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Songs of Experience : The Poetics of Tamil Devotion Religion in Asia and Africa Series Cutler, Norman. Indiana University Press 9780253353344 9780585108964 English Religious poetry, Tamil--History and criticism, Tamil poetry--To 1500--History and criticism, Bhakti in literature, Religious poetry, Tamil--Translations into English, Tamil poetry--To 1500--Translations into English, Bhakti--Poetry. 1987 PL4758.2.C88 1987eb 894/.8111/09382 Religious poetry, Tamil--History and criticism, Tamil poetry--To 1500--History and criticism, Bhakti in literature, Religious poetry, Tamil--Translations into English, Tamil poetry--To 1500--Translations into English, Bhakti--Poetry.
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Songs of Experience RELIGION IN ASIA AND AFRICA SERIES
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Judith Berling and Patrick Olivelle, editors
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Candesanugraha (The saint Candesa being garlanded by Siva). Cola dynasty, eleventh century. Brhadisvaratemple, Kankaikontacolapuram, Tamilnadu. (Photograph courtesy of Richard Davis.)
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Songs of Experience The Poetics of Tamil Devotion Norman Cutler
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Indiana University Press BLOOMINGTON AND INDIANAPOLIS
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Disclaimer: This book contains characters with diacritics. When the characters can be represented using the ISO 8859-1 character set (http://www.w3.org/TR/images/latin1.gif), netLibrary will represent them as they appear in the original text, and most computers will be able to show the full characters correctly. In order to keep the text searchable and readable on most computers, characters with diacritics that are not part of the ISO 8859-1 list will be represented without their diacritical marks.
for my parents This book was published with the assistance of a grant from the Andrew W. Mellon Foundation. © 1987 by Norman J. Cutler All rights reserved No part of this book may be reproduced or utilized in any form or by any means, electronic or mechanical, including photocopying and recording, or by any information storage and retrieval system, without permission in writing from the publisher. The Association of American University Presses' Resolution on Permissions constitutes the only exception to this prohibition. Manufactured in the United States of America Library of Congress Cataloging-in-Publication Data Cutler, Norman, 1949Songs of experience. (Religion in Asia and Africa series) Bibliography: p. Includes index. 1. Religious poetry, TamilHistory and criticism. 2. Tamil poetryTo 1500History and criticism. 3. Bhakti in literature. 4. Religious poetry, Tamil Translations into English. 5. Tamil poetryTo 1500 Translations into English. 6. Religious poetry, EnglishTranslations from Tamil. 7. English poetry Translations from Tamil. 8. BhaktiPoetry. I. Title. II. Series PL4758.2.C88 1987 894'.8111'09382 86-45051 ISBN 0-253-35334-3 1 2 3 4 5 91 90 89 88 87
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CONTENTS Acknowledgments
viii
Note on Transliteration
ix
Abbreviations
x
Introduciton
1
Part I. Poems, Poets, and Poetics Chapter One Poet, God, and Audience in the Poetry of the Tamil Saints
19
Chapter Two The Devotee's Experience of the Sacred Tamil Hymns
39
Chapter Three The Poetics of Bhakti
57
Part II. Tamil Classicism and Bhakti: Conflict and Accommodation Chapter Four A Devotional Poem in the Classical Mode
81
Chapter Five A Tamil Allegory of Love
93
Conclusion
111
Part III. Poems Karaikkalammaiyar
117
Poykai, Putam, and Pey: The First Three Alvars
122
Nammalvar
131
Manikkavacakar
148
Notes to the Poems
175
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Appendix A. The Saints' Hymns in Present-Day Temple Ritual
187
Appendix B. Index of Mythological/Iconographic Allusions and Proper Names Occurring in the Poems
194
Appendix C. Index of Motifs
196
Bibliography
203
Index
207
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POEMS TRANSLATED Poems of Karaikkalammaiyar Arputattiruvantati 1, 5, 11, 16, 20, 33, 37, 61, 77
119
Tiruvalankattu-mutta-tiruppatikam 1, 11
121
Poems of the First Three Alvars Poykaiyalvar, Mutal Tiruvantati 1, 11, 35, 55, 61, 70, 86, 92, 98
125
Putattalvar, Irantam Tiruvantati 1, 14, 35, 67, 90
127
Peyalvar, Munram Tiruvantati 1, 2, 38, 44, 63, 79, 81, 94, 99
128
Poems of Nammalvar Tiruvaymoli 1.1.5, 1.1.7, 1.1.8, 1.1.10, 1.2.1, 1.2.8, 1.3.1, 1.3.2, 1.3.6, 1.3.10, 1.5.1, 1.5.4, 1.5.6, 1.5.8, 1.5.9, 1.6.3, 1.6.7, 1.6.10, 1.7.3, 1.7.4, 1.7.5, 1.7.7, 1.7.8, 1.8.7, 1.9.2, 1.9.4, 1.9.5, 2.2.9, 2.3.1, 2.3.2, 2.3.8, 2.3.9, 2.3.10, 2.4.1, 2.4.3, 2.4.10, 2.5.1, 2.5.7, 2.7.5, 2.7.9, 2.8.3, 2.8.5, 2.8.7, 2.9.5, 2.9.6, 2.9.10, 2.10.3, 2.10.4, 2.10.5, 1.3.11, 1.6.11, 2.2.11, 2.8.11, 2.10.11
133
Poems of Manikkavacakar 150 Tirukkovaiyar 1, 2, 3, 6, 8, 11, 20, 23, 70, 71, 75, 102, 109, 115, 120, 144, 166, 178, 248, 250, 287, 289, 292, 304, 315, 324, 335,341,343 from Tiruvacakam Tiruccatakam 2, 8, 11, 14, 15, 26, 28, 29, 32, 36, 41, 43, 47, 55, 72, 90
160
Tiruvammanai 2, 5, 6, 9, 10, 12, 14, 16, 17, 18, 20
165
Annaipattu 1-10
170
Tiruttacankam 1-10
172
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ACKNOWLEDGMENTS The contents of this book are based on research I conducted in Tamilnadu between 1977 and 1979 in connection with my Ph.D. program at the University of Chicago. I wish to acknowledge the generous support I received from the American Institute of Indian Studies, which enabled me to spend twenty valuable months in India. While researching my dissertation I received guidance from many quarters. In Madurai my reading of Tamil bhakti poetry was guided by M. Navaneethakrishnan and S. Venkataraman, faculty members in the Tamil Department of Madurai Kamaraj University. Others in Tamilnadu who provided me with valuable information concerning the saints' poems and their role in temple ritual include P. A. S. Rajasekharan, Govindaraja Iyengar, P. Sarangacharya, and Anantanatarajan Dikshitar, to mention only a few. I wish to express special thanks to K. Paramasivam of American College in Madurai, who, both in Chicago and in Madurai, shared his love and knowledge of the Tamil language with me and taught me most of what I know about medieval Tamil and strategies for reading early Tamil literature. And above all, I wish to thank A. K. Ramanujan, my dissertation advisor and present colleague, who has always given freely of his insights and who has doubtlessly influenced my response to the Tamil saints' poems in more ways than I am aware. The dissertation I submitted in 1980 has gone through a number of substantial changes before assuming the form of this book, and I hope that as my perspective on Tamil bhakti poetry has changed it has also matured. Comments offered by Vinay Dharwadker, George Hart, Wendy O'Flaherty, and Glenn Yocum on drafts of the revised manuscript have been of great help to me, and I wish to thank them for their time and advice.
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NOTE ON TRANSLITERATION The culture of Tamil bhakti draws upon a rich vocabulary of Tamil and Sanskrit, and words in both languages are found in the pages of this book. Throughout the book, Sanskrit words are transliterated in accord with the standard system, and Tamil words are transliterated in accord with the system employed by the Madras University Tamil Lexicon. Though Sanskrit and Tamil phonology are not identical, the transliteration scheme for Tamil complements the standard system employed for Sanskrit in most respects. The representation of a few phonemes, however, should be noted. Tamil, unlike Sanskrit, has in its phonological repertoire a retroflex r (represented as l). Also, the Tamil script distinguishes alveolar n (n) from dental n (n), and single flapped r (r) from alveolar trilled r (r), even though the distinction is not preserved by many speakers. Finally, Tamil, unlike Sanskrit, distinguishes between short and long e (e/e) and short and long o (o/o). Sanskrit e and o, usually transliterated without the macron, correspond to the long Tamil vowels. Although Tamil is the least Sanskritized of all the Dravidian languages, the vocabulary of Tamil bhakti includes many loan words from Sanskrit. Depending upon a number of social factors associated with dialect variation, many Tamil speakers will "Tamilize" the pronunciation of such loan words, an adaptation almost always preserved in writing because the Tamil script contains no symbols to represent many elements of the Sanskrit phonological repertoire. By and large, I have tended to transliterate Sanskrit words, even if used in Tamil discourse, in the more familiar Sanskrit form (e.g., dravidaveda, Adhyayanotsava). However, in some cases, where Sanskrit loans are less likely to be perceived as such or they are compounded with native Tamil words, I have used Tamil spellings (e.g., antati, Catakopan, Nalayira-tiviya-pirapantam).
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ABBREVIATIONS AP Annaipattu (Manikkavacakar)* ATA Arputattiruvantati (Karaikkalammaiyar) ITA Irantam Tiruvantati (Putattalvar) MTA Mutal Tiruvantati (Poykaiyalvar) MuTA Munram Tiruvantati (Peyalvar) TA Tiruvammanai (Manikkavacakar) TAMTP Tiruvalankattu-mutta-tiruppatikam (1) (Karaikkalammaiyar) TC Tiruccatakam (Manikkavacakar) TK Tirukkovaiyar (Manikkavacakar) TT Tiruttacankam (Manikkavacakar) TVM Tiruvaymoli (Nammalvar)
* The name of the author of each text appears in parentheses.
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SONGS OF EXPERIENCE Identification is affirmed with earnestness precisely because there is division. Identification is compensatory to division. If men were not apart from one another, there would be no need for the rhetoric to proclaim their unity. If men were wholly and truly of one substance, absolute communication would be of man's very essence. It would not be an ideal, as it now is, partly embodied in material conditions and partly frustrated by these same conditions; rather, it would be as natural, spontaneous, and total as with those ideal prototypes of communication, the theologian's angels, or ''messengers." Kenneth Burke A Rhetoric of Motives In identification lies the source of dedications and enslavements . . . W. C. Blum quoted in A Rhetoric of Motives
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INTRODUCTION The poems brought together in this collection are songs of experience, but not, as in Blake, of an experience that is opposed to innocence. To the contrary, the experience these poems are intended both to describe and to invoke transcends the Blakean poles of innocence and experience, for in their native Hindu tradition the authors of these poems are regarded as saints, 1 and the experience embodied in these poems is no less than the experience of god. Without a certain innocence, the saints could not have experienced god at all, for the saints never lost the ability to discern the divinity underlying the mundane world of names and forms. The direct personal experience of god and the quest for it is known as bhakti in Hindu tradition, and any standard work on Hinduism will mention a number of essential points concerning this important "movement" within Hinduism: 1. The term bhakti is a derivative of the Sanskrit root bhaj, "to divide, apportion, share." In the religious sphere bhakti denotes an attitude of devotion on the part of a worshiper to a personal god. In this religious atmosphere devotees are linked with their god and with one another by a bond of "shared" love and grace. 2. The bhakta's (devotee's) relationship to god is characteristically modeled after a select number of human relations: master-servant, friend-friend, child-parent, and most importantly, beloved-lover. In the Tamil context, bhakti is also frequently expressed in the idiom of the relationship between king and subject, 3. In Sanskrit literature one gets a sense of the beginning of a shift toward bhakti in the Bhagavad Gita (c. 300 A.D.), while the Bhagavata Purana (c. tenth century A.D.) is among the most important textual statements on bhakti in a later, fully elaborated form. 4. Bhakti took hold as a popular religious movement and served as a catalyst for the literary development of many of India's vernacular languages. Regional vernacular-oriented bhakti movements began during the sixth to ninth centuries A.D. in the Tamil-speaking South and gradually took hold in other regions of the subcontinent.
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While this short list hardly amounts to a complete profile of bhakti, and some of these features are more relevant to the Tamil bhakti tradition than others, it is nevertheless clear that even this partial profile touches upon matters of theological, historical, sociological, linguistic, and literary interest. No doubt all these perspectives on bhakti are capable of yielding many rewarding insights. In the following pages it is the literary view of bhakti that will be of greatest explicit concern; however, as will become clear in the course of this book, the literary form of bhakti poetry is, in the final analysis, a mirror image of its religious content.
The Tamil Saints and Their Poems The poems in this collection are attributed to five men and one woman who lived in the Tamil-speaking region of south India between the sixth and ninth centuries A.D., a time when bhakti was beginning to take shape as a major force in Tamil Hinduism. All of these poets composed their poems in their native language, Tamil. I chose to study and translate the works of these poets because collectively they offer a broad historical and sectarian profile of the poems associated with an important episode in the history of South Asian religion. Among the earliest devotees of the god Visnu who composed poetry were Poykai, Putam, and Pey, known to Tamil Vaisnavas as mutal muvar, "the first three." According to Tamil Vaisnava tradition, these three poets, whose life stories are intertwined, were the first alvars, the poet-saints of Tamil Vaisnavism. Alvar literally means "one who is immersed" (from Tamil al, ''to be immersed"), and, according to sectarian scholars, the saints are called alvars because they "immersed" themselves in their devotion for Visnu. The poems of Poykai, Putam, and Pey are included in the canon of Tamil Vaisnavism, as are the poems of all twelve 2 Tamil Vaisnava saints. Tamils refer to the collected poems of the alvars as the "arrangement of four thousand heavenly hymns" (nalayira-tiviya-pirapantam). (See Table 1.) The poems were collected and arranged in their present order by Nathamuni, a devotee who lived during the tenth century. From the Vaisnava wing of Tamil bhakti tradition I have also included poems by Nammalvar, who is considered by many to be the most important of the Tamil Vaisnava saints.3 Nammalvar's dates are controversial. Tradition situates Nammalvar's lifetime about midway in the chronology of the alvars. Essentially in agreement with tradition, at least as far as relative dating is concerned, Friedhelm Hardy proposes the seventh (or early eighth) century as the time when Nammalvar composed his poems, though other twentieth-century scholars would date the saint's lifetime at least a century later.4 Turning to the devotees of the other great Hindu god, Siva, I have included poems by two poets: a woman, Karaikkalammaiyar (sixth century), and a royal minister turned saint, Manikkavacakar (ninth century).5 The categories of saintliness in Tamil Saivism are a bit more complicated. The
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Table 1 THE NALAYIRA-TIVIYA-PIRAPANTAM Mutal Ayiram (The First Thousand) Poet
Work
Periyalvar
Tiruppallantu Tirumoli
Antal
Tiruppavai Nacciyar Tirumoli
Kulacekarap Perumal
Tirumoli
Tirumalicaiyalvar
Tiruccantaviruttam
Tontaratippotiyalvar
Tirumalai Tiruppalliyelucci
Tiruppanalvar
Amalanatipiran
Maturakavi
Kanninunciruttampu
Irantam Ayiram (The Second Thousand) Poet
Work
Tirumankaiyalvar
Periya Tirumoli Tirukkuruntantakam Tirunetuntantakam
Munram Ayiram (The Third Thousand, also known as Iyarpa) Poet
Work
Poykaiyalvar
Mutal Tiruvantati
Putattalvar
Irantam Tiruvantati
Peyalvar
Munram Tiruvantati
Tirumalicaiyalvar
Nanmukan Tiruvantati
Nammalvar
Tiruviruttam Tiruvaciriyam Periya Tiruvantati
Tirumankaiyalvar
Tiruvelukkurrirukkai Ciriya Tirumatal Periya Tirumatal
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*Tiruvarankattamutanar
Iramanucanurrantati
Nankam Ayiram (The Fourth Thousand) Poet
Work
Nammalvar
Tiruvaymoli
*Iramanucanurrantati by Tiruvarankattamutanar, a disciple of Ramanuja, is included in the Nalayiram by some but not all Srivaisnavas.
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Tamil nayanmar (leaders) whose life stories are recounted in Cekkilar's great twelfth-century hagiography, Periya Puranam, are sixty-three in number. The canonical literature of Tamil Saivism is arranged in twelve "sacred compendia" (tirumurai), which include both Saiva devotional poetry and Cekkilar's lives of the saints (see Table 2). The authors of the Tirumurai poems number twenty-seven, and while some of these poets are included among the nayanmar, some are not. Karaikkalammaiyar, one of the earliest Saiva saints, belongs to the former group. The ranks of the nayanmar seem to have been closed by the time Manikkavacakar entered the picture, but nevertheless, Tamil Saivas regard him as one of the most important personalities of their sect. 6 Table 2 THE TIRUMURAI No. of book Poet 1
*Tirunanacampantar
Work Tevaram I
2
Tevaram II
3
Tevaram III
4
*Tirunavukkaracar
Tevaram IV
5
Tevaram V
6
Tevaram VI
7
*Cuntaramurti
Tevaram VII
8
Manikkavacakar
Tiruvacakam Tirukkovaiyar
9
Tirumalikaittevar
Tiruvicaippa
Centanar
Tiruvicaippa Tiruppallantu
Karuvurttevar
Tiruvicaippa
Punturutti Nampi
Tiruvicaippa
Kantaratittar
Tiruvicaippa
Venattatikal
Tiruvicaippa
Tiruvaliyamutanar
Tiruvicaippa
Purutottama Nampi
Tiruvicaippa
Cetiriyar
Tiruvicaippa
10
Tirumular
Tirumantiram
11
Tiruvalavayutaiyar
Tirumukappacuram
*Karaikkalammaiyar
Tiruvalankattumuttatirupatikam (1 & 2) Tiruirattaimanimalai
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Arputattiruvantati *Aiyatikal Katavar Kon
Ksettiratiruvenpa
*Indicates that author is included among the sixty-three nayanmars
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No. of book Poet 11
*Ceruman Perumal
Work Ponvannattiruvantati Tiruvarur Mummanikkovai Tirukkailaya Nana Ula
Nakkiratevar
Kayilaipati Kalattipatit Tiruvantati Tiruinkoymalai Eluppatu Tiruvalanculi Mummanikkovai Tiruelukurrirukkai Peruntevapani Kopappiracatam Kar Ettu Porrit Tirukkalivenpa Tirumurukarruppatai Tirukannappatevar Tirumaram
Kallatatevar
Tirukannappatevar Tirumaram
Kapilatevar
Muttanayanar Tiruirattaimanimalai Civaperuman Tiruirattaimanimalai Civaperuman Tiruvantati
Paranatevar
Civaperuman Tiruvantati
Ilamperuman Atikal
Civaperuman Tirumummanikkovai
Atiravatikal
Muttappillaiyar Tirumummanikkovai
Pattinattatikal
Koyil Nanmanimalai Tirukkalumala Mummanikkovai Tiruvitaimarutur Mummanikkovai Tiruekampamutaiyar Tiruvantati Tiruvorriyur Orupa Orupatu
Nampi Antar Nampi Tirunaraiyur Vinayakar Tiruirattaimanimalai Koyil Tiruppanniyar Viruttam Tiruttontar Tiruvantati Alutaiya Pillaiyar Tiruvantati
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Alutaiya Pillaiyar Tiruccanpaiviruttam Alutaiya Pillaiyar Mummanikkovai Alutaiya Pillaiyar Tiruvulamalai Alutaiya Pillaiyar Tirukkalampakam Alutaiya Pillaiyar Tiruttokai Tirunavukkaracu Tevar Tiruvekataca Malai 12
Cekkilar
Periya Puranam
In this study of the poems of the Tamil saints, I have aimed to do justice both to the poetic talent of their creators and to the poems' significance for devotees. Before doing a literary study of bhakti poetry, one must ask, Is it meaningful to speak of "bhakti poetry" as a literary genre? What distinguishes
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the poems of the saints from, say, Sanskrit kavya, the poems of classical Tamil, or Vedic hymns? As Ramanujan points out, "early bhakti movements, whether devoted to Siva or Visnu, used whatever they found at hand, and changed whatever they used." 7 This principle is as applicable to the literary forms of bhaki as it is to tenets of belief. While the saints did favor certain formal devices that have come to be especially associated with their poems, at the same time there is a great deal of formal variety among the poems included in the Tamil Vaisnava and Saiva canons. This is because the saints drew upon an extensive repertoire of literary models. If, in the saints' poems, we hear echoes of classical Tamil poems of love and war, of folk songs, of Sanskrit stotras, and even of Vedic hymns, there is good reason for this. These are among the many sources from which the Tamil poets drew inspiration. It is also important to keep in mind that Tamil and Sanskrit thrived for many centuries side-by-side in south India, and that southern authors of Sanskrit texts were also influenced by the themes and forms of Tamil literature.8 But despite the formal eclecticism found in the poems of the Tamil saints, the corpus, in more than a superficial sense, is generically unified. In order to apprehend the parameters that define bhakti poetry as a viable literary genre in Tamil, one must be prepared to think about literary form not just in terms of rhyme and meter but also as a structure of communication between author and audience. This idea will come as no surprise to anyone with even a passing familiarity with recent literary critical thought, but I would further argue that to fully comprehend the meaning of the saints' poems for Tamil devotees, one's sense of literary form must be expanded to include structures of reception, interpretation, and performance as well. It is not enough to study Tamil bhakti poetry as a self-contained textual corpus. A culturally accurate understanding of the poems can be achieved only by looking squarely at the relationship between text and context. This proposition calls to mind Barbara Stoler Miller's observation that a narrowly formal analysis of the Sanskrit poetry of Bhartrhari and Bilhana fails to fully appreciate the work of these poets. In both cases, the legends surrounding the verses [i.e., the legends of their authors' lives] are mythical contexts for the poetry. The drama of its author's legend makes the poetic personality of each collection more vivid. The legends serve as parables indicating the dominant poetic structures of the collections, in much the same way that the prologue of a Sanskrit drama announces its dramatic structures. They explain the poetry by means that are different from academic analyses of Sanskrit poetics, which characteristically focus attention on the formal elements of individual stanzas. The legends illuminate the human emotional basis of the poetry, which the preoccupation with form obscures.9 For the Tamil Hindu, Miller's point, as far as the saints' poems are concerned, is self-evident. Tamil Hindus have always turned to the legends of the saints' lives to illuminate their poems. Also, the critic of bhakti poetry is
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less likely to succumb to academic formalism because tradition provides him with no codified poetics of bhakti poetry. 10 For the native exegete the corrective called for is quite the reverse. All too often the saints' poems are seen as no more than reflections of their human emotional basis. A saint is not supposed to exercise a studied skill in the manipulation of poetic forms. To the contrary, a bhakti poet is entitled to saintly status only if he or she composes without premeditation. To paraphrase the words of devotee-critics, "poems should well up and pour out of the poet's heart like tears."11 The ideal of poetry composed spontaneously in a burst of inspiration is deeply rooted in Tamil Hinduism. The critic of Tamil bhakti poetry must take this ideal into account, but at the same time he must not allow it to limit his perspective. He must appreciate the saints' formal expertise and also understand the contexts that shape the meanings these poems hold for their intended audience.
