Sant Tukaram Maharaj, also known as Tuka, Tukobaraya, or Tukoba, was a revered Marathi poet and Hindu saint who lived during the 17th century in Maharashtra, India. He belonged to the Varkari sampradaya, a Marathi-Vaishnav tradition that venerates the deity Vithoba. Tukaram was a Sant, which means a saint or a holy person, and he was known for his personalized and egalitarian approach to devotionalism within the Varkari community.

Tukaram's most famous contributions were his devotional poems called Abhanga, which were written in Marathi and expressed his deep spiritual insights and devotion to God. He was also known for his community-oriented worship and spiritual songs called kirtan, which were sung by devotees to express their love and devotion to God.

Overall, Tukaram Maharaj remains a highly respected figure in Maharashtra and a source of inspiration for many who seek spiritual growth and enlightenment.

Tukaram, whose full name was Tukaram Bolhoba Ambile, was born in modern-day Maharashtra, India. His birth year and death year have been a topic of debate among scholars, but it is believed that he was born either in 1598 or 1608 in Dehu village, near Pune.

Tukaram's parents were Kanakai and Bolhoba More, and they were devotees of Vithoba, an avatar of the Hindu deity Vishnu. Tukaram's family belonged to the Kunbi caste and were engaged in agriculture, trade, and a retailing and money-lending business. Unfortunately, Tukaram lost both of his parents when he was a teenager.

Tukaram married Rakhama Bai, and they had a son named Santu. However, they both died due to starvation during a famine that occurred between 1630-1632. This experience had a profound impact on Tukaram, and he became deeply contemplative, spending time meditating on the hills of the Sahyadri range in the Western Ghats. Tukaram later stated that he had "discussions with my own self" during this period.

Tukaram remarried, and his second wife was Avalai Jija Bai. Overall, Tukaram's early life was marked by tragedy and hardship, which likely influenced his spiritual and philosophical outlook later in life.

Sant Tukaram Maharaj spent the later years of his life in devotional worship, composing Abhanga poetry, and leading community kirtans. Through his kiratans and abhangs, he spoke out against the wrongdoings of society and the social system, which led to some opposition from certain individuals. One such individual, Mambaji, harassed Tukaram due to jealousy, but eventually became his student. Tukaram's disappearance in 1649 or 1650 is still a controversial topic. According to some scholars, Tukaram had interactions with Chatrapati Shivaji Maharaj, the founder of the Maratha Empire, which may have played a role in Shivaji's rise to power.

Tukaram, in his Abhangas, often referred to the spiritual influence of earlier Bhakti Sants such as Namdev, Dnyaneshwar, Kabir, and Eknath. Scholars in the early 20th century believed that his teachings were based on Vedanta, but lacked a systematic theme. Tukaram's views on God and the world oscillated between a pantheistic and a distinctly Providential scheme, and he did not reconcile them. However, scholars in the late 20th century and translations of his Abhanga poetry affirmed his pantheistic Vedantic view. Some Marathi people debated whether Tukaram followed the monistic Vedanta philosophy of Adi Shankara. While some of his Abhangas supported Adi Shankara's philosophy, others criticized it and favored the dualistic Vedanta philosophy of Madhvacharya and Ramanuja. Tukaram condemned mechanical rites, rituals, and sacrifices, and instead encouraged a direct form of devotion. The controversy about Tukaram's true philosophical positions has been complicated by questions of the authenticity of poems attributed to him and the discovery of manuscripts with vastly different numbers of his Abhang poems. It is also important to note that Tukaram did not write the poems himself, but they were written down by others from memory.

Tukaram was a religious leader who encouraged the practice of kirtan, a form of community-oriented group singing and dancing focused on bhakti. He believed that kirtan was not only a way to learn about devotion, but was devotion itself. Tukaram welcomed disciples and devotees of all genders and taught that caste did not matter in the service of God. However, some scholars have questioned whether Tukaram himself observed caste, as his daughters from his second wife married men of their own caste. Despite this, Tukaram's efforts at social reform within the Varakari-sampraday must be understood within the context of the diverse caste and gender distributions found in Bhakti movements across India. Tukaram, who belonged to the Shudra varna, was one of nine non-Brahmins out of the twenty-one considered sant in the Varakari-sampraday tradition. The rest included ten Brahmins and two whose caste origins are unknown. Tukaram's role in social reform should be seen as part of a larger movement towards greater inclusion and acceptance within the Bhakti tradition.

Tukaram was a renowned Marathi poet who wrote in the Abhanga genre of literature. His poetry is characterized by its simple, direct, and folksy style, and is known for its rapturous abandon and spiritual themes. Tukaram's work is different from his predecessors such as Dnyandeva or Namdev who were known for their grace of style. Tukaram's self-effacing nature is reflected in one of his poems where he describes himself as a "fool, confused, and lost". Tukaram Gatha, also known as Abhanga Gatha, is a compilation of his works that includes around 4,500 poems covering a wide range of human emotions and experiences. The poems are placed in a spiritual context and discuss the conflict between leading a worldly life and seeking individual liberation. Ranade states that there are four major collations of Tukaram's Abhanga Gathas.

There is no clear evidence to determine whether all the poems attributed to Tukaram are authentic, and scholars have studied four major manuscripts to understand his literary works. However, inconsistencies and doctoring of the manuscripts over the centuries raise questions about the accuracy and historicity of the compilation of Tukaram's poems. The manuscripts are disorganized and contain poems that are not present in all the other manuscripts, indicating that there has been some modification and alteration over time. The first published compilation of Tukaram's poems in modern format was released in 1869 by Indu Prakash publishers, subsidized by the British colonial government's Bombay Presidency, but it too had been corrected, further corrected, and arranged, which further complicates the authenticity of Tukaram's literary works.

Tukaram's works have been the subject of many translations into different languages. Mahipati, an 18th-century biographer, included Tukaram in his four-volume compilation of the lives of many Bhakti movement sants, which was translated into English by Justin Abbott. In the early 20th century, Fraser and Marathe published a three-volume translation of about 3,700 poems from Tukaram Gatha into English. Other translations include those by Deleury in French, Kolatkar in avant-garde English, and Ranade in critical biography and selected translation. Dilip Chitre translated Tukaram's writings into English in the book Says Tuka, for which he won the Sahitya Akademi award in 1994. Selected poems of Tukaram have also been translated and published by Daniel Ladinsky, while Chandrakant Kaluram Mhatre translated a collection of 100 of Tukaram's poems.

Tukaram's poems have become a significant part of Maharashtra's culture and are widely studied and appreciated by the people of the state, especially in rural areas. He was a devotee of Vithoba and his literary works, along with those of other sants like Dnyandev, Namdev, and Eknath, played a crucial role in the development of the Varkari tradition and Bhakti literature in India. Tukaram and his predecessors gave voice to the collective identity of Marathi-speakers, especially during the period of Hindu-Muslim wars. They helped to unify the Marathas on the basis of their shared cultural identity, rather than religious ideology.