Eknath rao

The effect of the Bhakti movement is described by Justice Ranade in these words: "Like the Protestant reformation in Europe in the 16th century, there was a religious, social and literary revival and reformation in India, but notably in the Deccan in the 15th and 16th centuries. The religious revival was not Brahmanical in its orthodoxy, it was heterodox in its spirit of protest against forms and ceremonies and class distinctions based on birth, and ethical in its preference of pure heart and the law of love, to all other acquired merits and good works. This religious revival was the work also of the people of the masses, and not of the classes. At its head were saints and prophets, poets and philosophers, who sprang chiefly from the lower order of society, tailors, carpenters, potters, gardeners, shopkeepers, barbers and even scavengers more often than Brahmins." Literature and Language The literature and language of the Marathas also acted as a unifying force. The hymns of Tukaram were sung by all the classes and they served as a bond of unity among people who belonged to different sections of society. The songs in Marathi dialect and Marathi language played an important part. According to J.N. Sarkar, "Thus a remarkable community of language, creed and life was attained in the Maharashtra in the 17th century before political unity was conferred by Shivaji. What little was wanting to the solidarity of the people was supplied by his creation of national state, the long struggle with the invader from Delhi under his sons, and the imperial expansion of the race under the Peshwas. Thus in the end a tribe - or collection of tribes or castes - was fused into a nation, and by the end of the 18th century a Maratha people in the political and cultural senses of the term had been formed, though caste distinctions still remained. Thus history has moulded society." Saints Many saints like Chakradhar, Namdeo, Dnyaneshwar and Eknath lived in Maharashtra before Shivaji was born. They preached the virtue of service, sacrifice, generosity, equality and brotherhood. They created in the minds of people the feeling that all men are equal and no one is high or low. The work of these saints can be compared to that of a farmer wh

According to Richard Eaton, from early 14th-century when Maharashtra region came under the rule of the Islamic Delhi Sultanate, down to the 17th-century, the legacy of Tukaram and his poet-predecessors, "gave voice to a deep-rooted collective identity among Marathi-speakers".[40] Dilip Chitre summarizes the legacy of Tukaram and Bhakti poets, during this period of Hindu-Muslim wars, as transforming "language of shared religion, and religion a shared language. It is they who helped to bind the Marathas together against the Mughals on the basis not of any religious ideology but of a territorial cultural identity".[41]