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Sakhubai
सखूबाई
The saint who waited at the door of Tukaram
Years
c. 17th c. CE
Known as
The devotee-saint of Maharashtra
Birthplace
Dehu, Maharashtra
Field
Saints & Sages
“A single name of the Lord, sung with love, is worth all the rituals of the world.”
— The spirit of Sakhubai
The Story
The tradition remembers Sakhubai as a woman of Dehu, the village of Tukaram, who served the saint with total devotion. She is honoured among the Varkari saints who gathered around Tukaram, and her name is linked with the household service and devotional song of the movement.
Her own compositions, preserved in the Marathi devotional treasury, sing of the name of the Lord with a simplicity and tenderness that mark the best of the Varkari verse. Like the other women saints of the tradition, she taught that devotion is not the privilege of the learned but the birthright of every heart.
Her life is remembered as one of patient love — serving the saint and the community, singing through hardship, and finding in the name of Vithoba a joy that no worldly sorrow could touch. She is honoured among the saints of Maharashtra as an example of the devotion that asks for nothing and receives everything.
Core Ideas
The Devotee
A humble woman saint of the Varkari tradition.
The Servant of Tukaram
Her service to the saint was itself worship.
The Songs
Her verses of devotion survive in the Marathi treasury.
The Women's Voice
She represents the women saints of Maharashtra.
The Simple Path
Devotion needs no learning — only love.
Why it matters today
Sakhubai is honoured among the Varkari saints of Maharashtra, remembered in the hagiographies and the devotional literature of the tradition. Her life is the quiet proof that the highest sainthood often wears the plainest clothes.