SOURCE: Kurl, Shreeprakash. “Bhakta Mira.” In The Devotional Poems of Mirabai, pp. 15-23. Calcutta, India: A Writers Workshop Publication, 1973.

The following essay, from an extended introduction to a translation of Mirabai's religious poetry, places her poetry in the context of the bhakti (devotional) religious movement and offers examples of her devotional poetry.

A study of Mira's poetry is a study of the phenomenon of the poet as a devotee. Choosing the short lyric as the most powerful style through which to convey the intensity of religious emotion, Mira express the urgency of a single experience—the agony and the intense longing of a human soul in separation from God. Mira belongs to that tradition of religious poetry that individualized and humanized its gods—a process which inspired the intimacy and familiarity associated with personal relationship. These gods inspired not only awe and gratitude but also love and companionship...