Johar Maibaap - Sant Chokhamela Marathi abhang
I am presenting an Abhang (Marathi devotional) from Marathi drama Sant Kanhopatra (1931). The abhang was written in 14th century by saint-poet Sant Chokhamela, a Mahar devotee of Vithoba. The era was when the “Mahars” (an outcaste, based on the caste system) used to be forcibly kept outside city limits and only allowed to perform tasks deemed too lowly for uppercastes. The poet Chokhamela was a Dalit Mahar devotee of Vitthala living in Pandharpur, and they used to refer to their social superiors as “Johar”… In this Abhang, Sant Chokhamela pays obeisance, in all humility, to Vitthala, (referring to him as his Johar parent) offering himself as a servant of his servants and pleads that he be given any left overs of food other bhaktas have consumed… Forced to work as an indentured servant to build a wall, Chokhamela was buried under the rubble as the wall collapsed. Sant Namdev picked up his remains and buried him outside the Vitthala temple in Pandharpur where he used to worship. H...