A mother's abandonment, the turn of fate
Original Marathi from the Tukaram Gatha · About Sant Tukaram
मराठी मूळ
सांडियेला गर्भ उबगोनि माउली । नाहीं सांभािळली भूमि शुद्ध ॥1॥
उष्ण तान भूक एवढिये आकांतीं । ओसंगा लाविती काय ह्मुण ॥ध्रु.॥
खांद्यावरि शूळ मरणाचिये वाटे । अन्याय ही मोठे केले साच ॥2॥
हातींचा हिरोनि घातला पोटासी। तुका ह्मणे ऐसी परी जाली ॥3॥
ओंव्या प्रारंभ 231 अभंग 3
Tukaram Gatha (Marathi Wikisource)
English Translation
The mother, weary and in distress, abandoned the child at birth, not caring whether the ground was clean. In such a crisis of heat, thirst, and hunger, who can be expected to hold the infant to her bosom? With death's trident upon her shoulders, on the road to execution, grave wrongs had truly been committed. What was snatched from her hands was thrust into the belly of another. Says Tuka, such was the turn of fate.
We ask forgiveness for any inaccuracies in rendering Tukaram ji’s original Marathi.
In Plain Words
The mother, worn out and in distress, left the child at birth. She did not see whether the ground was clean. In such heat and thirst and hunger, who can hold the infant to her breast? With death's trident on her shoulders, on the road to execution, great wrongs had truly been done. What was torn from her hands was thrust into another's belly. Tuka says: such was the turn of fate.
What it means
Tukaram looks at an act that horrifies, a mother abandoning her newborn, and refuses to flatten it into simple blame. He sets it inside her crisis: she is half dead herself, driven by heat, thirst, hunger, and a sentence of death already on her shoulders. The wrong is real and named as wrong, yet the verse asks what such a crushed person can be expected to do. The last image is bleak, what was hers torn away and given to another's hunger, and Tukaram leaves it as fate's turning, pointing the eye at the whole machinery of suffering rather than at one ruined woman.
Sacred Stories
Abhangas drawing on mythological narratives to illuminate spiritual truths.
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