Kabir's poems were in
Sadhukkadi, also known as Panchmel Khichri, borrowing from various
dialects including
Khadi boli,
Braj,
Bhojpuri,
Marwari and
Awadhi. Kabir also wrote in pure Bhojpuri, for instance his poems like
mor hīrā herāïl bā kichaṛe me is written in pure Bhojpuri. They cover various aspects of life and call for a loving devotion for God. Kabir composed his verses with simple words. Most of his work was concerned with devotion, mysticism and discipline. {{Quote Where spring, the lord of seasons reigneth, there the unstruck music sounds of itself, There the streams of light flow in all directions, few are the men who can cross to that shore! There, where millions of
Krishnas stand with hands folded, Where millions of
Vishnus bow their heads, where millions of
Brahmas are reading the Vedas, Where millions of
Shivas are lost in contemplation, where millions of
Indras dwell in the sky, Where the demi-gods and the
munis are unnumbered, where millions of
Saraswatis, goddess of music play the vina, There is my Lord self-revealed, and the scent of sandal and flowers dwells in those deeps. Kabir and his followers named his verbally composed poems of wisdom as "bāņīs" (utterances). These include songs and couplets, called variously
dohe,
śalokā (Sanskrit: ślokā), or
sākhī (Sanskrit: sākṣī). The latter term means "witness", implying the poems to be evidence of the Truth. Literary works with compositions attributed to Kabir include
Kabir Bijak,
Kabir Parachai,
Sakhi Granth,
Adi Granth (Sikh), and
Kabir Granthawali (Rajasthan). However, except for Adi Granth, significantly different versions of these texts exist and it is unclear which one is more original; for example,
Kabir Bijak exists in two major recensions. The most in depth scholarly analysis of various versions and translations are credited to Charlotte Vaudeville, the 20th century French scholar on Kabir. There are 82 works attributed to Kabir as mentioned in Kabir and the Kabir panth by Westcott. Shyamsundar Das himself brought to light two marked manuscripts which he published in 1928. One of these manuscripts carried the date 1504 and the other 1824. Kabir's poems were verbally composed in the 15th century and transmitted
viva voce through the 17th century.
Kabir Bijak was compiled and written down for the first time in the 17th century. Scholars state that this form of transmission, over geography and across generations bred change, interpolation and corruption of the poems. Furthermore, whole songs were creatively fabricated and new couplets inserted by unknown authors and attributed to Kabir, not because of dishonesty but out of respect for him and the creative exuberance of anonymous oral tradition found in Indian literary works. Scholars have sought to establish poetry that truly came from Kabir and its
historicity value.
Authenticity John Stratton Hawley notes that collections of poetry that have survived tend to display quite distinct personalities of Kabir. In Western collections (Rajasthaan) Kabir is far more devotional than the Eastern (Punjab) Kabir who seems more like a down to earth householder swayed by love's intensity. More recently, Kabir's poems can be found in a wide variety of publications and websites, but the discussion of authenticity is ongoing. It seems certain that minor changes will have occurred through the centuries and it is also possible that poems written by others have been attributed to Kabir.
Rabindranath Tagore's English translation and compilation,
Songs of Kabir, was first published in 1915 and has been a classic reprinted and circulated particularly in the West. One critic (V.C. Mishra) has gone so far as to suggest that only six of its hundred poems are authentic and also raises the question of whether the translator projected theological perspectives of the early 20th century onto Kabir. The same essay adds that the presumed unauthentic poems nevertheless belong to the Bhakti movement in medieval India and may have been composed by admirers of Kabir who lived later.
