Narayan Vaman Tilak (6 December 1861 – 9 May 1919) was a Marathi poet from the Konkan region of then Bombay Presidency in British India, and a famous convert to Christianity from the Hindu Chitpavan Brahmin Community.
Early life Narayan Tilak was born into a Hindu Kokanastha Chitpavan Brahmin family on 6 December 1861 in the village of Karajhgaon in Ratnagiri District of Bombay Presidency. From 1869–1873, he studied elementary school in the town of Kalyan near Mumbai, and for the next two years (1874–76), studied primarily Sanskrit and Marathi literature, especially poetry, under Ganeshshastri Lele in Bhatjicha Math, Nashik. Then, after two years (1877–79) at the Nashik High School, learning English and other school subjects, before completing his matriculation examination, he terminated his studies, undertaking a modest job as a teacher to support himself some of his siblings and relatives.
Tilak's growth and development as a Hindu born in colonial India was entirely along traditional Hindu religious and social lines. He was a close relative of Lokmanya Bal Gangadhar Tilak. (See Devdatt Narayan Tilak's booklet which consists of a report on the celebration of Tilak's birth centenary). Unlike many of his Chitpavan Hindu caste fellows, (such as Mahadev Govind Ranade, Lokmanya Tilak, Gopal Krishna Gokhale) who made a name in 19th century Maharashtra after going to college in Pune and after that to England for higher studies in economics, and law, for example, Narayan Tilak never left India's shores for his entire life. His mind was not formed by studies of Western thinkers in academic circles that were shaped by western education in British India, but he read widely and thought deeply on matters of moment for his people in a colonial situation.
Tilak undertook a variety of modest jobs in different towns in Maharashtra at different times in his life, including the job of a teacher, a Hindu priest, and a printing press compositor. He was not stable in holding on to a job too long because his temperament as a seeker impelled him to search for guidance and role models in gurus (spiritual teachers), of whom there were at least three. As a poet and improvisatore, and would earn more than pocket change for publishing poetry.
In 1891, he got a job in Nagpur as a translator of Sanskrit literature, both philosophical and religious. (He himself wrote and published poems in Marathi and Sanskrit from his years in Nashik and won many prizes in Maharashtrian cities for elocution.) Under the patronage of Appasaheb Buti, he edited for a short while a Marathi magazine named Rushi (ऋषि), which was aimed at interpretation and discussion of Hindu religious matters. Tilak was proud of his Hindu heritage and leaned strongly toward Hindu social and religious reform as a sudharak (reformer). He never went to college, but taught himself English by memorizing much of an English dictionary.
Early influences
Narayan (aka Nana) Tilak was a seeker. As a child, he was strongly influenced by the religiosity of his mother Jankibai and his maternal grandfather who sang to little Narayan the songs of the Saint-poets of Maharashtra such as Dnyaneshvar, Namdev, Eknath, Tukaram, and Ramdas. So much have the poetry and devotional practices of Narayan Tilak, both in his Hindu and Christian years, been influenced especially by the saint-poets especially of the Varkari Sampraday, that Tilak has sometimes been deemed the "last of the saint-poets of Maharashtra." He has also been called the "Tukaram of Maharashtra."
The earliest influences on Nana's great love and gifts for poetry and spirituality were his beautiful natural surroundings in the Konkan region of his infancy and childhood, and the spiritual and poetic gifts of his mother whom he loved dearly. Nana did not benefit from his father Vaman's love and attention. Vaman, in fact, generally hated and abused the lad and showed his disdain openly. Nana twice ran away from home, the latter time being immediately after Janki was mortally wounded by a kick from her husband to whom she had always been devoted. Nana was witness to his father's cruel act. After a few days of attending to his mother, he watched her die. Then he waited for her cremation rites at the sacred pilgrimage center of Tryambakeshwar, after which Nana left his father and his family for good. He walked the twelve miles from Tryambak to Nashik. He was sitting on the banks of the Godavari contemplating his next move, when a local boy befriended him and brought him to his mother Yesubai Mayle. Without a fuss, the good woman welcomed her son's newfound homeless friend into her home and arranged for his food with local brahmin families as he went to study at Bhatjicha Math. His budding talent for poetry and elocution soon earned him fame in his mid-teens as well as the nickname "Maharashtra-kokil" (the sweet singing cuckoo of Maharashtra).
Spiritual search
Tilak was married at the age of 18 to Manakaranika Gokhale (मनकर्णिका गोखले). After the marriage Manakarnika was given the name Lakshmibai Tilak. Not long after the marriage, he left his very young wife with her in-laws and went on his quest for answers to deep questions. Later, in his twenties, he left Laxmi in the care of his father and took off in part for employment, and in part on same persistent spiritual quest. He actually tried a couple times to take sannyasa as a renunciate, but was rejected when his gurus found out that he was married and sent back to care for his family. He also went on a padayatra (pilgrimage on foot) to northern India as far as Delhi and western India as far as Dwarka. His goal may have seemed religious, but in fact he undertook this purposeful wandering principally out of a spirit of deshseva, namely, to serve his countrymen and especially women whose conditions struck him as oppressive and greatly in need of amelioration educationally, religiously, culturally, and socially. He made his own inquiries into Buddhism and Islam. Eventually, under the powerful influence of the Hindu monotheistic associations of the past several decades, particularly of the Prarthana Samaj and the Arya Samaj, he formulated five principles on which to found a new religion that was geared to emancipate his people. What pained him most seems to have been two urgent issues.
