Abhanga 1300
Purity and impurity, high and low, are human inventions rather than facts of nature, since water is water and earth is earth until people decide otherwise.
The verse
गंगा न देखे विटाळ । तें चि रांजणीं ही जळ ॥१॥ अल्पमहदा नव्हे सरी । विटाळ तो भेद धरी ॥ध्रु.॥ काय खंडिली भूमिका । वर्णा पायरिकां लोकां ॥२॥ तुका म्हणे अगीविण । बीजें वेगळीं तों भिन्न ॥३॥
Literal translation
Gangā does not see viṭāḷa — the same water (is) even in the rāñjana. Small-and-great — there is no equivalence — viṭāḷa keeps the bhēda. Has the bhūmi been split into varṇa-pāyaṟī by the lōka? Tuka says: without agni — seeds are (just) different separately.
मराठी: गंगा विटाळ पहात नाहीं — तेंच जळ — रांजणीं-हि (पाण्याच्या भांड्यांत) तेंच. अल्प-महदाची सरी (बरोबरी) नव्हे — विटाळ-च भेद धरतो. भूमिका (पृथ्वी) कशी खंडित (वेगळी) झाली — वर्णानें — पायरीं-पायरीं — लोकांकडून? Tukā म्हणे — अगीविण (अग्निशिवाय) — बीजें वेगळीं असून — भिन्न-च.
Word-by-word gloss
| Marathi | Meaning |
|---|---|
| गंगा न देखे विटाळ | "Gangā does not see viṭāḷa (impurity)" |
| तें चि रांजणीं ही जळ | "the very same water (jaḷa) — even in the rāñjana (household water-pot)" |
| अल्पमहदा नव्हे सरी | "small-and-great — there is no sarī (equivalence)" |
| विटाळ तो भेद धरी | "viṭāḷa — keeps (dharī) the bhēda" |
| काय खंडिली भूमिका | "has the bhūmi (earth) been khaṇḍilī (split / divided)?" |
| वर्णा पायरिकां लोकां | "by the lōka — into varṇa pāyaṟī (caste-steps)?" |
| तुका म्हणे अगीविण | "Tuka says — without agni" |
| बीजें वेगळीं तों भिन्न | "seeds are different separately (bījē vēgaḷīm — bhinna)" |
What it means
Anti-caste-bhēda / anti-viṭāḷa abhang. The opening image is among Tukaram's most luminous: Gangā na dēkhē viṭāḷa — tēm chi rāñjanīm hī jaḷa — Gangā does not see viṭāḷa — the same water is in the household rāñjana. The Gangā doesn't refuse to be seen-in or sat-on by anyone; that very water is also in the household water-pot. Water is water; viṭāḷa (the ritual-pollution category) is a human imposition.
The middle observation: alpa-mahadā navhē sarī — viṭāḷa tō bhēda dharī — small-and-great are not equivalent (in caste-thinking) — but it's theviṭāḷa-concept itselfthatholds the bhēda. Without the viṭāḷa-concept, there's no inequality.Viṭāḷageneratesbhēda, not the other way around.
The rhetorical question: kāya khaṇḍilī bhūmikā — varṇā pāyarikām lōkām? — has the bhūmi (the earth itself) beenkhaṇḍilī(split) intovarṇa-pāyaṟī(caste-steps) by people? The bhūmi doesn't have caste-steps cut into it; only people impose them.
The closing image is striking: agīviṇa bījē vēgaḷīm tōm bhinna — without agni, seeds are just different separately. Different seeds are bhinna (different) only when separated. With agni (fire / cooking / ripening), they all become the same — the same kind of food, the same flesh-and-blood. Agni is the universalizing principle that erases bhēda. (Implicit: bhakti / nāma is the agni that erases caste-bhēda.)
This is among Tukaram's most foundational anti-caste-orthodoxy abhangs.
[T]
For someone today
For today: the Gangā doesn't see viṭāḷa — the same water is in your pot at home; the earth was never split into caste-stairs; without the agni (of bhakti), only the separated-seeds look different.
Where this applies
- When you catch yourself or others treating certain people as lesser or impure because of birth or background
- When someone defends inequality as natural rather than admitting it is a rule people made up
- When you are deciding whether shared practice or shared purpose can dissolve old social divisions between people
- When you need a clear, simple example to explain why discrimination has no basis in nature