The Tamil Veda In Srivaisnavism (the southern Vaisnava sect that claims the eleventh-century philosopher Ramanuja as its most celebrated spokesman) the four Tamil works attributed to Nammalvar are equated with the four Vedas. Extending the Vedic analogy, the works of another of the twelve saints, Tirumankai, are equated with the "limbs of the Veda" (vedangas), and the poems of the other saints with the "minor limbs" (upangas).12 In Tamil Saivism also, the collected poems of the saints are sometimes referred to as the ''Dravidian" or Tamil Veda (tiravitavetam; Sanskrit: dravidaveda), though the analogy is not elaborated in point-for-point detail. When the standard descriptive accounts of Hinduism make so much of the differences between the elitism of Vedic religion and the popular basis of bhakti, what are we to make of the Tamils' interest in equating the poems of their saints with sacred Sanskrit texts? In a sense the answer is obvious. This analogy seems to be yet another example of the "fifth Veda" principlethe notion that the text at hand, be it the Mahabharata or a puranic text, is the fifth Veda, composed to bring salvation to the classesspecifically, people of low caste (sudras) and womenwho are not entitled to hear the immortal verses of the four eternal Vedas. Only, being composed in the vernacular, the Tamil hymns are more likely than Sanskrit texts like the Mahabharata or the mahapuranas to have a real impact on people who are excluded from the educated elite. The idea that the "Tamil Veda" is more accessible than its Sanskrit counterpart, and equally effective, is explicitly set forth in Srivaisnava theological writings.13 But there are other dimensions to the analogy that critics of these poems will certainly find suggestive. Many later bhakti movements are noted for their contempt for established ritual and for the protocol of correct social behavior. A Virasaiva saint of Karnataka, for instance, may shun stationary temples of stone (sthavara) and worship the god within, who is always present no matter where one may
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go (jangama). 14 But in the Tamil country, the first region of India to produce a vernacular bhakti movement, defiance of established patterns of worship was not the dominant bhakti stance.15 It is true that the life stories of some of the saints do carry the message that a devotee's purity of intent is far more important to god than technical correctness in ritual forms.16 Nevertheless, the Tamil saints were never leaders of a militantly iconoclastic movement. To the contrary, the era of the saints was a time when the worship directed toward images in temples was becoming the dominant form of religious practice in Tamilnadu, and not a few of the saints contributed to the growing role of temples in Tamil religious life. The Tevaram hymns, composed by the Saiva saints Appar, Campantar, and Cuntarar, to give the most obvious example, are associated with particular temples.17 Not only did the saints sing the praises of various sacred places18 in their hymns, but within a few centuries of their composition, the saints' poems themselves were incorporated into the ritual of temple worship. In Srivaisnavism this development is remembered in the story of the first celebration of the Adhyayanotsava (recitation festival) recounted in Koyil Oluku, the chronicle of the temple of Rankanatan (a manifestation of Visnu) at Srirankam.19 The standard sectarian accounts of the collection and codification of the saints' poems suggest that from the very first, the canonizers intended to employ the poems in ritual. Nampi Antar Nampi, who most likely lived during the reign of Rajaraja I (985-1014), is credited with recovering and organizing the poems of the Saiva saints at the behest of a Cola king, identified in sectarian literature as Abhaya Kulasekhara. We also know, from inscriptional evidence, that the saints' poems were recited in the Brhadesvarar temple at Thanjavur, the imperial temple of Rajaraja I, as early as the tenth century A.D., when the temple was constructed.20 It does not seem unreasonable to suggest that the canonization of the saints' poems during the tenth/eleventh centuries represents a self-conscious attempt to create a Tamil Veda in more than a superficial sense. Certainly by the thirteenth century the term dravidaveda was in common use among sectarian writers.21 The Vaisnava Adhyayanotsava, mentioned above, is devoted to the recitation of the saints' hymns, and the name of this festival (adhyayana, "recitation" + utsava, "festival") self-consciously alludes to the recitation (adhyayana) of the Vedas. And, of course, the saints' poems, like Vedic hymns, are employed in ritual.22 The Vedic poets, known as rsis, are believed to have composed their poems under the inspiration of a divine agency. The rsis are said to be dhira, that is, they possess dhi inspired vision. Further, the medium of their art is vac, divine speech. According to Vedic metaphysics, vac is at the root of all being; the whole universe is an emanation of vac. Recitation of the Vedic hymns is thus a matter of enormous consequence. The rsis' hymns of praise for the gods bring the gods pleasure and cause them to regard men with favor and grant them prosperity. Further, the gods are nourished and strengthened by
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the rsis' hymns, for, like men and all of creation, their existence is grounded in vac, eternal speech, Gonda describes a reciprocal and cyclical exchange between Vedic poets and gods. The gods are pleased and fortified by the hymns, while poets are inspired by the gods. 23 The Verbal substance of the Vedic hymns must be treated with the utmost care. The signifier is valued as highly as, if not more highly than, the signified. When recited correctly, the sound of these hymns carries enormous power. Brahmanical tradition has thus put great emphasis on the accurate recitation and transmission of the hymns. Methods of instruction emphasize units of sound over units of meaning, for it is essential that not a single syllable be out of place or mispronounced when the hymns are recited in ritual. The Vedic hymns are commonly referred to as mantras, a term that underscores their status as effectively articulated sound. Only male members of the "twiceborn" (dvija) classes may hear and study the Vedas, for, it is believed, only they are qualified to work with this powerful and potentially dangerous instrument. There are many revealing similarities and dissimilarities between the saints' poems and the rsis' hymns. Within the context of a changed religious vision, the saints, like the rsis, are believed to have composed their poems under the influence of a faculty that surpasses ordinary human capacities. Nammalvar even asserts that Visnu is the real author of his poems and that he is merely the god's mouthpiece.24 The Vedic rsis are described as vipra, inwardly stirred or excited. Likewise, the sometimes overwhelming love the Tamil saints feel for Visnu or Siva is said to express itself spontaneously in the form of poetry, though their inner excitement sometimes takes forms that would have been unfamiliar to the Vedic seers. Though both the saints' poems and the rsis' hymns may have been divinely inspired, it is also true that the Vedic seers composed their hymns in the language of the gods, the "perfected" (samskrta) language, whereas the Tamil saints expressed their devotion in the vernacular. Students of Hinduism often emphasize this contrast between bhakti poetry and sacred Sanskrit texts. Bhakti poetry, the conventional wisdom tells us, is democratic, while the Vedas are reserved for the elite. Sectarian writers do praise the Tamil Veda for its wide accessibility,25 but it is not correct to think of the relationship between Sanskrit and Tamil as a token of the standard contrast between "refined" (samskrta) and "unrefined" (prakrta) language. While Sanskrit had already gained a foothold in the Tamil-speaking region by the era of the saints, Tamil, a Dravidian language, has a history that is largely independent of Sanskrit and other Indo-Aryan languages. As early as the first century A.D., Tamil grammarians scrutinized the forms of their language with as much care as Panini lavished upon the forms of Sanskrit. Tamil grammarians distinguished between formal and colloquial language much as Sanskrit was distinguished from the Prakrits. From very early in Tamil literary history, Tamil grammarians and poets demonstrated tremendous pride in the "sweet strains" of the Tamil tongue. Tamil devotees are
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inclined to regard the saints' poems not as a democratic and less elevated alternative to Vedic hymns, but as a real equivalent to the poems of the seers, composed in a linguistic medium entirely equal in status to Sanskrit. If the saints' poems are accessible to a wider range of people than the Vedas, this is not because Tamil is a less refined language, but because the religious-social context in which Tamil language developed was different from that of the early Aryans. The question remains whether or not the saints' hymns may reasonably be described as mantras in the same sense as the Vedic hymns. The answer to this question necessarily brings to light some very important ways in which bhakti is genuinely different from Vedic religion. While the sound of the recitation of the Tamil hymns may please the ear and "cool the mind," ultimately it is the quality of the worshiper's feeling that is most important in bhakti. Bhakti poems are valued first and foremost because they signify a certain state of mind. If the saints' poems are powerful, it is primarily because they induce a worshipful state of mind in the hearer, rather than because the verbal sound elements of which they are composed are powerful in and of themselves. In this milieu the signified is of greater importance than the signifier. This is not to say that the idea of ritually effective sound disappeared from Hindu religious consciousness in the post-Vedic period. The tantric tradition places enormous emphasis on mantra, 26 so much so that certain tantric mantras, the so-called bija (seed) mantras, do not carry any lexical meaning, as if to emphasize that their power derives purely from the sound units of which they are composed. In simplistic terms, it appears that tantric mantras (which, incidentally, also play a role in temple ritual) and bhakti poems represent two lines of development from the Vedic hymns: the former developing from the notion that the phonetic matter of the hymns is inherently powerful, and the latter preserving an active awareness that, semantically, the Vedic hymns are poems of praise. This is not to deny, however, that the saints also drew upon other, especially panegyric, traditions or that their poems represent a substantially transformed religious sensibility.
Critical Approaches to the Poems of the Saints In his study of the devotional poems of Surdas, a fifteenth/sixteenth-century poet of north India, Kenneth Bryant writes, "the poet of Krsna-bhakti must participate in the lila [divine sport] [of Krsna] if his poetry is to be true; if it is to be effective, he must lead his audience to participate as well."27 It appears to me that Bryant's perception of bhakti poetry as essentially a poetry of participation is right on the mark.28 In the atmosphere of late medieval bhakti in north India, the mythos of Krsna's lila or "sports" provided a paradigm for Vaisnava theology and religious poetry that sharply focused the bhakti ideal
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of participation. It is therefore logical to build an explanatory framework for Sur's poetry on the foundation of Krsna's lila. I believe that the ideal of participation is already present in the much earlier poetry of the Tamil saints, whether Vaisnava or Saiva, even if the mythos of Krsna's divine sports is found only in the alvars' poems, and even there it is only one of the Vaisnava myths treated, albeit an important one. 29 It makes good sense, when reading the compositions of the saints critically, to concentrate on the participatory qualities of these poemsspecifically, on the relationships they establish among the poet, the god, and the audience. The critic is faced by a number of choices when defining his project. Bryant concentrates on Surdas's textson narrative and figurative devices the poet employs to achieve rhetorical effects that complement his theology. Given the important role the poems of the Tamil saints play in the ritual of temple worship, if the critic of these poems is to grasp their meaning for Tamil Hindus, it is essential that he look not only at texts but also beyond texts to the surrounding climate of interpretation and performancein effect, that he understand the full meaning of the appellation "Tamil Veda" and all it implies. Only then can he attempt to formulate a culturally accurate appraisal of this literature. Tamil bhakti poetry is a corpus with fuzzy edgesnot that Tamil Vaisnavas and Saivas are unclear about which texts constitute the sacred canons of their faithbut there are poems included in the canon that stand apart formally from the majority of the saints' poems and that sometimes closely resemble other poems that are not included in the canon. I will argue that "typical" bhakti poems present themselves or can be manipulated to be interpreted as direct expressions of their authors' devotion to Visnu or Siva, and that poems structured in terms of genres that mask the poet's voice behind the voices of narrators that cannot easily be identified with the poet, even if they evince sentiments of devotion, are in a certain sense subordinated to poems of the first type. Proceeding on this assumption, I have divided my discussion of the poems into two parts: Part I deals with the "typical" and Part II with an especially interesting example of the "marginal." In both parts discussion moves from text to context. Bhakti is a religion of emotionally charged contact between the devotee and god as well as among devotees. The "typical" bhakti poem functions as both a description of and a medium for such contact. In Part I, I have attempted to trace the multifold ramifications of this proposition, beginning with a variety of relationships among the poet, the god, and the audience that are encoded in the saints' poems. I then show how, through a series of identifications and substitutions, the poems become a participatory vehicle for all devotees. This process, whereby a poem becomes a context for direct religious experience, is clearly expressed in sectarian literature and in temple ritual. It is this particular confluence of text and context, both interpretive and ritual, that constitutes the essence of Tamil bhakti.
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There are some texts included in the Tamil Vaisnava and Saiva canons, however, that are not easily turned into vehicles for direct experience of god. Such a text is Manikkavacakar's Tirukkovaiyar, a text that in many ways has more in common with other poems of its genre that are not included in the canon than it does with "typical" bhakti poems. Doubtless, it is because Manikkavacakar also composed Tiruvacakam, one of the most popular of all Saiva bhakti texts and a text in which the poet's own voice is clearly heard, that Tirukkovaiyar is also included in the Tamil Saiva canon. Employing many of the conventions of classical Tamil poetry, Tirukkovaiyar vigorously resists interpretation as a vehicle of direct communication among poet, god, and audience; but in spite of, or perhaps because of, its incompatibility with "mainstream" bhakti tradition, Tamil Saiva pandits have worked out an allegorized interpretation of the text that appears to be designed to draw Tirukkovaiyar into the bhakti fold as far as possible. These efforts by Tamil Saiva commentators to normalize the text can in fact tell us a great deal about their sense of what bhakti poetry is and what it is intended to do. Studying Indian poetic theories can be useful to the outsider in at least two ways: (1) It provides a way to understand in the abstract how Indians at various points in time have defined literature and the experience of literature. (2) It offers a way of access into specific works of Indian literature. Familiarity with the Sanskritic theory of rasa may not be all an audience member needs to appreciate every nuance of a Sanskrit play, but certainly the lack of that knowledge reduces from the start the likelihood that an outsider will be able to respond as an Indian connoisseur would. The same applies to a person who attempts to read classical Tamil love poetry but who is not conversant with the Tamil poetic theory of mood and landscape. The poems of the Tamil saints may, on the surface at least, appear to be far more direct and unencumbered by conventions than either Sanskrit drama or classical Tamil poetry. Up to a point the saints' poems are more accessible to the uninitiated, but I would argue that in order to appreciate these poems as a Tamil connoisseur wouldthat is, a Tamil devotee of Siva or Visnuit is necessary to unearth and to understand the poetic theory implicit in the devotee's response to these poems. While there is no codified poetics of bhakti poetry in Tamil literary tradition, the devotee does bring certain expectations to his experience of the poems, and these expectations are shaped by traditions of sectarian exegesis and ritual performance that emerged within a few centuries following the time of the poems' composition. At times my analysis of the poetic theory that gives culturally relevant meaning to the saints' poems may appear to be more rhetorical than poetic, but I believe that in the literary universe of Tamil bhakti it is not possible to make a strict separation between the two. The saints' poems, to a large extent, are about and serve as a vehicle for communication between the devotee and god. If the subject of rhetorical criticism is the process of communication between author and audience that is established in and through literary works,
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then the saints' poems are supremely suited to rhetorical analysis. But at the same time the saints' poems convey an experience that is at once aesthetic and religious. Savoring an aesthetic flavor or rasa is the poetic goal for the audience of Sanskrit drama, and, similarly, experiencing god through poetry is the goal for the Tamil devotee. Within their respective frames of reference, as different as they are, these are equivalent poetic experiences. Hence, my discussion of the saints' poems works toward a "poetics" of Tamil bhakti.
Notes 1. There is actually no word in any Indian language that carries the precise meaning of the English word "saint." The words in various Indian languages that denote "saintlike" figures generally refer to persons associated with specific traditions and are not applicable in a more universal sense. For example, the Tamil term alvar is used to denote just twelve persons in the Tamil Vaisnava tradition and cannot be used to denote "saints" in a more general sense. (I am indebted to A. K. Ramanujan for this observation.) 2. One sometimes encounters references to ten rather than twelve alvars. This is because two of the Vaisnava saints, Maturakavi and Antal, are considered to be different from the other tenMaturakavi, because he worshiped Nammalvar as his guru rather than Visnu directly, and Antal, because she is considered to be an incarnation of the goddess Earth (Bhudevi). 3. Excellent translations of Nammalvar's poems can be found in A. K. Ramanujan, Hymns for the Drowning: Poems for Visnu by Nammalvar (Princeton: Princeton University Press, 1981). 4. Friedhelm Hardy, Viraha-Bhakti: The early history of Krsna devotion in South India (Delhi: Oxford University Press, 1983), p. 267. An argument for a later date is found in B. V. Ramanujan, History of Vaishnavism in South India up to Ramanuja (Annamalainagar: Annamalai University, 1973), pp. 235-42; also K. A. Nilakanta Sastri, History of South India from Prehistoric Times to the Fall of Vijayanagar (Madras: Oxford University Press, 1966), pp. 426-27. 5. Manikkavacakar's date, like Nammalvar's, is controversial, though the majority of scholars are of the opinion that the saint lived during the ninth century. For a review of the various arguments, pro and con, see Glenn E. Yocum, Hymns to the Dancing Siva: A Study of Manikkavacakar's Tiruvacakam (New Delhi: Heritage Publishers, 1982). 6. By and large, poets whose works are included in the Tirumurai but who are not numbered among the nayanmar lived later than the saint Cuntaramurti (eighth century), who sang in his poem "Tiruttontattokai" of his vision of sixty-two Saiva devotees. Cuntarar's poem became the model for Cekkilar's Periya Puranam, the "official" hagiography of Tamil Saivism. The nayanmar include the saints mentioned by Cuntarar in his poem in addition to Cuntarar himself. The most important saints in Tamil Saivism are known as the nalvar (the four), namely, Appar, Campantar, Cuntarar, and Manikkavacakar. 7. Ramanujan, Hymns for the Drowning, p. 104. 8. Concerning the influence of classical Tamil poetry on Sanskrit literature, see George L. Hart III, The Poems of Ancient Tamil: Their Milieu and Their Sanskrit Counterparts (Berkeley: University of California Press, 1975), especially Part Two. Friedhelm Hardy argues that the Sanskrit Bhagavata Purana is essentially a Sanskrit "translation" of the bhakti of the Tamil alvars. See his Viraha-Bhakti.
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9. Barbara Stoler Miller, The Hermit and the Love-Thief: Sanskrit Poems of Bhartrihari and Bilhana (New York: Columbia University Press, 1978), p. 6. 10. Rupagoswamin, a sixteenth-century Bengali Vaisnava follower of Caitanya, ingeniously used Sanskritic rasa poetics as a template for an elaborate theology of bhakti. This, however, is not the same thing as a poetics of bhakti poetry. 11. David Shulman has formulated a typology of Tamil authorial images in his paper "From Author to Non-Author in Tamil Literary Legend." He particularly contrasts the image of the kavi or court poet, a master of technique, and that of the bhakti poet, whose poems are supposed to arise as a spontaneous expression of deeply felt emotion. 12. The six vedangas, or ancillary subjects to the Vedas, are kalpa, matters pertaining to the performance of the sacrifice; siksa, correct pronunciation, or phonology; chandas, meter and prosody; nirukta, etymology; vyakarana, grammar; and jyotisa, astronomy, or the science of the calendar. The upangas include the puranas (mythological texts), the classical schools of philosophy, and the texts on dharma (social and religious norms of behavior). 13. The thirteenth-century Srivaisnava theologian, Alakiyamanavalaperumalnayanar, gives considerable attention to this idea in his important work Acarya Hrdayam. For a useful summary and critical account of the content of this text, see G. Damodaran, Acarya Hrdayam: A Critical Study (Tirupati: Tirumala Tirupati Devasthanams, 1976). 14. See A. K. Ramanujan, Speaking of Siva (Baltimore: Penguin Books, 1973). 15. Besides the "mainstream" bhakti tradition in Tamilnadu, there was a group of Tamil Saiva poets who were much closer to the Kannada-speaking Virasaivas in spirit and who, unlike the Virasaivas, remained on the fringes of society. Traditionally, these poets, known as cittars (Sanskrit: siddhas, those who have perfected the siddhis or occult powers), are said to be eighteen in number. While the tradition claims great antiquity, most of these poets probably lived no earlier than the seventeenth century. On the Tamil cittar tradition, see Kamil Zvelebil, The Poets of the Powers (London: Rider, 1973); also, David C. Buck, trans., Dance, Snake! Dance! The Song of Pampatti Cittar (Calcutta: Writers Workshop, 1976). 16. The legendary life stories of the Saiva saint Kannappan (who is mentioned in poetry but composed no works of his own) and the Vaisnava woman-saint Antal are noteworthy examples. Kannappan was a hunter who, upon discovering a Siva linga, offered worship in a form consistent with his rough lifestyle, but hardly in harmony with orthodox ideas concerning the proper way to perform puja. Not only did he bring offerings of flesh to the god; he defiled the flowers he brought to adorn Sivas's image by wearing them in his own hair and he carried in his mouth the water he used to bathe the image. The depth of Kannappan's devotion was tested when blood began to pour from Siva's eye. Without hesitation, Kannappan gouged out his own eye and offered it to the god. When Siva's other eye also began to bleed, Kannappan showed himself willing to repeat his heroic performance, but the god stopped him and carried him off to heaven. Another actor in Kannappan's story is a Brahmin priest who was outraged by Kannappan's unorthodox mode of worship. Siva arranged that he witness Kannappan's salvation and thereby come to realize the real meaning of devotion.
