{ "id": "epz5b1v2ch", "slug": "muktabai", "title": "Muktabai", "updated": "2026-10-21", "topic_path": [ { "id": "society", "label": "Society and history", "api_url": "https://www.edgepedia.org/api/v1/topics/society" }, { "id": "society.history", "label": "History and archaeology", "api_url": "https://www.edgepedia.org/api/v1/topics/society.history" }, { "id": "society.history.asia", "label": "Asian history", "api_url": "https://www.edgepedia.org/api/v1/topics/society.history.asia" }, { "id": "society.history.asia.india", "label": "India and South Asia", "api_url": "https://www.edgepedia.org/api/v1/topics/society.history.asia.india" }, { "id": "society.history.asia.india.deccan-medieval", "label": "Medieval Deccan (1000 to 1350)", "api_url": "https://www.edgepedia.org/api/v1/topics/society.history.asia.india.deccan-medieval" }, { "id": "society.history.asia.india.deccan-medieval.deccan-religion-and-society", "label": "Deccan religion and society", "api_url": "https://www.edgepedia.org/api/v1/topics/society.history.asia.india.deccan-medieval.deccan-religion-and-society" } ], "geo": [ { "id": "geo.ind.t1000.society.history.asia.india.deccan-medieval", "label": "India · 1000 to 1799: Medieval Deccan (1000 to 1350)", "api_url": "https://www.edgepedia.org/api/v1/geo/geo.ind.t1000.society.history.asia.india.deccan-medieval", "path": [ { "id": "geo.ind", "label": "India", "api_url": "https://www.edgepedia.org/api/v1/geo/geo.ind" }, { "id": "geo.ind.t1000", "label": "India · 1000 to 1799", "api_url": "https://www.edgepedia.org/api/v1/geo/geo.ind.t1000" }, { "id": "geo.ind.t1000.society", "label": "Society and history", "api_url": "https://www.edgepedia.org/api/v1/geo/geo.ind.t1000.society" }, { "id": "geo.ind.t1000.society.history", "label": "History and archaeology", "api_url": "https://www.edgepedia.org/api/v1/geo/geo.ind.t1000.society.history" }, { "id": "geo.ind.t1000.society.history.asia", "label": "Asian history", "api_url": "https://www.edgepedia.org/api/v1/geo/geo.ind.t1000.society.history.asia" }, { "id": "geo.ind.t1000.society.history.asia.india", "label": "India and South Asia", "api_url": "https://www.edgepedia.org/api/v1/geo/geo.ind.t1000.society.history.asia.india" }, { "id": "geo.ind.t1000.society.history.asia.india.deccan-medieval", "label": "Medieval Deccan (1000 to 1350)", "api_url": "https://www.edgepedia.org/api/v1/geo/geo.ind.t1000.society.history.asia.india.deccan-medieval" } ] } ], "excerpt": "Muktabai (मुक्ताबाई), also revered as Muktai, was a 13th-century Marathi saint-poet of the Varkari movement, youngest sister of Dnyaneshwar and guru of the yogi Changdev.", "snippet": "Muktabai (मुक्ताबाई), also revered as Muktai, was a 13th-century Marathi saint-poet of the Varkari movement, youngest sister of Dnyaneshwar and guru of the yogi Changdev.", "node": "society.history.asia.india.deccan-medieval.deccan-religion-and-society", "markdown": "# Muktabai\n\n**Muktabai** (मुक्ताबाई), also revered as Muktai, was a Marathi saint-poet of the Varkari movement of [Maharashtra](https://www.edgepedia.org/maharashtra), the youngest of the four siblings remembered as [Nivruttinath](https://www.edgepedia.org/nivruttinath), Dnyaneshwar, Sopan, and Muktabai. She is dated from AD 1279 to AD 1297 by most accounts.