Life & Legacy
Born around 1498 into a Rajput royal family in present-day Rajasthan, Mirabai (Mira) became one of the most beloved poet-saints of the Bhakti movement. From childhood she regarded Krishna — whom she adored as Giridhara, the lifter of Govardhan Hill — as her true beloved. Defying the conventions and constraints of royal and married life, she gave herself wholly to him, singing and dancing her devotion openly in the company of saints and devotees.
Mira composed hundreds of impassioned bhajans in Rajasthani and Braj — songs of longing, surrender, and union that have been sung continuously for five centuries. Her fearless, tender devotion made her an enduring symbol of bhakti as pure love, and her songs live on in the global Kirtan repertoire, carried forward by contemporary mantra artists including Mirabai Ceiba, who take their name in her honor.