Antal is said to have been found as an infant in a garden of tulasi (sacred basil, a plant especially sacred to Visnu) at the Visnu temple in Srivilliputtur by the saint Periyalvar, who was a Brahmin priest at the temple. Periyalvar assigned his adopted daughter the task of making the flower garlands that were offered to the god every day. Unknown to Periyalvar, Antal, like Kannappan, violated convention by wearing the garlands she made for Visnu herself before offering them to the god. Periyalvar was deeply chagrined when he discovered his daughter's transgression and refused to allow Antal to continue her profession as garland maker. But Visnu, who treasured the
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garlands he received from Antal above all others, appeared to Periyalvar in a dream and instructed the saint to allow his daughter to resume her customary practice. 17. On the Tevaram hymns and their authors, see Indira V. Peterson, "Poems to Siva: The Hymns of the Tamil Saints"; also David Shulman's translation of the Tevaram hymns of Cuntaramurti (manuscript). 18. For a discussion of the concept "sacred place" in Tamil Vaisnavism, see Katherine Young, Beloved Places (Ukantarulinanilaikal??): The Correlation of Theology and Topography in the Srivaisnava Tradition of South India (Delhi: Motilal Banarsidass, 1984). 19. A summary of this legend is found in chapter 2. 20. K. A. Nilakanta Sastri, The Colas (Madras: Madras University, 1955), pp. 637, 639. 21. K. K. A. Venkatachari, The Manipravala Literature of the Srivaisnava Acaryas (Bombay: Anantacharya Research Institute, 1978) pp. 15, 21, 23. 22. In Srivaisnavism the parallelism between Tamil and Sanskrit sacred literature is elaborated in the doctrine known as ubhayavedanta (twofold Vedanta). For discussions of this aspect of Srivaisnava thought, see Venkatachari, especially pp. 1-46; also M. R. Parameswaran, "The Twofold Vedanta of Srivaisnavism." 23. See Jan Gonda, Vedic Literature (A History of Indian Literature, vol. I, Fasc. I, edited by Jan Gonda) (Wiesbaden: Otto Harrassowitz, 1975), pp. 66-67. 24. Nammalvar forcefully expresses this idea in Tiruvaymoli 7.9.6 and Tiruvaymoli 7.9.1. English translations of these verses can be found in Ramanujan, Hymns for the Drowning, pp. 81, 85. 25. See above and note 13. 26. For an informative and concise discussion of the role of mantra in tantric tradition, see Agehananda Bharati, The Tantric Tradition (London: Rider and Company, 1965), pp. 101-63. 27. Kenneth E. Bryant, Poems to the Child-God: Structures and Strategies in the Poetry of Surdas (Berkeley: University of California Press, 1978), p. 21. 28. Similarly, A. K. Ramanujan has described bhakti poetry as a "poetry of connections." See Hymns for the Drowning, pp. 166-69. 29. In his analysis of Tamil bhakti, Friedhelm Hardy places much greater emphasis on the Krsna-lila theme than I do. See his Viraha-Bhakti.
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PART I POEMS, POETS, AND POETICS
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Chapter One Poet, God, and Audience in the Poetry of the Tamil Saints BECAUSE BHAKTI poetry is a ''poetry of connections," 1 in order to fully understand its nature it is important to account for the persons and things it connects and for the contact between them. As I hope to make clear, the prevailing intent of many bhakti poems is to establish contact or "communion" between the poet and an addressee, who in many instances is the god who inspires the poet's devotion, but who may also be an audience of devotees or potential devotees. Also, very often the subject of a bhakti poem is the poet, the god whom the poet worships (who may also be the addressee), an audience other than the god, or even the very fact of contact between the poet and the god (or between the audience and the god). For this reason I have found it useful to picture the structure of communication encoded within the saints' poems in terms of a triangle of communication linking poet, god, and audience. (The role of reciter, devotee, and other external participants will be considered in chapters 2 and 3.)
This diagrammatic representation of the rhetorical structure of bhakti poetry can be derived from the well-known Jakobsonian model of a verbal event. Jakobson argues that several linguistic functions are involved in most instances of verbal communication and that one important way different kinds of verbal messages, including poetry, are distinguished from one another is on the basis of how these several functions are hierarchically ordered.2 Jakobson's functions are keyed to the following model of a verbal event: REFERENT3 MESSAGE ADDRESSER
_____________
ADDRESSEE
CONTACT CODE
This chapter appeared in slightly different form under the same title in the Journal of South Asian Literature 14, no. 2 (Summer, Fall 1984).
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Jakobson identifies six functions of language that respectively emphasize each of these six constituents of a verbal event: REFERENTIAL POETIC EMOTIVE
CONATIVE PHATIC METALINGUISTIC
Until relatively recently linguists have tended to devote a major portion of their effort to studying the referential aspects of language. "But," Jakobson observes, "even though a set (Einstellung) toward the referent, an orientation toward the CONTEXTbriefly, the so-called REFERENTIAL, 'denotative,' 'cognitive' functionis the leading task of numerous messages, the accessory participation of the other functions in such messages must be taken into account by the observant linguist." 4 Jakobson defines the poetic function as a "set (Einstellung) toward the MESSAGE as such, focus on the message for its own sake. . . ."5 However, in his view, poetry is not accounted for solely by this function. "Any attempt to reduce the sphere of poetic function to poetry or to confine poetry to poetic function would be a delusive oversimplification. Poetic function is not the sole function of verbal art but only its dominant, determining function, whereas in all other verbal activities it acts as a subsidiary, accessory constituent."6 A view of poetry as a verbal event in which "the message itself" is hierarchically prior to the other functions of language encourages formal analysisa close scrutiny of sound patterns and figures such as simile and metaphor. Emphasis upon the formal texture of "the message itself" may, in certain cases, be useful in distinguishing poetry from other kinds of verbal events, but it will not help to distinguish bhakti poetry from other kinds of poetry. At this point it becomes necessary to turn to other functions of language. The following poem by the early Vaisnava saint Putattalvar illustrates why this is so. The poem may be represented in terms of a Jakobsonian diagram: Simple folk, don't say a word about people who make a world of their bellies, who spend their lives steeped in shameful deeds and evil ways,
sing the names of the lord with four arms who stretched the eight directions, and travel the roads to sacred fords. ITA 147
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REFERENT1 ("people who make a world of their bellies") REFERENT2 ("the lord with four arms") ADDRESSER (poet) _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ADDRESSEE ("simple folk") CONTACT The triangle of poet, god, and audience actually accounts for both the rhetorical structure of bhakti poetry and its content. A survey of the poems of the saints reveals that not only do the poets speak to the deity or to an audience of devotees, but the information carried by their poems invariably involves identifying characteristics of the deity, the poet's state of mind, the relationship between poet and deity, the deity's relationship with other devotees or with those who shun the path of devotion, or other possibilities implicit in the triangle. Most of the "rhetorical variants" of Tamil bhakti poetry are represented in the compositions of the early poets, and some of these are outlined below with accompanying examples from the works of Karaikkalammaiyar and the first three alvars. However, before turning to the saints' poems, there is another important point that should be considered. As A. K. Ramanujan has observed, to account for the rhetorical structure of many poems, Jakobson's model of the verbal event has to be expanded. 8 For example, a poet may create a dramatized narrative voice. Likewise, the addressee in a poem may be dramatized so that the poem's "real-life" audience "overhears" the message conveyed by the poem. When analyzing many poems it thus becomes necessary to speak of internal and also external addressers and addressees: MESSAGE ADDRESSER (poet)
ADDRESSER (narrator) ---------
ADDRESSEE (narratee)
ADDRESSEE (audience)
CONTACT In poems that fit this model, CONTACT between the poet and his audience is mediated by a narrating persona and an implied addressee.9 There are examples among the poems of the saintsa perfect illustration is Manikkavacakar's Tirukkovaiyarthat, on the surface at least, are best analyzed in terms of this expanded model. However, in bhakti a more direct mode of contact between poet and audience is preferred, and this is why students of Hinduism perceive the saints' poems as "personal" poetry. In the vast majority of bhakti poems the narrative voice heard in the poem is identified as the saint's own voice. Similarly, the saint speaks not to a fictive or implied listener but to a god and/or audience that inhabits the real world. In those instances where the saints composed poems according to models that distinguish internal narrator and addressee from poet and audience (e.g., classical Tamil love poems), sectarian interpreters have traditionally employed conventions that are designed to neutralize the poetic distance thus created.
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Triangular Communication in the Poems of the Early Saints The Poet Speaks to the Deity
Sometimes the poet speaks directly to the deity, and the audience of devotees or potential devotees stands aside and "overhears" the poet's words. The "message" the audience overhears may take a number of forms. The principal subject of the following poem by Karaikkalammaiyar is the relationship between the poet and Siva, but the poem also conveys information about Siva that does not directly concern the poet's biography ("lord of gods, lord with the splendid black throat"). When I was born and learned to speak I was overcome with love and I reached your red feet lord of gods, lord with the splendid black throat, will my sorrows never end? ATA 1 Within the same rhetorical framework, a poem may bring out other dimensions of the poet-god-audience triangle, as the following poem by Poykaiyalvar demonstrates: Tall lord, whatever the unchecked ardor of your servants may prompt them to say, don't take offense didn't the ten-headed demon scheme against you only to find truth and reach your feet at last? MTA 35 Here the poet speaks to Visnu about other devotees, and he urges the god to overlook their occasional indiscretions. The poet almost seems to be pleading on behalf of an unseen audience who is allowed to eavesdrop from the wings. The allusion to Ravana ("the ten-headed demon") adds a rhetorical flourish to the poet's argument. Ravana was Rama's archenemy; but because his every
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thought was directed toward Rama, he attained liberation when he was slain, even though he was hostile to Rama. The poet suggests that it would be inconsistent for the god to take offense at the indiscretions of an overly zealous devotee when even the demon's perverse mode of "worship" bore fruit. These suggestive overtones are characteristic of the way the saints incorporate mythological allusions into their poems. Not invariably, but with considerable frequency, the saints allude to myths that complement or enhance a poem's "core message." Considering the prominence of suggestive figuration in classical Tamil poetry, especially in classical love poetry, it comes as no surprise that the saints saw in myths an opportunity to add layers of meaning to their poems. The suggestive use of myths in the saints' poems is analogous to the classical suggestive technique called ullurai (inner substance). In classical poetry an ullurai is an implied comparison between a scene in nature and an event that engages the emotions of human actors, as in the following poem: In your town of kanci trees and ricefields, a kentai fish dives as a heron tries to seize it and then is frightened of the white buds of a shapely lotus nearby. Since your bard tells lies, it seems to those you have left that all bards are thieves. Oram Pokiyar, Kuruntokai 127, trans. George L. Hart III The effect of this poem hinges upon an implied comparison that Hart explicates as follows: "Like the fish that has escaped from the heron and thereafter mistakes all white things for the predator, the heroine [the narrator of this poem], once cheated by the hero's bard, is in no mood to believe him again." 10 An analogous "mythological ullurai" is found in the following poem by Peyalvar, a poem also of the poet-speaksto-god type: Today I saw your feet and I cut myself free from all the seven births, lord with the splendid basil-covered chest like a mountain dipped in gold, you captivated Tiru when you first caught her eye.
Tiruma1, my mind is all yours. MuTA 2
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This poem hinges on a paradox: in order for a person to escape the limitations of karma and the cycle of births, he must surrender his will to Visnu (Tirumal); in other words, a person must sacrifice his personal freedom to be truly free. The verse can be divided into two components that are linked together by an implied comparison. Component1 Component2 Today I saw your feet and I cut myself free from all the seven births, lord with splendid basil-covered chest like a mountain dipped in gold, you captivated Tiru when you first caught her eye. Tirumal, my mind is all yours. Peyalvar declares that he has freed himself from the bonds of birth by surrendering his mind to Visnu, and he implies that this was inevitable once he caught a glimpse of the god's feet. In the same way, the sense of vision was the medium for the goddess Tiru's (Sanskrit: Sri) surrender to Tirumal. Description of the god's basil-covered chest is a further reminder that Visnu is a refuge of safety for his devotees. Lying on his chest, the special place reserved for the goddess, basil symbolizes the consort's intimate relationship with the god. Interestingly, the poet has reversed the articulation of the captor-captivated relationship in the two components even though Tirumal remains the captor in both cases. The alvar says, "I saw your feet . . . my mind is all yours" (more literally, "my mind has embraced you": unnai marukkantu kontu en manam), but "you captivated Tiru when first you caught her eye." There is a shift in rhetorical prominence from the alvar in Component1 to Tirumal in Component2. The poem focuses the reader's attention first on the alvar (who offers his own experience as an example for his audience), then on the god, and finally back on the alvar. The alvar's relationship with the deity stands out as the poem's "topic," but the goddess's relationship with the deity enriches this topic. The theme of Peyalvar's poem follows a pattern that is amply represented in the poetry and theology of bhakti throughout the subcontinent. As Visnu's devotee, the alvar assumes a feminine identity. In love with the deity, he hopes to be loved by him and to receive his protection. Tiru is the god's beloved par excellence, who sets an example for all aspirants for the lord's grace. The alvar and all Visnu's devotees try to be like the goddess.
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The Poet Speaks to the Audience
A bhakti poet may pull his audience into a poem by using second person pronouns and verbal forms, imperatives, vocatives, and similar resources of language. As A. K. Ramanujan remarks, these linguistic forms are rather special: although most general in their reference [especially pronominal forms], they point to real particulars in the living context outside the language. . . . Such words are called "shifters;" they mediate between speech and speaking, between language and the context in which language lives. Thus the poem, in using such shifters, is both most general in naming all possible people and objects and most particular in pointing to the very people and objects in the audience at the moment of speaking. 11 In the following poem, Poykaiyalvar concentrates upon the audience's relationship with the deity. He tells his audience to worship Visnu, and he details acts of worship that will please the god. The poet pulls the audience into the poem with the imperative verb and second person pronouns; further, the audience's contact with Visnu is the subject of the poem. As long as there's life in this fleeting body worship Tirumal with garlands of perfect blossoms, with sacrifice, sacred rites and chants, and if you sing his names in praise, that's best of all. MTA 70 The Poet Speaks to His Own Heart Not infrequently the bhakti poet addresses his own heart (neñcu, ullam), his mind (manam), or the "breath of life" (uyir) that animates his body. In these poems the poet is both speaker and addressee, and so it appears that the deity as well as the audience overhears the poet's words. There is a prototype for this type of poem in the cankam anthologies, but the classical poem and its bhakti counterpart differ in an important way. In the former it is a dramatized character, not the poet, who addresses his heart. In contrast, the bhakti poet speaks to his own heart in his own voice. Often in these poems the poet speaks about his relationship with the deity, and he either upbraids his heart for impeding complete surrender or praises his heart for helping him to achieve
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union. The split in the poet's identity implied by the rhetorical structure of these poems complements a view of human identity as a composite of body and heart/mind (utal/ullam) or of body and life-breath (utal/uyir), a motif that frequently appears in the poetry of the saints. In this poem by Peyalvar, the poet speaks to his heart about Visnu, and he encourages his heart to surrender to the lord. He became the world, the Eon, and the ocean, he became red fire and the sun's brilliant, far-flung rays, O my heart, give your whole being to the feet of the lord who wears a crown of pure dazzling gold. MuTA 44 The Poet Speaks to an Unspecified Addressee
In the poems cited so far, the contact between the poet and the deity, the audience, or even the poet himself is direct and unambiguous. The Tamil saints also composed hymns that are neither so clearly "personal" as these poems nor so decisively "impersonal" as the classical love poems. The rhetorical structure of these bhakti poems is ambiguous to varying degrees. In some poems the poet clearly identifies himself as the speaker, but he does not invoke his audience "by name." Here the poet clearly is not speaking to the deity, and we know this is so because the deity is spoken of in the third person. However, the poem does not specifically prevent audience members from viewing themselves as the addressee, as in the following poem by Putattalvar:
When I approach Tirumal, our ruler, and offer my prayers to the tall lord with red eyes, won't I rule all the earth, won't I enter the heavens and become a god among gods? ITA 90
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Neither Speaker Nor Addressee is Specified in the Poem
There are poems that are rhetorically even less explicit than the poem cited above, and in such poems the reader is given even wider scope to infer the poem's rhetorical structure. Again, the deity usually cannot be the addressee because he is referred to in the third person. This verse by Karaikkalammaiyar illustrates the type: Whatever penance a man performs, whatever image he conjures, the perfect lord whose throat is blue as sapphire takes the form of his vision and all the while these dullards speak the wisdom of books and follow aimless paths. ATA 33 I would argue that Tamil Vaisnava and Saiva audiences use poems in which the poet unambiguously addresses the deity, the audience, or his own heart as a standard for interpretation of poems with less precisely defined rhetorical structures. This contention is supported by sectarian exegetical literature in which the poetry of the saints tends to be interpreted as a confessional document of the poet's quest to obtain the lord's grace or as a sermon in which the poet shows his audience the way to find the lord. From this point of view, the poems that are rhetorically most direct may, for purposes of analysis, be considered to be at the "core" of the Tamil bhakti corpus; they constitute a standard. Poems in which no addressee is specified occupy a stratum once removed from the core, and poems in which neither speaker nor addressee is specified are located even farther from the center. Signature Verses Many of the Tamil bhakti texts are arranged in decads, which are encompassed by a common theme and/or formal design. These verse sets, called patikams, 12 are followed by an eleventh or signature verse (called phalasruti, or sometimes srutiphala). A phalasruti (the verse that includes "the hearing of the result") also extols the benefits a devotee may count on if he (or shebhakti is, after all, a preeminently "feminine" mode of worship)13 hears or recites the set of ten. Phalasrutis operate in a different rhetorical register
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from the other verses of a patikam, for in a phalasruti the poet speaks of himself in the third person. In this sense the phalasruti verses are metapoems poems about poems. A phalasruti brings the verses it follows into "earshot" of a historical audience, and it makes an explicit connection between the narrative voice heard in the poems and a quasi-historical author. This author, the saint-poet, is a persona who stands somewhere at the boundary between the "real-life" author, in the Western critic's sense of the word, and an "implied author" who exists solely in the words of his composition. For a Tamil Vaisnava or Saiva audience, the saint-poet is a composite of a voice heard in poetry, a legendary figure whose life story is recorded in hagiography, and a sacred personality who is enshrined in temples. Tamil audiences have never distinguished the saint, whose identity is fashioned from poetry, legend, and ritual, from a historical author. The phalasruti, which invariably includes the name of the poet and of his native village or town, "historicizes" the voice heard in bhakti poetry. Some critics have suggested that phalasrutis were appended to bhakti texts by later sectarian authors, because they often are thematically discontinuous with the other verses of a decad. 14 It is possible that phalasrutis are the compositions of anonymous poets who paid homage to the bhakti saints, their poetry, and their chosen deity by cleverly wedding their own compositions to the poems of the saints. However, this hypothesis poses other problems. For instance, if all the phalasruti verses were deleted from Nammalvar's Tiruvaymoli, the metrical linkage (called antati that interconnects the verses of the text would be interrupted between each set of ten.15 Also, there is another genre in Vaisnava literature that fulfills this function and that is traditionally recognized as a later author's gesture of appreciation for the saint's poems. This is the verse called taniyan, which is appended to a saint's or a sectarian scholar's composition as an introductory verse. Following is a phalasruti verse from one of the two decads composed by the early Saivite poet Karaikkalammaiyar. If not the earliest, it is probably one of the earliest examples of this genre in Tamil literature. Demons gather around the peerless lord, beat one another with glee and rend the air with their cries, a partridge joins in the song while jackals who live nearby howl the part of the lute, and the wild-haired she-demon of Karaikkal tells about the Father, lord of splendid Alankatu in these ten verses of pure Tamil
people who master them will find the path that leads to Siva and thrill with joy. TAMTP 11
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This verse contains all the elements that are typically found in a phalasruti references to the poet and her native town (''the wild-haired she-demon of Karaikkal"), to the preceding verses of the decad ("these ten verses of pure Tamil"), and to the rewards of reciting the decad ("people who master them will find the path that leads to Siva and thrill with joy"). According to the legendary biography of Karaikkalammaiyar, the saint begged Siva to let her join his demon attendants so she could watch him dance at the cremation ground of Tiruvalankatu. The scene depicted in this verse is directly related to the legend of Karaikkalammaiyar's life. Among phalasrutis this one is unusual for the large amount of "biographical" detail it contains. In the phalasrutis of Tiruvaymoli one does not usually find any more information about the poet than his name, Catakopan (Sanskrit: Sathakopaone of several names by which Nammalvar is known), and the name of his native village, Kurukur. Manikkavacakar's Tiruccatakam: The Poet's Appeal to Siva Tiruccatakam is the fifth section of Manikkavacakar's Tiruvacakam, one of the best-known works in the Tamil Saiva corpus. These one hundred metrically interlinked verses 16 (the name is derived from Sanskrit sataka, "consisting of one hundred") are usually ranked with Manikkavacakar's best poetry. The poem is subdivided into ten groups of ten verses each (there are no phalasruti verses), and the verses of each group share a common meter. Also, commentators have perceived an underlying theme for each ten-verse set. While commentators may identify distinct themes for each of Tiruccatakam's ten groups of verses, critics of Tiruvacakam are also careful to point out that these groups are thematically continuous and that, in fact, the one hundred verses of Tiruccatakam, like Tiruvacakam as a whole, consistently document the development of the poet's relationship with Siva.17 In terms of the triangular rhetorical model presented above, the verses of Tiruccatakam emphasize the relationship between the poet and the deity. Tamil Saivites greatly admire Manikkavacakar's fervent declarations of devotion to Siva in poems like the verses of Tiruccatakam, where the poet addresses the deity directly. These verses encompass the several variants of this rhetorical type: any one verse may concentrate upon Siva's attributes, the poet's thoughts and feelings, the nature of the relationship between the poet and the deity, or any combination of the three. Other rhetorical configurations, such as verses where the poet speaks to his own heart or to an unspecified addressee, are not categorically excluded from this poem, but where they do occur, the subject of the poem remains the poet's quest for Siva's grace. Manikkavacakar excelled at composing poems that emphasize the relationship between poet and deity, or at least this appears to be the judgment of Tamil audiences. For generations, the persona of the poet in Tiruvacakam has made a deep impression on Tamil Saivites, and they have been moved by the
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alternating experiences of suffering and elation he expresses as he feels himself to be now hopelessly estranged from Siva and now miraculously close to the god, even possessed by him. Though the early poets experimented with this type of poem, by and large their poems are not charged with the emotional intensity that prevails in Tiruvacakam. There is a well-known proverb in Tamil that says that the person whose heart does not melt when he hears the words of Tiruvacakam is incapable of responding emotionally to any words whatsoever. 18 These poems achieve a powerful effect by appealing to their audience's sense of empathy with the poet. In the following verses selected from Tiruccatakam, Manikkavacakar uses several of the rhetorical structures displayed in the poetry of the early poets to frame the subject of this text: his relationship with Siva. The Poet Speaks to the Deity I won't bother with Purantaran, Mal, or Ayan, even if my house caves in I won't care for anyone but your own servants, and if I sink into hell I won't complain Lord, our master, by your grace I won't give a thought to any god but you. TC 2 Like an actor in a play I imitate your servants and clamor to enter the inner chamber of your house, Master, lord brilliant as a mountain of gems set in gold, give your grace so I can love you with love so unceasing my heart overflows. TC 11
I don't surrender my heart at your feet, I don't melt with love, sing your praise or bring garlands, I don't tell of your glory, tend your temple, or dance
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King among gods, refuge for worthy people, I rush toward my death. TC 14 The Poet Speaks to His Own Heart Dead heart, you resist the lord who entered me and took me, an utter fool, for his own, my father who graced me with knowledge and showed me all noble paths, lord who cut my bonds and gave his sweet, unfailing grace you plunge headlong into falsehood and condemn me to ruin. TC 32 The Poet Speaks to an Unspecified Addressee The lord no one can hear, the lord who never fails, the lord with no relations who heard all sounds without even trying placed me on a throne while everyone stared with wonder, though I'm just a lowly dog he showed me things never shown before, and let me hear what no one else has heard, he kept me safe from rebirth and made me his own:
this is the magic our lord performs. TC 28
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Rhetorical Variety in Tiruvaymoli Nammalvar's Tiruvaymoli is a long work, and in this text of more than one thousand verses, interlinked by antati, the poet is given ample scope to try his hand at a variety of poetic forms. Nammalvar has taken advantage of the vast scope of his work to explore the several variants of the direct, personal type of poetry that are found among the compositions of the early poets and that have come to be regarded as "typical" bhakti poems. The text also includes many poems (close to a third of the entire work) that are modeled after classical Tamil love poetry of the "interior" (akam). In these so-called akapporul verses (verses containing "the substance of akam"), both poet and audience stand at a distance from the internal dialogue of speaker (kurru) and listener (ketpor) as they do in any akam poem. However, commentators developed a mode of exegesis that ''personalized" the love poems of Nammalvar and brought them squarely into the bhakti fold. 19 The eleven verses of each verse set (tiruvaymoli) of Tiruvaymoli share a common metrical format, and more often than not, they are also bound together thematically.20 The intertextual bond between the verses of a set may take many forms. Each verse of 2.5,21 for example, includes a description of Visnu's physical appearance, and the verses of 1.7 develop the idea that Visnu resides within everyone and, not least of all, within the poet himself. Verses also tend to form clusters on the basis of rhetorical structures, even if these do not always encompass all the verses of a set, For example, verses 3 through 6 of 1.10 are appeals by the poet to his own heart. Nammalvar's facility with the several poetic variants that emphasize one facet or another of the triangle connecting poet, deity, and audience is demonstrated in the following selection of verses from Tiruvaymoli: The Poet Speaks to the Deity Lord, great blazing flame, who conquered seven bulls and turned splendid Lanka to ashes, don't trust me!
