संत साहित्य
Work in progress. Translations and commentary are AI-generated and may contain inaccuracies or hallucinations — please use your own judgement and check against the original sources.
संत साहित्य · Tukārām · Abhanga 1313 of 4582

Abhanga 1313

For today: cite the biography even when delivering teaching — the occasion of an abhang is itself part of the abhang's meaning; this header tells you the next composition was sung while burning.

Biographical heading marking the next abhang as the burning-body cry composed at Lōhagāmva when hot water was poured on Tukaram

The verse

लोहागांवीं स्वामींच्या अंगावर ऊन पाणी घातलें - तो अभंग ॥१॥

Literal translation

English: (At) Lōhagāmva — hot water was poured on Swāmī's body — (this is) that abhang ॥1॥

मराठी: लोहागांवीं — स्वामींच्या अंगावर — ऊन पाणी घातलें — तो अभंग ॥१॥

Word-by-word gloss
Marathi Meaning
लोहागांवीं "at Lōhagāmva"
स्वामींच्या अंगावर "on Swāmī's (Tukaram's) body"
ऊन पाणी घातलें "hot (ūna) water (pāṇī) was poured (ghātalēm)"
तो अभंग ॥१॥ "(this is) that abhang ॥१॥ (one abhang in this set)"

What it means

Biographical contextual-header in the Gatha — editor's voice.

This entry is not a Tukaram-composition but the editor's biographical heading placed immediately before the next abhang (1314). Such headings are characteristic of the Sakal-Sant-Gatha tradition: they frame an abhang's occasion, telling the reader the vid-ghaṭanā (incident) under which the abhang was sung.

The Lōhagāmva incident. Lōhagāmva is a village near Dehū (Tukaram's home village). The traditional account: someone — variously identified as a brahmin opponent, a household antagonist, or an accidental kitchen mishap — poured hot water on Tukaram's body. In the moment of physical agony, Tukaram cried out to Hari — and that cry is preserved as the abhang at 1314 (jaḷē mājhī kāyā lāgalā vōṇavā).

The Sakal-Sant-Gatha tradition includes such event-abhangs (also called prasanga-abhanga) — abhangs composed in the very moment of crisis — preserved with their occasion-headings. They are biographical evidence and devotional models simultaneously.

The marker ॥१॥ indicates one abhang in this prasanga-set (= 1314 alone).

[T]

For someone today

For today: cite the biography even when delivering teaching — the occasion of an abhang is itself part of the abhang's meaning; this header tells you the next composition was sung while burning.

Where this applies

Related verses