This week begins with a sākhi (essentially a didactic dohā or couplet) by the poet-saint Sundardas (1596-1689) of the Dadu Panth religious tradition of Rajasthan. Sundardas is known for bringing a highly literary and scholastic style to the so-called nirguṇ (‘without-qualities’) tradition of bhakti in north India. This nirguṇ tradition of thought (developed among several religious communities of the period) espouses a belief in an ineffable Divine that lies beyond everyday sensory experience; the tradition correspondingly criticizes saguṇ (‘with-qualities’) conceptions of God, including those that imagine God in anthropomorphic forms. This often includes critiques of image-worship and temple-based ritual, and the social structures that are implicated within them. Continue reading →