Eknath ( IAST: Eka-nātha,

Marathi Marathi may refer to: *Marathi people, an Indo-Aryan ethnolinguistic group of Maharashtra, India *Marathi language, the Indo-Aryan language spoken by the Marathi people *Palaiosouda, also known as Marathi, a small island in Greece See also * * ...

pronunciation: knath (1533–1599), commonly known as Sant Eknath was an Indian Hindu saint, philosopher and poet. He was a devotee of the Hindu deity

Vitthal Vithoba, also known as Vi(t)thal(a) and Panduranga, is a Hindu deity predominantly worshipped in the Indian state of Maharashtra and Karnataka. He is generally considered as a manifestation of the god Vishnu, or his avatar Krishna. Vithoba is ...

and is a major figure of the

Warkari Warkari (Marathi: वारकरी; Pronunciation: �aːɾkəɾiː Meaning: 'The one who performs the ''Wari) is a sampradaya (religious movement) within the bhakti spiritual tradition of Hinduism, geographically associated with the Ind ...

movement. Eknath is often viewed as a spiritual successor to the prominent Marathi saints

Dnyaneshwar Sant Dnyaneshwar (Marathi pronunciation: ̪ɲaːn̪eʃʋəɾ, also referred to as Jnaneshwar, Jnanadeva, Dnyandev or Mauli or Dnyaneshwar Vitthal Kulkarni (1275–1296), was a 13th-century Indian Marathi saint, poet, philosopher and yogi o ...

and

Namdev Shri Sant Namdev Maharaj (Pronunciation: aːmdeʋ, also transliterated as Nam Dayv, Namdeo, Namadeva, (traditionally, ) was a Marathi Bahujan saint from Narsi, Hingoli, Maharashtra, India within the Varkari tradition of Hinduism. He li ...

Biography

Precise details of his life remain obscure. It is generally believed that Eknath lived during the latter three-quarters of the 16th-century. He was born into a

Deshastha Rigvedi Brahmin Deshastha Brahmin is a Hindu Brahmin subcaste mainly from the Indian state of Maharashtra and northern area of the state of Karnataka. Other than these states, according to authors K. S. Singh, Gregory Naik and Pran Nath Chopra, Deshastha Bra ...

family of

Vishwamitra Vishvamitra ( sa, विश्वामित्र, ) is one of the most venerated rishis or sages of ancient India. According to Hindu tradition, he is stated to have written most of the Mandala 3 of the Rigveda, including the Gayatri Mantr ...

gotra to Suryanarayan and Rukminibai at Paithan, present-day Maharashtra and was a follower of the Ashvalayana Sutra. His father probably held the title of

Kulkarni Kulkarni is a family name native to the Indian state of Maharashtra. The name "Kulkarni" is a combination of two words (''kula'' and ''karni''). ''Kula'' means "family", and ''Karanika'' means "archivist". Historically, Kulkarni was the title giv ...

and kept financial accounts. Their family deity is

Ekvira Ekvira (also spelled as Ekveera) is a Hindu goddess, regarded to be a form of the goddess Renuka. She is the kuladevi of the Koli people. Every year Kolis pay respect to Ekvira and celebrate the festival in Karla Caves. Temple The Ekvira Aai ...

Devi (or Renuka). His parents died while Eknath was young. He was then raised by his grandfather, Chakrapani. His great-grandfather

Bhanudas Bhanudasa (1448–1513) (also spelled as Bhanudas), was a Hindu sant who brought back the sacred image of the god Vithoba back from Vijayanagara to Pandharpur, its original location. He was Eknath’s great grandfather. As a boy he worshipped the ...

was another revered saint of the

sect. Eknath was a disciple of

Janardan Swami Janardan Swami (c. 1504 - c. 1575), or simply Janardan or Janardana was an Indian Hindu scholar, statesman, poet and saint. He was the spiritual guru of prominent 16th-century saint Eknath. His compositions were mostly written in Marathi. He a ...

who was a devotee of the Hindu deity

Dattatreya Dattatreya ( sa, दत्तात्रेय, ), Dattā or Dattaguru, is a paradigmatic Sannyasi (monk) and one of the lords of yoga, venerated as a Hindu god. In Maharashtra, Goa, Andhra Pradesh, Telangana, Karnataka, Gujarat, and M ...

. Eknath's ''samadhi'' shrine is located at Paithan near the

Godavari The Godavari (International Alphabet of Sanskrit Transliteration, IAST: ''Godāvarī'' Help:IPA/Sanskrit, �od̪aːʋəɾiː is India's second longest river after the Ganges river, Ganga river and drains into the third largest basin in Indi ...

river. Celebrations commemorating Eknath are held every year around the month of March at Paithan.

Literary contribution

Eknath's writings include a variation of the Hindu religious text ''

Bhagavata Purana The ''Bhagavata Purana'' ( sa, भागवतपुराण; ), also known as the ''Srimad Bhagavatam'', ''Srimad Bhagavata Mahapurana'' or simply ''Bhagavata'', is one of Hinduism's eighteen great Puranas (''Mahapuranas''). Composed in S ...

,'' known as '' Eknathi Bhagavata''. He also wrote a variation of the Hindu epic ''

Ramayana The ''Rāmāyana'' (; sa, रामायणम्, ) is a Sanskrit epic composed over a period of nearly a millennium, with scholars' estimates for the earliest stage of the text ranging from the 8th to 4th centuries BCE, and later stages e ...

,'' known as ''

Bhavarth Ramayan Depending on the methods of counting, as many as three hundred versions of the Indian Hindu epic poem, the '' Ramayana'', are known to exist. The oldest version is generally recognized to be the Sanskrit version attributed to the sage Narad ...

''. He also composed ''Rukmini Swayamwar'' ''Hastamalak'', a literary piece consisting of 764 '' owee'' (poetic metre) and based on a

Sanskrit Sanskrit (; attributively , ; nominalization, nominally , , ) is a classical language belonging to the Indo-Aryan languages, Indo-Aryan branch of the Indo-European languages. It arose in South Asia after its predecessor languages had Trans-cul ...

hymn of the same name. His other literary works include ''Shukashtak'' (447 ''owee''), ''https://shikshaved.com/category/marathi-essay/-Sukha'' (510 ''owee''), ''Ananda-Lahari'' (154 ''owee''), ''Chiranjeewa-Pad'' (42 ''owee''), ''Geeta-Saar'' and ''Prahlad-Vijaya''. He introduced a new form of devotional melodies called ''Bharood'' and wrote nearly 300 of them.

References

Citations Bibliography * *

External links

Sant Eknath Maharaj Information in Marathi

Eknath - A Translation from Bhaktalilamrita by Justin E. Abbott (1927)
at archive.org
Shri Eknathi Bhagwat (Marathi)
at archive.org {{DEFAULTSORT:Eknath Marathi-language writers Marathi-language poets Warkari 16th-century Hindu philosophers and theologians Bhakti movement 16th-century Indian philosophers Sant Mat Date of birth unknown Date of death unknown People from Marathwada Marathi Hindu saints Scholars from Maharashtra 1533 births Brahmins who fought against discrimination Anti-caste activists