Savata Mali (1250 – 1295 CE) was a great poet saint of Maharashtra. Here is a short biography of the popular story. The his life story of Savata Mali is first mentioned in Bhakta Vijaya of Mahipati, written in Marathi. The saint was born in the village Aranbhandi near Pandharpur. He was intensely devoted to Sri Vithala, the deity of Pandharpur.
He has been praised by Sant Nivruttinath, the elder brother and guru of Dnyaneshwar.
Savata Mali composed many abhangas in Marathi, full of bhakti (devotion) for Vitthal of Pandharpur. He felt the presence of Bhagwan Vitthal in all the items that he produced in the farm, such a flowers and vegetables.
Likes all other saints belonging to the Bhagavata Sampradaya during the early part of the second millennium, Savata Mali also disapproved of the feeling of high and low associated with the caste system. He could talk to the deity as if he were talking devotion to an intimate friend or an elder brother. Such a feeling of nearness is evident in the abhangas of Savata Mali.
In one of his abhangas, he thanks Bhagavan for giving him birth in a low caste. Had he been born in a higher caste family, he would have become arrogant and full of vanity, he says.
Savata Mali died on the fourteenth day of Ashada in Shaka 1217, just two years after Jnanadeva.