Jnanadeva and the Warkari Movement/Prof. Dr. Fred Dallmayr

Note 18

...Among later followers, mention must also be made of Ekanath, the householder Brahmin and editor of Jnaneshvari; and the Shudra poet-saint Tukaram, the contemporary of Shivaji.'

Eleanor Zelliot, "A Historical introduction to the Warkari Movement," in Mokashi, Palkhi: An Indian Pilgramage, pp. 39-40, 42-43. Although egalitarian and anti-cast, one probably should not equate the Warkaris with a radical social-change movement – which would be at variance with the intrinsic gentleness and non-violent  outlook of the Warkari ethos. Hence, the statement by Jayant  Lele that Jnanadeva's legacy "advocates a revolutionary and critical productive activity within social  practices" needs to be taken with a grain of salt. See  his "Community, Discourse and Critique in  Jnaneshvar," in Lele, ed., Tradition and Modernity in Bhakti Movements (Leiden: Brill, 1981), p. 111.  Unsurprisingly, the gentleness and quasi-Gandhian quality of  the Warkaris have been chided by radical revolutionaries and  "extremist" nationalists, includ ing Bal Gangadhar Tilak. Compare in this context also Bhalachandra Nemade, "The Revolt of the Underprivileged: Style in the Expression of the Warkari movement in Maharashtra," in the same volume, pp. 113-123.

Back to “Jnanadeva and the Warkari Movement”