When you take me to your feet of gold don't ever let me run off again. TVM 2.9.10
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The Poet Speaks to the Audience Drop everything, then release your life-breath to the lord, master of Release. TVM 1.2.1 Bow your head at the feet of the lord who chopped off all the heads and arms of the king who ruled Lanka, land girdled by the vast sea and leave the ocean of days far behind. TVM 1.6.7 The Poet Speaks to an Unspecified Addressee My mind won't leave the side of the lord who can't be equaled or surpassed, my tongue trills the words of his song, my dancing limbs are possessed. TVM 1.6.3 The lord who stands first among ancient immortals, who delights in Pinnai's long arms, graceful as bamboo, will become a weakling if he tries to leave me or stray from my good heart. TVM 1.7.8 Neither Speaker Nor Addressee is Specified in the Poem
The lord fierce as a bull in battle, who wears a crown of gold and cool, flowering basil, the lord who sleeps in the milky sea with a snake for his bed vanquished seven bulls to win Pinnai,
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girl with arms graceful as bamboo, and pierced seven spreading Sal trees covered with blossoms rich in honey. TVM 2.5.7 Akapporul Verses What her mother said: She dances and her mind wanders, she sings and her eyes fill with tears, she searches all over and criesNarasimhaa . . . ! This girl, bright brow and all, is wasting away. TVM 2.4.1 Like a bar of lac or wax thrust into fire her mind is in peril and you are heartless. What shall I do for you, lord who razed Lanka, the land ruled by the demon? TVM 2.4.3 Night and day her peerless eyes swim in tears: lord who turned Lanka's fortune into smoke, don't scorch this simple girl and make her gentle glances wither. TVM 2.4.10 Phalasruti Verses
Catakopan of Kurukur, fertile town filled with gardens, has performed humble service by singing these thousand polished verses for the lord who churned the ocean capped with waves, the lord the gods worship so they may rise to high places
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people who master these ten verses of the thousand will rise with the gods and escape the prison of births. TVM 1.3.11 Catakopan of Kurukur has artfully sung these thousand verses in praise of the beautiful Dancer who rules the seven worlds people who faithfully sing these ten verses of the thousand will never be in need. TVM 2.2.11 These poems demonstrate that Nammalvar mastered all the rhetorical variants found in the poetry of the early saint-poets. But in his poems the coordinates of the poet-deity-audience model tend to collapse into one another; and this is one of the really outstanding effects of Nammalvar's poetry, a source of its great power. The poet establishes a major theme in his work by first framing a poem in one of the familiar rhetorical models, and then undermining the very premises of the model. Consider, for example, these three poems: He wrestled seven bulls, swallowed the seven worlds, filled me with the coolness of his heaven and became my very mind. TVM 1.8.7 O breath that gives life to my flesh, what a treasure you are! Because you are here within me Madhu's slayer, my Father, leader of gods in heaven, and I have mingled our beings just as honey, milk, ghee, sugar syrup and nectar
flow in a single stream. TVM 2.3.1
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Lord who can't be equaled or surpassed, great lord of illusions who assumes the form of every being, you became my life-breath, my father and the mother who bore me, O Father who reveals mysteries that defy comprehension, this slave can't fathom all you have done. TVM 2.3.2 Each of these poems displays a different rhetorical structure. In 1.8.7, the poet appears to be telling the audience about Visnu; in 2.3.1, the poet speaks to his own life-breath; and in 2.3.2, he speaks directly to the deity. But notice the idea that is expressed in these verses. While they are all framed by the speaker-addressee relationships discussed in this chapter, each verse ultimately negates the distinction between the poet and the deity. Starting from three different vantage points, Nammalvar, in effect, challenges the rhetorical substructure of his poem. For comparison, consider this verse: Examine these three thought, word, deed abolish them and contain yourself in the lord. TVM 1.2.8 Here the poet aims to eliminate the distance that separates the audience and the deity. But again, initially poet, deity, and audience are perceived separately. In Tiruvaymoli, poetry bridges the gap separating a limited point of view, which respects distinctions, from perfected consciousness, where the building blocks of poetry are no longer meaningful. A Critical Challenge Because bhakti poetry disrespects and even undermines distinctions, it is subversive to certain hallowed principles favored by many literary critics in the West. The tendency in much Western criticism is to proliferate distinctions between, for instance, narrator, implied author, and "real-life" author. Wayne Booth describes the "implied author" as a literary presence "we infer . . . as an ideal, literary, created version of the real man." In novels, the implied author, who is not to be confused with the flesh-and-blood author, is also seldom identical with the narrative "I'' of a work. 22 In a similar vein, Jonathan Culler writes of a "mediative persona" who is always a felt presence in lyric poetry. He claims that even if a poem is not explicitly identified as the words of a
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fictional persona, readers usually construct a fictional situation that frames the words of the poem. 23 Also, on the opposite side of the literary equation, critics speak of the "narratee," a fictive presence coded in a literary work who is not to be confused with either an ideal "implied reader" or a flesh-and-blood audience.24 The bhakti poet and, even more, the sectarian interpreters of the saints' poems offer a challenge to this way of looking at literature. Unlike many Western critics who find multiplicity underlying a superficial appearance of unity, the commentators find unity underlying a Seemingly multiple surface. The exegesis of Nammalvar's akapporul verses is one of the best examples of this perspective. In the commentators' eyes, the "mother" only seems to be an internal narrator who is different from Nammalvar the saint. In reality the "mother" is an aspect of Nammalvar's essential self. Identification rather than differentiation is the dominant critical mode in the interpretive climate of Tamil Hinduism. Hindu interpreters built images of the saint-poets around the voices they heard in the poems and then granted the saints an existence that extends beyond the confines of poetry. And as the phalasruti verses plainly affirm, the poems of the saints have direct consequences for their audience, consequences that are not confined to aesthetic effect. The members of the audience are not mere onlookers; they are meant to identify with the audience who is either directly invoked or who is implied in the text. And this is only the first of a series of identifications that are inherent in bhakti poetry. The poet identifies with the god he worships; the audience identifies with the poet, who is, above all, a model worshiper; and by following the saint's example, the audience finally identifies with the god. These processes of identification, which typify both the rhetorical form of bhakti poems and the message they carry, are explored further in the following pages. Notes 1. A. K. Ramanujan, Hymns for the Drowning: Poems for Visnu by Nammalvar (Princeton: Princeton University Press, 1981), pp. 166-69. 2. Roman Jakobson, "Closing Statement: Linguistics and Poetics," in T. A. Sebeok, ed., Style in Language (Cambridge, Mass.: MIT Press, 1960), pp. 350-77. 3. Jakobson prefers "context" to "referent," but since I will be discussing the interpretive and performance "context" of bhakti poetry, I have used "referent" to avoid confusion. 4. Jakobson, "Linguistics and Poetics," p. 353. 5. Ibid., p. 356. 6. Ibid. 7. All bhakti poems cited in this and in following chapters are also found in the anthology of translations constituting Part III. For commentary on mythological allusions and other references that may require specific cultural or literary knowledge, see the "Notes to the Poems" that follow the anthology. 8. Comments delivered for a panel presentation on the audience of Indian literature, annual meeting of the Association for Asian Studies, Chicago, 1982; and tom
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ments delivered for a panel presentation on the author of Indian literature, Wisconsin Conference on South Asia, Madison, 1983. 9. See concluding section to this chapter and notes 22-24. 10. George L. Hart III, The Poems of Ancient Tamil: Their Milieu and Their Sanskrit Counterparts (Berkeley: University of California Press, 1975), p. 275. 11. Ramanujan, Hymns for the Drowning, p. 123; Roman Jakobson, "Shifters, Verbal Categories, and the Russian Verb," Russian Language Project, Department of Slavic Languages and Literatures, Harvard University, 1957. 12. Patikam is a generic name for this form, but it may be called by other names in particular texts. For instance, in Tiruvaymoli each set of ten verses plus phalasruti verse is known as a tiruvaymoli. 13. A. K. Ramanujan, "On Women Saints," in John S. Hawley and Donna D. Wulff, eds., The Divine Consort: Radha and the Consort Goddesses of India (Berkeley: Berkeley Theological Union, 1982). 14. In the devotional poetry of north Indian languages one often finds signature lines that in some respects fulfill the same functions as a phalasruti verse, but these usually refer directly to the poem they follow. See, for instance, the bhanitas that conclude many of the Bengali poems translated in Edward C. Dimock, Jr., and Denise Levertov, In Praise of Krishna: Songs from the Bengali (New York: Anchor Books, 1967). In the bhanita line the poet often speaks directly to the narrator of the poem and comments upon the situation described in the poem. 15. The verses of Tiruvaymoli, like those of a number of other bhakti texts, are joined "end to end" by means of a prosodic device called antati (a Tamilization of the Sanskrit compound anta, "end" + adi, "beginning"). According to the rules of antati, the last syllable or several syllables of a verse in a multistanzaic poem must be identical to the first syllable or several syllables of its successor. 16. The verses of Tiruccatakam are interlinked by the prosodic device called antati (see note 15). 17. At least two studies of Tiruvacakam in English develop this premise. These are Ratna Navaratnam, Tiruvachakam : The Hindu Testament of Love (Bombay: Bharatiya Vidya Bhavan, 1963); and G. Vanmikanathan, Pathway to God Through Tamil Literature IThrough the Tiruvacakam (Delhi: Delhi Tamil Sangam, 1971). 18. Tiruvacakattukku urukatar oru vacakattukkum urukar. Literally, "one who does not melt for Tiruvacakam (the sacred utterance) will not melt for any utterance." 19. For a more detailed discussion of this commentorial technique and its significance, see chapter 3. 20. While novices may experience some difficulty in finding a thematic center for some of Tiruvaymoli's verse sets, this rarely poses a problem for Srivaisnava commentators. 21. See notes to the translations of Nammalvar's poems in Part III for an explanation of numbering conventions. 22. Wayne Booth, The Rhetoric of Fiction (Chicago: University of Chicago Press, 1961), pp. 73-75. 23. Jonathan Culler, Structuralist Poetics: Structuralism, Linguistics and the Study of Literature (Ithaca: Cornell University Press, 1975), pp. 161-88. 24. See Jonathan Culler, On Deconstruction: Theory and Criticism after Structuralism (Ithaca: Cornell University Press, 1982), p. 34.
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Chapter Two The Devotee's Experience of the Sacred Tamil Hymns CONTACT, PARTICIPATION, communion, and ultimately identificationthese are the leitmotifs that pervade bhakti poetry at every level. The saints were continually striving for union with their lord; they delighted in the company of other devotees; and they sometimes despaired when they lost contact with god and fellow devotees. These themes appear in their poems time and time again. When will I become a brilliant light free from joy and sorrow, free from births, disease, old age and death, and when will I join the servants of the lord of illusions who holds a blazing wheel and a conch, the lord who watches over the earth and the clouds in the sky. Nammalvar, TVM 2.3.10 I saw only misery I failed to see that the seed of all being resides in my own heart. O lord who has no peer in heaven, you called me to serve you, but I can't like an elephant with two trunks I can only stuff myself with food. Manikkavacakar, TC 41
This chapter appeared in slightly different form under the same title in History of Religions 24, no. 2 [November 1984).
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I'm a fraud, my heart is a fraud, even my love is false, but if, bound to my deeds, I implore you, can I still reach you? Honey! Nectar! Clear sugarcane essence! Sweet lord! Give your grace so this servant may come to you. Manikkavacakar, TC 90 In the preceding chapter I showed that contact is more than an important theme in the saints' poems; the saints also favored poetic forms that highlight contact between poet, god, and audience. Further, contact continues to be an important value even when focus shifts from the text to the context of Tamil bhakti poetry. This is apparent in the extensive sectarian literature dealing with the saints, their poems, and the place of both in temple ritual. Author and AudienceA Srivaisnava Model Not long after the alvars' poems were arranged in canonical form by Nathamuni (tenth century), Srivaisnavism developed into a major sectarian institution. Vaisnava temples at such places as Srirankam, Tirupati, and Melkote became important centers of sectarian activity. In Srivaisnavism, as in other Hindu sects, doctrine is preserved, expanded, and passed on from teacher to pupil in lineages of spiritual authority (guruparampara-). Srivaisnava tradition recognizes Nathamuni as the first acarya or teacher in a spiritual lineage that begins with the alvars and continues to the present day. 1 The celebrated philosopher Ramanuja is a third-generation member of this lineage, and while Ramanuja's own works are exclusively in Sanskrit, he promoted recitation of the alvars' poems in the Vaisnava temples of Tamilnadu and adjoining areas. Beginning in Ramanuja's time, commentaries on the saints' poems became an important vehicle for Srivaisnava doctrine. Other genres of sectarian literature include accounts of the alvars' and acaryas' lives, temple histories, and other works devoted to specific topics of theological interest. Many of these works, especially the commentaries, were probably first delivered orally and later written down. Some of these works are in Sanskrit and others in a highly Sanskritized Tamil known as manipravala (rubies and coral).2 While all twelve alvars are highly revered in Srivaisnava thought and literature, Nammalvar occupies a place of special prominence in the tradition. After all, it is Nammalvar's works that are equated with the four Vedas, while the works of the other saints are equated with the "limbs of the Veda" and the
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auxiliary limbs. 3 Further, the other saints are sometimes described as Nammalvar's limbs (avayava). Both these schemes are organic and suggest that Nammalvar can stand for all the Vaisnava saints and his poems for the entire corpus of sacred hymns. If this is so, it is not unreasonable to claim that, for Srivaisnavas, the relationship between Nammalvar and Visnu encapsulates an entire theology. It is therefore worth taking a closer look at that relationship.4 An ideal place to begin is a statement by Nanjiyar, a twelfth- (or thirteenth-) century commentator on Nammalvar's magnum opus, Tiruvaymoli. He asserts that the audience (bhoktr: literally "enjoyer") of Nammalvar's hymns includes "all those who wish to be liberated, are already liberated, and have eternally been liberated, and Visnu himself, the husband of Sri."5 Further exploration will reveal some themes in Srivaisnava thought and practice that underlie Nanjiyar's statement. According to Srivaisnava hagiographic accounts,6 Nammalvar, an incarnation of the divine general Visvaksena (in some accounts, of Visnu himself), was born the son of a Vellala7 chieftain who lived in the village of Kurukur (present-day Alvartirunakari) located in southern Tamilnadu. Nammalvar is said to have been filled with perfect consciousness of Visnu from the moment of his birth, and for this reason, he experienced none of the physical or social needs of ordinary children. He was not inclined to suckle at his mother's breast; he never cried; he never even opened his eyes. The saint's parents were understandably bewildered by this extraordinary behavior, and twelve days after his birth they took the child to the Visnu temple of Kurukur and left him there. The saint settled himself at the foot of a tamarind tree growing inside the temple compound (the tree is said to be an incarnation of the snake Ananta), and there, for sixteen years, he sat in meditation, completely absorbed in contemplation of Visnu. The Divyasuricarita, one of the standard Srivaisnava hagiographic texts, continues the story as follows: When sixteen years had come to an end, his overwhelming happiness burst forth from within him like water from a full lake [appearing] in the form of his poems. When he had composed various songs which were lovely by virtue of Bhagavan's qualities [they described], he immersed himself in the ocean of His bliss, swooned and then recovered.8 This passage appears to support the commonplace notion that the saints' hymns represent a "spontaneous outpouring" of their feelings of devotion for the lord. There is very little overt sense of an intended audience for the hymns implied by this notion, unless it be that the saints directed their hymns to the lord, the object of their devotion. But this is not the end to the tale. A critical actor in Nammalvar's story, the saint Maturakavi, now enters the narrative. Maturakavi, we are told, was a Brahmin who hailed from Kolur, a village near Kurukur. Maturakavi
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embarked upon an extensive pilgrimage to Visnu shrines in many parts of India, and one day, during his meanderings in the north, he saw a bright light in the southern sky. He followed this light to its source, the saint Nammalvar his destined guru. When Maturakavi posed Nammalvar a question, the saint, who had hitherto been oblivious to everyone and everything other than Visnu, graciously interrupted his reverie to instruct this worthy disciple. 9 Maturakavi, we are told, set the alvar's poems to music and sang before audiences of devotees. In one version of the story he is also credited with instituting regular worship of Nammalvar's image. With the introduction of Maturakavi, a more explicit notion of audience begins to come into focus. The hagiographic accounts do not claim that Nammalvar had Maturakavi in mind as the audience for his poems when he composed them. In fact, in Tiruvaymoli the alvar proclaims that Visnu is the real author of the poems, and that he, Nammalvar, is merely the god's mouthpiece.10 But the accounts do strongly imply that once these works (known as the Tamil Veda in Srivaisnava tradition) were manifest in the world, they became the content of Maturakavi's spiritual education. Furthermore, the hagiographers suggest that the alvar's poems did not find an audience by sheer accident, but rather that a divine purpose directed their composition and propagation. In the words of the Divyasuricarita, That Parankusa [i.e., Nammalvar]11 began to relate to Madhurakavi, who was eager to hear, the greatness of the Tamil Veda. "In order to protect all beings, He who is born of Himself (svabhuh) made through my mouth these Tamil stanzas [filled] with the meaning of the Vedas."12 The idea that the composition of sacred poems by saint-poets is part of a divine stratagem to direct humanity along a salvific path is elaborated in the hagiographies. The gist of these accounts is that Visnu, not succeeding in his various efforts to promote the salvation of humankind through such devices as taking incarnations on earth, decided that a foolproof means was called for. He therefore decided that he would assume the form of the temple icon (arca) and that his various emblems and members of his heavenly retinue would be born on earth as saints, known in theological terms as "partial incarnations" (amsavatara). One account suggests that the alvars were more likely to succeed where Visnu, in his earlier efforts, had failed, because they were "of the same class as men" and thus would act as decoys to lure humans toward a salvific path.13 The correlation of the alvars with the temple icon concurs with a scheme found elsewhere in Srivaisnava literature whereby each of Visnu's five manifestations (of which the arca is the fifth) is correlated with an authoritative genre of scripture (pramana). In this scheme Tiruvaymoli, as a metonym for the entire corpus of sacred Tamil poems, is correlated with the material image (arca).14 The essential quality shared by the Tamil poems and the temple image, in contradistinction to other forms of scripture and Visnu's
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other manifestations, is maximum accessibility. What this all seems to imply, in terms of the present discussion, is a composite notion of audience that is part and parcel of Srivaisnava theology. Nammalvar was born on earth in fulfillment of Visnu's plan to bring salvation within reach of humankind. The saint was graced with a complete revelation of Visnu, and this overwhelming experience "burst out" of him in the form of poetry. In accord with the divine plan, Maturakavi was drawn to Nammalvar and became his disciple. If Nammalvar is Visnu's mouthpiece, Maturakavi is his public relations man, for he is the one who actually arranged for recitation of the hymns before audiences of devotees. Thus Nammalvar and Maturakavi are links in a chain whereby Visnu reveals himself to his devotees (see fig. 1).