[1](https://beta.esamskriti.com/e/Culture/Indian-Culture/Women-Sants-of-Maharashtra-~-MUKTABAI-1279-to-1297--1.aspx) • [2](https://www.saibhaktiradio.com/wp/saint-muktabai/) She is counted among the pioneers of the Varkari cult.[2](https://www.saibhaktiradio.com/wp/saint-muktabai/) • [9](https://pragatimanch.com/sant-muktabai-information-in-marathi/)\n\n| Key fact | Detail |\n|---|---|\n| Dates | AD 1279–1297; some historians give 1277 as her birth year[1](https://beta.esamskriti.com/e/Culture/Indian-Culture/Women-Sants-of-Maharashtra-~-MUKTABAI-1279-to-1297--1.aspx) • [2](https://www.saibhaktiradio.com/wp/saint-muktabai/) • [3](https://www.oldhistoricity.lbp.world/Administrator/UploadedArticle/495.pdf) |\n| Family | Youngest of four children; sister of Nivruttinath, Dnyaneshwar, and Sopan[4](https://www.santsahitya.in/mahati-santanchi/sant-muktabai/) • [5](https://www.sanatan.org/hindi/a/42172.html) |\n| Tradition | Varkari movement[1](https://beta.esamskriti.com/e/Culture/Indian-Culture/Women-Sants-of-Maharashtra-~-MUKTABAI-1279-to-1297--1.aspx) • [6](https://www.bhaktikalpa.com/saint_philosopher_poet_details.aspx?id=72) |\n| Works | Roughly forty to fifty Marathi abhangs, including the Tatiche Abhang addressed to Dnyaneshwar[1](https://beta.esamskriti.com/e/Culture/Indian-Culture/Women-Sants-of-Maharashtra-~-MUKTABAI-1279-to-1297--1.aspx) • [7](https://vivekavani.com/sant-muktabai/) |\n| Distinction | Spiritual guru of the elderly yogi Changdev[2](https://www.saibhaktiradio.com/wp/saint-muktabai/) |\n| Death | Struck by lightning at about eighteen; shrine at Muktainagar in Jalgaon district[2](https://www.saibhaktiradio.com/wp/saint-muktabai/) • [1](https://beta.esamskriti.com/e/Culture/Indian-Culture/Women-Sants-of-Maharashtra-~-MUKTABAI-1279-to-1297--1.aspx) |\n\n## Origins and family\n\nMuktabai was born in 1279 CE (Shaka 1201), on Ashwin Shuddha Pratipada, the first day of Navratri.[5](https://www.sanatan.org/hindi/a/42172.html) • [8](https://96kulimaratha.com/sant-muktabai-charitra-bhag-1/) The birthplace itself is disputed: one scholarly article and Marathi reference accounts place her birth at Apegaon near Paithan,[3](https://www.oldhistoricity.lbp.world/Administrator/UploadedArticle/495.pdf) • [4](https://www.santsahitya.in/mahati-santanchi/sant-muktabai/) • [9](https://pragatimanch.com/sant-muktabai-information-in-marathi/) while other accounts give Siddhabet near the village Alandi on the Indrayani river,[5](https://www.sanatan.org/hindi/a/42172.html) and a devotional reference gives Alandi in [Pune district](https://www.edgepedia.org/pune-district).[10](https://hindupad.com/muktabai/) Her birth year is likewise divided between 1277 and 1279; by the first view she lived twenty years, by the second she was eighteen at death.[3](https://www.oldhistoricity.lbp.world/Administrator/UploadedArticle/495.pdf) • [11](https://tfipost.in/2020/12/saint-muktabai/)\n\n## Career\n\nHer best-remembered act is her role as guru to Changdev (Changadev Vateswar), an elderly yogi living on the river Tapi. At her brother's bidding she became his spiritual guide.[2](https://www.saibhaktiradio.com/wp/saint-muktabai/) \n\nHer poetry centers on her own household. When [Dnyaneshwar](https://www.edgepedia.org/dnyaneshwar), stung by the derogatory comments of people who treated the family as outcastes, locked himself in his hut, Muktabai sang to him through the door; these verses are known as the Tatiche Abhang, the Songs of the Door.