Kabir and the Avatars

• Main Author: David N. Lorenzen
• Format: Article
• Language: English
• Published: Università degli Studi di Torino 2021-04-01
• Series: Kervan. International Journal of Afro-Asiatic Studies
• Online Access: https://www.ojs.unito.it/index.php/kervan/article/view/5783

The Indian religious poet Kabir (d. ca. 1518) often referred to his God using Vaishnava names, names that refer to the Hindu god Vishnu. Kabir also uses names for God that are not specific to Vishnu and even uses Muslim names. Vishnu is said to have been incarnated in several earthly avatars. The most important are Krishna and king Ramachandra. A traditional list names ten avatars. Kabir often refers to these earthly avatars, but he minimizes their importance in various ways such as emphasizing the fact that they all died. Most modern scholars have taken Kabir’s use of Vaishnava vocabulary to identify him as a Vaishnava, albeit an unorthodox one. Kabir’s rejection of the avatars and his focus on a supreme God without form or personality tends to put this identification in doubt.