Fig. 1 The idea of a rhetorical vector that originates in Visnu and is directed toward his devotees is underscored by the term anubhavagrantha, used by Srivaisnavas to denote the acaryas' commentaries on Tiruvaymoli. According to K. K. A. Venkatachari, the appropriate interpretation of anubhava in this context is "enjoyment," and thus an anubhavagrantha is a "work of enjoyment." In other words, the commentaries capture the acaryas' "enjoyment" of Nammalvar's hymns. Furthermore, Tiruvaymoli is said to express Nammalvar's "enjoyment" of Visnu. One commentator tells us that "Nammalvar was enjoying the Lord by the Lord's grace, and so was considered to be quite full (of everything) (paripurna).'' 15 Nammalvar's poems are viewed as the by-product of his intense "enjoyment" of the lord's qualities. Venkatachari's summary of the "chain of enjoyment" that is implicit in the term anubhavagrantha is very much to the point:
Srivaisnavism can be called a tradition of spiritual enjoyment. The basis of the tradition is the alvars' enjoyment (anubhava) of the Lord. Secondly, there is the commentators' enjoyment (anubhava) of the hymns of the alvars. Because the
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commentators do not consider their task of commenting a pedantic work, but rather the very embodiment of their own enjoyment, their commentaries in turn become a literature to be enjoyed by the subsequent generations. In the Srivaisnava tradition direct enjoyment of the Lord can also be indirect enjoyment of Him through the hymns of the alvars and also the commentaries, which are testimonies of the spiritual experience of the community. 16 So far this reconstruction of an audience model in line with Srivaisnava conceptions involves a flow from Visnu to his devotee, with the alvar playing an intermediary roleor, otherwise expressed, with the alvar taking the position of first link in a chain of devotees. The model, as it now stands, encompasses all the audience categories enumerated by Nanjiyar in the statement cited above, with the crucial exception of the last, Visnu himself. (Nanjiyar's other categoriesall those who wish to be liberated, etc.are contained in the idea of devotee in its broadest application.) How can one account for the last member of Nanjiyar's list? By further probing Srivaisnava belief and practice, it becomes clear that the rhetorical model implicit in this system of religious thought includes a second dimension that has not yet been accounted for. Here the flow is reversed, moving from devotee to god, again with the alvar functioning as the first link in a chain. The idea of "enjoyment," which Venkatachari has shown to be central to Srivaisnava spiritual experience, is important. Not only does the alvar "enjoy" the qualities of the lord and ultimately pass on his enjoyment to the Srivaisnava community at large, but Visnu is said to "enjoy" hearing the alvars' hymns recited. This, in fact, provides a rationale for reciting the alvars' hymns in Tamil Vaisnava temples: Visnu is entertained by the hymns. A starting point for this interpretation is provided in the hagiographies that describe the redaction of the alvars' hymns by Nathamuni. According to the traditional account, Nathamuni (whose grandson, Yamuna, became the preceptor of Ramanuja) went into a trance after reciting Maturakavi's poem in praise of Nammalvar 12,000 times. While he was in this state, Nammalvar appeared to him and taught him the hymns of the alvars as well as some of the pivotal doctrines of Srivaisnavism. In Srivaisnava tradition Nathamuni is credited with reviving the practice of reciting the alvars' hymns at the temple of Rankanatan at Srirankam. In so doing he is said to have been following an example set by Tirumankaiyalvar, another of the Tamil Vaisnava saints.17 He is also credited with teaching the proper mode of recitation to his sister's sons, who in turn passed on the tradition of ritual recitation to future generations of Srivaisnavas. Nathamuni fits into Srivaisnava hagiographic literature as the crucial link between the alvars and the later acaryas, and in this capacity he is a major actor in the official chronicle of the Srirankam temple. This chronicle, called Koyil Oluku, relates how the alvars' hymns became a part of temple ritual, and in this version of the story Visnu is explicitly portrayed in the role of audience.18
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The Oluku tells us that Tirumankai settled down at Srirankam and composed hymns for Visnu or Perumal, as the god is known here. In addition, we are told that at this time Maturakavi installed the image of his master, Nammalvar, in the temple of Kurukur and instituted special ritual performances in honor of the alvar. Apparently Maturakavi also was in the habit of visiting Srirankam. Once Tirumankai sang some of his compositions for Perumal during the festival celebrated in the month of Karttikai (November-December), and he acted out the meaning of the hymns with gestures (abhinaya) as he sang. Perumal. was very pleased with Tirumankai's performance, and he asked the saint how he would like to be honored for his service. The saint requested that Perumal listen to Tiruvaymoli on the eleventh day of the bright half of Markali (the month that follows Karttikai) and that he honor Tiruvaymoli with all the honors due to the Vedas. Perumal agreed and arrangements were made for the festival called Adhyayanotsava (recitation festival), 19 when Tiruvaymoli would be recited along with the Vedas. Maturakavi traveled to Srirankam for the festival with the image of Nammalvar that he had enshrined in the temple at Kurukur. When they arrived, Perumal bestowed many honors upon Nammalvar and gave him the name (which means "our alvar") by which he has been known ever since. During the Adhyayanotsava the Vedas were recited during the daytime, and in the evening Maturakavi, as Nammalvar's representative, recited the verses of Tiruvaymoli and acted out the poems' meaning with gestures. The recitation took place every day for ten days, and after it was concluded Perumal honored Maturakavi with gifts of garlands, sanctified food (prasada), scents, and tiruman ("holy earth," the clay used by Srivaisnavas to draw the sectarian mark on their foreheads). The Adhyayanotsava was celebrated annually in this way for many years, but eventually observance of the festival lapsed and Nammalvar's hymns were forgotten. After Nathamuni recovered the hymns of the alvars, he revived the recitation festival and sang the hymns of Tiruvaymoli for Perumal as Maturakavi had before him. He also extended the scope of the festival by incorporating recitation of the hymns of all the other alvars into the ritual schedule. After Nathamuni's death this tradition was carried on by Kilaiyakattalvan and Melaiyakattalvan, his sister's sons. In the continuation of the Oluku account we learn that the god bestowed the title araiyar (king)20 upon the two reciters, and presented them with all the tokens of honor that he had previously bestowed upon Nammalvar. From that time on the reciter of the alvars' hymns at Srirankam was called araiyar, a title that was given to no other temple servant, and the araiyar received the turban, vestments, and garlands that had adorned the lord as recognition for the service he performed during the Adhyayanotsava. The ritual format described in Koyil Oluku is preserved, to varying degrees, in present-day Tamil Vaisnava temples.21 It implies an audience
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model that, in a sense, is the inverse of the model discussed previously. Here the poems are a vehicle for the devotee to bring enjoyment to the lord. As in the first model, the primary actors are Visnu and the alvar (who in Srivaisnava thought is regarded as Visnu's quintessential devotee), only now their roles are reversed· In Jakobson's terms, 22 the alvar is now addresser and Visnu is addressee. And, as in the previous model, the alvar is the first member of a series that ultimately fans out to include the Srivaisnava community as a whole. In this case a series begins with the alvar, the principal performer of the sacred hymns, and extends to his "substitutes"Maturakavi, Nathamuni, Nathamuni's nephews, the temple servant who holds the office of araiyar, and, by association, the congregation of Srivaisnavas who "support" the araiyar's recitation. This second model implies that any devotee who recites Tiruvaymoli in worship of Visnu not only follows the example set by Nammalvar but actually assumes the persona of Nammalvar (see fig. 2).
Fig. 2 By superimposing the models offered here, it is possible to formulate a picture that does justice to the Srivaisnava conception of the saints' hymns, their author, and their audience. And, it is worth noting, this composite model accounts for Nanjiyar's description of the proper audience of Tiruvaymoli in its entirety. In this picture Visnu is the ultimate source of the hymns and their end. This conception can also be described as a transaction between Visnu and the alvar in which the two actors play alternating roles. From one point of view the alvar represents the Srivaisnava community: Visnu's grace is "filtered" to all Srivaisnavas through the person of the alvar. From another, the
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community represents the alvar: the araiyar, with the congregation of devotees behind him, recites the sacred hymns for Visnu on behalf of the alvar. God and devotee are respectively both author and audience. The two are bound together in a closed circuit that is activated by the Tamil hymns (see fig. 3).
Fig. 3 As one would expect, this sectarian model of the saints' poems and their audience selects from and expands upon the images of the audience found in the poems themselves. This is so because the sectarian establishment constructed hagiographies and an entire sectarian "history" partly on the foundation of suggestive passages from the saints' poems. 23 Further, this pattern pertains not only to the content of the poems, but also to their rhetorical form. The poet-god-audience triangle that emerges from the poems themselves is expanded in hagiography into a circuit in which the same actors are linked in more elaborate ways. Also, the Srivaisnava conception complements the rhetorical form of the phalasruti verse and further develops the idea that the Tamil hymns are a medium for all devotees to become saints. Tamil Saiva Parallels The degree to which Tamil Vaisnava and Saiva traditions are seen as similar or dissimilar is largely a matter of emphasis. A motif analysis of the saints' poems in both traditions uncovers a large area of commonality, but also certain themes receive greater emphasis in either one tradition or the other.24 Formally, the poems of both traditions are practically identical, and this applies both to formal properties on a technical level (meter, use of conventions of classical Tamil poetry, arrangements of verses, etc.) and to the rhetorical form of the texts. The poet-god-audience triangle is operative in poems of both traditions: the poets employ similar narrative devices, and both Vaisnava and Saiva poets reflect upon their poetry through the device of phalasruti verses. A close study of hagiography, theology, and the ritual contexts in which the saints' poems are recited in the two sectarian contexts will also reveal large
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areas of overlap, though significant differences exist. It is not my purpose here to undertake a thorough comparative study of Tamil Vaisnavism and Saivism. The question that concerns me here is simply, "to what degree is the rhetorical model implicit in Srivaisnava theological discourse and ritual also valid in the Tamil Saiva context?" The answer seems to be that while one can point to particulars that suggest a parallel model is operative, Tamil Saivism does not provide a compact and elegant formulation of this model such as is found in the hagiographical account of Nammalvar's life or in the segment from the Srirankam temple chronicle discussed above. One reason a well-articulated model emerged so naturally from the Srivaisnava literature is that, as a system of religious thought, Srivaisnavism is very compact. Important tenets of belief intermesh to form an integrated whole. The hymns of the saints constitute the Vaisnava Tamil canon; hence the concepts of "saint" and "sacred scripture" are coterminous. The saints are related to Visnu by means of the doctrine of amsavatara, and they are related to one another through a model that parallels the Vedic model of the cosmic manthe other alvars are spoken of as Nammalvar's limbs. Finally, the spiritual lineage of authoritative teachers in this tradition is seen as originating in Nammalvar, the foremost saint. One finds partially parallel concepts in Tamil Saivism, but they do not interlock quite so elegantly. For instance, Tamil Saivism recognizes sixty-three saints or nayanmars, but only some were poets whose hymns are included in the Tamil Saiva canon, the twelve Tirumurai. Also, the Tirumurai include works by poets who are not numbered among the nayanmars. One of these, Manikkavacakar, is, however, highly revered and is included as one of four camayacaryas or "preceptors of the faith." (The other three, Campantar, Appar, and Cuntarar, authors of the hymns referred to as Tevaram [Tirumurai 1-7], are also known as the muvar mutalikal, "the foremost three.") The Tamil Saiva preceptor lineage begins with four cantanacaryas (preceptors of the lineage). While in a sense parallel to the camayacaryas, they are not thought of as direct spiritual descendents of the saint-poets. Finally, Tamil Saivism provides no direct commentaries on the saints' hymns, such as are found in Srivaisnavism, 25 nor is there a text quite like Koyil Oluku, which discusses the origins of temple ritual, though, as we shall see, the Saiva temple at Chidambaram plays a role in the Saiva context similar to that of the Srirankam temple in the Vaisnava context. Given this imperfect fit between the two sectarian traditions, it is still possible to identify certain features of Tamil Saivism that suggest that a rhetorical model, such as is found in Srivaisnava discourse and ritual practice, is also present in the Saiva context, even if its articulation is incomplete. Some of these features are described below, beginning with the first model, in which the rhetorical flow is from deity to devotee. As noted above (fig. 1), in this model the ultimate author of the Tamil hymns is the god, who "speaks" through the saint. There is some evidence that
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this idea also exists in Tamil Saivism. Like the Vaisnava Nalayira-tiviya-pirapantam, the Tamil Saiva canon is known as the "Tamil Veda," and thus the saints' hymns are equated with "revealed" sacred literature in Sanskrit. In hagiography we find another indication that at least the poems of Campantar originate with the god. According to the Periya Puranam, 26 when Campantar was a child of three years, his father took him to the temple of Toniyappar (a form of Siva) and left him on the steps of the temple tank while he performed his ablutions. The child, thinking that his father had abandoned him, burst into tears, crying out the words "Amma [mother], Appa [father]." Siva and his consort Uma were touched by the child's cries and appeared before him. The goddess filled a golden cup with milk from her breast and fed the child Campantar. From the moment Campantar drank the goddess's milk, his heart was filled with devotion for Siva, and his career as an inspired poet began. The story, of course, suggests, in a eminently concrete way, that Campantar's inspiration and talent as a poet were divine in origin. The doctrine of amtsavatara in Srivaisnavism explicitly asserts that the authors of the Tamil hymns, among other partial incarnations, are divine, though their divinity is subordinate to that of Visnu himself. While I have not seen anything written on the subject, I was told by a professional reciter of Tamil Saiva hymns27 that Tamil Saivism recognizes six avatarapurusas, in-eluding the four most important saint-poets, Campantar, Appar, Cuntarar, and Manikkavacakar. The term at least suggests that these poets are accorded a measure of divinity, and if this is the case, it helps explain why these four are elevated above the other saint-poets in Tamil Saiva doctrine. The term camayacarya (preceptor of the faith), by which these four are known, suggests a similar conclusion. As acaryas, or teachers, the four saints are assimilated to the prototype of all Saiva acaryas, Siva in the form of Daksinamurti, the teacher. What one does not find in Tamil Saivism is a figure who plays a role comparable to that of Maturakavi in Srivaisnava tradition. Maturakavi became a devotee of Nammalvar, consecrated an image of the alvar, and introduced his hymns into temple ritual, thereby bringing Nammalvar's hymns to a community of worshipers. Only very faint parallels can be found on the Saivite side. The nayanmars Campantar and Appar are said to have known one another and to have shared a great mutual respect and affection. In a similar manner, the nayanmars Cuntarar and Ceraman Perumal are said to have been close friends. However, these relationships are more or less symmetrical, whereas Maturakavi worshiped Nammalvar as his god. According to Srivaisnava tradition, Nammalvar sang his songs to Visnu in a state of rapture, without regard for his social surroundings, and it is Maturakavi who made his hymns accessible to the Vaisnava community. The Tevaram poets, in contrast, are noted for the extensive pilgrimages they made and for forging a community of Tamil Saivites by bringing their poems before the public as they moved from place to place. In fact, Appar and Campantar are
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respectively credited with converting the Pallava and Pantiya kings, and hence their subjects, from Jainism to Saivism. The second part of the Srivaisnava model can also be matched with suggestive, but only partially articulated, parallels in Tamil Saivism. Like the Vaisnava hymns, the hymns of the Saiva saints are said to have been effectively lost to the Saiva community for a period of time after the lifetimes of their authors. Srivaisnavism credits Nathamuni with recovering the hymns of the Vaisnava saints, arranging them in canonical form, and reviving the practice of reciting them in the temple. Two figures are credited with similar achievements in Tamil Saivism. One of these is a Cola king, often identified with Rajaraja Cola (reigned 985-1014 A.D.); the other is a priest at a temple of the elephant-headed god Ganesa, Nampi Antar Nampi by name. The king embarked on his mission to recover the compositions of the Saiva hymnists after hearing a short excerpt from the Tevaram hymns sung by a devotee at his court. 28 He sought the aid of Nampi Antar Nampi, who in turn petitioned the god Ganesa to fulfill the king's wish. The god revealed that manuscripts of the hymns were to be found in a sealed chamber at the Siva temple at Chidambaram. However, before they could filfill their mission, Nampi and the king were faced with another setback. The Brahmin priests of Chidambaram at first refused them access to the room where the Tevaram hymns were stored, on the premise that the room could be unsealed only if the three Tevaram poets came in person to do so. Nampi and the king consecrated images of the saint-poets and conducted them in formal procession through the streets surrounding the temple. They finally brought the images of the saints to the room where the hymns were stored, and in this way they were able to open the room and recover the hymns. The story clearly implies that the three saints Personally came to the temple in the form of their icons.29 Like the Nalayira-tiviya-pirapantam, the Tirumurai were, in a sense, recovered through divine intervention. Nampi Antar Nampi, like Nathamuni, recited the saints' hymns before the deity in a temple; and like the Srirankam temple in the Srivaisnava context, the Saiva temple at Chidambaram is a major center of sectarian activity. However, there is no explicit indication that Nampi Antar Nampi assumed the personae of the Saiva saints when reciting their hymns, though he did arrange for the saints' "personal" appearance at Chidambaram. The same holds true for the temple functionaries, known as otuvars, whose duty it is to recite the Tirumurai hymns in the temple. Indira Peterson, who has studied the otuvar tradition in depth, has concluded that when an otuvar recites a hymn of one of the saints, he, in effect, expresses his personal devotion to Siva through the vehicle of the hymns.30 Her conclusion and the evidence on which it is based support the idea that the reciter establishes contact with the deity by "stepping into" the persona of the saint. Thus it appears that in Tamil Saivism, as in Srivaisnavism, the devotee enters into a relationship with the deity through a series of identifications that originate in the bond joining saint and god.