[7](https://vivekavani.com/sant-muktabai/) • [1](https://beta.esamskriti.com/e/Culture/Indian-Culture/Women-Sants-of-Maharashtra-~-MUKTABAI-1279-to-1297--1.aspx)\n\n## Works\n\nThe count of her abhangs varies by source: approximately forty,[1](https://beta.esamskriti.com/e/Culture/Indian-Culture/Women-Sants-of-Maharashtra-~-MUKTABAI-1279-to-1297--1.aspx) forty-one,[6](https://www.bhaktikalpa.com/saint_philosopher_poet_details.aspx?id=72) or about fifty, signed off simply as 'Muktai'.[7](https://vivekavani.com/sant-muktabai/) The Tatiche Abhang corpus is given as forty-two abhangs.[4](https://www.santsahitya.in/mahati-santanchi/sant-muktabai/) • [11](https://tfipost.in/2020/12/saint-muktabai/) The door songs themselves are counted as eleven.[7](https://vivekavani.com/sant-muktabai/) Her main theme was taking God's name to acquire divine qualities, experience God's omnipresence and become liberated.[7](https://vivekavani.com/sant-muktabai/)\n\n## Political influence\n\nThe Yadava inscriptions funding the Vitthal temple between 1182 and 1311 show indirect ties between state power and the emerging Marathi literary traditions.[12](https://www.academia.edu/59823464/The_political_field_of_bhakti_at_the_emergence_of_Marathi_literature_in_premodern_India) In the reign of [Ramachandra](https://www.edgepedia.org/ramachandra) (Ramdev), however, the Varkari sant poets received no royal patronage or support; the movement the saints built rested entirely on public support (lokashraya).[13](https://www.esakal.com/premium-article/saptahik/the-seuna-yadavas-of-devagiri-provided-royal-patronage-to-sanskrit-scholars-while-varkari-saints-relied-entirely-on-public-support-amp17)\n\n## Death and successors\n\nMuktabai's life was brief. Accounts of the manner of her death differ: some say she attained Sanjivan samadhi, but the prevailing belief is that she vanished in a flash of lightning.[1](https://beta.esamskriti.com/e/Culture/Indian-Culture/Women-Sants-of-Maharashtra-~-MUKTABAI-1279-to-1297--1.aspx) Her disappearance (antaradhana) is remembered on Vaishakha Krishna 10;[5](https://www.sanatan.org/hindi/a/42172.html) the temple of Muktai stands at Mehun in Jalgaon district, and the area is now called Muktainagar.[1](https://beta.esamskriti.com/e/Culture/Indian-Culture/Women-Sants-of-Maharashtra-~-MUKTABAI-1279-to-1297--1.aspx)\n\n## Historians' assessment\n\nScholarship on the Varkari women poets places Muktabai among [Janabai](https://www.edgepedia.org/janabai) and [Soyarabai](https://www.edgepedia.org/soyarabai), whose worship poetry turned ordinary lives and social marginalization into a manifestation of spiritual power.[14](https://doi.org/10.51879/pijssl/090404) On the basic chronology, serious accounts divide between a birth in 1277 and one in 1279, and between roughly forty and fifty abhangs.[3](https://www.oldhistoricity.lbp.world/Administrator/UploadedArticle/495.pdf) • [11](https://tfipost.in/2020/12/saint-muktabai/)\n\n## Legacy\n\nMuktabai's Tatiche Abhang remains among the best-known of her verses.[7](https://vivekavani.com/sant-muktabai/) Her shrine at Muktainagar in Jalgaon district marks the place of her death.