Mirabai - Perspectives and Sources of History
Ideas of Mirabai before the reading
Mira was brought up in an orthodox, upper caste household. She was devoted to Krishna from childhood. She was forcibly married off to a prince or someone in a high position. She refused to accept the marriage and continued to be devoted to Krishna. She was persecuted by her in-laws and their family. Finally, the husband also came around and let her be. She is well known as a Bhakti poet and counted among the saints of the Bhakti movement.
Notes from Mukta Parita’s essay and class discussion
Mira lived from 1498 to 1540 or so. Born in Marwar region of Rajasthan.
She was married off around 15-16. She married the Maharaj Kumar Raja Bhoj of Mewar. The rulers were dealing with Delhi Sultanate through conflict as well as alliances. Raja Bhoj was injured in one of the wars and died thereafter. He died within 5 years of marriage.
Mira was devoted to Krishna from her childhood. She did not accept the marriage. After her husband died, Mira rejected the authority of the ranas of Mewar. She moved out of the palace and spent her life as a wandering saint. The rana and her family did not like this. there are stories that say that they tried to have her poisoned etc.
She is celebrated by the lower castes engaged in leather work and weaving. Peasant population also owns her story and keeps her Bhajans alive.
These groups believe that Mira accepted Ravidas, a sant from the leather working chamar caste, as her guru. It is not historically possible for Ravidas (13th century) to have met Mira, however, it is possible followers of Ravidas visited her and influenced her in her maternal home. The lower caste groups see her as a rebel that stood against the power of the ranas.
Gramci’s quote about history - this is a very specific, situational quote that serves the present case where the past has left a trace in the present. Would we say that all lost history was dross, chronicle and not history?
In turn, the Rajput histories have tried to erase her name and history.
In the very place where Mira was born and lived, her name is taboo. What makes the oral tradition of Mira bhajans stand so strong? Over 500 years and through so many changes in the social and political structures? Why are certain communities owning Mira?
Mira lived in her time and did her own thing. The classes that owned Mira started owning her openly, about 150 years after her death, in the 17th and 18th century, as these classes gained economic power through British trade. These classes were trying to find/forge an identity, fighting against the oppression of the upper caste whose dominance Mira rejected.
Traditionally, these classes were part of the village hierarchy where they were not paid but their work was exploited. When they gained economic power, they tried to own Mira and created stories that gave them respectability.
The stories of two sons of a Brahmin, one of whom picked up a dead crow to throw away and then found himself outcaste, becoming a chamar, are similar attempts at forging a respectable identity.
The continuity of these stories - how oppressed groups have kept the association with Mira alive over the centuries, forging their own historical narrative. The modern Ad Dharm and Ravidassiya parampara can be seen as continuations of these same narratives.
In Mira, peasants, who were taxed heavily by the Ranas and were also stripped of many social privileges, saw “a symbol through which they voiced their rejection of the authority of Rana”.
What we see here is a different form of history making - where there is no real historical evidence but a group of people who really do not have power have made associations and kept that tradition alive for centuries through oral traditions.
Additional references: * Movie : Shabnam Virmani series on Kabir * Book : Ira Mukhoty - on mughal princessses * Book : Cuckold by Kiran Nagarkar - Bhoj is depicted as someone who prefers to step back than engage in war.
Notes from Anjali Punjabi’s film
What we know about Mira is a shifting reality. Not much is firmly known.
The temple where women sit around and sing bhajans of Mira. Is she a goddess or not? Was she dark or fair? No one knows.
The other place where Mira’s verses are alive is the workspaces of leather workers, where her association with Raidas is celebrated. Traditional historians do not agree to this narrative as the dates and facts do not support it. Their Mira is slender and supplicant.
The traditional historical accounts of the Rathore clan, which are well maintained and preserved, mention Mira only in passing, recording her birth, marriage and death. In those clans, the name of Mira is not given to daughters for the fear the girls may suffer as she did, or become world weary and turn to sannyaas like she did.
After the death of her husband, Mira is said to have left the house of the in-laws, the forts and the palaces and became a wanderer in search of her god. This was seen as an insult by the clan, and she was disowned.
Vallabh sampraday invited her to join them, she declined and then the chief preceptor there turned against her.
The story of the woman whose in-laws did not allow her to go join the congregation in the village and how she identified herself with Mira - not eating and doing pooja at home like her and how finally they relented and allow her to go. Is this an instance of Mira inspiring a rebellion against patriarchy, through bhakti and satyagrah?
It was the oppressed communities that kept her songs alive, finding in them a reflection of their own pain and exclusion.
Between legend, history and memory
How do perspectives change questions and sources of historical enquiry
When one sees through the lens of academic history, the stories of Mira told by the groups that own them are not factual - they are dismissed.
When we see that there are groups that believe in these stories, keeping the tradition of bhajan singing alive, the question changes from - are these stories historically correct?, to - why and how have these stories persisted for so long?
Then the sources of historical enquiry are no longer limited to written and archival records but start encompassing legends and oral histories.
Different sources used by Mukta Parita
Bhajans sung by people across the land, experiences of people who believe
Absence of certain histories
There are no written records in the Rajput archives which are otherwise meticulous and well maintained. Mukta Parita takes the position that this absence tells its own stories.
Connecting thoughts
“Through distinctive cultural representation, oppressed groups have created for themselves a normative world in which they have dignity, self-respect and even a measure of power (Chakaravarti, 2006)”
The example of the Dalit woman who sings about the Brahmin having no real power (ibid)
Chakravarti, U. (2006). Understanding Caste. In Gendering caste: Through a Feminist Lens. STREE.