"I went to the root of things, and found nothing but Him alone."

November 18, 2012 7:04 AM

"Perhaps the most remembered and quoted (pdf) woman in Indian history is a sixteenth century poet, singer and saint called Mirabai, or Meera. Versions of her songs are sung today all over India, and she appears as a subject in films, books, dances, plays and paintings. Even Gandhi promoted her, seeing Mira as a symbol of a woman who has the right to choose her own path, forsake a life of luxury, and in nonviolent resistance find liberation (pdf)." ~ Women in World History
posted by infini (5 comments total)

I'd say the best links are in the second sentence, simply due to the construction of the quote I pulled. The PDFs are for the scholarly.
posted by infini at 7:06 AM on November 18, 2012

Needs subtitles.
posted by goethean at 8:32 AM on November 18, 2012

The film link has English subtitles.

imho, for the songs though it'd be the equivalent of asking a Sufi saint to subtitle his paean to god
posted by infini at 9:15 AM on November 18, 2012

I'd be very interested in knowing how her music was passed along for centuries. Was it all by means of teacher-student transmission, or was there some written form of transmission? How were melodies and harmony progressions preserved? (Partly by means of traditional forms, IIRC.)
posted by Twang at 5:41 PM on November 18, 2012

Although scholars have found it difficult to confirm which of the many padas, or poem-songs, attributed to Mirabai are authentic, there appear to be about two hundred in total. It is uncertain what language she wrote the poems in, as she presented her work as sung ragas or melodies to be passed on in an oral tradition, and her poems were not written down until well after her death. Scholars believe her poems were sung in Marwari, Gujrati, and Braj Bhasha languages, the regional languages spoken in the provinces in which she lived. reference
posted by infini at 8:08 PM on November 18, 2012