Kabir, Guru Nanak, Mirabai and the historian's task

Kabir (fourteenth-fifteenth century) is one of the most remarkable poet-saints. His verses survive in several collections: the Bijak (preserved by the Kabirpanth), the Kabir Granthavali, and the Adi Granth Sahib. They are in many languages and dialects, some in the special language of nirguna poets, sant bhasha, and some in ulatbansi ('upside-down sayings', written to capture mystical experience). Kabir described the Ultimate Reality by many names (Allah, Khuda, Hazrat, Pir, Alakh, Nirakar, Rama), but saw it as one.

Later hagiographies argued over whether Kabir was born a Hindu or a Muslim; a tradition that he was initiated by the bhakti saint Ramananda is doubtful, as historians point out they may not have been contemporaries.

Baba Guru Nanak (1469-1539) taught nirguna bhakti, rejecting sacrifices, ritual baths, idol worship and austerities. He stressed remembering and repeating the Divine Name, expressed his ideas in hymns called shabads, and organised his followers into a community (sangat). His fifth successor, Guru Arjan, compiled his and his successors' hymns, with those of other poets, into the Adi Granth Sahib. Guru Gobind Singh, the tenth guru, founded the Khalsa Panth (army of the pure).

Mirabai (c. fifteenth-sixteenth century), a Rajput princess from Merta, defied her in-laws and her caste norms out of devotion to Krishna, whom she accepted as her lover. Her songs are still sung, especially by the poor and lower castes. In Assam, Shankaradeva taught devotion to Vishnu.

Historians use many sources for this history: vachanas, farmans (royal orders), malfuzat (conversations of sufi saints), maktubat (collections of their letters) and tazkiras (biographies of saints). They must use them with care, since traditions changed as they were passed down. Many voices, one search for the Divine.