The तुकाराम Archive

Scattered through the Gāthā, never in order. They attest a hereditary Wārkarī family with a Viṭṭhal shrine; the loss of the village Mahājan office through debt; the famine "around 1629" in which his first wife and a son died; fifteen days on Bhāmchandra hill and the poems composed in the cave on Bhaṇḍārā hill; the dream in which Bābājī names the lineage and gives the mantra; a second dream in which Nāmdev and Viṭṭhal commission him to write; the ordeal of sinking his notebooks in the Indrāyaṇī at the Brahmins' demand and their return "after thirteen days"; and the refusal of a king's gifts (दिवट्या छत्री घोडे). The Gāthā has no chronology, so every "autobiography" built from these is a scholar's reconstruction.

The only surviving eyewitness testimony. She saw Tukaram in dreams, her family came to Dehu, and Mambājī Gosāvī refused them lodging, wrote to Pune against Tukaram and beat her cow; she watched Tukaram from the pilgrims' quarters and "could not make him a namaskār, for fear of my husband." It does not mention his departure. Counts differ: 473 verses (English Wikipedia) against roughly 732 compositions (Marathi Wikipedia). Some sources say she never met him in person; Abbott's text places her at Dehu in his lifetime but never approaching him. Both are stated here.

The first hagiography, written a century after Tukaram's departure; the Tukaram chapters ("Tukaram", "Tukaram and Nimbaraj", "Tukaram and Dev of Chinchvad") fix the miracle stories the tradition still tells. Nīlobā appears in chapter 59.

The longest early life of Tukaram — sixteen chapters — and the source most later biographies quietly depend on. Abbott's translation is the standard English access to it and carries many abhangas as Mahīpati quotes them.

Contemporary copies, taken down as the abhangas were composed; their rustic readings match the Dehu autograph and differ from the smoothed printed text. V. L. Bhāve printed a Santājī manuscript in 1919 (about 1,376 abhangas). English Wikipedia gives his birthplace as Chākaṇ; Marathi sources say Sudumbre. Where the original notebooks are today is not verified.

Demanded that Tukaram sink his notebooks in the Indrāyaṇī; converted after the ordeal; composed abhangas in Tukaram's praise and is counted among the ṭāḷkarī. One Marathi life says that of the companions, only Rāmeshwar Bhaṭṭ testifies that Tukaram went bodily to Vaikuṇṭha (single source). Nānāmahārāj Sākhare's 1990 Gāthā prints his abhangas alongside Kānhobā's.

The first printed and first critical Gāthā. Collated the four manuscripts above and declared it would "faithfully reproduce the text… even where it appeared indecent." The preface says "about 4,621" abhangas; later reckonings count 4,607 numbered — both figures circulate. Volume 2 (Shaka 1795 = 1873) adds "a complete index to the poems and a glossary of difficult words" — the earliest first-line index. The Library of Congress catalogues both volumes under 1869. Every Dehu-order edition since descends from this text; Chitre translated from it.

The maximalist collection: its preface claims "about 9,000" abhangas (over 10,000 with prefatory verses); Marathi Wikipedia says 8,400. This is where the "8,000+" figure comes from. Arranged "by prakaraṇa — bhakti, jñāna, vairāgya…"

Re-arranged by subject because earlier editions "lack systematic classification." Its table of contents is the thematic map later editions inherit: मंगलाचरण, रूपके, बाळक्रीडा, गौळणी, काला, एकाक्षरी, भेटीचे अभंग, देवाशीं सलगीचीं भाषणें, देवापाशीं मागणें, देवाशीं प्रेमाचें भांडण, करुणापर, स्थितिपर, संतपर, कीर्तनपर, नामपर, पंढरीमाहात्म्य, उपदेशपर, अद्वैतपर; Part II स्फुट व प्रासंगिक.

"The first sārtha (annotated) Gāthā." The foundation of the devotional reading: the text most kīrtankārs and the Āḷandī school learn from, later translated into Gujarati. The santsahitya.in online सार्थ गाथा reproduces it. In print from Dharmik Prakāshan Sansthā (ISBN 9788185990440, bookseller listing). No source states its abhang count; no free scan — the 1901 Āvaṭe scan above may in fact be this edition (to check).

