Mīrābāī—a Saint or a Rebel?

Abstract

Mīrābāī—a Saint or a Rebel? There have been many attempts to narrate the life of Mīrābāī, the 16th-century Rajasthani princess and sant poetess. The extent of the texts centred around her life ranges from a few verses in Nābhādās’s Bhaktamāl from the beginning of the 17thcentury to the 20th/21st-century monographs. It substantially increases with time, especially in the past century, as well as does the quantity of information these texts provide to their readers. This paper compares the life writings by/about Mīrā from the two centuries after Mīrā’s alleged death with recent biographical material on Mīrā’s life and tries to classify the specific tendencies in interpreting her life in the recent publications as well as to identify the reasons behind them.

Keywords

• Mīrābāī
• biography
• bhakti poetry
• viraha
• Krishna
• Rajasthan