The six poets presented here-Ravidas, Kabir, Nanak, Surdas, Mirabai, and Tulsidas-have contributed more to the religious vocabulary of Hinduism in north India today than any voices before or since. In worship, in education, even in politics, modern Hinduism sings their tune. For half a millennium, t[...]
The monotheistic religions of Judaism, Christianity, and Islam have severely limited the portrayal of the divine as feminine. But in Hinduism "God" very often means "Goddess". This extraordinary collection explores twelve different Hindu goddesses, all of whom are in some way related to Devi, the Gr[...]
Originally published in 1976, with more than 75,000 copies in print, this collection of poems by fifteenth-century ecstatic poet Kabir is full of fun and full of thought. Columbia University professor of religion John Stratton Hawley has contributed an introduction that makes clear Kabir's immense i[...]
Surdas is unarguably the best known poet in Vrajbhasha, the most widely understood of the medieval Hindi literary dialects. He is the foremost Hindi poet of Krishna devotion and his verses are canonical in the Krishnaite tradition, which today is particularly vital in Western India. The verses are s[...]