Kabir Poems in Transformation

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Kabir Poems in Transformation: A Fountain of Creativity explores how images of Kabir, in circulation amongst his Hindi-speaking followers at the start of the twentieth century, were transformed into versions of Kabir more acceptable to global English-speaking audiences in contemporary times. This work investigates how the creation of an image of Kabir as an ideal Indian mystic poet led to the eclipse of Kabir as the voice of the lower castes and marginalized communities in India. The argument is that rather than seeing an idealized version of his persona through the lens of any particular segment of the audience, Kabir should be studied through the multiplicity of images transmitted amongst diverse communities within India and around the world. This book focuses on the networks of contexts in which these verses were transmitted, and where such a significant transformation took place. These include Hindi print editions published 1907 onwards, Bengali anthologies by Kshitimohan Sen in 1910-11, and English translations by Rabindranath Tagore and Evelyn Underhill published as One Hundred Verses of Kabir in 1914.