A commentary on the Bhagavad Gita, written in Marathi in the thirteenth century by a man in his early twenties, in a metre that could be sung, for people who could not read Sanskrit. The Jnaneshwari is the foundation text of the Varkari tradition, and the nine verses that close it — the Pasaydan — are the best-known lines in the Marathi language.
📖 Jnaneshwari at a Glance
Author: Jnaneshwar (Dnyaneshwar), 1275–1296
Proper title: Bhavartha Dipika — the lamp of the inner meaning
Written: c. 1290, at Nevasa, when he was about fifteen
Form: the ovi — a Marathi folk metre
Extent: roughly 9,000 ovis on the Gita's 700 verses
Closes with: the Pasaydan — the request for a boon
📑 Table of Contents
📚 What It Is
Not a translation. The Jnaneshwari takes each Gita verse and expands it — with illustration, argument and imagery drawn from ordinary life — into a passage that a listener could follow without knowing Sanskrit. A single shloka may take twenty or thirty ovis.
| Feature | What it does |
|---|---|
| The ovi | A Marathi folk metre, associated with women's grinding songs — chosen precisely because it was already in ordinary use and could be sung |
| The similes | Drawn from farming, cooking, weather, cattle, water, the household — the Jnaneshwari's images are its most admired feature |
| The address | Direct and oral — listen, the text keeps saying; it is composed for hearing |
| The philosophy | Non-dualist, in the Nath tradition's register, with bhakti fully present — the text is not a simplification but a full commentary |
📌 The decision that mattered
Writing a Gita commentary in Marathi in the thirteenth century was not a neutral act. The commentarial tradition was Sanskrit, and access to it was restricted by the training it required. Jnaneshwar's opening includes a defence of the choice, and the text repeatedly addresses itself to ordinary listeners. The Varkari tradition that grew from it is a mass movement, and that follows directly from the language.
🙏 The Pasaydan
The work ends with nine ovis in which Jnaneshwar asks his teacher for a boon — pasayadana, the gift of grace. It is recited at the close of Varkari gatherings, broadcast, taught in schools, and known by heart across Maharashtra.
ātā viśhwātmakẽ devẽ, yeṇe vāgyajñẽ tosāvẽ …
Now may the God who is the soul of the universe be pleased with this sacrifice of words, and being pleased, grant me this grace: let the crookedness of the wicked cease; let their love of the good increase. Let all beings meet one another in friendship. Let the darkness of sin depart. Let the sun of dharma rise. Let every being obtain what it desires. Let there be a continuous downpour of the divine on the earth. And let all who live be happy.
📌 What he asks for
Having written nine thousand verses, the author's one request is entirely on behalf of other people — and the first item is that the wicked should lose their crookedness, not that they should be punished. Nothing in the nine ovis asks for anything for himself. Read after the whole commentary, the Pasaydan is the argument's conclusion rather than an appended prayer.
👤 Jnaneshwar and the Four
The traditional account: Vitthalpant, a renunciate who returned to householdership at his guru's instruction, and his wife Rukminibai had four children — Nivruttinath, Jnaneshwar, Sopandev and Muktabai. Because their father had resumed household life after sannyasa, the family was excluded by the local brahmana community and the children were denied the thread ceremony.
| Episode | The account |
|---|---|
| Exclusion | The parents are said to have ended their lives at Prayag on the community's instruction, leaving the children orphaned |
| Nivruttinath | The eldest, initiated into the Nath tradition; he is Jnaneshwar's guru, and the Jnaneshwari names him as such throughout |
| Paithan | The episode in which the children seek certification from the assembly, and Jnaneshwar is said to have made a buffalo recite the Vedas — a story told as an argument about who may speak scripture |
| Muktabai | The youngest; her Tatiche Abhang, sung outside the door when Jnaneshwar had shut himself in, are themselves canonical Marathi |
| Sanjeevan samadhi | At Alandi, at about twenty-one. The tradition holds it was voluntary, and the site is the Varkari tradition's principal shrine after Pandharpur |
🚶 The Varkari Tradition
What grew from it
- The Varkari sampradaya — devotees of Vitthal at Pandharpur, whose defining practice is the wari, the pilgrimage on foot to Pandharpur for Ashadhi and Kartiki Ekadashi.
- The palkhi processions — Jnaneshwar's padukas carried from Alandi and Tukaram's from Dehu, converging with others on Pandharpur; hundreds of thousands walk, singing abhangs, over about three weeks.
- The line of poet-saints — Jnaneshwar, then Namdev, Eknath, Tukaram and others, with Janabai, Muktabai, Bahinabai and Chokhamela among the voices the tradition preserves. Chokhamela was of a community excluded from the temple, and the tradition kept his abhangs.
- Eknath produced the standard edited recension of the Jnaneshwari in the sixteenth century, which is the text now read.
💡 Amrutanubhav
Jnaneshwar's second work is independent rather than commentarial — a philosophical treatise on non-duality, considerably harder than the Jnaneshwari and addressed to a different audience. It is worth knowing that the man who wrote the great vernacular popularisation also wrote a technical work, because it settles the question of whether the Jnaneshwari's accessibility was a limitation or a choice.
❓ Frequently Asked Questions
What is the Jnaneshwari?
A Marathi commentary on the Bhagavad Gita, properly Bhavartha Dipika, written by Jnaneshwar c. 1290 — roughly 9,000 ovis on the Gita's 700 verses. Not a translation but an expansion: a single shloka may take twenty or thirty ovis. Composed in the ovi, a folk metre associated with women's grinding songs, chosen because it was already in ordinary use and could be sung.
What is the Pasaydan?
The nine ovis that close the Jnaneshwari, asking for a boon: that the crookedness of the wicked cease and their love of the good increase; that all beings meet in friendship; that the sun of dharma rise; that every being obtain what it desires; and that all who live be happy. Having written nine thousand verses, his one request is entirely on behalf of other people — and the first item is not that the wicked be punished.
How old was Jnaneshwar when he wrote it?
About fifteen, on the traditional dating — he is given as 1275–1296, with the Jnaneshwari at about 1290. He took sanjeevan samadhi at Alandi at about twenty-one. The dates are the tradition's; what the text itself establishes is the authorship, its own date, the discipleship to Nivruttinath, and the place of writing at Nevasa.
Why did Jnaneshwar write in Marathi?
Because the commentarial tradition was Sanskrit, and access was restricted by the training it required — writing a Gita commentary in Marathi in the 13th century was not a neutral act. His opening defends the choice, and the text keeps saying listen rather than read. That the accessibility was a choice, not a limitation, is settled by his second work, the Amrutanubhav — an independent and considerably harder treatise on non-duality.
What is the Varkari tradition?
The devotees of Vitthal at Pandharpur, whose defining practice is the wari — the pilgrimage on foot for Ashadhi and Kartiki Ekadashi. Jnaneshwar's padukas travel from Alandi and Tukaram's from Dehu in palkhi processions, with hundreds of thousands walking and singing abhangs. The line runs Jnaneshwar → Namdev → Eknath → Tukaram, and preserves Janabai, Muktabai, Bahinabai and Chokhamela.
🙏 Conclusion
He was about fifteen, he wrote in a metre women used for grinding songs, and he took a Sanskrit commentarial tradition and put it where anyone could hear it. Nine thousand verses later he asks for one thing, and it is that the crooked should stop being crooked and that every living being should be happy. Seven hundred years on, several hundred thousand people walk to Pandharpur every year singing the tradition he began.