Reproduces the Santājī Telī manuscript (about 1,376 abhangas) and argues that some abhangas dismissed as interpolations appear in this early witness. A textual-critical intervention, not a reading text.

Notable for segregating a separate क्षेपक (doubtful) section, printing the Hindi pieces as हिंदुस्थानी पदें, and adding sections such as घोंगडीचे अभंग, पौराणिक अभंग, भूपाळ्या व आरत्या, तुकोबांवर सद्गुरुकृपा, कवित्वाचा विचार, with variant readings and an abhang index.

A reprint of the Paṇḍit text with a new critical introduction (sigla दे, त), numbered to 4,607, two more added by the errata (2211-अ, 4154-अ) for "an overall count of 4,609", plus the 27 Pandharpur-only abhangas and a list of duplicates (दुबार अभंगांची यादी). When a scholar writes "abhang 291", this is usually the numbering meant. Most online texts descend from it. The archive.org record's metadata is garbled (wrong publisher, "Hindi") but the scan is the 1955 volume — check the title page before citing.

The abhang-form rendering of the Bhagavad Gītā attributed to Tukaram, with a critical preface and a biography built from documentary sources. Bendre is the scholar who put the dates (1608–1650) on a documentary footing; Chitre calls parts of his reconstruction "largely conjectural."

Thematic prakaraṇas with word-meanings, notes and a running exposition for every abhang — the closest thing to a glossary of the Gāthā in print, and free to read. Its preface notes that complete collections run 4,500–5,000+. Not to be confused with Jog's सार्थ गाथा.

The edition that keeps Kānhobā's and Rāmeshwar Bhaṭṭ's abhangas beside Tukaram's. The Sākhare Mahārāj line (Āḷandī) is the living Wārkarī commentarial tradition. The archive.org copy is a community upload marked CC0; a 1990 book is likely still in copyright.

Abhangas Bendre recovered from manuscript sources outside the printed canon, published posthumously. Marathi Wikipedia's Tukaram entry links to it as a live reference.

Described in its preface, signed by both editors, as a "reconstruction or restoration of the Dehu recension, established from the Paṇḍit text" — the family's own edition, arguing that each recension has "independent standing and importance" alongside a critical text. The preface cites the Government numbering and names the manuscripts at Dehu, Talegaon, Pandharpur and Kaḍūs, plus Bāḷājī Jagnāḍe's unpublished manuscript and Shrīdharbuvā More-Dehukar's nineteenth-century copy of the Dehu recension. Its count, 4,583, is Wikisource's count too — but the two orderings differ. The archive.org upload is catalogued misleadingly as a Hindi book; it is this Marathi edition.

The nativist critic's reading-selection: if you want one affordable Marathi volume chosen by a poet-scholar rather than a sect, this is it.

Often mis-listed as a Gujarati translation. It is the Marathi text transliterated for Gujarati readers — evidence of how far the Gāthā travelled a century ago.

3,721 abhangas in prose (Chitre's count), following the Indu-Prakāsh text — abhangas 1 to about 1,500 in Fraser's own words "one-third of the whole", omitting Kānhobā's pieces and all the Hindi ones. Dry, Victorian, and still the only near-complete English Gāthā from the standard text; indispensable as a crib. The DLI record for vol. 1 wrongly credits Motilal Banarsidass with the 1909 printing.

The book that made Tukaram a modern poet in English. Chitre had translated "about 600 abhangs" over thirty years from the 1873 Paṇḍit edition, and arranged the selection in ten sections as "a poetic self-portrait." The 90-page introduction is the best short life and the key literary essay; it was long available at tukaram.com (that site is now only intermittently reachable). Basis of the German and Spanish versions below. No second volume was ever published, despite the "Says Tuka-1" title. Note: Chitre's 1994 main Sahitya Akademi Award was for his Marathi poetry, not this book.

