Bhakti Republic With Amit Basole | EP2 Kathauti Mein Ganga | 12th October 2023

We journey to the ancient, timeless city of Varanasi, its ghats washed by the river Ganga, to find ourselves enmeshed in the warp and weft of Kabir’s verse. Kabir the weaver venerates the Almighty without question, but equally, he scorns the hollowness of rituals in society that clutter the path to this sacred union. His poetry is simple and accessible, yet pungent with wit and incisive with insight. And though provocative, it resounds with wisdom and truth of a kind that many of his contemporaries, even his detractors, dared not confront. Within this city of brick and stone, which also goes by Benares and Kashi, is ensconced a place of dreams, a utopia where the working class is free and spared from taxation, and where society is not riven by caste or stigma. Begumpura (literally, a city without sorrow) is a realm in the imagination of another of Varanasi’s most illustrious sons — Ravidas the leather-worker. A famous parable, which engendered the phrase after which this episode is titled, goes that the saint-poet equated the water in his humble tanner’s bowl (kathauti) to the sacred waters of the Ganga. Join Amit Basole for the second episode of this series, in which we explore how the histories of the values enshrined in our Constitution find resonance in the poetry of the Bhakti tradition. Credits: Akshay Ramuhalli, Atif Anwar, Bijoy Venugopal, Bruce Lee Mani, Narayan Krishnaswamy, Prashant Vasudevan, Riju R Krishna, Seema Seth, Shraddha Gautam, Supriya Joshi and Velu Shankar Acknowledgements: YouTube: Tera Mera Manwa | Kaluram Bamaniya | Kabir Project https://youtu.be/O8uJ9Lr6E5I?t=80 Walking with Sunrise in Varanasi (Binaural Ambience Sounds) 4K ASMR https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=G3yM_P39kZE 'Koi Nahin Apna' by Vishnu Khuprao Deshmukh https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=I77FQIhXYtw Soulful Kabir Bhajan | Kalaam-e-Kabir with Shabnam Virmani | Jashn-e-Rekhta https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=wpGOMJP2ges Chadariya Jhini re Jhini | Mukhtiayar Ali | Kabir Project https://youtu.be/7z9dM2E1Zl8?t=169 Kabir by Abida Parveen Popular Kabir Songs 2015 https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=mNEh6TbkSYo Bhala hua mori matki phuti | Farid Ayaz, Abu Muhammad Qawwal and Party https://youtu.be/7GL0SqhQB3w?t=341 Interview with Farid Ayaz | Kabir Project https://youtu.be/ZBiHzjj-yBE?t=369 Documentary: Hans Akela - Kumar Gandharva https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Fv4ynjy8m04 Kabir: Then and Now - Lecture by Purushottam Agarwal (video) https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=UkULhmshsNg&ab_channel=AshokDaRanadeMemorialTrust Ravidas Guru | Nusrat Fateh Ali Khan Qawwal and Party https://youtu.be/0wyhcdxDrjI?t=71 Begumpura | Bhai Nirmal Singh Khalsa https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=dC5uwIbvRLk Pravachan on Sant Ravidas (video) https://www.youtube.com/live/Jdo7yPGhWGw?feature=share YouTube Shorts https://www.youtube.com/shorts/SLfcjvdDuhw https://www.youtube.com/shorts/KFiA7Hnlp_Y Books: Akath Kahani Premi Ki by Purushottam Agarwal https://www.amazon.in/-/hi/Purushottam-Agarwal/dp/9388933265 Seeking Begumpura - The Social Vision of Anti-caste Intellectuals by Gail Omvedt Internet Archive: https://archive.org/details/seeking-begumpura-the-social-vision-of-anticaste-intellectuals Goodreads: https://www.goodreads.com/en/book/show/11970804 Amazon: https://www.amazon.in/Seeking-Begumpura-Social-Anticaste-Intellectuals/dp/8189059459 Kabir legends and Ananta-das's Kabir Parachai by David Lorenzen (PDF) https://archive.org/details/kabirlegendsanan0000lore/page/n7/mode/2up Ramaini, Beejak of Kabir - Nawal Kishore Press (PDF) https://archive.org/details/RamainiBeejakEtcOfKabirDasWithBrajBhashaProseTranslationPg49To568NavalKishorePress/mode/2up Kashi ka itihas by Dr Motichandra (PDF) https://archive.org/details/kashikaitihasmotichanda_202003_131_b/mode/2up