Abhanga 1605
English: On Dvitīyā Somavāra, in the prathama-prahara, Tukobā became gupta.
The verse
द्वितीया सोमवासरीं प्रथमप्रहरीं तुकोबा गुप्त जाले ॥१॥
Literal translation
English: On Dvitīyā Somavāra, in the prathama-prahara, Tukobā became gupta.
मराठी: द्वितीया — सोम-वासरीं — प्रथम-प्रहरीं — Tukōbā — गुप्त — जाले.
Word-by-word gloss
| Marathi | Meaning |
|---|---|
| द्वितीया सोमवासरीं | "on (the) Dvitīyā (second-day-of-fortnight) — on (the) Sōma-vāra (Monday)" |
| प्रथमप्रहरीं | "in (the) prathama-prahara (first-prahara, ~6-9 AM)" |
| तुकोबा गुप्त जाले | "Tukobā — became — gupta (disappeared / vanished)" |
What it means
The canonical historiographic date-stamp of Tukaram's vaikuṇṭha-gamana. This is the only-purely-historiographic stanza in the gathā — a third-person editorial-marker (Tukobā, not Tukā; jālē, the polite-honorific past-tense plural, not the abhang-style Tukā mhaṇē). It is not in Tukaram's own voice but is preserved-by-tradition as the canonical record of the date and time of his disappearance.
Decoding the date-stamp:
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Dvitīyā (द्वितीया) = the second-tithi (= second-lunar-day-of-the-fortnight). The Hindu-calendar uses tithis (lunar-days) not solar-dates.
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Sōma-vāsara (सोमवासर) = Monday (= Soma's day, the day-of-the-moon). The combination Dvitīyā + Somavāra is specific.
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Prathama-prahara (प्रथम-प्रहर) = the first-prahara of the day. A prahara is a 3-hour-watch; prathama-prahara = first 3-hour-watch after sunrise (= ~6:00 AM to ~9:00 AM). So the disappearance is early-morning.
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Gupta jālē (गुप्त जाले) = became gupta (= became hidden / disappeared / made-invisible). The same word as kuḍī-sahita jālā gupta Tukā (1601). Gupta is the technical-term for the vaikuṇṭha-gamana.
The traditional-warkari date is identified as: Phālguna-Vādya Dvitīyā, Śake 1571 (= the second-tithi of the dark-fortnight of Phālguna month, Śaka year 1571). In the Gregorian-calendar this is 9 March 1650 CE (some sources 1649 CE). The site of the vaikuṇṭha-gamana is Dehu, on the banks of the Indrāyaṇī river (Tukaram's home-village near present-day Pune, Maharashtra).
This single-line is the gathā's editorial-acknowledgment of the historicity of the event recorded in 1601-1604. The third-person voice + honorific-Tukōbā (= Tuka-bāp = "Father Tuka") + gupta-jālē (in plural-honorific) all mark this as a post-event editorial-insertion by the gathā-compilers (Tukaram's disciples).
This is one of only a handful of historiographic-lines in the entire 4577-abhang corpus — making it disproportionately-important as an anchor for biographical-traditions about Tukaram.
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For someone today
For today: On the second-day-of-the-fortnight, on a Monday, in the first three-hour-watch after sunrise, Tukobā became gupta (= vanished bodily into the divine).
(This is the canonical date-stamp recording the vaikuṇṭha-gamana of Tukaram — traditionally identified as Phālguna-Vādya-Dvitīyā, Śake 1571 = circa 9 March 1650 CE, at Dehu on the Indrāyaṇī river.)
Where this applies
- Canonical-date-stamp-of-vaikuṇṭha-gamana.* Dvitīyā-Sōmavāra-prathama-prahara-Tukōbā-gupta-jālē.