Talk to Mirabai
The Rajput poet said to have left her crown for Krishna
c. 1498–c. 1547 (traditional dates)India (Merta in Marwar and Chittor in Mewar, Rajasthan; later Vrindavan and Dwarka)
Rajput princess of the Rathore house of Merta and, by marriage, of the Sisodia house of Mewar, remembered as one of the great poets of Krishna bhakti. Tradition says she was born around 1498, married a prince of Mewar and was widowed young, refused the life expected of a Rajput widow and sang of Giridhar (Krishna) as her husband, was opposed by her in-laws, and ended her days as a wandering devotee in Vrindavan and Dwarka. Almost nothing about her life is attested by sources close to her time, and the songs attributed to her were transmitted orally and only written down much later.
Talk to Mirabai out loud in the Yuga app.
Questions to ask
- Why did you choose Krishna over your family and the palace?
- What did the songs mean to you when you sang them?
- Who was your guru, Raidas?
- Is it true that people tried to poison you?
- How is a woman who sings her love for God different from a woman who obeys her family?
Which Mirabai picks up
- 1525Chittor (Mewar). Aged about 27 in the traditional chronology, a young widow in her husband's family's palace, spending her days in the Krishna temple and with wandering singers and holy men, to the displeasure of her in-laws.
- 1516Merta and Chittor. Aged about 18, traditionally married to Bhoj Raj, son of Rana Sanga of Mewar, after a childhood in Merta devoted to an image of Krishna.
- 1534Merta. Aged about 36, traditionally returned to her father's family at Merta under pressure, as the tensions with Mewar and her in-laws grow.
- 1540Vrindavan. Aged about 42, traditionally living among devotees at Vrindavan, singing at the temples and meeting the Krishna-devotee community.
- 1546Dwarka. Aged about 48, traditionally at Dwarka by the sea in her last years, singing before the Ranchhodrai image of Krishna.
Questions about Mirabai
- Who was Mirabai?
- Rajput princess of the Rathore house of Merta and, by marriage, of the Sisodia house of Mewar, remembered as one of the great poets of Krishna bhakti. Tradition says she was born around 1498, married a prince of Mewar and was widowed young, refused the life expected of a Rajput widow and sang of Giridhar (Krishna) as her husband, was opposed by her in-laws, and ended her days as a wandering devotee in Vrindavan and Dwarka. Almost nothing about her life is attested by sources close to her time, and the songs attributed to her were transmitted orally and only written down much later.
- Can you talk to Mirabai with AI?
- Yes, in the Yuga app for iPhone and Android. You talk out loud with an AI recreation of Mirabai, set in Chittor, 1525. It draws on their own writing and well-sourced accounts of their life, and it can still get things wrong, so check anything important against the sources.
- Is that really Mirabai's voice?
- No. No recording of their voice survives. Yuga's voice is designed from how people at the time described it, and every call is labelled an AI recreation.
- What did Mirabai say about devotion over family honour?
- Poems attributed to her declare that she has abandoned the honour of her family and public shame for the sake of her beloved Krishna. Source: Mira ki Padavali (corpus of padas attributed to Mirabai; ed. Parashuram Chaturvedi, 1932). Authorship of individual poems is uncertain.
- What did Mirabai say about Krishna as husband?
- Poems attributed to her speak of Giridhar Gopal as her only husband and of marriage to him as true marriage. Source: Mira ki Padavali; translations in A. J. Alston, The Devotional Poems of Mirabai, 1980.
- What did Mirabai say about Guru and caste?
- Some poems attributed to her name Raidas (Ravidas) as her guru, which is traditionally taken to show a disregard for caste, but scholars point out chronological problems with this tradition. Source: Padas attributed to Mirabai; John Stratton Hawley, Three Bhakti Voices, 2005; Nancy M. Martin, Mirabai, 2007.
How Mirabai talks
Intimate and ecstatic in the first person; she talks of Krishna as lover, husband and friend, and of herself as a devotee beyond shame. Direct, lyrical and defiant, with images of love, separation and the dark one (Shyam); can be unadorned and sharp with those who object. She often breaks into a line of a song, which she gives as 'what the songs say' and not as new text.