K

Kabandha

(“headless trunk”) A demon in the

Ramayana(the earlier of the two great

Hindu epics) who attacks the god-king

Rama, the epic’s protagonist, and

Rama’s brother Lakshmana. In a previ-

ous life Kabandha has been a king of the

gandharvas, or celestial musicians; but

in a battle with the god Indra,

Kabandha’s head is pushed down into

his body. When Kabandha requests

some means by which he can eat, Indra

places a mouth in Kabandha’s belly.

Indra tells him that the cursewill be

broken when Rama and Lakshmana cut

off his arms.

As Rama and Lakshmana travel

through a forest, searching for Rama’s

kidnapped wife Sita, they are set upon

by Kabandha, who grabs each of them in

one of his long arms. Finding they could

not escape, Rama and Lakshmana each

slash off one of his arms, and with his

dying breaths Kabandha asks the broth-

ers to burn his body. As the body is

burning, the gandharva king arises from

the fire in his previous form and advises

the brothers to seek help from the mon-

key-king Sugriva.

Kabir

(mid-15th c.?) A poet who is widely

regarded as one of the greatest northern

Indian religious figures. Kabir is among

a group of central and northern Indian

poet-saints known as Santswho shared

several tendencies: emphasis on indi-

vidualized, interior religion leading to a

personal experience of the divine; dis-

dain for external ritual, particularly

image worship; faith in the power of the

divine Name; and a tendency to ignore

hierarchical distinctions between

castes. Kabir strongly adhered to these

beliefs—in his writings he uncompro-

misingly attacks any sort of religious

practice based on habit or tradition,

including asceticism, special modes of

dress, fasting (upavasa), image worship,

caste, and scripture.

In his poetry, Kabir identifies himself

as belonging to a caste of weavers (julaha),

and according to tradition he supported

himself through this occupation. Kabir’s

history makes it difficult to link him with

a particular religion. In Arabic, the name

Kabir (“Great”) is one of the names given

to Allah in the Qur’an, identifying him as

a Muslim. However, his poetry reveals

his great knowledge of Hindu religious

life. It is generally believed that the

members of Kabir’s julaha community

were recent converts to Islam who had

not yet been fully assimilated. Kabir’s

poetry, however, clearly shows that he

considered himself neither Hindu nor

Muslim. Part of Kabir’s popularity

undoubtedly stems from his blunt,

passionate affirmation that real

religious attainment is only gained by

internal, individual experience of the

divine, to which he gives the name Ram.

This is not the god-king who is the hero

of the Ramayana, but a name for the

indescribable, absolute Supreme

Reality. Both of these emphases reflect

the influence of the Nathpanthi

ascetics, who also stressed internal

experience and yoga.

In one of his songs, Kabir once boasted

that he had been so absorbed in the

divine that he had never put pen to

paper. His songs remain popular even

today, and many of his shorter epigrams

have become proverbial sayings. Kabir’s

oldest attested poetry survives in three

major collections: one in the Adigranth,

the Sikh scripture also known as the

“Primal Book”; one collected by the

Dadupanth, the religious organization

founded by the Sant poet-saint Dadu;

and the Bijak, which was compiled by

the Kabirpanth, a religious community

that claimed Kabir as its guru(religious

preceptor). The significant differences

Kabandha