Author Guide · Indian Poetry · Bhakti
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Kabir never wrote a book. A weaver in Varanasi in the fifteenth century, he composed short couplets and songs that were sung, memorised and passed on, and only written down in collections made long after him: the Bijak of his followers, first compiled in the 17th century, the Rajasthani Kabir Granthavali, and the Sikh scripture, which holds more verses by him than by any other non-Sikh poet. When he died, Hindus and Muslims both claimed him; at Maghar, where he died, there is still a Hindu samadhi and a Muslim dargah about 100 metres apart. In English he arrived in 1915, through Rabindranath Tagore, and has been retranslated ever since. This guide covers seven key books of Kabir in English, in order, and where to begin.
By Lisanne Swart · 7 key books in English · 1915–2015 · Updated October 2026
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Quick answer
Kabir’s poems survive in three main collections, the Bijak, the Kabir Granthavali and the Sikh Guru Granth Sahib. The key English books are Rabindranath Tagore’s Songs of Kabir (1915), Robert Bly’s The Kabir Book (1977), Linda Hess and Shukdev Singh’s The Bijak of Kabir (1983) and Arvind Krishna Mehrotra’s Songs of Kabir (2011). Start with Mehrotra. Read on for which translation suits which reader, and why many “Kabir” poems may not be his.
Where to Start with Kabir
If you want Kabir in lively modern English
→ Songs of Kabir (2011) — a poet’s translation from the Hindi.
If you want the scripture of Kabir’s followers, with notes
→ The Bijak of Kabir (1983) — the Bijak, translated closely.
If you want the Kabir that made him famous in the West
→ Songs of Kabir (1915) — Tagore’s 1915 versions.
If you want the most widely quoted versions
→ The Kabir Book (1977) — free, and based on Tagore rather than the Hindi.
7 Kabir Books in English, in Order
Songs of Kabir
The book that introduced Kabir to Western readers: Tagore’s English versions of one hundred poems, published in New York by Macmillan in 1915 and in Britain as One Hundred Poems of Kabir, with an introduction by Evelyn Underhill, who worked on the book with him. The poems come from a Hindi collection by Kshitimohan Sen, gathered partly from manuscripts and partly from wandering singers. The language is archaic, full of “thee” and “thou”, and the scholar V. C. Mishra argues that only six of the hundred poems are authentically Kabir’s.
The Kabir Book
Forty-four poems in contemporary American free verse, published by Beacon Press in 1977. Bly did not work from the Hindi: by his own description, his versions rephrase Tagore’s translations in more contemporary language, so they inherit Tagore’s selection and its authorship problems. They are loose, readable and among the most quoted Kabir poems in English; Bly later expanded them into Kabir: Ecstatic Poems.
The Bijak of Kabir
A close translation of the Bijak, the sacred book of the Kabir Panth, the community that regards Kabir as its founder, with its three kinds of poem: ramainis, shabdas and sakhis. Linda Hess added essays and notes that explain the poems’ riddles and references. First published in 1983 by North Point Press in San Francisco and Motilal Banarsidass in Delhi; Oxford University Press issued a new edition in 2002.
A Weaver Named Kabir
Selected verses translated by the French scholar Charlotte Vaudeville, who had already published a French translation of the Kabir Granthavali in 1957, with a long introduction on what can and cannot be known about Kabir’s life and the manuscripts. Her comparison of the different versions and translations is the most detailed scholarly analysis of the Kabir texts.
Kabir
A Penguin Classics selection translated by Vinay Dharwadker, a poet and scholar born in Pune who teaches at the University of Wisconsin–Madison. It presents both sides of Kabir: the devotional poet and the critic of religious and social custom.
Songs of Kabir
New translations by the Indian poet Arvind Krishna Mehrotra, published by NYRB Classics in April 2011 with a preface by Wendy Doniger. Mehrotra keeps Tagore’s title but drops his tone: these are short, blunt, often funny poems full of paradox and riddle. Reviewing it in The New York Times Book Review in May 2011, August Kleinzahler praised how it captured “the ferocity and improvisational energy” of Kabir’s poetry.
Bodies of Song
Not a translation but a study, published by Oxford University Press in 2015: Linda Hess, who translated the Bijak three decades earlier, looks at how Kabir’s poetry lives today in oral traditions and performance in North India, where his songs are still sung.
In What Order to Read Kabir
Nothing in Kabir runs in sequence: each couplet or song stands on its own, so the choice is between translations, not volumes. A modern translation from the Hindi, such as Mehrotra’s, gives the clearest sense of his voice. Tagore and Bly are worth reading afterwards, as the versions through which most English-speaking readers first met Kabir.
If you want to go deeper, read The Bijak of Kabir for the full text of one tradition with commentary, then Vaudeville or Bodies of Song on the question of which poems are really his and how they have been sung.
A reading path
1. Mehrotra, Songs of Kabir (2011)
2. Dharwadker, Kabir: The Weaver’s Songs (2003)
3. Hess and Singh, The Bijak of Kabir (1983)
4. Tagore, Songs of Kabir (1915)
5. Hess, Bodies of Song (2015)
Other Kabir Translations in English
Beyond the 7 key books in English: 5 more, grouped by kind.
Open a group with the + to see every book in it.
Further translations and studies
5
5 books · 1917–2020
- 1917The Bijak of Kabiran early English translation of the Bijak
- 1991Songs of Kabir from the Adi Granththe poems preserved in the Sikh scripture
- 1994A Touch of Grace: Songs of Kabira shorter selection, Shambhala
- 2009Singing EmptinessKumar Gandharva’s performances of Kabir, Seagull Books
- 2020Kabir Saysan updated reworking of the Tagore collection
The years · 1398–2011
Quick facts about Kabir
- Known for
- Kabir is known for short, sharp couplets and songs that mock the rituals of both Hindus and Muslims and look for God within, and for being claimed by Hindus, Muslims and Sikhs alike.