76 of the 108 hymns are Tukaram's (the rest Dnyāneshwar, Muktābāī, Nāmdev, Janābāī, Eknāth). The standard English Tukaram for seventy years before Chitre; comparative-missionary in framing, bhakti as a "psalmic" mysticism.

Gandhi made prose translations of sixteen Tukaram abhangas in Yeravdā Jail between 15 and 28 October 1930. First lines include "Thrice blest that land", "He, he alone is God's true worshipper", "This is my last petition", "God's truest saint is he who holdeth other's woe to be his own" (जे का रंजले गांजले) and "Wheresoever I go Thou art my comrade" (जेथे जातो तेथे). The textual anchor of the Gandhian reading.

The Quaker who versified Gandhi's prison translations also made his own two small volumes. Poem counts not verified. Both on archive.org, the first lending-only.

The avant-garde Tukaram: "Tuka is stark raving mad", "Narayan is insolvent", "It was a case (God rob God)", "My body takes on", "You pawned", "I it was". Wikipedia's line that he "published six volumes" of these in 1966 is an error — it was nine poems in a magazine.

A political-egalitarian selection with a 60-page introduction: autobiographical poems; refusing to meet Shivājī; who "we" Wārkarīs are; social and religious critique; religious questioning. Reviewed by Christian Novetzke, Religious Studies Review 40 (2014).

A jugalbandī: the same abhang rendered twice, by two translators, in three thematic sections. The most recent serious English Tukaram; launched at the Goa Arts & Literature Festival, February 2024.

A hundred poems with a long introduction on the Wārkarī movement, the life and the form.

A small selection by the Hindi poet-critic; his papers also list an article "Tukaram: Twenty-five poems." A Sahitya Akademi monograph on Tukaram by Māchwe is often cited; the catalogue of his papers lists Akademi monographs only on Keshavsut, Kabīr, Rāhul Sāṅkṛtyāyan and Nāmdev, so it almost certainly does not exist — the Akademi's Makers of Indian Literature Tukaram is Nemāḍe's.

Life and teachings with many poems translated, from a Sant-mat publisher; count unstated.

Existence confirmed on archive.org; whose translations Deming used (presumably Fraser–Marāṭhe) and the nature of Muṅge's book are not verified.

Eating God: A Book of Bhakti Poetry, ed. Arundhathi Subramaniam, Penguin 2014 · Love and the Turning Seasons, ed. Andrew Schelling, Counterpoint/Aleph 2014 (translator of the Tukaram pieces to check) · the Longman Anthology of World Literature vol. C carries nine abhangas in Chitre's versions (to check). Not included, despite the common assumption: Hawley & Juergensmeyer's Songs of the Saints of India (1988), which covers only north-Indian saints.

Popular and lovely, and not translations: Ladinsky's are free "renderings" with no claim to the Marathi text. Quote them as Ladinsky, never as Tukaram.

The standard devotional-scholarly Marathi life for half a century; the source of the 1632 date for the dream-initiation. Pāṅgārkar did not edit a Gāthā, despite frequent claims.

The standard English monograph for sixty years: life from Mahīpati and the abhangas, teaching read against Christian mysticism, and an honest discussion of the ascension legend (they hint at drowning). Kessinger facsimiles 2006/07.

The historian's Tukaram: contemporaries, milieu and dates argued from documents rather than hagiography. The place to check the fourteen ṭāḷkarī, the guru's identity (Bendre held Bābājī Chaitanya was a living guru met in 1640 — to check) and the death.

The deśīvād (nativist) critic's short, dense monograph, "profusely quoted in translation." The best sixty pages in English on the social background and the craft.

Selection with introduction, running commentary and epilogue — the literary-modernist re-reading, Tukaram as a great poet first and a saint second. Chitre's grandfather Kāshināth Gupte was a Tukaram scholar. Companion to Says Tuka.

