कबीरवचनमृतम: Kabir Vachna Amritam

His person was a unique combination of Hinduism and Islam since he was born as a Muslim but had his initiation as a Vaishnava by Guru Ramananda. This provided him with an exceptional mindset free of all bias and religious narrowness which characterizes the fundamentalists today.

A simple and poor weaver living in the holy city of Benaras, who perhaps had to work hard in order to seek out his living, he could boldly scold both Hindus and Muslims for their superstitions, their non-substantial religious practices and their ostentatious rituals in a simple and direct language directing them towards the worship of that one single impersonal God. This is also the reason which makes his poetry a favorite resource work for the compilers of the Gurugrantha Sahib of Sikhs.

Very few poets of Hindi, indeed, have received the honor of being commented upon or translated into the 'divine language' Sanskrit. Kabir is one of them. Because of the universal importance of his philosophical verses, at least three Sanskrit commentaries, already in post-medieval age, were written on them and here is another welcome attempt by Dr. Ramsumer Yadav to translate in Sanskrit his couplets (dohas) highlighting moral, ethical and religious values in our culture, or those which draw our attention towards social obligations.

I have gone through the Sanskrit renderings of these verses and have been struck by the simplicity of the language and the lucidity of expression, characteristics which also mark the poetry of Kabir. Dr. Yadav has made Kabir comprehensible and accessible to all the scholars of Sanskrit in India and abroad, a large number of whom may not know Hindi at all.

I find that this Sanskrit version of Kabir makes quite a beautiful and enjoyable reading and has considerable literary merit too. It is hoped that the lovers of Sanskrit shall appreciate this 'labor of love' of Dr. Yadav and encourage him for many such creations in future.

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