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Mirabai, also known as Meera, was born into an aristocratic Rajput milieu that profoundly shaped both her social standing and her later spiritual defiance. She came from the royal Rajput family of Kudki in the Merta region of Rajasthan, a small principality associated with the broader Marwar area. Her lineage was that of the Rathore clan, one of the prominent Rajput warrior dynasties, and this noble birth placed her firmly within the world of courts, palaces, and martial honor. Her father, Ratan Singh, was a Rathore noble connected to the ruling house of Merta, itself part of the wider Rathore power structure in the Jodhpur region. Thus, from the outset, her life was embedded in a network of royal alliances, expectations, and codes of conduct that would later stand in stark contrast to her path of radical devotion.
This royal background was further intensified through marriage, which drew her into another illustrious Rajput house. As a young woman she was married into the Sisodia dynasty of Mewar, the ruling family of Chittor, through her union with Bhojraj, the eldest son of Rana Sanga. This alliance linked her to one of the most prestigious Rajput lineages of the time, deepening the weight of social and familial expectations upon her. The combined prestige of her birth family in Merta and her marital family in Mewar meant that her actions were constantly measured against ideals of royal honor, propriety, and political responsibility. Within such a setting, her later insistence on a life centered solely on devotion to Krishna, rather than on dynastic duty, appears all the more striking.
Her aristocratic upbringing also granted her access to education and cultural refinement, which subtly informed the texture of her devotional expression. Immersed in the literary and musical traditions of the Rajput courts, she was equipped with the aesthetic sensibilities that would later be reflected in the sophistication of her poetry and songs. Yet the same environment that nurtured her artistic gifts also became the backdrop against which her spiritual choices were judged and resisted. The tension between her noble lineage and her uncompromising bhakti underscores how her family background was not merely a biographical detail, but a crucial element in understanding the depth and daring of her devotion.