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The story of Sant Chokhāmela

Chokhamela was a saint from Maharashtra,14th century.He belonged to the Mahar caste, one of the untouchable caste in India.He was one of the first low-caste poets in India.Chokhamela lived with his wife Soyarabai and son Karmamela.

Chokhamela's task was to guard and work in farms of uppercast people . As a lower-caste person, Chokha was forced to live outside the town in a separate settlement for members of the low castes.He was influenced into bhakti spirituality by the poet-saint Namdev.

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Once when he visited Pandharpur, he had listened to Sant Namdev's kirtan(devotional song).Already a devotee of Vitthal alias Vithoba, Chokhā was moved by Namdev's teachings.
Despite the faith for his God Vithoba his Mahar status barred him access to his God.

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Chokā appeals to Brahmin gatekeepers of the shrine.
"The cane is crooked, but its juice isn’t crooke.Chokhā is ugly, but his feelings aren’t ugly. Why be fooled by outward appearance?"

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Chokā was a devotee of Vithoba of Pandharpur. As he was a Mahar the upper castes didn't allow him to enter the temple so Choka built a small hut near the temple."

Dr.Ambedkar was denied entry to the same Temple because of his caste Mahar

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Cokhā,as he is affectionately referred to, is not hesitant in his portrays through his Abhanga(poetry) of the caste-based abuse he suffered from Upper caste devotees nor does he fail to highlight the artifice he finds between pollution and purity of Brahmanical concepts.

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He spoke out against animal sacrifice not only because “you will be inflicting cruelty on another life and destroying it", but also because, one suspects, this was more in consonance with ritual “purity"

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Cokhā makes his pain and suffering,his patho.However while he
possesses that pathos,he lacks the revolutionary vision;Chokā believes in religious theory of Karma and blames himself, for his previous birth and explains "his impurity is the fruit of his past"
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It was his son Karmamela from his wife Soyarabai who was more blunt in his criticism of the way things were .In Karmamelas Abhangas he shows Buddhist inclinations and against Varna system

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Karmamela,spoke to the deity:
“Are we happy when we’re with you?
The low place is our lot;the low place is our lot;the low place is our lot,King of Gods!
It’s a shameful life here for us. It’s a festival of bliss for you and misery written on our faces."

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It isn't surprising that Karmamela gains fewer devotees singing his verses during the annual pilgrimages to Pandharpur today.
Sant Karmamela through his Abhangas accuses Gods and rebels against the Varna system.

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Chokā although possessed same pathos stood up to those in power and says “The earth and the Ganga are common to all, irrespective of caste and religion"
At the end of the day,he was devoted but did not break the Brahmincal shackles he was bonded with

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Chokā died in an accident,when labouring on a construction site,and even his bones were found to be chanting the name of god.These bones were carried to the temple and buried at a spot that still receives visitors.Even in death,Chokhā had no access to the sacred premises.

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Bones are impure,but since he was also impure in life, his memorial stands at the foot of the temple’s steps, outside those very walls where he once solicited the shrine’s guardians for one glance of his God,for one opportunity to satisfy his desire to behold the deity.

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Unlike those Dalit priests in Kerala who have now entered the heart of the sanctum six centuries later,old Chokā had to settle precisely for the place which,in his own lifetime, he was told was where he really belonged:

The Door