar concordance directly. The remaining twenty-two (added in later cluster-expansion passes drawing on the broader Marathi gathā tradition and on web-sourced references) carry the gathā number and the cluster anchor on the Abhangas page; their Irlekar page is given where known.

  • 31through-the-bride, dasi-bhāvap. 11
  • 137Vithoba at the bāraśī, vatsalyap. 9
  • 226Pandhari-nath at the mortarp. 22
  • 229the Lord caught by bhakti-bhāvap. 36
  • 257the Lord caught at the chakkip. 34
  • 258Jnaneshwar names the wonderp. 35
  • 259the empty temple at Kakaḍ Āratip. 34
  • 260four-handed washingp. 23
  • 261nāri-rūpa, the form of a co-womanp. 26
  • 262the Lord scolded for showing upp. 22
  • 263the dung-bundlep. 23
  • 264wilderness gatheringp. 23
  • 268fetching waterp. 23
  • 270the household roll-callp. 7
  • 284the Diwali bathp. 9
  • 317grinding into Brahmanp. 41
  • 322the dasi-name droppingp. 42
  • 323jīva-Śiva sāmarasyap. 42
  • 326the river to the oceanp. 43
  • 328the everywhere-of-Godp. 41
  • 335Vitthal pining for Namdevp. 10
  • 335piercing the nine doorsp. 47
  • 336the four śūnyasp. 45
  • 337the so'haṃ flamep. 45
  • 338the three nāḍīs in the heartp. 46
  • 359the dasi's daily vowp. 37
  • 360the dasi inheriting the wealthp. 37
  • 403the Jnaneshwari as māherp. 38
  • 404the gold plate, the thin gruelp. 38
  • 405the saint as kin: dying, and rebirth in his housep. 38
  • 406the saint as ferry-boatp. 38

Cluster-expansion entries (added in later passes)

Twenty-two further verses translated for the cluster-expansion passes. Drawn from the broader Janabai-gathā tradition and the standard Sakal Sant Gathā editions; not all carry Irlekar page references.

  • 160Pundalik brings Vitho down to earth·
  • 161the seal of Pundalik's bhāva·
  • 162Pundalik as Chakravartī·
  • 168Pandurang and the family of saints·
  • 174Pandurang on his brick·
  • 177Pundalik's parent-bhāva·
  • 296cow-dung gathered with the Lord behind·
  • 298Pandurang at the saint-mandalī·
  • 304Pundalik as parent of all bhaktas·
  • 366hold bhāva, walk to Pandhari·
  • 367the company of saints as the only door·
  • 381the saint is God; the household analogies·
  • 382do not look on those who hold the saint apart·
  • 383the saint is God, God is the saint·
  • 390refuse mokṣa for company at Pandhari·
  • 392the merchant-renunciate refused·
  • 281he made his home in my house·
  • 416Namdev portrait, household roll-call variant·
  • 417household roll-call, second listing·
  • 418Namdev as Master, the dāsī's tribute·
  • 477the inversion-puzzle, "a wonder, a wonder"·
  • 478Khaṇḍerāya, the in-laws as five klesas·
॥

Works consulted in preparing this volume

  1. इर्लेकर, सुहासिनी य. संत जनाबाई. Mumbai: Maharashtra Rajya Sahitya Sanskruti Mandal, June 2002. 149 pages. (The source monograph this companion engages with.)
  2. Internet Archive scan of the same edition with Tesseract 5.3.0 Devanagari OCR: DLI item 2015.448804. Plain-text, HOCR, and searchable PDF layers all available.
  3. Mahipati Taharabadkar. Bhaktavijaya. 1762. Cited via Irlekar from the Nirnaya Sagar Press reprint, Mumbai 1950. The 17th-century hagiography from which most of Janabai's biographical material derives.
  4. For the standard Marathi text of Janabai's verses: Sakal Sant Gatha, published by the Government of Maharashtra. Also: Sri Namdev Gatha, Maharashtra Rajya Sahitya Sanskruti Mandal, which contains many verses attributed to Namdev that may in fact be Janabai's, sung in his household and absorbed under his signature.
  5. Dilip Chitre. Says Tuka: Selected Poetry of Tukaram. Penguin Classics, 1991. The translation conventions used in this companion's Abhangas page follow Chitre's: short lines, Indic vocabulary kept, no padding.
  6. Vinay Dharwadker. Kabir: The Weaver's Songs. Penguin Classics, 2003. Comparable English translation conventions for North Indian sant-poetry.
  7. The Murty Classical Library of India series (Harvard University Press) for the parallel-text format conventions adopted in this edition layout.
  8. Author entry for Suhasini Irlekar (rendered Erlekar in some sources): Marathi Vishwakosh. (The author was a poetess and literary critic in her own right; Sant Janabai is the third of her presentations of Janabai's poetry.)

Web and scholarly sources cited in the rewritten chapters (I, II, III)

The chapter footnotes in chapters I, II, and III draw on the following sources. Devotional-aggregator sites are listed where they were used for restating tradition; for theologically load-bearing claims in subsequent chapters, the bibliography will be upgraded to peer-reviewed academic press sources alongside.

