Discovering Tukaram

Why Tukaram?

Who is Tukaram? The poet whose abhangs lakhs of devotees from all over Maharashtra sang as they walked through Pune last month on their annual pilgrimage (wari) to Pandharpur? What is it about this 17th-century poet that is inspiring so many modern young Puneites to join the wari?

 

Tuka was the ultimate iconoclast, a shudra who challenged the dominion of the Brahmins over the shastras and dared to write about God in Marathi, the language of the people. He belonged to the democratic and egalitarian tradition of bhakti poets who “made language a form of shared religion and religion a shared language”, as the late Dilip Chitre put it.

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Innishari and Open Space invite you to rediscover and celebrate the mystical, sensuous, colloquial, ironical and angry poetry and philosophy of Tuka. Join us for an interactive session with Dr. Sadanand More (professor at Pune University’s department of philosophy, writer, poet, kirtankar and internationally renowned expert on Sant Tukaram) and Sri Abhay Tilak (Director of the Indian School of Political Economy, kirtankar and expert on Sant Tukaram).

 

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