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A Rhetoric of Bhakti The model of bhakti poetry developed here is rhetorical insofar as it concerns the interaction between author and audience and the ways that interaction is articulated in sectarian discourse. However, this is a special kind of "rhetoric" because the performance and reception of bhakti poetry involve not so much the communication of a message from author to audience as a profound communion between the two. The hymns themselves are the instrument of that communion. 31 The communion between author and audience, which, as I have emphasized, is a communion between devotee and god (with each taking both roles), has profound theological significance. The aesthetic/rhetorical process, as described here, is, in the final analysis, a process of divination, and the hymns fuel that process. Through an all-consuming enjoyment of the sacred hymns, one experiences bhakti, and the experience of bhakti itself transforms the experiencer. Devotion engenders divinity in the devotee; thus the perfected devotee or saint is treated as a divine being.32 The sacred hymns, an important catalyst for devotion, originate in god and are offered back to godthe rhetoric of bhakti is cyclical. The experience of devotion that they engender and the divinity that follows from this experience also "circulate" in this system. This process is reminiscent of the cyclical give-and-take process between Vedic poet and god that Gonda describes,33 and at the same time it is profoundly different. The Vedic poets receive inspiration (dhi) from the gods, and in return they compose hymns that bring the gods pleasure and dispose them to behave generously. The most striking similarity between Vedic and bhakti models of poetic inspiration, composition, and reception is that they are both cyclical. God or "the gods" give(s) inspiration to the poet who, in an inspired state, composes poetry and offers it back to the god(s). But the conception of god is different in the two models, and this has far-reaching consequences. Vedic poets and gods belong to two entirely different orders of being, though humans and gods do interact with one another and influence one another's fortunes. The Vedic "poetic" cycle, in which the rsis and gods participate, mirrors the relationship between humans and gods in the Vedic sacrificial cycle. Gods depend upon humans to "feed" them with sacrificial offerings, and humans depend upon gods for the gifts of nature that enable them to survive. This give-and-take relationship is predicated upon a divine/ human duality. By the time of the bhakti poets the conception of divinity had evolved into something quite different from the Vedic conception. The bhakti poet's Visnu or Siva is all-encompassing. For the bhakti poet, god is simultaneously the core reality, the "self" of everything in the universe (comparable to the Upanisadic brahman), and a palpable personality who can elicit the emotional immediacy of a parent, child, friend, master, or lover. Visnu or Siva, perceived in this way, is at once more abstract and more concrete than the Vedic gods.
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God, in these terms, is a full account of the five elements, the directions of the compass, and all living creatures, 34 but the same god also resides in particular temples, where he is the principal subject of a unique local history.35 The religious orientation of most of the saints is compatible with the philosophical stance known as bhedabheda (difference and nondifference) or visistadvaita (qualified nondualism).36 From this point of view god is one, but yet not entirely identical, with the world, because he is more than the world. In the devotee's eyes god is sufficiently an "other" to be worshiped through the concrete acts of temple worship and at the same time god is a presence within, one's true self. This view leads to a special kind of poetic exchange between poet and god. The two are sufficiently distinct for there to be an exchange, but the dividing line between poet and god is never more than provisional. The poet is an expression of the god's self. The god, as the poet, sings of himself. Reciprocity shades into identity. If the logic of bhakti is pushed to the limit, it becomes clear that bhakti is not just a means but is actually an end in itself. Bhakti is moksa. I have stressed that bhakti poems, like Vedic hymns, should be considered in their ritual context. But it is also important to be aware of the differences between the ritual environments of the Vedic sacrifice and temple worship. In the Vedic ritual manuals (Brahmanas) the sacrifice is viewed almost as a mechanical process; if certain ritual acts are performed correctly, certain tangible results will necessarily follow. The correct recitation of the Vedic mantras is as important a part of that process as nonverbal sacrificial acts. Just as the Vedic mantra in a sense "fuels" the sacrifice and assures its effectiveness, the saints' hymns "fuel" the flow of devotion and divinity in the bhakti model, but the mechanics involved are different. Temple worship (puja) is primarily an expression of an attitude. Numerous authors have emphasized that in puja the worshiper honors god as a revered guest would be honored.37 No tangible result is expected automatically to follow from the performance of puja, although one can perform puja in the hope of receiving tangible benefits.38 When the Vedic mantra is recited, there is a sense that the sounds themselves are objectively effective; the aesthetic dimension of the verses is generally not emphasized. But in bhakti, aesthetic considerations are critical. In order to experience devotion and thereby attain divinity, the devotee must savor the words of the saints' hymns and take them to heart. The words are effective if and only if they trigger a psychological and emotional response. The sacredness of the saints' hymns is located not so much in external, objective features of sound as in internal, subjective states of mind, which are reflected in and transmitted by the hymns. What is essential is the devotee's experience of the hymns.
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Notes 1. Actually, Srivaisnavas establish a divine sanction for their doctrine by identifying Visnu as the progenitor of the parampara. According to one parampara text, the lineage begins with Rankanatan (Visnu's manifestation at Srirankam), who transmitted the teaching to his consort, Sriranka Nacciyar, who in turn passed it on to Visvaksena, the commander-in-chief of Visnu's armies. The alvars are collectively portrayed as the disciples of Visvaksena. (Also, Nammalvar is sometimes said to be an incarnation of Visvaksena, and the other alvars, incarnations of the god's weapons and other paraphernalia.) Nammalvar appeared to Nathamuni, the first acarya, in a yogic vision, and taught Nathamuni the sacred truths. The next two generations of the lineage are represented by Yamuna and Ramanuja. After the fifteenth century Srivaisnavism split into two rival subsects, the Tenkalai or ''southern branch" and the Vatakalai or "northern branch," which look respectively to Pillai Lokacarya (1264-1369) and Vedanta Desika (1268-1369) as their principal spokesmen on theological matters. 2. For an excellent overview of the acaryas' manipravala works, see K. K. A. Venkatachari, The Manipravala Literature of the Srivaisnava Acaryas (Bombay: Anantacharya Research Institute, 1978). 3. See Introduction, note 12. 4. In the following account, I am much indebted to Friedhelm Hardy's survey and analysis of a large body of Srivaisnava literature dealing with Nammalvar. See his "The Tamil Veda of a Sudra Saint (The Srivaisnava Interpretation of Namma1var)," in Gopal Krishna, ed., Contributions to South Asian Studies 1 (Delhi: Oxford University Press, 1979), pp. 29-87. 5. Hardy, "The Tamil Veda of a Sudra Saint," p. 48. 6. There are several Srivaisnava texts that give a history of the parampara (preceptor lineage) of the sect. Among the most often cited are the Kuruparamparai pirapavam "6000" by Pinpalakiya Perumal Jiyar (in Tamil) and the Divyasuricarita by Garudavahana Pandita (in Sanskrit). Scholars disagree on the dating of these texts. Hardy suggests that the Sanskrit work was composed in the late twelfth or early thirteenth century. "The Tamil Veda of a Sudra Saint," p. 35. 7. The Vellalas are a dominant land-owning caste in Tamilnadu. Though in terms of the varna scheme, they are technically classified as sudras, their status in the south Indian context is actually much higher than that suggested by the Sanskritic classification. 8. Hardy, "The Tamil Veda of a Sudra Saint," p. 36. 9. As others have pointed out, the legendary relationship between Nammalvar and Maturakavi functions as an ideal model for one of the cornerstones of Srivaisnava theology, the relationship between preceptor and disciple. 10. E.g., Tiruvaymoli 7.9. 11. Srivaisnavism knows Namma1var by several names Among these are Maran, Catakopan and Parankucan. The name Maran was used as a title by the Pantiya kings. Popular accounts relate that the alvar's parents gave their son this name because he was different (from maru, "to be altered") from other children, but this probably is a folk etymology. The alvar is said to have acquired the name Catakopan because he drove away the catam (Sanskrit satha, a vapor that normally obscures a newborn child's innate mental clarity) with his anger (kopa). This explanation of the name, however, also sounds suspiciously like a folk etymology, and it may simply mean "one
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whose anger is directed against deceit (satha)." The name Parankucan (Sanskrit: Parankusa), which literally means "one whose goad [ankusa] is held by another," expresses the alvar's complete dependence on Visnu. Finally, it is said that Visnu himself called the saint by the name Nammalvar (our alvar) as a mark of his great fondness for this extraordinary devotee. 12. Hardy, "The Tamil Veda of a Sudra Saint," p. 37. 13. Ibid., pp. 42-46. 14. The categories of sacred scripture and the aspects of Visnu are correlated as follows: Vedas: Pancaratrasastras: Dharmasastras: Itihasa (epics): Tiruvaymoli:
para (supreme, transcendent) aspect vyuha (emanations) antaryamin (indweller) vibhava (Rama, Krsna, etc.) arca (iconic image)
15. The commentator in question is Vatakkuttiruvitippillai, author of the "commentary in 36,000 granthas" (Mupattarayirappati) on Tiruvaymoli. Sometimes Vatakkuttiruvitippillai's teacher, Nampillai, is credited with authorship of the commentary in oral form with Vatakkuttiruvitippillai playing the role of scribe (Venkatachari, The Manipravala Literature, p. 93). 16. Ibid., p. 94. 17. As previously mentioned, dating of the alvars is controversial. The Srivaisnava parampara places Nammalvar fifth among the alvars and Tirumankai last. However, by and large, modern historians assign Tirumankai to the eighth century and Namma1var to the ninth century (e.g., K. A. Nilakanta Sastri, A History of South India from Prehistoric Times to the Present [Madras: Oxford University Press, 1966], pp. 426-27). Hardy, standing by the traditional order, postulates the seventh century as the time when Namma1var lived ("The Tamil Veda of a Sudra Saint," pp. 41-42). 18. My summary of incidents from Koyil Oluku pertaining to the sacred hymns and their audience is based on the English translation by V. N. Hari Rao, Koil Olugu: The Chronicle of the Srirangam Temple with Historical Notes (Madras: Rochouse and Sons, 1961). 19. See Paul Younger, "Singing the Tamil Hymnbook in the Tradition of Ramanuja: The Adyayanotsava Festival in Srirankam," History of Religions 21, no. 3 (February 1982): 272-93. 20. The Oluku relates that Perumal bestowed the name "araiyar of the exalted Manavala Perumal" upon one brother, and the name "natavinoda araiyar" upon the other. The name given to the first seems to indicate his premier rank among the deity's servants. (Manavalan, which means "bridegroom" or "husband," is a name of Visnu at Srirankam.) The name given to the second brother, which literally means "king of the pastime of drama (or dance)'' underscores the nature of the araiyar's serviceto sing and act out the alvars' hymns for the deity. Perhaps the araiyar was given this title to identify him with the king of the realm, who, in medieval Hindu India, was the paramount worshiper of the deity, a role that was of central significance in the Hindu conception of sovereignty. The araiyar is the "king" of the Adhyayanotsava because, in the context of this ritual performance, he represents Visnu's premier devotee. For an illuminating discussion of the ritual importance of the Hindu king, see Ronald Inden, "Ritual Authority and Cyclic Time in Hindu Kingship," in J. F. Richards, ed., Kingship and Authority in South Asia (Madison: University of Wisconsin South Asian Studies Publications, 1978), pp. 28-73.
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21. See Appendix A for a summary description of ritual occasions for recitation of the saints' hymns in modernday Vaisnava and Saiva temples. 22. See chapter 1. 23. Hardy, "The Tamil Veda of a Sudra Saint," pp. 32, 38. 24. See Appendix B. A comparative study of the Vaisnava and Saiva "companion" pieces, Tiruppavai by Anta1 (Vaisnava) and Tiruvempavai by Manikkavacakar (Saiva), for example, reveals a greater emphasis on mythological allusion in the Vaisnava poem and a greater emphasis on abstract characterizations of the deity in the Saiva poem. See Norman Cutler, Consider Our Vow (Madurai: Muthu Patippakam, 1979), pp. 3-4. 25. One now finds editions of some portions of the Tirumurai with commentaries, but the earliest such commentaries were written only in the nineteenth century, and they do not have the status of the "classical" commentaries in Srivaisnava tradition. 26. See Introduction. 27. My informant was P. A. S. Rajasekharan, otuvar at the Kantaswami temple in Madras City. The word otuvar, used in Tamil Saivism to denote a professional reciter of the hymns, means literally "one who recites." 28. The stories of the redaction of the saints' hymns in Vaisnava and Saiva contexts display some striking parallels. Nathamuni began his quest to recover the alvars' hymns after overhearing a devotee reciting a surviving hymn from the corpus. Both stories suggest a "golden age" of devotionthe age of the alvars and the nayanmars followed by a period of lapse and a subsequent period of revival and institutionalization. 29. According to the traditional story, recounted in the Tirumurai Kanta Puranam by Umapati Civacariyar (early fourteenth century), the majority of the Tevaram hymns were lost to the ravage of white ants, but those hymns appropriate to the present day and age were spared the scourge. 30. See Indira Peterson, "Singing of a Place: Pilgrimage as Metaphor and Motif in the Tevaram Songs of the Tamil Saivite Saints," Journal of the American Oriental Society 102, no. 1 (January-March 1982): 81. 31. This distinction was made by V. Narayana Rao in his comments on an earlier version of this chapter, which I presented at the thirty-fourth annual meeting of the Association of Asian Studies in Chicago, April 2-4, 1982. 32. Raymond Williams shows in his study of the Swami Narayan religion of Gujarat that the close association of divinity with perfect devotion is a vital theme in modern-day Hinduism. See Raymond Williams, "Holy Man as Abode of God in the Swaminarayan Religion," in Joanne Punzo Waghorne and Norman Cutler, eds., Gods of Flesh/Gods of Stone: The Embodiment of Divinity in India (Chambersburg, Pa.: Anima Publications, 1985). 33. See Introduction, note 23. 34. See poems listed under motif 4 in Appendix C. 35. See poems listed under motif 19 in Appendix C. There is a genre of literature (in Tamil and Sanskrit) devoted to the history of particular temple sites and the career of the particular manifestations of god at these sites. For a landmark study of these so-called sthalapuranas (place puranas) in Tamil Saiva tradition, see David Dean Shulman, Tamil Temple Myths: Sacrifice and Divine Marriage in the South Indian Saiva Tradition (Princeton: Princeton University Press, 1980). 36. Lise Vail makes a similar observation regarding Virasaivism as practiced in northern Karnataka. See her "Founders, Swamis and Devotees: Becoming Divine in North Karnataka," in Waghorne and Cutler, Gods of Flesh/Gods of Stone. 37. See, for instance, Arjun Appadurai and Carol Breckenridge, "The south Indian
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temple: authority, honor and redistribution," Contributions to Indian Sociology, n.s., 10 (December 1976): 187212. 38. Here I am using the term puja somewhat loosely to denote worship of god's image in a temple setting. I am not distinguishing, as Appadurai and Breckenridge do, between puja in the sense of community-oriented ritual and arcana in the sense of ritual performed by a worshiper as a private act of devotion.
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Chapter Three The Poetics of Bhakti IN THE INTRODUCTION, I raised the questiondo the Tamil saints' poems constitute a coherent corpus in formal terms? I gave a tentative answer in the affirmative, but I also cautioned that this answer would hold up only if literary form were interpreted in a sense broad enough to include structures of communication between author and audience and also structures of reception, interpretation, and performance. Structures of the first type, encoded in the poems, were examined in chapter 1. Chapter 2 emphasized structures of the second type, and consequently the focus in that chapter shifted from the text "on the page" to the broader sectarian context. The preceding two chapters prepare the ground for a head-on confrontation with the questionwhat is the literary status of the saints' poems in their own cultural environment? To answer this question satisfactorily one must confront another question that literary critics and scholars grapple with, sometimes explicitly and sometimes implicitly, every time they engage in their professionnamely, "what is literature?" Starting with this elementary question, I will attempt to formulate a culturally accurate, literary profile of the saints' poemsin short, to articulate a "poetics" of Tamil bhakti. While most of us assume that we know what literature is and behave as if we know what it is, arriving at a systematic definition of literature is not so simple. The question of what exactly literature is (or poetry, or verbal art, or whatever other term one may choose), is one that has intrigued speculative thinkers in many "civilized" cultures. In such cultures literature is recognized as an art form distinct from other forms of artistic expression and as a linguistic artifact distinct from other forms of language. In Western tradition, philosopher-critics have selfconsciously pondered the nature of literature and its distinctive properties at least since Aristotle, whose Poetics remains a classic statement on the defining properties of literary art. For Aristotle literature meant, first and foremost, tragic drama, but with the passing of time Western critics have applied his ideas to other genres, many of which did not even exist in Aristotle's time. In India too, speculation on the question "what is literature?" has a long and distinguished history. Probably best known among Indian theories of literature is the theory of rasa, which was originally developed in the context
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of Sanskrit dramatic theory (natyasastra) and was gradually extended until eventually rasa or "mood" was viewed as the "soul" of all aesthetic objects. Another branch of Sanskrit poetic theory is the theory of poetic figures (alamkarasastra). The alamkarikas were most concerned with the highly ornate stanzaic poetry in Sanskrit, known as kavya. Finally, elements of natyasastra and alamkarasastra were brought together in a somewhat altered theoretical context by the expounders of the theory of dhvani or suggestion. 1 As the lingua franca of art and culture in ancient and medieval India, Sanskrit developed a voluminous literature, much of which was not considered to be "aesthetic literature" by poeticians, who addressed their theories only to certain kinds of texts. The best-known Indian theories of literature were developed in the context of Sanskrit literature and culture, but their influence is not strictly confined to the Sanskritic sphere, for they have affected attitudes toward literatures in India's vernacular languages as well. However, the ancient Tamils also developed a theory of literature that was largely independent of Sanskrit literary tradition, just as the ancient Tamil poetry that it addressed exists independently of Sanskrit models. The Sanskrit drama can be fruitfully analyzed in terms of natyasastra, and kavya is illuminated by alamkarasastra. In the same way, the classical Tamil poems of love and war find their theoretical counterpart in the analyses of the classical Tamil poeticians. But just as many genres of Sanskrit "literature" (such as the vast story literature) are not directly addressed by Sanskrit poetic theory, so too, the poetry of the Tamil saints cannot be neatly paired with classical Tamil poetic theory, though the poets did incorporate certain elements of classical poetry in their devotional hymns.2 If the natyasastrins' aim was to answer the question "what is literature?" with reference to the Sanskrit drama, and the classical Tamil poeticians similarly aimed to set out the governing principles of classical Tamil poetry, my aim here is to provide yet another answer to the question, this time shifting the spotlight to the poems of the Tamil saints. In order to fully appreciate the distinctive poetic conception that informs the poetry of the Tamil saints, it will be useful to review a few of the major principles that distinguish Sanskrit and classical Tamil poetic formulations. It will then be possible to judge whether these principles carry over into the domain of Tamil bhakti poetry or whether an alternative poetics is required to account for the structure and distinctive effects of the saints' poems. In order to focus this inquiry, I will concentrate especially on the ways narrative and emotion are treated in each of these poetic systems. The Theory of Rasa The theory of rasa is undoubtedly the most widely known among Indian aesthetic theories. Perhaps the most sophisticated exposition of this theory is found in the writings of the eleventh-century Kashmiri Saivite, Abhinavagupta. The following synopsis of the theory largely reflects Abhinavagupta's
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view, not least of all his commitment to philosophical monism. The theory of rasa is an audience-oriented theory of poetic art (and, in its ultimate extension, of all art, no matter what the medium). It is particularly concerned with the emotional substratum of human nature and with the special circumstances that enable an audience of a work of art to experience emotion with a depth and clarity that is beyond the scope of ordinary experience. Emotion experienced on this supra-real plane, known as rasa, is pure, universal, unconditioned, and unqualified by personal or circumstantial particularities. Rasa is never, or at least rarely, experienced in daily life (which amounts to life outside the theater, in the original context of the theory), for when people are involved in the details of their daily lives they cannot see beyond their experience as individualsthe particular experience of joy, sorrow, disgust, amusement, etc.to the universal, nonindividuated basis of that experience. Thus rasa is defined in contrast with concretized emotion as it is experienced in daily life. This latter the Indian theorists called bhava. One reason one does not experience rasa in daily life is that ordinarily people are subjected to a cacophony of emotional stimuli. Only under special circumstances, such as one encounters in the theater, are the various and sundry interferences eliminated and a space cleared for the experience of rasa or pure emotion. Originally, the natyasastrins judged eight emotions to be dominant in human experience. These dominant emotions, known as sthayibhavas, are sexual passion (rati), humor (hasa), sorrow (soka), anger (krodha), vigor (utsaha), fear (bhaya), disgust (jugupsa), and wonder (vismaya). The sthayibhavas are the primary subject of works of poetry; in this view a poet creates characters in order to personify the dominant emotions and make them palpable to an audience. The audience, for its part, empathetically responds to the sthayibhavas that are portrayed in a play or poem because these same emotions structure the audience's experience of the world. But this empathetic response by the audience to a character in a literary work does not, according to Abhinavagupta, mean that the audience simply identifies with the character. Ideally, the audience of literature does not experience emotion exactly as it does in daily life or as the characters of a poem do within a fictive world. The audience looks from a distance upon the circumstances that condition the emotions attributed to the characters of a poem. It is this essential distance from the circumstances that individuate and concretize emotion that enables the audience of literature to experience emotion in the pure, universalized form known as rasa. The audience's experience of rasa takes on the tone of the dominant emotion expressed in a literary work, and consequently the Sanskrit poeticians recognized eight rasas corresponding to the eight sthayibhavas. The eight rasas are the erotic (srngara), the comic (hasya), the compassionate (karuna), the furious (raudra), the heroic (vira), the fearful (bhayanaka), the loathsome (bibhatsa), and the marvelous (adbhuta). 3
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The rasa theory, which can be described as a psychology of the audience, also provides a context for evaluating literature. A work of literature is deemed to be artistically successful if and only if its audience achieves an experience of rasa. And this is possible only if the audience apprehends the presence of emotion or bhava in the situation represented in the literary work, if the dominant mood is appropriately supported by subsidiary emotions (vyabhicaribhava) and is not contaminated by incompatible emotions, and finally, if the members of the audience perceive literary characters and events as "fictive," for only then are they freed from the particularized emotional responses that are characteristic of daily life. The literary character (even if modeled after a historical character) and the audience member are understood to exist on different planes of reality. Rasa grows out of the interaction between audience and literary work. If this distance is not maintained, its growth is stifled. The poetics of rasa assumes that the substratum of emotional life is shared by all human beings and is "more real" than the individual traits that distinguish one person from another. By engaging with a work of literature, a person of refined sensibility transcends his or her individuality and temporarily exists on a higher plane of reality. Ironically, the poetic distance that separates literary character from audience member makes possible an experience of pure, universalized emotion, which undermines the empirical experience of characters or audience members as separate individuals. Individual identity is transcended in aesthetic experience. The rasa theory, in its mature phase as an aesthetic of all poetry and, indeed, of all artistic expression, does not have an explicit narrative component, but in its original context as a theory of dramatic aesthetics, it is associated with a theory of dramatic plot. In natyasastra, rasa is described as the "soul" of the play and the plot as its "body." As this metaphor suggests, in this tradition plot is conceived of as a vehicle for the expression of emotion. In the words of Edwin Gerow, "it is the conscious organization of the factors of drama that together suggest the dominant mood, which is what the play is about." 4 The building blocks of plot are five "spans" (samdhis). These are generated by projecting a conception of action expressed as five "phases'' (avastha) onto an analysis of dramatic subject matter into five components (arthaprakrti).5 Without getting involved in a detailed exposition of the natyasastra's analysis of plot, its fundamental insight can be summarized as follows: A universal theory of action (which pertains as much to action in the "real world" as it does to dramatic action) is "tempered" by a theory of uniquely dramatic subject matter. The wedding of the two yields a plot (which can be contrasted with "raw" nondramatic action). Events in drama are thus distinguished from or, one might say, "distanced" from events in daily life. (It would not be wrong to see an analogy between the relationship of plot and event and the relationship of rasa and bhava.) The five "spans" that constitute
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the plot are further analyzed into sixty-four "span elements" (sandhyanga). These motifs of action, colored by emotion, are the smallest units of narrative in the natyasastra scheme, and they function as carriers of emotionthey are the smallest anatomical components of the play's "body." The Poetics of Classical Tamil Classical Tamil poetics lacks the kind of penetrating analysis of audience response found in the Sanskritic theory of rasa. Tamil poeticians did write of an element in poetry that they called meyppatu. Meyppatu literally means "condition [patu] of the body [mey]," and thus the meyppatus are visible manifestations of emotion. 6 The eight meyppatus obviously represent an attempt to incorporate the Sanskritic bhavas/rasas into Tamil poetics, but the Tamil poeticians seemed to be unaware of the essential difference between bhava and rasa. This is not really surprising, for, as will soon be clear, Tamil poetics does not explicitly acknowledge the difference between character and event in the purely literary context and in the "real" world inhabited by the audience, though this distinction is axiomatic to the poetics of rasa. The treatment of meyppatu in the Tamil texts on poetics underscores the fundamental differences between the classical Sanskrit and Tamil poetic visions. Meyppatu is merely peripheral to the classical Tamil system, whereas bhava/rasa is central to Sanskrit poetics. The classical Tamil poeticians appear to have viewed the literary work as a self-contained unit. They were more concerned with the harmonious interrelationships of the constituent parts of a poem than with the psychology of the audience of poetry. The ingredients of poetry that fall within the framework of their analysis range from the smallest analyzable units of verbal sound to a "natural history" that provides poets with subject matter for their poems. It is revealing that among the thirty-four elements of a poetic composition (ceyyul) that are listed by the author of the early treatise on grammar and poetics called Tolkappiyam,7 those which indicate notions of aesthetic success (e.g., vannam, vanappu) pertain to qualities such as rhythm and structural proportion in the poem rather than directly to the response of an audience. The Sanskrit poeticians attended to the nature of the interaction between audience member and character, but their Tamil counterparts attended instead to the speakers (kurru) and listeners (ketpor) within the world depicted in poetry and with the consequences (payan) of dialogue within the poetic context. While Sanskrit poetics foregrounds the "poetic distance" that separates the audience's plane of reality from the fictive plane inhabited by a poem's characters, poetic distance enters into the Tamil system only in the negative sense that the audience is not explicitly brought into the picture at all. However, especially in classical Tamil love poetry, the so-called poetry of the interior (akam), Tamil poetics is not completely unaware of a distinction
