Displacing Hindu orthodoxy in times of medieval siege was a difficult task but his inexorable critique did dent its domination. Kabir’s poetry reflects Dalit interrogation of objective reality. Kabir's poetry is a reflection of his philosophy about life. His writings were mainly based on the concept of reincarnation and karma. His poetry grows from social realities where he knows how or to what degree grief, pains undo one’s life. Kabir's philosophy about life was very clear-cut. He believed in living life in a very simplistic manner.
Says Kabir,
At death Hindu chant name of Rama
Muslims chant Khuda’s name
In their life-time neither of them
Does ever chant the same. (Trans’G.N.Das, 175.)
He had a strong faith in the concept of oneness of God. He advocated the notion of Koi bole Ram Ram ...Koi Khudai.... The basic idea was to spread the communication that whether you song the name of Hindu God or Muslim God, the fact is that there is only one God who is the creator of this stunning world. In his couplets and songs Kabir definitely proclaimed the oneness of humankind.
He was vocal against the Varna (caste) system. He formed his distinct identity so his disciples came to be known Kabir-Panthis. All men, he says, are creatures of the same Almighty Father, hail from same land and are made of the similar five fundamentals. He chose the middle path between fundamental division and absorption. Sharankumar Limbale has also felt:
The view of life conveyed in Dalit literature is different from the world of experience expressed hitherto…The reality of dalit literature is distinct and so is the language of this reality. It is the uncouth impolite language of the Dalits. It is the spoken language of Dalits. This language does not recognize cultivated gestures and grammar. (Limbale 33)
Kabir is the best- known voice for equality of caste and religions divisions in lyrical, striking, violently strong terms. Kabir, thus being a practical person to the core, uses nature as a vivacious and educative instrument to lay bare the secrets and the inner workings of man’s mind, only with a view to transforming him into improved human being. A lover of mankind, be strove to promote peace and human brotherhood on the spiritual base of the Oneness of subsistence. A mystic of the highest order, Kabir had a direct experience of Reality. He derived his thoughts from that dependable source of wisdom.
He was not only great poet but an artist also .His similes and metaphors were homely and ordinary. He questions the concept of purity so-obsessively peddled by the twice-born brahmins. He asks:
Tell me, O pandit,
What place is pure?
Where I can sit
And eat my meal?
(Trans., Dharwadkar, 124).
Kabir was against the caste system compulsory by the Hindu community and also opposed the idea of worshipping the statues. He advocated the Vedantic concepts of systems. The beauty of Kabir's poetry is that he accepts the conditions that surround our everyday lives. We can say that even today, Kabir's poetry is pertinent and obliging in both social and spiritual situation. Subsequent Kabir means understanding one's inner self, accepting oneself as is, and becoming tuneful with one's vicinity. He supported the idea of ordinary living that was advocated by the Sufis. To have a clear idea about the philosophy of saint Kabir, check out his poems and two line verses known as Doha’s that speak his mind and soul. Kabir says all the dissimilarity that men have created for them, they are fake. The couplets clear it very well:
Same is the semen, skin, urine
Same is the blood and bone
From single source we all are born
How one is a sudra, the other a Brahman? (Elsewhere)(G.N Das, pg xxi)
Kabir was firmly against the follow of insincerity and didn't like people maintaining binary standards. He always preached people to be compassionate towards other living beings and practice true love. He urged the need to have company of good people that stick to values and principles. Well, Kabir has very beautifully expressed his values and beliefs in his writings that include Dohas, poems, Ramainis, Kaharvaas and Shabads. Kabir not only had the power of his tongue with which he uttered his message to the people. He mocks false rituals, pomp and show and excessive histrionic attitude of Brahmanism and refuted the ideas he says:
The donkey is far better than Brahmin
Dog is better than other castes
The cock is better than the Mullah
They wake the people by their blasts. . (TransG.N.Das, 180.)
And then he goes on to join almost every site of life that is dismissed by the Brahmins as impure. Kabir implies that dividing men in to castes, tribe and creeds provides no help to them. According to him birds and animals are better than the castes, like ass, the cock and the dog that make useful service to men.
Cow dung’s impure,
The bathing-square’s impure –
It’s very curbs are nothing but impure.
Kabir says.
Only they are pure
Who’ve completely cleansed
Their thinking.
(Trans., Dharwadkar, 125)
Kabir’s writings organize of the fallacy that the Hindu mind was attentive to transcendental matters, and neglectful of ordinary affairs. Kabir’s range of knowledge was wide and he enjoyed life, people, pictures and flowers. He does not divide men from the cosmos and from the force of religion. He knows the full range of human sorrow and desire, scanty joy, and endless hope. He points to the agreement of the four main attention of human life dharma, artha, kama, moksha; the moral, the financial, the creative and the religious. Life becomes livable only through valid ties. To purify and illuminate those ties was the poet’s mission. Despite his frightening foregrounding social life, Kabir tends to gravitate more towards transcendence and metaphysics. This is how he seeks rejection. Now the basic question – ‘Can Kabir’s poetry be read as a Dalit text?’ Dalit literature is the exclusive monopoly of the Dalit writer; Kabir’s poetry can never be called a Dalit text for the simple season.
