Multiple translations of Kabir right from the pre-independent nationalist to the present globalized era have engendered new semantic possibilities to the enigmatic poetic output of the saint-poet. The early colonial Indologists took up the task of translating the bhakti poet, Kabir, primarily to underline first the fissures within Hinduism, and then to appropriate him within the reformatory rhetoric of Christianity. Translated on the margins of an official project of orientalism, Kabir, to begin with, was translated more as one among the poets of the Sikh holy text, Adi Granth, than as a poet in his own right. If Trumpp's endeavor was to translate Kabir as a poet writing within the canonical Hinduism, the effort of Macauliffe was to forge a poetics of distinction, through which he could translate Kabir as counter-canonical poet. Ahmad Shah in his translation accords an independent status to Kabir, yet in his translation of Bijak, he works within the parameters of Biblical idiom and tone. Tagore's translation is an endeavor to retrieve the saint-poet from colonial appropriations as he reinvents the poet in the advaita tradition of the Hindu philosophy. A textual analysis of various translations of Kabir from 1860 to 1917 is undertaken in this article to bring out the dynamics of appropriation of the discourse of the saint-poet during the colonial period to the specific agenda of the translation or the sponsoring agency.

Right from pre-independent nationalist period to the post-independent globalized era,Kabir's poetry in English translation has appeared with such an unfailing regularity that today the translated Kabir rivals with, if not outgrows, the so-called `original'<sup>1</sup> in terms of its discourse value. The saint-poet seems to survive more in the alien tongue than perhaps in his `original one' as with each new translation as a poet he is resurrected all over again. Multiple translations of Kabir have not only taken the poet beyond the frontiers of his native domain to global awareness, but have also ensured him an `afterlife'² that borders on immortality.

Translating Bhakti: Versions of Kabir in Colonial/Early Nationalist Period, Multiple translations, globalized era, colonial Indologists, translation accords, Biblical idiom, sponsoring agency, pre-independent nationalist period, post-independent globalized era, global awareness.