Poets

Browse by poet.

Begin with a voice. Move from the voice into the poem, bhajan, ghazal, essay, or collection that keeps you there.

This directory now opens more fully into the bhakti and Sufi traditions while keeping other beloved voices nearby. Many pages are curated for open and public-domain reading.

c. 15th century

Kabir

Mystic poet and social critic whose couplets collapse distance between devotion, ethics, and everyday life.

c. 1498–1546

Meera

Poet-saint of longing and surrender, whose bhajans make devotion intimate and fearless.

1797–1869

Ghalib

Master of the ghazal, alive to paradox, grief, humour, and philosophical restlessness.

1207–1273

Rumi

Persian mystic whose work joins ecstasy, discipline, music, and inward turning.

c. 15th–16th century

Ravidas

Bhakti poet of equality, dignity, and the radical dream of a world without hierarchy.

c. 1478–1583

Surdas

Krishna bhakta whose songs of love, play, and darshan have lived in oral tradition for centuries.

1532–1623

Tulsidas

Poet of Ram devotion whose verses balance tenderness, ethics, humility, and praise.

c. 1608–1649

Tukaram

Marathi saint-poet of the abhang tradition: direct, self-aware, tender, and unsparing.

1877–1938

Muhammad Iqbal

Poet-philosopher of selfhood, prayer, and civilizational memory.

1861–1941

Rabindranath Tagore

Poet of song, freedom, solitude, and luminous inward weather.

1901–1978

Bismil Azimabadi

Freedom-era Urdu poet remembered for public courage and patriotic fire.

1904–1948

Subhadra Kumari Chauhan

Poet of courage, memory, and the emotional force of public history.