Kabir das was a scion of Hindi literature and has written on a numeral of subject. In all his writings he has talked about the structures of society and its regrettable aspects. He has talked about the regrettable situation of the Dalit society with a keen eye. Kabir says; renounce all family, caste, and race.
Turn into an ant,
Instead –
Pick the sugar [Hari] from the sand
And eat.
(Trans., Dharwadkar, 120).
Kabir saw nature as an unknown force competent of destroying man, but he also saw man’s fight with nature as, a ‘daring fight. This man always wants to exploit all powers of nature for his betterment and development.
The contemporary dalit literature then gives a voice to that moment of confrontation in the Dalit life. The writing of Dalit authors is committed and purposive. Kabir incorporated the grains of the Ambedkarite thought as well as other cultural insights. If at all there was a ‘class’, there was a class of the defeated which gave rise to their ‘untouchable’ and ‘subaltern’ status. Kabir has forcefully presented the unfortunate lot of an entire people. Kabir feels that Nirguniya’s character merit a place with the immortals of Hindi literature –
Premchand’s Hori and Surdas , Hazariprasad Dwivedi’s Nirguniya , Yashpal’s Tara and Mannu Bhandari’s Bunty. Kabir becomes a victor of “democratic socialism” in his poetry. It is, because despite accepting the short comings of the high caste Hindu oppressive systems, he does not dilute the marks of those human failings without which no personality/subjectivity would be complete. In fact, it is these failings that constitute the stuff of all real literature.
The work of Kabir may be read as socialist – it may as well be read as a Dalit text. In as much as we concede the power of imagination and freedom of literature to map human experiences – in as much as we credit dalit literature as the voice and agency of the oppressed. At the most Premchand (and Nirala) have been credited with some writings but, their writings have blatantly been sacrificed at the altar of casteism. However, writers like Paripurnnand Verma (Teen Din), Rameshwar Prasad Srivastava (Achoot) Janardan Rai (Roze), Indra Narayan Jha’s (Achoot), Om Prakash Sharama (Chandidas), Shailesh Matiyani (Hatyare) are some of the caste hindu writers who have enriched Hindi literature with their ‘dalitcentric’ emotions.
Basnett and Lefevere explained it very well:
Cultures make various demands on translations, and those demands also have to do with the states of the text to be translated. If the text comes even close to the status of ‘meta narrative or ‘central text’ embodying the fundamental beliefs of a culture, chances are the culture will demand the most literal translation possible. (7)
Says Kabir,
At death Hindu chant name of Rama
Muslims chant Khuda’s name
In their life-time neither of them
Does ever chant the same. (Trans’G.N.Das, 175.)
He had a strong faith in the concept of oneness of God. He advocated the notion of Koi bole Ram Ram ...Koi Khudai.... The basic idea was to spread the communication that whether you song the name of Hindu God or Muslim God, the fact is that there is only one God who is the creator of this stunning world. In his couplets and songs Kabir definitely proclaimed the oneness of humankind.
He was vocal against the Varna (caste) system. He formed his distinct identity so his disciples came to be known Kabir-Panthis. All men, he says, are creatures of the same Almighty Father, hail from same land and are made of the similar five fundamentals. He chose the middle path between fundamental division and absorption. Sharankumar Limbale has also felt:
The view of life conveyed in Dalit literature is different from the world of experience expressed hitherto…The reality of dalit literature is distinct and so is the language of this reality. It is the uncouth impolite language of the Dalits. It is the spoken language of Dalits. This language does not recognize cultivated gestures and grammar. (Limbale 33)
Kabir is the best- known voice for equality of caste and religions divisions in lyrical, striking, violently strong terms. Kabir, thus being a practical person to the core, uses nature as a vivacious and educative instrument to lay bare the secrets and the inner workings of man’s mind, only with a view to transforming him into improved human being. A lover of mankind, be strove to promote peace and human brotherhood on the spiritual base of the Oneness of subsistence. A mystic of the highest order, Kabir had a direct experience of Reality. He derived his thoughts from that dependable source of wisdom.
He was not only great poet but an artist also .His similes and metaphors were homely and ordinary. He questions the concept of purity so-obsessively peddled by the twice-born brahmins. He asks:
Tell me, O pandit,
What place is pure?
Where I can sit
And eat my meal?
(Trans., Dharwadkar, 124).