- 1398
- Traditional year of birth, Varanasi
- 1518
- Dies at Maghar, by the later dating
- 1604
- His verses enter the Sikh Adi Granth
- 1915
- Songs of Kabir
- 2011
- Mehrotra’s new translation
- Born
- Traditionally 1398, Varanasi; historians suggest 1398 or 1440
- Died
- Maghar, in present-day Uttar Pradesh; 1448 or 1518, depending on the dating
- Family
- According to tradition, raised by a Muslim weaver, Niru, and his wife Nima; he worked as a weaver
- Language
- Sadhukkadi, a mix of Khadi boli, Braj, Bhojpuri, Awadhi and other dialects
- Collections
- The Bijak, the Kabir Granthavali and the Sikh Guru Granth Sahib
- Legacy
- The Kabir Panth, founded in the 17th and 18th centuries, with an estimated 9.6 million members
The red mark is 1915: Tagore’s Songs of Kabir, the book that introduced Kabir to readers outside India.
How Kabir Wrote: Songs, Couplets and Riddles
Kabir composed for the ear. His two main forms are the sakhi, a two-line couplet whose name means “witness”, and the shabda or song, meant to be sung. He used the mixed everyday Hindi of travelling holy men rather than Sanskrit or Persian, and his followers called the poems bani, the spoken word.
His tone is rarely gentle. He addresses his listeners directly, often scornfully, and attacks pilgrimage, idol worship, fasting, the Brahmin’s sacred thread and the mullah’s call to prayer with the same impatience. Against all of this he sets a God without form, found within, and the nearness of death. Many poems are built as riddles or upside-down language, which is why close translations such as Hess and Singh’s come with long notes.
Because the poems lived in performance for centuries, every collection holds lines added by later singers, and nobody can draw an exact line around what Kabir himself composed. Reading two translations side by side, one from the 1910s and one from this century, shows how much each era has made its own Kabir.
Frequently asked questions about Kabir’s books
How many books has Kabir written?
None, in the usual sense: Kabir composed orally, and his poems were collected after his death. They survive mainly in three collections, the Bijak, the Kabir Granthavali and the Sikh Guru Granth Sahib, and one early study counted 82 works attributed to him. This page lists seven key books of Kabir in English.
What are Kabir’s books in order?
In English: Tagore’s Songs of Kabir (1915), Robert Bly’s The Kabir Book (1977), Linda Hess and Shukdev Singh’s The Bijak of Kabir (1983), Charlotte Vaudeville’s A Weaver Named Kabir (1993), Vinay Dharwadker’s Kabir: The Weaver’s Songs (2003), Arvind Krishna Mehrotra’s Songs of Kabir (2011) and Hess’s study Bodies of Song (2015).
Where should I start with Kabir?
With Arvind Krishna Mehrotra’s Songs of Kabir (2011), a short, modern translation from the Hindi by an Indian poet. For a complete text with notes, go on to Hess and Singh’s The Bijak of Kabir.
What is Kabir’s most famous book?
In India, the Bijak, the sacred book of the Kabir Panth, and the verses in the Guru Granth Sahib. In English, Rabindranath Tagore’s Songs of Kabir (1915) is the best known.
Did Kabir really write the poems attributed to him?
Not all of them. His poems were passed on orally from the 15th to the 17th century, and in that time singers changed lines, added couplets and composed whole songs in his name. The scholar V. C. Mishra argues that only six of the hundred poems in Tagore’s Songs of Kabir are authentic, an extreme view, but most scholars agree that no collection is purely Kabir’s.
Is Robert Bly’s Kabir a real translation?
No. Bly did not translate from Hindi; by his own account he rephrased Tagore’s English translations in more contemporary language. His versions are loose and very readable, but they carry over Tagore’s choice of poems, including those whose authorship is doubtful.
Was Kabir Hindu or Muslim?
Neither fits neatly. According to tradition he was raised by a Muslim weaving family in Varanasi and is said to have been a disciple of the Hindu teacher Ramananda. His poems criticise the rituals of both religions, and during his life he was threatened by members of both. When he died, Hindus and Muslims both claimed him.
What happened when Kabir died?
He died at Maghar, in present-day Uttar Pradesh. According to legend, his body disappeared and only fragrant flowers were found in its place; his Hindu and Muslim followers divided them. A Hindu samadhi and a Muslim dargah stand about 100 metres apart there.
Is Kabir in the Guru Granth Sahib?
Yes. Verses attributed to Kabir form the largest contribution by a non-Sikh poet to the Guru Granth Sahib, the Sikh scripture first compiled as the Adi Granth in 1604. Nirmal Dass translated them as Songs of Kabir from the Adi Granth (1991).
When did Kabir live?
In the 15th century, though his exact dates are unknown. Tradition gives 1398 as his birth year; historians favour either 1398 to 1448 or 1440 to 1518.
Footnotes
- Kabir — Wikipedia
- Songs of Kabir — Wikipedia
- Maghar — Wikipedia
- Songs of Kabir — NYRB
- Songs of Kabir praised in The New York Times Book Review — NYRB
- Bodies of Song — Oxford Academic
Bibliography last verified 9 October 2026. Where sources give different first-publication years, this page uses the year in library catalogues or the publisher’s own record.
This list was not put together by a machine.
The notes are all mine,
and the songs are Kabir’s.
Lisanne x
Written by Lisanne Swart, who has curated reading lists and author guides at lisanneswart.com since 2021.
See more on her personal bookshelf.
“O servant, where dost thou seek Me? Lo! I am beside thee.”
— Kabir, Songs of Kabir, poem I, in Rabindranath Tagore’s translation (1915)
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