Probably because Narayan saw the intolerable situation of his own beloved mother, who was killed by his overbearing and heartless father, as well as that of Narayan's older sister Sakhu who had been married off by his orthodox Hindu father as a mere child, the first burning issue for Tilak was that of women's distress and suffering under an ironclad and religiously sanctioned patriarchy. Hindu women severely lacked opportunities for their education and emancipation. They suffered due to inhumane practices relating to child marriage. Some consequences of such practices were "child widows", and marriages of poor and sometimes pre-pubescent young girls to rich widowed men, some of them in their dotage. (See Uma Chakravarti, "Rewriting History: The Life and Times of Pandita Ramabai" 1998). The second issue that needed to be addressed was casteism, a plague on Indian society, especially in Maharashtra. Tilak came from a relatively poor family, but from privileged stock. Indeed, Chitpavan brahmin males such as himself, were the blue eyed boys of Maharashtrian society. He saw the desperate and widespread situation in which there was no way out for those born into so-called "lower castes" and who structurally served at the whim and fancy of caste-Hindu society, especially brahmins (aka bhatjis) and banias (landed and moneyed trader caste which was known to have generally profited from unprincipled moneylending).
Tilak, like other reform minded elite Hindus, was certainly aware of the writings and practices of Jotiba Phule, perhaps the most radical Hindu reformer of 19th century Maharashtra. He had done pioneering work for the emancipation and amelioration of the conditions of women and shudras in Pune and elsewhere in Maharashtra. Phule, a non-brahmin of the Mali caste had been educated by Scottish missionaries, but never converted to Christianity. Tilak, on the other hand, as a brahmin traumatized by his father's abusive treatment of his mother and himself, and as one who had delved deep into the treasure troves of Hindu religion, as well as of Marathi and Sanskrit literatures, seems to have been more moderate and liberal in his outlook, and considered religious and social reform as a promising way to emancipate women and "shudras" in Maharashtra. But nobody anticipated that the talented Pandit Narayan Vaman Tilak, Hindu patriot and sudharak in his own right, might unthinkably take the dread step of conversion to Christianity. The underlying assumption of most Hindu elites at that time was that sociological religious conversion was tantamount to treachery toward Hindu religion and society. Such treachery had severe sanctions, for example, ostracism or even death. Even worse, once a caste Hindu sociologically converted to another faith, it was all but impossible for him or her to be received back into caste. Tilak spurned all attempts of relatives, friends, and would-be benefactors to bribe him with money and a regular salary for life, for example.
Conversion to Christianity
In 1893, Tilak was travelling by train from Nagpur to Rajnandgaon, a princely state ruled by a Hindu priest, and located within the then Central Provinces of India, in search of employment. During this journey, he met a Protestant missionary Ernest Ward of the Free Methodist Church who spoke glowingly of Christianity, presented a copy of the Bible to Tilak, and suggested that Tilak would become a Christian within two years. Tilak began to study the Bible and was strongly influenced by the Sermon on the Mount. He also read Arunodaya (Sunrise) by Baba Padmanji, six times.
Tilak's journey to Christianity was painful as he understood the reactions that would follow conversion. He anonymously corresponded with a missionary magazine and after confirmation through a series of dreams decided to be baptized. After four months of instruction by his spiritual father Rev. Justin E. Abbott, his baptism in Mumbai on 10 February 1895 was carried out by an untouchable, at Tilak’s request. Tilak deliberately chose a former untouchable Rev. Tukaram Nathoji, then Marathi editor of the Dnyanodaya to do the honors. This was a symbolic choice. Tilak was going to follow his divine teacher's example in self-emptying. He was not accepting Christianity as a gesture of a colonized subject. Not for him a foreigner as the officiant nor a symbol of privileged caste-Hindu patriarchy, but an accomplished writer and editor of formerly untouchable stock - the last would be first.
New Life as a Christian
Tilak's baptism proved to be a sensational event and multitudes of his Hindu followers were scandalized. He was already highly respected as a poet, teacher, published writer, fervent and enlightened Hindu patriot and social reformer, and a dynamic spiritual leader. He was very sympathetic to the Prarthana Samaj, a monotheistic association dedicated to modernizing Hindu religion and society by jettisoning what seemed to be untenable intertwined Hindu concepts and doctrines such as karma (deeds) and punarjanma (rebirths). Knowing that he was contemplating Christian conversion, his relatives, friends, and admirers tried their level best to persuade him to change his mind. But he deeply disappointed them all. As payback, two attempts were made on the recent convert's life, but he miraculously escaped.