  1. Wikipedia, "Janabai"; "Vithoba"; "Pundalik"; "Namdev"; "Dnyaneshwar"; "Eleanor Zelliot"; "Bhaktavijaya".
  2. Encyclopædia Britannica, "Namdev"; "Dnyaneshwar".
  3. Nitya Pawar (2022). "Janabai." In The Palgrave Encyclopedia of Medieval Women's Writing in the Global Middle Ages. Springer International Publishing. DOI: 10.1007/978-3-030-76219-3_45-1.
  4. Irina Glushkova (2021). "Janabai and Gangakhed of Das Ganu: Towards ethnic unity and religious cohesion in a time of transition." The Indian Economic & Social History Review, 58(4): 505–532. DOI: 10.1177/00194646211041156.
  5. Irina Glushkova (2000). "Give Me Back My Blanket! Vārkarī Saints Striving for Their Bodies." Annals of the Bhandarkar Oriental Research Institute, 81(1/4): 15–34. JSTOR: 41694605.
  6. Christian Lee Novetzke (2015). "Note to Self: What Marathi Kirtankars' Notebooks Suggest about Literacy, Performance, and the Travelling Performer in Pre-Colonial Maharashtra." Open Book Publishers. DOI: 10.11647/obp.0062.05.
  7. Mahipati Taharabādkar. Bhaktavijaya (1762). Translated by Justin E. Abbott & Narhar R. Godbole as Stories of Indian Saints (Pune, 1933; Delhi: Motilal Banarsidass reprint, 1988). Public domain. Online at wisdomlib.org; full Internet Archive scans at archive.org vol. 1 and vol. 2.
  8. Eleanor Zelliot & Maxine Berntsen, eds. The Experience of Hinduism: Essays on Religion in Maharashtra. Albany: SUNY Press, 1988. Online at archive.org.
  9. R. D. Ranade. Mysticism in India: The Poet-Saints of Maharashtra. SUNY Press, 1983. ISBN 978-0-87395-669-7.
  10. Anne Feldhaus. Images of Women in Maharashtrian Literature and Religion. SUNY Press, 1996. ISBN 978-0-7914-2837-5.
  11. Philip Constable (1997). "Early Dalit Literature and Culture in Late Nineteenth- and Early Twentieth-Century Western India." Modern Asian Studies, 31(2): 317–338. DOI: 10.1017/S0026749X00014323.
  12. Oxford Bibliographies, "Pandharpur and Vitthal" (Hinduism module).
  13. Hindupedia, "Vithoba of Pandharpur".
  14. The New Historia, "Janabai".
  15. The Sikh Encyclopedia, "Namdev's Hymns in Sikh Scripture".
  16. For the classical bhāva-rasa taxonomy of Vaiṣṇava bhakti (Chapter II): bhaktitattva.com, "The Elements of Bhakti Rasa"; ISKCON Bangalore, "A Sample of Five Primary Rasas"; Vraj Vrindavan, "5 Rasas"; Bhakta Bandhav, "General Description of Sthāyibhāva"; Indian Scriptures, "Kinds of Bhāvas". (These are devotional-aggregator sites and are acceptable for restating tradition; for scholarly load-bearing work, see Haberman's translation of the Bhakti-rasāmṛta-sindhu, IGNCA / Motilal 2003.)
  17. Sanatan Sanstha, "Devotional songs of Saint Janabai"; "Saints Namdev and Janabai are matchless examples of bhāv-bhakti". (Sectarian source; cited for tradition's self-understanding only.)
  18. Adimanav Studios, "The Varkari Tradition: A Legacy of Bhakti".

Sources still to be added (per the editorial council's specification for chapters IV–VII)

The next batch of chapter rewrites will draw additionally on the following peer-reviewed academic-press sources, to be cited inline:

  1. David L. Haberman, trans. The Bhaktirasāmṛtasindhu of Rūpa Gosvāmin. IGNCA / Motilal Banarsidass, 2003. (For Chapter II's bhāva taxonomy, in place of the devotional-aggregator citations.)
  2. David Gordon White. The Alchemical Body: Siddha Traditions in Medieval India. University of Chicago Press, 1996. (For Chapter VI's Nāth-tradition framing.)
  3. David Gordon White. Sinister Yogis. University of Chicago Press, 2009. (For Chapter VI.)
  4. Christian Lee Novetzke. Religion and Public Memory: A Cultural History of Saint Namdev in India. Columbia University Press, 2008. (For Chapter VII's Vārkarī sect-formation argument.)
  5. Stanford Encyclopedia of Philosophy, "Śaṅkara" / "Advaita Vedanta." (For Chapter V's brahmaikya framing.)
  6. The published English translation of the Jñāneśvarī (Pradhan / Lambert, eds.), for Chapter V's Marathi-Vārkarī inflection of nirguṇa.
॥ श्री ॥

This companion will grow as more of Irlekar's argument is read. The work she did in 2002 deserves an English reader.

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