[1](https://beta.esamskriti.com/e/Culture/Indian-Culture/Women-Sants-of-Maharashtra-~-MUKTABAI-1279-to-1297--1.aspx) • [5](https://www.sanatan.org/hindi/a/42172.html)\n## References\n\n1. Women Sants of Maharashtra - MUKTABAI 1279 to 1297, esamskriti. https://beta.esamskriti.com/e/Culture/Indian-Culture/Women-Sants-of-Maharashtra-~-MUKTABAI-1279-to-1297--1.aspx\n2. Saint Muktabai, Shirdi Saibaba Bhakti Radio. https://www.saibhaktiradio.com/wp/saint-muktabai/\n3. Dr. Swarali Chandrakant Kulkarni, scholarly article on Muktabai. https://www.oldhistoricity.lbp.world/Administrator/UploadedArticle/495.pdf\n4. संत मुक्ताबाई माहिती, Sant Sahitya. https://www.santsahitya.in/mahati-santanchi/sant-muktabai/\n5. संत मुक्ताबाई, Sanatan Sanstha. https://www.sanatan.org/hindi/a/42172.html\n6. Saint Muktabai (Mukta), Bhaktikalpa. https://www.bhaktikalpa.com/saint_philosopher_poet_details.aspx?id=72\n7. Sant Muktabai, VivekaVani. https://vivekavani.com/sant-muktabai/\n8. संत मुक्ताबाई संपूर्ण भाग १, 96kuli Maratha. https://96kulimaratha.com/sant-muktabai-charitra-bhag-1/\n9. Sant Muktabai: भक्ती चळवळीतीतील एक अग्रणी महिला संत, Pragati Manch. https://pragatimanch.com/sant-muktabai-information-in-marathi/\n10. Muktabai – Sant Dnyaneshwar's Younger Sister, HinduPad. https://hindupad.com/muktabai/\n11. संत कवयित्री मुक्ताबाई का जीवन परिचय, TFIPost. https://tfipost.in/2020/12/saint-muktabai/\n12. The political field of bhakti at the emergence of Marathi literature in premodern India, Academia.edu. https://www.academia.edu/59823464/The_political_field_of_bhakti_at_the_emergence_of_Marathi_literature_in_premodern_India\n13. यादवांचा इतिहास: देवगिरीच्या यादव राजांची राजकीय कारकीर्द, Esakal. https://www.esakal.com/premium-article/saptahik/the-seuna-yadavas-of-devagiri-provided-royal-patronage-to-sanskrit-scholars-while-varkari-saints-relied-entirely-on-public-support-amp17\n14. Voice, Devotion, and Social Identity: Women Poets of the Varkari Movement in Medieval Maharashtra, PIJSSL. https://doi.org/10.51879/pijssl/090404\n\n---\n*Topic: Encyclopedia › Society and history › History and archaeology › Asian history › India and South Asia › Medieval Deccan (1000 to 1350) › Deccan religion and society*\n\n*Initially written Sep 23, 2026 · Edited: Oct 15, 2026; Oct 21, 2026*\n\n*Copyright 2026 EdgeChat AI, a subsidiary of Biostate AI.*\n\nLicense: Edgepedia Community License 1.0, https://www.edgepedia.org/edgepedia/license\n", "same_as": [], "url": "https://www.edgepedia.org/muktabai", "markdown_url": "https://www.edgepedia.org/muktabai.md", "license": { "name": "Edgepedia Community License 1.0", "url": "https://www.edgepedia.org/edgepedia/license", "summary": "Free with credit, commercial use included. AI training is open to everyone. For other uses, organizations over USD 100M in revenue or 100M monthly users license separately.", "spdx": "LicenseRef-Edgepedia-Community-1.0" }, "credit": "\"Muktabai\", Edgepedia (EdgeChat), https://www.edgepedia.org/muktabai. Edgepedia Community License 1.0.", "credit_md": "\"[Muktabai](https://www.edgepedia.org/muktabai)\", Edgepedia (EdgeChat), [https://www.edgepedia.org/muktabai](https://www.edgepedia.org/muktabai). [Edgepedia Community License 1.0](https://www.edgepedia.org/edgepedia/license).", "credit_html": "\"Muktabai\", Edgepedia (EdgeChat), https://www.edgepedia.org/muktabai. Edgepedia Community License 1.0.", "speakable": "Muktabai, also revered as Muktai, was a 13th-century Marathi saint-poet of the Varkari movement, youngest sister of Dnyaneshwar and guru of the yogi Changdev." }