Reads the history of Maharashtra "through Tukaram's lens": how he was claimed in turn by Wārkarīs, Peshwās, reformers, nationalists and Marxists. The single most influential recent Marathi study, by the tenth-generation descendant. Other More titles: ताटीचे अभंग: एक विवेचन (1995), ज्ञानबा तुकाराम (2000, Dehu Devasthān), तुका म्हणे (2001), प्रसादाची वाणी, पालखीसोहळा उगम आणि विकास (1995, Dehu Devasthān), सार्थ निवडक सकल संत गाथा.

The rationalist-Bahujan reading: Tukaram as rebel against Vedic-Brahminical authority, and the argument that the "Vaikuṇṭha-gaman" masks a killing. Controversial, widely read, and the book the departure debate now orbits.

The early statement of the murder thesis that Sāḷuṅkhe later developed.

A devotional-spiritual biography ("Tukaram's spiritual life") from the Wārkarī side of the room.

H. R. Divekar, Sant Tukaram (Hindi), Hindustani Academy, Allahabad, 1950 · Bābājīrāo Rāṇe, संत तुकाराम, Rāmkṛṣṇa Maṇḍaḷ, 1951 · Mañjushrī Gokhale, तुकयाची आवली, Mehta, 2008 — a novel of the second wife · Mādhav Potdār, सुंदर ते ध्यान, Anubandha, 2009 · D. D. Paruḷekar, तुका म्हणे, Sāmant, 2009.

How two generations of Indian children first met him.

The most complete free text. There are no per-abhang anchors — open the range page and find-in-page by number. The first-line index (गाथासूची) is alphabetical, each line with its number. The source edition is not declared anywhere on the site. The page history shows the text was transwiki-imported from Marathi Wikipedia on 14 February 2012 (users Katyare and Rahuldeshmukh101), bulk-expanded on 29 March 2012 by an anonymous editor, and given its first-line index in April 2014. Its count of 4,583 matches the Dehu Devasthān edition but the ordering differs; the ordering is most consistent with the Government Gāthā (to check). Good for reading and searching; name the edition when citing.

The nearest thing to an abhang search engine. Its सार्थ गाथा reproduces Jog's commentary. Blocks automated access, so links may need a real browser.

Useful for browsing by theme. The English is auto-generated for all but 13 abhangas (which carry Fraser & Marāṭhe), and the site says so — treat it as a machine gloss, not a translation.

The place for a Roman-script machine-readable text.

The best single stop for comparing editions side by side.

Sant Tukaram Gatha (KK Team) — index-wise list with meanings, alphabetical and pārāyaṇ order, search; kīrtankārs use it · Tukaram Gatha (Piyush Chaudhari Foundation) · Tukaram Gatha (Bapusaheb Shinde) — searchable; collects location data · Sant Tukaram Gatha (Kisanlāl Sardā / Gaṅgeshwarānandjī Pratiṣṭhān) — audio playlists; the only iOS Gāthā app found.

GitHub has only one relevant repository (tukaGPT, a small Marathi language-model experiment with a data folder of unstated provenance). The practical route is to dump the fifteen Wikisource pages through the MediaWiki API and align them to a numbered edition yourself.

The only complete audio Gāthā we found.

The voice of the 1936 film, on shellac.

The recitation form, as opposed to Dr Deshmukh's read-with-meanings above. No Storytel, Audible or Pocket FM Gāthā audiobook was found; Kuku FM has a premium "Sant Tukaram Maharaj" series whose narrator is not shown (to check).

Pages on the life, the gurukul, the abhang collection and the trust's eight publications (through its Vāṅmay Prakāshan Sansthā, Āḷandī): a Dnyāneshwarī, Tukobārāy Rojnishī, Bhajanī Mālikā, Vidurnīti, Eknāth, a Sant Tukaram Gāthā, Sadāchārdīp, a Haripāṭh. Its "creation" page gives the dates: trust founded 14 January 1992 by H.B.P. Mādhav Mahārāj Magar, construction from 7 March 1996, inauguration 17 March 2008. It gives no count of the abhangas engraved.