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between the "real world" and a fictive poetic world. The Tamil poeticians recognized that poets extract their subject matter from "real-world" experience and impose upon it a uniquely poetic order. They thus distinguish between the "protocol of the world" (ulaku valakku) and the "protocol of poetry" (ceyyul valakku). In regard to narrative and emotion, the "protocol of poetry" is manifested, respectively, in the concepts turai and uri. Turais are conventional situations that poets use as the basis for their compositions. Turai is a basic unit of analysis in both Tamil love poetry (akam) and heroic poetry (puram). Especially in akam poetry, the turais represent an abstraction and subsequent segmentation of a universal story, a common thread of experience that runs through the lives of all "noble people" (canror). In these poems, characters are given no proper names. They are known only by their roles; they are, in brief, ideal types. The uris bear the same relationships to the emotions experienced in daily life as do the turais to events in the "real world." In akam poetry the uris are five: lovers' union (punartal), patient waiting (iruttal), anxious waiting (irankutal), lovers' quarrel (utal), and separation (pirittal). 8 The notion of uri indicates that the Tamil poeticians recognized that human beings, in their individual lives, do tap into a shared, universal realm of emotional experience. The movement from "worldly usage" to ''poetic usage" entails a movement from the discrete and particular to the universal, but unlike the Sanskrit poeticians, who expressed this idea in terms of the psychology of the audience, the Tamil theorists expressed their conception of "emotional universals" in terms of the content of poetry. Here too, fictiveness goes hand-in-hand with access to a "higher-level reality." In puram poetry the picture is slightly altered. Puram poems are suspended between the particularity of history and the universality of fictive poetry. The characters and events depicted in puram poetry are understood to be historical, but even so, the "history" portrayed in these poems is refracted by the lens of convention. Historical events are matched with and classified in accord with a typology of "event universals" (turai). Another important difference between akam and puram poetry involves the stance of the poet in relation to the poem. In akam poems, the historical poet remains completely behind the scenes. The speaking voices heard in these poems are dramatized voices belonging to characters who represent universal dispositions of human nature. In contrast, in puram poems the narrative voice is usually interpreted to be the voice of the historical poet, and the poem is viewed as the documentation of an event in the poet's life.9 Further, whether the narrative voice in a classical Tamil poem is identified as the voice of the poet or as the voice of a dramatized narrator, all akam poems and many puram poems are understood to be addressed to a specific listener (ketpor). In akam poems the listener is always dramatized. (In special cases the listener may be the speaker himself.) In many puram poems also, the listener is dramatized, and, like the speaker, is understood to be a historical person.
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Other puram poems give no specific indication of an audience. In these poems one is free to surmise the presence of an unseen dramatized listener, or alternatively, the rhetorical structure of the poem allows for the reader or the audience in a performance situation to "step into" the role of listener. The following poems will illustrate most of the major "rhetorical varieties" one finds in the classical puram corpus: I. Poet to King On a high summit haunted by demons a tiger grows tired of his cave, stretches, gets up, and goes wherever he wants, his hunger for meat urging him after prey, like you when you went off to kill and the northern kings withered before you, Valuti of the well-made chariot, cruel and angry in the fight. Because you have committed yourself to battle, the rulers of this great earth are to be pitied . . . Marutan Ilanakanar, Purananuru 52, trans. George L. Hart III 10 Ia. Poet To King (Focus On Poet/King Relationship)
Its black sides glisten, long straps fastened to them faultlessly. It shines with a garland woven of long, full peacock feathers, blue-sapphire dark, with bright spots, and is splendid with golden shoots of ulinai. Such is the royal drum, hungry for blood. Before they brought it back from its bath without knowing I climbed on to its bed and lay on the covering of soft flowers that was like a froth of oil poured down. Yet you were not angry, you did not use your sharp sword. Surely that was enough for all of the Tamil lands to learn of it. But you did not stop there. You came up to me, you raised your strong arm, as big around as a concert drum; you fanned me and made me cool. Mighty lord, you must have done these things
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because you know that except for those whose fame is spread across the broad earth no one has a place for long in the high world of paradise. Mocikiranar, Purananuru 50, trans. George L. Hart III II. Poet To Listener Who Is Explicit In Poem But Not Identified Enemies, be careful when you take the field. Among us is a warrior who will face you in battle. He is like a wheel made over a month Painstakingly by a carpenter who makes eight chariots in a day. Auvaiyar, Purananuru 87, trans. George L. Hart III III. Poet (Explicit In Poem) To Listener Who Is Not Explicit His legs strong and lithe, his bravery fierce and unyielding, my lord is like a tiger living in a cramped cave who stretches, rises up, and sets out for his prey. But they did not think him hard to fight against. They rose up bellowing, "We are best, we are the greatest. Our enemy is young and there is much plunder." Those foolish warriors who came with contempt ran with dim eyes, showing their backs, but he did not let them be killed then. He took them to the city of their fathers, and as their women with fine ornaments died in shame and the clear kinai drum sounded, there he killed them. Itaikkunrurkilar, Purananuru 78, trans. George L. Hart III IV. Neither Narrator Nor Listener Is Explicitly Identified
Anyone, if he drinks toddy in the morning and gets happily drunk by the time he holds court, can give away chariots. But Maliyan, whose good fame never lessens, gives without getting drunk more tall ornamented chariots
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than there are drops in the clouds that form over rich Mullur mountain. Kapilar, Purananuru 123, trans. George L. Hart III Before moving directly into a discussion of the poetics of Tamil bhakti poetry, it will be useful to review some of the major features of classical Sanskrit and Tamil poetics, for these provide the foundation for a model of the poetics of bhakti. The cornerstones of this analysis are the poet, the audience, and the characters and events represented in poetry. In the Sanskrit drama and in some of the other genres of Sanskrit literature to which the theory of rasa was later applied, 11 the poet is positioned "behind the scenes." He is not a virtual presence in the poem or in the world of the play; his voice is masked by the voices of characters who are assigned speaking roles. The characters and events that are portrayed in poems and that engender the experience of rasa in the audience are fictive. They do not elicit the same kind of emotional response as persons and incidents encountered in "real life." On the contrary, the audience is encouraged to look past the particular characters and events represented in a play (or poem), for only in this way can the ultimate purpose of art be realized. Finally, the audience, which is acknowledged as an indispensable component of the literary event (there can be no rasa without an audience to experience it), and the dramatic or narrated events exist on separate planes of reality. Though at first glance akam poetry and Sanskrit drama do not seem much like each other, from a theoretical point of view they share some important features. In both, the poet does not appear directly before the audience; his voice is heard only through the voices of dramatized characters. Characters and events are fictive; in both, but especially in akam poetry, characters are more ideal types than individuals.12 In akam poetry, characters are not even given proper names but are known only by their roles. Similarly, in akam poetry there is only one story, and it is analyzed and codified in the conventional poetic situations (turai). While there is a difference in the degree to which Sanskrit plays and Tamil love poetry universalize characters and events, it is only when we turn to the place of the audience and its status that we find a truly marked difference between Sanskrit and Tamil akam poetics. The audience is the center of attention in the former, and it is not even acknowledged in the latter. In a puram poem, the position of the poet in relation to the words of the poem may be ambiguous. Sometimes it is not clear whether the voice heard in the poem belongs to the historical poet or to a dramatized narrator. However, in the vast majority of cases, the colophons that accompany the poems identify the narrative voice with the historical poet. Likewise, the characters and events portrayed in these poems are understood to be historical (even if they are molded to fit certain conventional patterns). Where the listener is
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clearly specified in the poem, the audience "overhears" the poem as a record of a historical conversation. When a dramatized listener is not specified, the audience may assume that role. The Poetics of Bhakti Considered exclusively as textual artifacts, the poems of the Tamil saints are remarkably similar in structure to classical puram poems. In fact, virtually all the "rhetorical varieties" that are found in the puram corpus have direct counterparts in the bhakti corpus. Working through the list of puram examples found in the previous section, if "god" is substituted for "king'' in the appropriate places, an exactly corresponding bhakti type results for all four types in the puram typology. 13 It should be stressed that this is no mere accident of poetic structure, because, as others have noted, in Tamil Hinduism gods are conceived of as sovereigns, and the services worshipers perform for gods in many ways parallel the services traditionally rendered to kings. In other words, the parallelism in the cultural construction of kingship and godship in Tamil south India has a counterpart in the structural parallels between Tamil heroic poetry and Tamil bhakti poetry. 14 The following poems, all of which are now familiar (see chapter 1), in conjunction with the puram poems cited above, bring out the puram/bhakti structural parallels. I. Poet To God (Focus on God) Tall lord, whatever the unchecked ardor of your servants may prompt them to say, don't take offense didn't the ten-headed demon scheme against you only to find truth and reach your feet at last? Poykaiyalvar, MTA 35 Ia. Poet To God (Focus On Poet Or On Poet/God Relationship)
When I was born and learned to speak I was overcome with love and I reached your red feet, lord of gods, lord with splendid black throat, will my sorrows never end? Karaikka1ammaiyar, ATA I
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Like an actor in a play I imitate your servants and clamor to enter the inner chamber of your house, Master, lord brilliant as a mountain of gems set in gold, give your grace so I can love you with love so unceasing my heart overflows. Manikkavacakar, TC 11 II. Poet To Listener Who Is Explicit In Poem But Not Identified As long as there is life in this fleeting body worship Tiruma1 with garlands of perfect blossoms, with sacrifice, sacred rites and chants, and if you sing his names in praise, that's best of all. Poykaiyalvar, MTA 70 Bow your head at the feet of the lord who chopped off all the heads and arms of the king who ruled Lanka, land girdled by the vast sea and leave the ocean of days far behind. Namma1var, TVM 1.6.7 III. Poet (Explicit In Poem) To Listener Who Is Not Explicit When I approach Tirumal, our ruler, and offer my prayers to the tall lord with red eyes, won't I rule all the earth, won't I enter the heavens and become a god among gods? Putattalvar, ITA 90
My mind won't leave the side of the lord who can't be equaled
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or surpassed, my tongue trills the words of his song, my dancing limbs are possessed. Nammalvar, TVM 1.6.3 IV. Neither Narrator Nor Listener Is Explicitly Identified The lord fierce as a bull in battle, who wears a crown of gold and cool, flowering basil, the lord who sleeps in the milky sea with a snake for his bed vanquished seven bulls to win Pinnai, girl with arms graceful as bamboo, and pierced seven spreading Sal trees covered with blossoms rich in honey. Nammalvar, TVM 2.5.7 In bhakti poems as in puram poems, it is not always clear whether the narrative voice heard in a poem is the voice of a dramatized narrator or of the historical poet. In the vast majority of cases, the colophons that accompany the puram poems identify the narrator's voice as the poet's own. Similarly, sectarian tradition resolves the equivalent ambiguity in the saints' poems and uniformly interprets the narrative voices heard in these poems as the voices of the historical saints. And, as one would expect, events portrayed in the poems are taken to be events in the saints' lives. In Tamil Vaisnava and Saiva traditions, the biographies of the saint-poets are used as an interpretive framework for the poems much as the turai structure is used as an interpretive framework for puram poetry. And, just as the turais in puram poetry shape historical events to fit the patterns set by a conventional apparatus, certain patterns in the codified lives of the saints suggest that here too history is mediated by convention, even if there is more individual variation in the stories of the saints' lives than in the system of puratturai. One might protest that this portrait of bhakti poetry hardly does justice to the corpus in its entirety. After all, in many of their poems the saints drew directly upon conventions of akam poetry, and to many, the link with the akam tradition may appear even more obvious than the connection with puram poems. It is true that the corpus contains many akam-like poems. But at the same time, sectarian interpreters of the saints' poems place them in a framework that conforms to the puram/bhakti model. This model is constructed on the premise that poems that fall within its sphere are historical and specific. In contrast, the classical akam model responds to a poetry that is
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fictive and universal. The following discussion of the interpretive strategy Srivaisnavas bring to bear on Nammalvar's poems will clarify the way in which commentators reformulate the akam model. As mentioned in chapter 1, close to a third of the thousand verses of Tiruvaymoli are shaped by the conventions of akam poetry, and for this reason commentators refer to these verses collectively as the akapporul (having the substance or meaning of akam) section of the text. The audience hears these verses, like akam poems, as the words of dramatized narrators. But only three of the stock akam characters are assigned "speaking" roles by Nammalvarthe heroine (talaivi), the heroine's girl friend (toli), and the heroine's mother (tay). The hero (talaivan) is never given a speaking role in Nammalvar's akapporul verses; characters often speak about the hero, and there is no question that in Tiruvaymoli the hero's role is filled by Visnu. Note that by giving the hero a specific identity, however exceptional this may be, Nammalvar violates one of the axiomatic conventions of akam poetry, namely, that the dramatis personae are designated only by their roles, not by proper names. 15 In effect, Nammalvar injected a puram element into his akapporul verses by giving his hero a particular identity. The Srivaisnava commentators go the poet one better, for they impose upon the akapporul verses an interpretive framework that, in its essentials, is borrowed from puram poetry. We have seen that the narrator in a puram poem (as in a "mainstream" bhakti poem) is usually identified with the historical poet. In order to "rationalize" the akapporul verses found in Tiruvaymoli (and in other devotional texts) and bring them into conformity with the "bhakti ideal," the commentators take the voices of Nammalvar's dramatized female narrators to be expressions of the alvar's "inner female self.'' They even assign the name Parankuca Nayaki to this facet of the alvar's persona (from Parankucan, one of the names traditionally assigned to the saint). This device allows commentators to read Nammalvar's akapporul verses as historical documents of the saint's personal experience, instead of as fictive speeches by fictive characters. In effect, the commentators neutralize the poetic distance that distinguishes akam poetry from its puram counterpart. Considered solely as texts, the majority of the Tamil saints' poems are well accounted for by the puram poetic model. While a bhakti poem and a puram poem may differ markedly in content (though the saints do work many puram-inspired motifs into their poems),16 the two are remarkably similar in their underlying poetic structures. The foregoing analysis of the status of the poet, the audience, characters, events, and emotion in the overall poetic design makes this clear. In each case the poem reads as a historical account17 of the poet's life experience, narrated by the poet in his own words. The audience is not usually directly implicated in these events, though the audience and the poet do inhabit the same spatial-temporal plane. The poet often speaks of events in his own life or in the life of another character who is of utmost importance in his life (for the puram poet this is usually a king and patron, for
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the bhakti poet, a god). Emotion too is presented within a historical framework. In these poems emotion is of the individual, of particular historical characters, not least, of the poet himself. Even when a bhakti poem would appear to resist assimilation to the puram model, as Nammalvar's akapporul verses do, commentators tend to manipulate their reading of the poems to make them fit. Were it not for other contextual factors, the puram model would account quite adequately for the poetic structure of the saints' poems. However, historically, and in present-day Tamilnadu, audiences did not and do not experience the two in the same way. This is because the saints' poems are a part of the ritual performed in the temple and in the homes of observant Tamil Hindus. From this perspective a bhakti poem is not simply a "record" of a historical event like its puram counterpart, but the occasion for a ritualized reenactment of the events and emotions portrayed in the poem. During the ritual recitation of a bhakti poem, the identity of the reciter temporarily merges with that of the poet-narrator, and the devotee listening to the recitation becomes a direct observer of the poet/reciter's experience. Ultimately, through the reciter, the devotee identifies with the poet, and, in this way, the devotee becomes an immediate participant in the poetic reenactment. 18 It is as if a whole historical context is reincarnated in the performance of a bhakti poem, just as the god, who is the object of the saint's devotion, enters history time and time again. The Western Critic and the Poetics of Bhakti Some critical terms and concepts borrowed from Western critical discourse may help us understand the poetic principles at work when a bhakti poem is performed and also show how these principles are related to classical Sanskrit and Tamil poetic formulations. One influential Western critic, Barbara Herrnstein Smith, draws a distinction between "natural discourse" and "fictive discourse."19 Smith is especially intrigued by genres that fall on or near the boundary between the two.20 While Smith restricts her field of inquiry to Western literature, she would probably be fascinated by the particular way in which "natural'' and "fictive" features combine in the poetics of bhakti. For Smith, the critical distinction between a natural utterance and a fictive utterance involves the relationship of each to its context. Natural utterances are "the verbal acts of real persons in particular occasions in response to particular sets of circumstances. . .a natural utterance is a historical event: like any other event, it occupies a specific and unique point in time and space."21 "A natural utterance not only occurs in a particular set of circumstanceswhat is often referred to as its contextbut it is also understood as being a response to those circumstances. In other words, the historical 'context' of an utterance does not merely surround but occasions it, brings it into existence."22 "A natural utterance is always continuous with the speaker's total ongoing behav
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ior and also continuous with the total world of natural events." 23 In direct contrast to natural utterances, a fictive utterance (which for Smith includes all verbal works of art)"has no initial historical occurrence. What a poet composes as a text is not a verbal act but rather a linguistic structure that becomes, through being read or recited, the representation of a verbal act."24 "A fictive utterance consists entirely of a linguistic structure, unlike a natural utterance, which consists of a linguistic event occurring in a historical context."25 Indeed, because a poem is not pegged to a particular historical context, its suggestive powers are enhanced. It invites the members of its audience to create, in their imaginations, a plausible context for it.26 "Poetic language seemsand indeed isricher, more 'suggestive' and 'evocative' than the language of natural discourse precisely because and to the extent that it requires the reader to participate in the creation of its meanings."27The verbal act that a literary work represents may itself be spoken or written. Once one is aware of this, it is possible to distinguish various literary genres on the basis of the types of natural discourse they represent. Poetry itself, as distinct now from novels and stories, traditionally represents various kinds of spoken discourse. Certain kinds of discourse, however, are themselves typically textual inscriptions: that is, they exist characteristically in written and often in printed formfor example, chronicles, journals, letters, memoirs, and biographies. And certain genres of literary art, roughly what we refer to as "prose fiction," characteristically represent such varieties of inscribed discourse.28 A printed text may therefore be many things. It may, like a personal letter, be a natural utterance in writing; it may, like the printed transcript of a speech, be a transcription of a natural utterance; or it may, like a lyric poem or a novel, be a representation of a natural utterance, spoken or written. Clearly, the Sanskrit poems selected by rasa poetics, and classical Tamil akam poems as well, are fictive works of literary art, and usually representations of spoken natural discourse. Particularly in the case of akam poetry, characters, events, narrator, and statements through which the narration is presented are unquestionably fictive.29 None of these, in any way, are identified with particular historical realities, or, as Smith would put it, they are "unmoored from any specific context or occasion in the world of objects and events."30 The fictiveness of Sanskrit drama and other Sanskrit poetry may not be as immediately evident, since the characters of these works are sometimes epic heroes or others who, according to tradition, really lived in historical time. However, poeticians, such as Abhinavagupta, assert quite firmly that the Rama in a play is not the same as the Rama who lived on earth in the distant past.31 Smith would approve of this viewpoint, for she too asserts that a person who lived in history is not at all the same sort of thing as a character in a novel who may be modeled upon a historical person (e.g., the historically real Napoleon vs. Napoleon the character in War and Peace).32
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Puram poetry, as it is understood and interpreted in Tamil literary tradition, falls between the cracks of Smith's interpretive framework. On the one hand the characters and subject matter of puram poetry are understood to be historical. Viewed exclusively from this perspective puram poems could be characterized as transcriptions of spoken natural discourse and hence not, strictly speaking, poetry at all. But while it may be true that Tamil literary scholars traditionally view the events and conversations portrayed in puram poems as historical, it is not clear that they regard the poems as literal transcriptions of actual conversations. Also, because in puram poetry history is refracted by convention, the poems achieve a level of universality that is most commonly associated with fictive literature. Is it possible that the heroes and bards portrayed in puram poetry, like Napoleon in War and Peace, or like Rama in a Sanskrit play, are most accurately described as fictive characters who are modeled on "historical" ones? Classical Tamil poetics does not offer any directly supportive evidence one way or the other. The authors of Tolkappiyam and other authoritative texts on poetics specify that only in puram poems are people and places named and particular, while akam poems are set in landscapes that are representative rather than specific and are populated by characters who are known only by their roles. It is possible that this axiomatic distinction corresponded, in the minds of early Tamil poeticians, to Smith's distinction between the "natural" and the "fictive." But it is equally possible that they would have understood both the akam and the puram hero to be ''fictive," or, even more likely, that the natural/fictive distinction, which is engendered by a dualistic habit of mind, is not entirely compatible with their poetic vision. This latter possibility is in keeping with the Indian penchant for holistic conceptions in which dualities tend to be encompassed by overarching unities. It can be argued that even the bifurcation of the classical Tamil poetic universe into akam and puram spheres is undergirded by a vision of unity. 33 The ambiguous status of Tamil puram poetry when viewed in terms of Smith's framework (which itself develops out of a Western poetic tradition that can be traced to Aristotle) serves as a reminder that theories of literature are almost always culture-bound, and that no matter how universally applicable a theory of art is intended to be, theory is never completely free of cultural bias. I have shown that, considered purely in textual terms, bhakti poems are structurally almost identical to puram poems, and from this perspective they cut across the major categories of Smith's formulation just as puram poems do. But if bhakti poems are considered from the standpoint of the traditional ritual contexts in which they are performed, Smith's categories begin to collapse in even more interesting ways. If one accepts that the ritual recitation of a bhakti poem is, in effect, a "reincarnation" of a historical verbal event, it follows that a bhakti poem in performance combines the essential features of fictive discourse and natural discourse, even though these categories may, at first glance, appear to be mutually exclusive. The historical verbal event
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enshrined in a bhakti poem, like all natural utterances, is occasioned by a context, that is, a particular set of historical circumstancesat least this is the understanding of Tamil Vaisnava and Saiva traditions. But, unlike other natural utterances, a bhakti poem is not limited by its contextor, from a slightly different perspective, the context that gives birth to the poem is not limited by ordinary spatial and temporal laws. Under special ritual conditions, the poem's original context is recreated and the poem "reincarnates" a natural utterance. Like a fictive utterance, a bhakti poem is not bound to a specific historical context, but this is not because it "has no initial historical occurrence." 34 A bhakti poem is wedded to a particular context, but the whole context including the poem migrates in space and time and consequently the devotee may relive its original occurrence. The Poetics of Bhakti and Audience Psychology Smith argues (I think convincingly) that fictive utterances engage the imagination and creativity of their audience in ways that are not typical of natural utterances. She concludes that the meaning of a natural utterance is closely tied to its context. "Indeed, what we often mean by the 'meaning' of an utterance is its context, that is, the set of conditions that occasioned its occurrence and determined its form."35 "The context of a fictive utterance, however, is historically indeterminate," and thus ''its characteristic effect is to create its own context or, more accurately, to invite and enable the reader to create a plausible context for it. And what we mean when we speak of interpreting a poem is, in large measure, precisely this process of inference, conjecture, and indeed creation of context."36 It is precisely because a poem requires its audience to actively participate in the creation of its meaning that a poem can potentially engage the psyche of its audience at a deeper level than a natural utterance.