Kabir was against the caste system compulsory by the Hindu community and also opposed the idea of worshipping the statues. He advocated the Vedantic concepts of systems. The beauty of Kabir's poetry is that he accepts the conditions that surround our everyday lives. We can say that even today, Kabir's poetry is pertinent and obliging in both social and spiritual situation. Subsequent Kabir means understanding one's inner self, accepting oneself as is, and becoming tuneful with one's vicinity. He supported the idea of ordinary living that was advocated by the Sufis. To have a clear idea about the philosophy of saint Kabir, check out his poems and two line verses known as Doha’s that speak his mind and soul. Kabir says all the dissimilarity that men have created for them, they are fake. The couplets clear it very well:
Same is the semen, skin, urine
Same is the blood and bone
From single source we all are born
How one is a sudra, the other a Brahman? (Elsewhere)(G.N Das, pg xxi)
Kabir was firmly against the follow of insincerity and didn't like people maintaining binary standards. He always preached people to be compassionate towards other living beings and practice true love. He urged the need to have company of good people that stick to values and principles. Well, Kabir has very beautifully expressed his values and beliefs in his writings that include Dohas, poems, Ramainis, Kaharvaas and Shabads. Kabir not only had the power of his tongue with which he uttered his message to the people. He mocks false rituals, pomp and show and excessive histrionic attitude of Brahmanism and refuted the ideas he says:
The donkey is far better than Brahmin
Dog is better than other castes
The cock is better than the Mullah
They wake the people by their blasts. . (TransG.N.Das, 180.)
And then he goes on to join almost every site of life that is dismissed by the Brahmins as impure. Kabir implies that dividing men in to castes, tribe and creeds provides no help to them. According to him birds and animals are better than the castes, like ass, the cock and the dog that make useful service to men.
Cow dung’s impure,
The bathing-square’s impure –
It’s very curbs are nothing but impure.
Kabir says.
Only they are pure
Who’ve completely cleansed
Their thinking.
(Trans., Dharwadkar, 125)
Kabir’s writings organize of the fallacy that the Hindu mind was attentive to transcendental matters, and neglectful of ordinary affairs. Kabir’s range of knowledge was wide and he enjoyed life, people, pictures and flowers. He does not divide men from the cosmos and from the force of religion. He knows the full range of human sorrow and desire, scanty joy, and endless hope. He points to the agreement of the four main attention of human life dharma, artha, kama, moksha; the moral, the financial, the creative and the religious. Life becomes livable only through valid ties. To purify and illuminate those ties was the poet’s mission. Despite his frightening foregrounding social life, Kabir tends to gravitate more towards transcendence and metaphysics. This is how he seeks rejection. Now the basic question – ‘Can Kabir’s poetry be read as a Dalit text?’ Dalit literature is the exclusive monopoly of the Dalit writer; Kabir’s poetry can never be called a Dalit text for the simple season.
Kabir das was a scion of Hindi literature and has written on a numeral of subject. In all his writings he has talked about the structures of society and its regrettable aspects. He has talked about the regrettable situation of the Dalit society with a keen eye. Kabir says; renounce all family, caste, and race.
Turn into an ant,
Instead –
Pick the sugar [Hari] from the sand
And eat.
(Trans., Dharwadkar, 120).
Kabir saw nature as an unknown force competent of destroying man, but he also saw man’s fight with nature as, a ‘daring fight. This man always wants to exploit all powers of nature for his betterment and development.
The contemporary dalit literature then gives a voice to that moment of confrontation in the Dalit life. The writing of Dalit authors is committed and purposive. Kabir incorporated the grains of the Ambedkarite thought as well as other cultural insights. If at all there was a ‘class’, there was a class of the defeated which gave rise to their ‘untouchable’ and ‘subaltern’ status. Kabir has forcefully presented the unfortunate lot of an entire people. Kabir feels that Nirguniya’s character merit a place with the immortals of Hindi literature –
Premchand’s Hori and Surdas , Hazariprasad Dwivedi’s Nirguniya , Yashpal’s Tara and Mannu Bhandari’s Bunty. Kabir becomes a victor of “democratic socialism” in his poetry. It is, because despite accepting the short comings of the high caste Hindu oppressive systems, he does not dilute the marks of those human failings without which no personality/subjectivity would be complete. In fact, it is these failings that constitute the stuff of all real literature.
The work of Kabir may be read as socialist – it may as well be read as a Dalit text. In as much as we concede the power of imagination and freedom of literature to map human experiences – in as much as we credit dalit literature as the voice and agency of the oppressed. At the most Premchand (and Nirala) have been credited with some writings but, their writings have blatantly been sacrificed at the altar of casteism. However, writers like Paripurnnand Verma (Teen Din), Rameshwar Prasad Srivastava (Achoot) Janardan Rai (Roze), Indra Narayan Jha’s (Achoot), Om Prakash Sharama (Chandidas), Shailesh Matiyani (Hatyare) are some of the caste hindu writers who have enriched Hindi literature with their ‘dalitcentric’ emotions.
Basnett and Lefevere explained it very well:
Cultures make various demands on translations, and those demands also have to do with the states of the text to be translated. If the text comes even close to the status of ‘meta narrative or ‘central text’ embodying the fundamental beliefs of a culture, chances are the culture will demand the most literal translation possible. (7)
