Abhanga 3495
Every outward show of holiness, monasteries, begging bowls, and ash, is worthless without real devotion to Rama at its center.
The verse
काहे लकडा घांस कटावे । खोद हि जुमीन मठ बनावे ॥१॥
देवलवासी तरवरछाया । घरघर माईं खपरिबसमाया ॥ध्रु.॥
कां छांडियें भार फेरे सीर भागें । मायाको दुःख मिटलिये अंगें ॥२॥
कहे तुका तुम सुनो हो सिद्धी । रामबिना और झुटा कछु धंदा ॥३॥
Literal translation
(HINDI/INDO-PERSIAN) Why-cut-wood-and-grass — dig-the-jumīna make-maṭha. Deva-dwellers-tree-shade — every-house-going-with-khaparī-and-bhasma. Why-take-bhāra when-sīra-already-aching — māyā's-duḥkha-removed-by-(this). Kahe-Tukā: hear-O-siddhi — without-Rāma every-dhandā-jhūṭha.
What it means
A MAJOR rare-language Tukārām composition. Written entirely in Hindi/Indo-Persian-Deccan vocabulary (kāhē, lakaḍā, jumīna, khōda, chhāṇḍiyē, kahe, sunō, binā, aura, jhūṭa, kachhu, dhandā, miṭaliyē). Tukārām is here apparently engaging with daśanāmī/sant-mendicant traditions (those who make maṭhas, wear bhasma, carry khaparī) — addressing them as siddhi. The closing line Rāma-binā-aura-jhūṭha-dhandā (without Rāma every other business is false) is rhetorically powerful and likely intended for an Indo-Persian-Deccan sant-network audience (compare 2853 fakīra-prayer, 2961 + 3025 Kali-prophecies with Indo-Persian vocabulary).
For someone today
Tukārām: without-Rāma, every-other-business is-false — even mendicant-monastic-life.
Where this applies
- THE rare HINDI/Indo-Persian Tukārām composition canonical
- Daśanāmī/sant-mendicant-network address (siddhi, khaparī, bhasma, maṭha)
- Indo-Persian-Deccan vocabulary (jumīna, dhandā, jhūṭha, binā, aura, kachhu)
- Rare evidence of code-switching in 17th-c. Vārkarī/Sant literature
- Companion to 2853, 2961, 3025 (other Indo-Persian-vocabulary texts)