सुंदर तें ध्यान (no. 2) · आनंदाचे डोहीं (3241) · खेळ मांडियेला वाळवंटी (189) · भेटीलागीं जीवा (2811) · जेथें जातों तेथें (1989) · वृक्षवल्ली आम्हां सोयरीं (2471) · अगा करुणाकरा (2815) · कमोदिनी काय जाणे (533) · कन्या सासुर्‍यासी जाये (266) · plus हाचि नेम आतां, हेंचि दान देगा देवा and the जय जय रामकृष्ण हरी nāma-chant. Nine of the twelve confirmed in the index. The album most Marathi households know the abhangas from.

Confirmed Tukaram in the index: जें का रंजलें गांजलें (347; Abhangwani Vol. 2, Saregama 1980) · सांवळें सुंदर रूप मनोहर (3991; Khaḷe) · पावलों पंढरीं वैकुंठभुवन (3884; Phāṭak) · आतां कोठें धांवे मन (3734; Phāṭak) · राजस सुकुमार मदनाचा पुतळा (4; Khaḷe) · अणुरणीयां थोकडा — तुका आकाशाएवढा (987; Phāṭak) · and, on the T-Series album तुका झालासे कळस (Khaḷe): याजसाठीं केला होता अट्टाहास (348), दाटे कंठ लागे डोळियां पाझर (2413), आम्हां घरीं धन शब्दांचींच रत्नें (3385), हरिनामवेली पावली विस्तार (3244). Not Tukaram's despite the sleeve or the playlist: वैष्णवां घरीं सर्वकाळ (Nāmdev), ज्ञानियांचा राजा गुरु महाराव (not in the index), माझें माहेर पंढरी (Eknāth), तीर्थ विठ्ठल क्षेत्र विठ्ठल (Nāmdev), इंद्रायणी काठी (film lyric).

Not Tukaram's, though filed under his name: अबीर गुलाल उधळीत रंग is Chokhāmeḷā's; the T-Series Bhakti Tarang songs (आम्ही विठ्ठलाचे वारकरी etc.) are by lyricist Pravīṇ Davaṇe; आम्हां न कळे ज्ञान is not in the index. Abhiṣekī's own official release of बोलावा विठ्ठल could not be located — only Āmoṇkar's.

Sudhīr Phaḍke — दीप घेऊनियां धुंडिती अंधार (563) · Suman Kalyāṇpur — बुडतां आवरीं मज (732; comp. Kamalākar Bhāgwat, Saregama) · Prabhākar Kārekar — लागोनियां पायां विनवितों (2864; singer-composer, Sagarika) · Suresh Wāḍkar — आवडीचें दान देतो नारायण (2083) · Anurādhā Pauḍwāl — सुंदर तें ध्यान (2), on Sant Tukobanchi Abhang Vani, T-Series, 2 January 1995. Not Tukaram's: Māṇik Varmā's अमृताहुनी गोड नाम तुझें देवा; Vasantrāo Deshpāṇḍe's कानडा राजा पंढरीचा (Māḍguḷkar).

आतां कोठें धांवे मन (3734) · माझें चित्त तुझे पायीं (3360) · बोलावा विठ्ठल (1331) · आणीक दुसरें मज नाहीं आतां (696) · सुंदर तें ध्यान (2). All five confirmed in the index.

Ānand Bhāṭe — धांव घालीं आई (846; comp. Salīl Kulkarṇī, film Pānghrūṇ) and करा नारायणा (605; Sonic Octaves, music Aruṇ Sarāf) · Devakī Paṇḍit — आपुल्या माहेरा जाईन (1587; comp. Vilās Pāṭīl, Shemaroo) · Āryā Āmbekar — सुंदर तें ध्यान (2) · Rāhul Deshpāṇḍe — आनंदाचे डोहीं (3241; film Pushpak Vimaan, 2018); his Times Music single गोड तुझें रूप is credited to Tukaram but is not in the index. Mahesh Kāḷe's signature अवघे गरजे पंढरपूर is not Tukaram's (popularly Nāmdev's), and "Abhangwari" is Kāḷe's own song and tour brand (Rāhul Deshpāṇḍe also tours under it), not a Tukaram text.

