Tukaram

Born 1608 in Dehu, near Poona, Maharashtra; died 1649. Indian Vishnuite poet.

Tukaram wrote in Marathi. A wandering poet and preacher, he was persecuted by the priesthood for proclaiming the equality of all men before god and for attacking orthodox religion. He developed the lyric genre of the abhang, a short lyric that depicted the life of the working people and the cruelty of the foreign rulers of Maharashtra. Tukaram’s aphoristic abhangs used colloquial language; many of them became proverbs and sayings.