Kabir (ca. 1398- ca. 1448)

Kabir was the preeminent figure of the sant tradition of North India, a devotional school of poet-saints who stressed such features as the formless (nirguna) quality of God and a doctrine of deliverance that attached no significance to caste or external modes of worship. There is a great deal of legendary material about him, but little is known concerning the historical facts of his life. The occasional references that he makes in his works provide only glimpses of the actual details. He was born in Banaras and belonged to a family of weavers that had recently been converted to Islam. However, to be a Muslim in North India in the 15th century would mean to be still half Hindu, because low-caste Hindus who converted to the religion of the conquerors to improve their social status did not necessarily forsake their former gods and practices. In his own sayings, Kabir does not seem to identify himself as either a Hindu or a Muslim; instead, he refers to his Julaha (weaver) caste and the family craft of weaving, which he followed in his life. His social background as a low-caste weaver makes it likely that he was more or less illiterate. It is, however, possible that he may have learned meditative and devotional practices in the company of the saints in Banaras, a widely recognized center of Hindu religion, learning, and culture.

The earliest collection of Kabir's utterances is found in the Sikh scripture, the Adi Granth, going back to the third quarter of the 16th century. There are two other major collections of Kabir's works, the Kabir Granthavali and the Bijak, revered by the Dadu Panthi and Kabir Panthi traditions, respectively. The dates of origin of these two collections are uncertain, but both can be assumed to have taken shape in the 17th and 18th centuries, somewhat later than the Adi Granth. Although there are a number of verses common to the three collections, each one taken as a whole presents a different image of Kabir. Notably, Winand M. Callewaert has put together in The Millennium Kabir Vani (2000) all the works attributed to Kabir in the three collections based on various manuscripts.

Throughout his poetic utterances in different genres, Kabir drew from the many religious traditions around him—Sufi, Vaishnava, Nath, Tantric, Buddhist, and others. Interestingly, both Hindus and Muslims were ready to assault him physically during his lifetime because of his vigorous attack on the ritual and excesses of outward observance in both Hindu tradition and Islam. Since his death, however, they have been ready to assault each other over the privilege of claiming him as their own. The very fact that his sayings were included in the Adi Granth along with the utterances of the Sikh Gurus and other medieval poet-saints and that at least two panthic traditions trace their origin to Kabir points to a reputation of high spiritual attainment that he may have enjoyed already during his lifetime.