बहिणाबाई
1628 – 1700
MaharashtraVarkari sampradayaBahinabai’s abhangas reveal a mind wrestling with duty, devotion, and social constraint. Married young, she persisted in her devotion to Tukaram despite domestic disapproval, carving out a space for spiritual autonomy within the boundaries of her life.
Her work remains grounded in lived complexity rather than romanticized transcendence. She explores the difficulties faced by women seeking spiritual fulfillment, using her verses to glimpse an interior life where domestic labor and spiritual aspiration are inextricably intertwined.
Essays
Bahinabai · Teachings
Bahinabai accepted the most conservative ideal available to a 17th-century Maharashtrian woman — and used it to do something the rules forbid. A theology in which obedience becomes a form of authorship, and a woman's disqualification becomes her credential.
Bahinabai · Bio & Impact
A Brahmin woman in 17th-century Maharashtra claimed the bhakti movement's most prestigious lineage — through vision and dream, never through the physical relationship by which lineages were normally transmitted. Her Atmanivedana is the most detailed self-narrative left by any medieval Marathi woman saint.
Read through
Devotion · Refusal · The vernacular
Saint 18th of 21 · Bhakti Saints