Abstract

The medieval Indian poet saint Kabir is an elusive figure. He is elusive not because he is an obscure figure, but just the opposite: Kabir is elusive because of his fame.  From Indian folk singers performing his poetry in the deserts of Rajasthan to academics discussing his legends at symposiums, Kabir’s fame is evident in a myriad of ways. Born in a family of Muslim weavers, in 15th century Banaras, Kabir’s verses allow for insight into his worldview and the nature of Indian society at his time. After Kabir’s death, a variety of legends were crafted about his life. The legends author’s had a variety of aims in their work. However, getting at historical accuracy through legends and poems is nearly impossible task. Scholar David Lorenzen has done crucial work in translating the Kabir legends present in Anatadas’s Kabir Parachai, an early 17th century hagiography about Kabir, along with analyzing their messages of social protest. In the introduction to the Kabir Parachai,Lorenzen writes that embedded in a grouping of legends the reader receives an image of Kabir as “a sort of trickster figure who initiates his own test of the politically and religiously powerful.” In the same paragraph, Lorenzen describes multiple legends in which Kabir acts as a trickster. Within the realms of Indian myth and legend, the Hindu god Shiva and the Buddha have been analyzed as tricksters.  However, neither Lorenzen, nor any other scholar to date, has provided a complete analysis of multiple Kabir legends using the trickster model. In my essay, I argue that Kabir, as depicted in multiple legends of  the Kabir Parchai, is a trickster in the sense of a clever hero, or one who uses spiritual power to best rulers and upset the social hierarchy. Anatadas, the author of the legends, challenged the socio-religious hierarchy of his day, yet at the same time partially upheld it. The audience of the legends were low caste and were able to derive solace from Kabir’s exploits and challenge to the socio-religious hierarchy.