Philosophy According to Linda Hess, "Some modern commentators have tried to present Kabir as a synthesizer of
Hinduism and
Islam; but the picture is a false one. While drawing on various traditions as he saw fit, Kabir emphatically declared his independence from both the major religions of his countrymen, vigorously attacked what he considered the follies of these religions, and tried to kindle the fire of a similar autonomy and courage in those who claimed to be his disciples. He adopted their terminology and concepts, but vigorously criticised them both. He questioned the need for any holy book, as stated in Kabir Granthavali as follows: {{Quote Reading book after book the whole world died, and none ever became learned! But understanding the root matter is what made them gain the knowledge! Many scholars interpret Kabir's philosophy to be questioning the need for religion, rather than attempting to propose either
Hindu–Muslim unity or an independent synthesis of a new religious tradition. Kabir rejected the hypocrisy and misguided rituals evident in various religious practices of his day, including those in Islam and Hinduism. {{Quote Saints I've seen both ways. Hindus and Muslims don't want discipline, they want tasty food. The Hindu keeps the eleventh-day fast, eating chestnuts and milk. He curbs his grain but not his brain, and breaks his fast with meat. The Turk [Muslim] prays daily, fasts once a year, and crows "God!, God!" like a cock. What heaven is reserved for people who kill chickens in the dark? Instead of kindness and compassion, they've cast out all desire. One kills with a chop, one lets the blood drop, in both houses burns the same fire. Turks and Hindus have one way, the guru's made it clear. Don't say Ram, don't say Khuda [Allah], so says Kabir. In
Bijak, Kabir mocks the practice of praying to avatars such as Buddha of Buddhism, by asserting "don't call the master Buddha, he didn't put down devils". Kabir urged people to look within and consider all human beings as manifestation of God's living forms: {{Quote If God be within the mosque, then to whom does this world belong? If Ram be within the image which you find upon your pilgrimage, then who is there to know what happens without? Hari is in the East, Allah is in the West. Look within your heart, for there you will find both Karim and Ram; All the men and women of the world are His living forms. Kabir is the child of Allah and of Ram: He is my Guru, He is my Pir. Charlotte Vaudeville states that the philosophy of Kabir and other
sants of the Bhakti movement is the seeking of the Absolute. The notion of this Absolute is
nirguna which, writes Vaudeville, is same as "the
Upanishadic concept of the
Brahman-Atman and the monistic Advaita interpretation of the Vedantic tradition, which denies any distinction between the soul [within a human being] and God, and urges man to recognize within himself his true divine nature". Vaudeville notes that this philosophy of Kabir and other Bhakti sants is self-contradictory, because if God is within, then that would be a call to abolish all external
bhakti. This inconsistency in Kabir's teaching may have been differentiating "union with God" from the concept of "merging into God, or Oneness in all beings". Alternatively, states Vaudeville, the
saguna prema-bhakti (tender devotion) may have been prepositioned as the journey towards self-realization of the
nirguna Brahman, a universality beyond monotheism.
David N. Lorenzen and Adrián Muñoz trace these ideas of God in Kabir's philosophy as
nirguna Brahman to those in
Adi Shankara's theories on
Advaita Vedanta school of Hinduism, albeit with some differences.
Influence of Islam Lorenzen in his review of Kabir's philosophy and poetry writes, "the extent to which Kabir borrowed elements from Islam is controversial. Many recent scholars have argued that he simply rejected Islam and took almost all his ideas and beliefs from the Hindu tradition. Contemporary Kabir Panth sadhus make roughly the same argument. Most of the vocabulary used in his songs and verses are borrowed directly from the Hindu tradition. Some scholars state that the sexual imagery in some of Kabir's poems reflect a mystic Sufi Islam influence, wherein Kabir inverts the traditional Sufi representation of a God-woman and devotee-man longing for a union, and instead uses the imagery of Lord-husband and devotee-bride. Other scholars, in contrast, state that it is unclear if Sufi ideas influenced Bhakti sants like Kabir or it was vice versa, suggesting that they probably co-developed through mutual interaction. Kabir left Islam, states Ronald McGregor. Kabir, nevertheless, criticised practices such as killing and eating cows by Muslims, in a manner Hindus criticised those practices: {{Quote We have searched the
turaki Dharam (
Turk's religion, Islam), these teachers throw many thunderbolts, Recklessly they display boundless pride while explaining their own aims, they kill cows. How can they kill the mother, whose milk they drink like that of a wet nurse? The young and the old drink milk pudding, but these fools eat the cow's body. These morons know nothing, they wander about in ignorance, Without looking into one's heart, how can one reach paradise?
Persecution and social impact Kabir's couplets suggest he was persecuted for his views, while he was alive. He stated, for example, {{Quote Saints I see the world is mad. If I tell the truth they rush to beat me, if I lie they trust me. Kabir response to persecution and slander was to welcome it. He called the slanderer a friend, expressed gratefulness for the slander, for it brought him closer to his God. Winand Callewaert translates a poem attributed to Kabir in the warrior-ascetic
Dadupanthi tradition within Hinduism, as follows: {{Quote Keep the slanderer near you, build him a hut in your courtyard — For, without soap or water, he will scrub your character clean. The legends about Kabir describe him as the underdog who nevertheless is victorious in trials by a
Sultan, a
Brahmin, a
Qazi, a
merchant, a god or a goddess. The ideological messages in the legends appealed to the poor and oppressed. According to David Lorenzen, legends about Kabir reflect a "protest against social discrimination and economic exploitation", they present the perspective of the poor and powerless, not the rich and powerful. However, many scholars doubt that these legends of persecution are authentic, point to the lack of any corroborating evidence, consider it unlikely that a Muslim Sultan would take orders from Hindu Brahmins or Kabir's own mother demanded that the Sultan punish Kabir, and question the historicity of the legends on Kabir. ==Legacy==