Abhanga Repost (Mumbai; led by Virāj Āchārya; 600+ shows; third album The Last Row; founding year not found) — no index-confirmed Tukaram text on their official releases (चल ग सखे पंढरीला is their own lyric quoting "तुका म्हणे"; "Pundalik Varde 2.0 – Tukaram Tukaram" is credited "Traditional"). Shankar Mahādevan's ज्ञानोबा माउली तुकाराम is the wārī chant, not an abhang. Ajay-Atul: no Tukaram setting found; their खेळ मांडला is Guru Ṭhākūr's, not Tukaram's खेळ मांडियेला (189). Coke Studio, Kailash Kher, Agnee: nothing found.

1936 (Keshavrāo Bhoḷe, sung by Pāgnis; Saregama reissue ℗1999): सदा माझे डोळे जडो तुझे मूर्ती (3), नाम घेतां उठाउठीं (2770), आणीक दुसरें मज नाहीं आतां (696), वृक्षवल्ली (2471); आधी बीज एकले is Āṭhavale's lyric (not in the index); पांडुरंग ध्यानीं पांडुरंग मनीं is also not in the index as an opening line — flagged. The complete song list of the film was not found. · 1965 (Hindi): music A. Abdul Khader; singers Mohammed Rafi, Manna Dey, Asha Bhosle; "Ham To Chale Apne Gaon" is the Hindi of आम्ही जातों आमुच्या गांवा, "Pehle Beej Akela" of Āṭhavale's line. · 2012 (Paṭkī & Gupte): सदा माझे डोळां (3), वृक्षवल्ली (2471); Hariharan's कोरडं आभाळ is a Dāsū Vaidya lyric, not Tukaram. · 2025 Abhanga Tukaram (Avadhūt Gāndhī, 10 tracks): आम्ही वैकुंठवासी (520), जेथें जातों (1989), आनंदाचे डोहीं (3241; Belā Shende), बोलावा विठ्ठल (1331), वेद अनंत बोलिला (4049), सुंदर तें ध्यान (2), राजस सुकुमार (4); ज्ञानियांचा राजा not in the index.

Chārudatta Āphaḷe's and Indurīkar Mahārāj's Tukaram kīrtans exist only as third-party uploads; no official link.

Translated sixteen abhangas in Yeravdā Jail (section 05). In Harijan, 18 July 1936, replying to Ambedkar: "Can a religion that was professed by Chaitanya, Jnyandeo, Tukaram, Tiruvalluvar, Ramakrishna Paramahansa… be so utterly devoid of merit as is made out in Dr. Ambedkar's address?"

"The political revolution led by Shivaji was preceded by the religious and social reform brought about by the saints of Maharashtra." And, answering Gandhi's citation of Tukaram: "I agree with every word of this statement. But I do not quite understand what the Mahatma wishes to prove thereby… The saints have never, according to my study, carried on a campaign against Caste and Untouchability… They preached that all men were equal in the eyes of God — a very different and a very innocuous proposition." The sharpest reading of the limits of bhakti, from the man Keḷuskar mentored.

Phule's अखंड poems are "organically linked to the abhangs" of Tukaram — the reformer borrowed the Shūdra saint's form. His specific Tukaram passages in Gulāmgirī or Satsār were not verified in this pass.

The thesis that the saints' levelling of caste prepared the ground for Shivājī — the liberal-nationalist Tukaram, later argued against by Ambedkar and extended by Sardār.

Gandhi coined "Vinobā" on the model of "Dnyānobā / Tukobā." His articles on Tukaram's abhangas "became popular"; a text संतांचा प्रसाद discussing 35 abhangas circulates on sanskritdocuments.org.

Three of the four or five most important Marathi writers of the late twentieth century each made Tukaram their own — as translator (sections 05, 07), as critic, as poet. Chitre: the saints made "language a shared religion, and religion a shared language."

The one citable Pu La text on Tukaram is a play, not an essay (section 10).