Sant Muktabai (Muktai)

01Children of an outcast sannyasi

Her father Vitthalpant Kulkarni of Apegaon, near Paithan on the Godavari, married Rukmini, daughter of Sidhopant of Alandi, then went to Kashi and took sannyasa from Ramananda Swami without telling him he was married. When his guru learned the truth he sent him home, and the Brahmins of the place cast the couple out for breaking the order of the ashramas. Four children were born to them: Nivrutti, Jnanadev, Sopan, and last Mukta, around 1279 by the usual reckoning, though some scholars put all four births a few years earlier. The parents, the account says, gave up their lives at Prayag so that the children might be taken back. They were not. The four grew up on alms. Nivrutti had been initiated into the Nath path by Gahininath at Tryambakeshwar, and he became guru to the other three.

02‘Open the door, Jnaneshwar’

Once, the tradition says, Jnaneshwar was insulted in the street and went into his hut and shut the door, and would not come out. His little sister sat outside and sang to him. These are the Tatiche Abhang, the songs of the door: the one who is a true yogi has a mind as pure as water and forgives the faults of the world; if the world burns with anger, the saint should be cool as water; if people wound him with words, he should take them as good advice. Jnaneshwar opened the door. Her other famous meeting is with Changdev, a yogi said to have lived for centuries, who came to Alandi riding a tiger with a snake for a whip to test the children; seeing them ride out to meet him on a wall, he was humbled, and Muktabai became his teacher. About forty-one abhangs are hers.

Place · Satavahana capital from c. 1st century BCEPaithan (Pratishthana)Pratishthana on the Godavari, capital of the Satavahanas and one of the great cities of the ancient Deccan, later the home of Sant Eknath. Its silk sarees still carry its name.Read →

03Lightning on the Tapi

In 1296 Jnaneshwar took samadhi at Alandi, and Sopan soon after at Saswad near Pune. Nivrutti and Muktabai set out on pilgrimage together along the Tapi. Near Mehun, in a great thunderstorm, Muktai vanished in a flash of lightning, and the Varkaris hold that she merged into the light; by their reckoning it was in 1297. Nivrutti took samadhi at Tryambakeshwar. Her shrine stands at Kothali near Muktainagar in Jalgaon district; the town, once Edlabad, was renamed for her, and from there the palkhi of Muktai sets out for Pandharpur each year with the other palkhis of the wari. Varkaris honour her as Adishakti, and her abhangs are in the Marathi schoolbooks of Maharashtra.