In our efforts to interpret the poem, to construct the context of human situations and motives it demands in order that its meaning be realized, we will draw on all our experiences of the world and words of men. Indeed, the activity of interpreting poetry often becomes the occasion for our recognition and acknowledgement of otherwise inaccessible feelings and, in a sense, our own otherwise unknowable knowledge. The richer and more extensive our experiences and feelings or as we say, "the more we bring to the poem"the more significance it can have for us, which is why, of course, subsequent readings of a poem "reveal" more meanings. The language of a poem seems characteristically "concentrated" because it allows for such an extraordinary and continuous expansiveness of meaning, not confined to finite and particular determinants, but drawing on all we know that we can relate to it. The language of the poem continues to mean as long as we have meanings to provide for it. Its meanings are exhausted only at the limits of the reader's own experience and imagination.37
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Sanskrit poeticians likewise recognized that aesthetic experience or rasa is possible only if a qualified audience is directly involved in the creative processaesthetically a work cannot be complete without an audience. The sahrdaya, or man of refined sensibility, is the locus of rasa. In the view of the Sanskrit poeticians, a poem is an instrument that enables an audience member to uncover and experience the emotional substratum of his being. A poem can do this only because it is fictive, and because the audience's response is consequently freed from the conditioning circumstances of daily life; in Smith's terms, it is "historically indeterminate." While a bhakti poem is not understood to be fictive, it can "reincarnate" in the experience of its audience only if it too engages the imagination of a sympathetic audience. Rasa cannot be realized unless the audience is receptive to the bhava represented in a poem. Similarly, a bhakti poem cannot fully come to life unless its audience is psychologically prepared to serve as a vessel for the poem's reincarnation. It is through a temporally limited, but total identification with the saint-poet that the audience realizes this special kind of aesthetic effect. In order to achieve its potential, bhakti poetry, like Sanskrit "rasa poetry," requires that its audience be predisposed to its special effects. Conclusion: Comparative Poetics Though the poetics of bhakti poetry in performance may resemble rasa poetics in some very important ways, the two are not identical. In the view of the theorists of rasa, poetry is fictive, and it is essential that poetry be understood as fictive for it to achieve its intended effect. Bhakti poetry, in certain essential ways, behaves like fictive poetry, but at the same time it is not understood to be fictive. Once one is alert to poetic principles such as fictive-ness, the precise relationship of the poetics of bhakti to other poetic formulations, Indian and non-Indian, begins to come into focus. The bhakti tradition does not provide a built-in vocabulary with which to articulate such relationships. In Tamil tradition, especially in Tamil Vaisnavism, a large interpretive literature grew around the poetry of the saints. The acaryas were sensitive to the ways the saint-poets used conventions of classical poetry, and they developed a theological discourse using the vocabulary of classical poetics. But using classical poetics to construct theological interpretations of bhakti poetry is not the same thing as analyzing the underlying poetic principles that govern bhakti poetry. While Tamil sectarian scholars elaborately analyzed the theological import of the saints' poems, they did not directly confront the question, "what is bhakti poetry?' The aim of this chapter has been to seek to define this question and attempt to answer it through a series of contrasts and comparisons. Both classical Sanskrit and classical Tamil poetry were singled out by Indian literary scholarship as foci for self-conscious inquiries into the nature of literature. Each provided the ground for a theory of literature.
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By comparing the characteristic effects of bhakti poetry with those of classical poetry in Sanskrit and Tamil, it gradually becomes apparent that certain adjustments are required to modify the classical poetic theory so that it accurately accounts for bhakti poetry. A vocabulary developed in the context of Western literary tradition can provide a useful mechanism for carrying out these operations. From the devotee's point of view, this vocabulary is superfluous. If he experiences the aesthetic effect potential in the saints' poems, it is enough. He does not need and probably does not want to analyze his experience. But for those who wish to come to terms with the devotee's experience intellectually, this kind of comparative exercise can be valuable. It provides a bridge between the experience of the insider and the outsider's desire to understand, Notes 1. For a compact and very useful account of the history of Sanskrit poetic theory, see Edwin Gerow, Indian Poetics (Wiesbaden: Otto Harrassowitz, 1977); also see Edward C. Dimock, Jr., et al., The Literatures of India: An Introduction (Chicago and London: The University of Chicago Press, 1974), especially the portions by Edwin Gerow in chapters 3 and 6. 2. For a discussion of the relationship between classical Tamil poetry and devotional poetry in Tamil, especially between classical heroic poetry and the poems of the Vaisnava saints, see A. K. Ramanujan and Norman Cutler, "From Classicism to Bhakti," in Bardwell L. Smith, ed., Essays on Gupta Culture (Delhi: Motilal Banarsidass, 1981), pp. 177-215. 3. Though only eight rasas are recognized in Bharata's Natyasastra, one of the earliest texts (no later than eighth century A.D.) to treat the theory of rasa, some later natyasastrins recognized a ninth rasa, santi (tranquility). 4. Gerow in Dimock et al., Literatures of India, p. 135. 5. For a more detailed rendition of the natyasastra's theory of plot and a detailed plot analysis of Kalidasa's celebrated drama Abhijnanasakuntala in terms of this theory, see Edwin Gerow, "Plot Structure and the Development of Rasa," Journal of the American Oriental Society 99 (1979): 559-72, and 100 (1980): 267-82. 6. The Tamil conception of meyppatu appears to correspond most closely to the Sanskritic notion of anubhava or "consequents of emotion," even though the names of the eight meyppatus are obviously inspired by the eight sthayibhavas or dominant emotions in the Sanskrit system. 7. Kamil Zvelebil suggests that "the nuclear portions of Tolkappiyam were probably born sometime in the 2nd or 1st Cent. B.C. but hardly before 150 B.C." and "that the present text of the Tolkappiyam, which underwent final editing and redaction sometime in the 5th Cent. A.D. or later, is rather the work of a grammatical school than of an individual author." See Kamil Zvelebil, The Smile of Murugan on Tamil Literature of South India (London: E. J. Brill, 1971), pp. 146-47. 8. In addition to the five phases of love (uri) that are considered to be appropriate to the experience of noble people (canror), the Tamil poeticians recognized two other varieties of experience in love, kaikkilai (one-sided love) and peruntinai ("the common type," love between mismatched partners or common, unrefined people). Though the poeticians mention these two additional varieties, the classical poets did not attend to them much in their poems.
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9. As we shall see, based on textual evidence alone, the narrator's identity can be ambiguous. 10. This and the following puram poems are taken from Hart's Poets of the Tamil Anthologies (Princeton: Princeton University Press, 1979), pp. (in order poems appear in this chapter) 151, 148, 160, 156, 170. 11. In the introduction to his translation of selections from Vidyakara's eleventh-century anthology of Sanskrit verse, Daniel Ingalls emphasizes that among the poetic concepts that are relevant for appreciating the poems in the anthology, rasa is of utmost importance. As Ingalls shows, the anthologizer's sources include mahakavyas (literary epics), plays, small or "fragmentary" kavyas, anthologies, and stray verses. See Daniel H. H. Ingalls, trans., Sanskrit Poetry from Vidyakara's Treasury (Cambridge, Mass.: Harvard University Press, 1968), especially pp. 3144. 12. See Gerow in Dimock et al., Literatures of India, pp. 217-18; Ingalls, Sanskrit Poetry, pp. 17-18, 23-28, concerning characterization in Sanskrit poetry. 13. Not represented in the examples given above are puram poems composed by kings. Even this type of poem has an equivalent of sorts in the bhakti corpus if we take into account the idea, expressed in sectarian discourse, that the bhakti poets were mouthpieces of the gods they praised. Sometimes this idea is even expressed directly in the saints' poems. Two dramatic examples are TVM 7.9.6 and TVM 7.9.1 by the Vaisnava saint Nammalvar. English translations of these poems appear in A. K. Ramanujan, trans., Hymns for the Drowning: Poems for Visnu by Nammalvar (Princeton: Princeton University Press, 1981), pp. 81, 85. 14. For further discussions of the king/god relationship in the south Indian and/or Tamil contexts, see the following: Arjun Appadurai and Carol Breckenridge, "The south Indian temple: honor, authority, and redistribution," Contributions to Indian Sociology, n.s., 10, no. 2 (December 1976): 187-212; George L. Hart III, "The Nature of Tamil Devotion," in M. M. Deshpande and Peter Hook, eds., Aryan and Non-aryan in India (Ann Arbor: Center for South and Southeast Asian Studies, University of Michigan, 1979), pp. 11-33. 15. One can argue, however, that Nammalvar's Visnu encompasses all of creation; and thus, in spite of the particular names and deeds that are attributed to this divine hero, Visnu, in a somewhat different sense from the akam characters, is universal. 16. See Ramanujan and Cutler, "From Classicism to Bhakti." 17. In the saints' poems "historical" events often belong to a realm that is closer to the Western analyst's notion of mythology than to his notion of history. However, a reading of the Tamil bhakti corpus clearly shows that in the world view of the saints, no sharp separation is made between the realm of mythology and the realm of history. 18. I have developed this argument at length in chapter 2. 19. See Barbara Herrnstein Smith, On the Margins of Discourse: The Relation of Literature to Language (Chicago and London: The University of Chicago Press, 1978), especially Part One. 20. In the title essay of her book (see note 19), Smith deals specifically with works that cannot unproblematically be classified as either fictive or natural and with works that can be classified in either one way or the other, depending upon circumstances. In particular, she attends to commercials, greeting card verses, quotations, and proverbs. Smith, pp. 41-75. 21. Ibid., p. 15. 22. Ibid., p. 16. 23. Ibid., p. 18. 24. Ibid., p. 31. 25. Ibid., p. 30. file:///C|/Cutler_Songs%20of%20Experience/0253353343/files/page_76.html[21.03.2011 18:20:23]
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26. Ibid., p. 33.
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27. Ibid., p. 36. 28. Ibid., p. 30. 29. "Novels and tales are obviously also fictive [in addition to lyric poetry], but more radically so than is sometimes supposed. For not only are the characters and the events narrated in a novel fictional, but so also is the narrator whose voice relates the events, and, most significantly, so also are the statements through which the narration is presented." Ibid., pp. 10-11. 30. Ibid., p. 10. 31. Gerow in Dimock et al., Literatures of India, pp. 223-24. 32. Smith, Margins of Discourse, pp. 10-11. 33. This idea is developed further in chapter 4. 34. Smith, Margins of Discourse, p. 31. 35. Ibid., p. 21. 36. Ibid., p. 33. 37. Ibid., pp. 36-37.
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PART II TAMIL CLASSICISM AND BHAKTI: CONFLICT AND ACCOMMODATION
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Chapter Four A Devotional Poem in the Classical Mode THE RELATIONSHIP BETWEEN the love and war poems of classical Tamil and the poems of the Tamil saints is a complex one. Anyone who experiences the two side by side cannot help but be struck by the difference in diction and tone; and as I have shown in the previous chapter, the implicit poetics of bhakti poetry differs from the poetics of classical poetry in several critical ways. Nevertheless, the bhakti poets clearly were familiar with cankam poetry, and it would be a distortion to postulate a complete break between the bhakti poetic tradition and the earlier classical tradition. It is true that the saints appeared on the Tamil literary scene several centuries after the earliest cankam poets and that they selected from and revalorized the conventions of classical poetry. It is also true that the early classical poems are primarily about love and conflict among humans, while the aim of the bhakti poems is to express and promote communion between humanity and divinity. But there are two additional points that should not be overlooked. First, the saints' poems are not the only poems in Tamil that take Hindu gods as their subject. Second, the classical poetic tradition was not displaced by the bhakti tradition. Poets who were contemporaries of the Tamil saints as well as poets who lived even later composed poems that follow the conventions of classical poetry much more faithfully than do the majority of bhakti poems. Both of these points are demonstrated by a group of genres known collectively as pirapantam (prabandha in Sanskrit) or, sometimes, as "small literature" (cirrilakkiyam). Many of these genres, which flourished from about the eighth to the eighteenth centuries, are direct descendants of the classical poems and adhere to many of the same conventions. In his historical survey of Tamil literature, 1 Kamil Zvelebil concedes that it is very difficult to isolate the defining features of the Tamil prabandhas, which make up a rather widely dispersed family of genres. Traditionally, ninety-six varieties of prabandhas are enumerated, though those who have compiled such lists hold varying opinions as to exactly which genres should be included. According to Zvelebil, the idea that the prabandhas are ninety-six in number probably dates from the sixteenth century. One reason it is so difficult to define the prabandha class as a whole is that some genres traditionally included in this group
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are defined purely in formal terms (for instance, according to the type of meter or the number of stanzas they employ), some are defined purely in terms of their subject matter and content, and some in terms of both form and content. Zvelebil also points out that a prabandha, at least in his usage, always contains a narrative and a descriptive component, and has the character of a connected discourse about an event, or a series of events, or of connected description of an item or person. This principle of internal cohesion or connectedness, either formal or based on unity of content, is important: by virtue of this classification, the prabandhas belong to the totarnilaicceyyul hyper-class of literary works, as opposed to the tokainilai works (anthologies of disconnected poems). 2 Further, by convention, the hero(ine) of many of these poems may be either human or divine.3 But despite the fact that their protagonists may be divine, prabandhas generally play no part in the nexus of hagiography and ritual that contributes to the meaning of the saints' poems in Tamil culture. More in the manner of cankam poetry, they are treated as literary objects. They are regarded as products of a poet's learning rather than as evidence of divine inspiration.4 The Saiva canon does, however, include a famous prabandha poem. This is Tirukkovaiyar by Manikkavacakar, the ninth-century saint who also composed the very popular Tiruvacakam.anikkavacakar's two works jointly constitute the eighth Tirumurai in the Saiva canon. It is easy to see why Tiruvacakam is included in the canon. Many of its verses are paradigms of the direct, personal style of poetry that has come to be identified so closely with Hindu devotionalism. Tirukkovaiyar, on the other hand, is an entirely different kind of poem. On the surface it appears to have no more claim to canonical status than other prabandha poems that take gods for heroes, except, of course, that it was written by Manikkavacakar. This fascinating, marginal poem is the subject of this and the next chapter. The genre kovai (garland), to which Tirukkovaiyar belongs, is usually described as a direct outgrowth of classical Tamil akam poetry. There is, in fact, a very large area of overlap between the conventional apparatus of a kovai and that of the classical love poems. They share the same cast of unnamed characters and the same narrative situations, but the 400 verses of a kovai differ from the akam anthologies, which in several eases also contain 400 or 401 verses, in an important way. There is no sequential connection between the verses in the classical akam anthologies. Each verse, which embodies a narrative situation (turai), effectively stands alone, yet all akam poems are embedded in an implicit narrative framework. A reader must know the background story in order to interpret these poems successfully, and this narrative line resides solely in the minds of poets and their audienceand, one might add, in grammars such as Tolkappiyam that set out the rules of
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composition. In a kovai, however, the implicit narrative framework of the classical anthologies becomes an important principle of textual organization. The verses of a kovai present a sequential arrangement of the situations that constitute the background story of akam poetry. Also, in kovai poems there is a "thickening" of the akam story line; the authors of these texts composed verses that embodied situations that are not represented in the classical anthologies. This is probably because once Tamil poets brought the akam narrative framework into the foreground, they felt the need to fully systematize it. A survey of all the akam poems of the classical anthologies would no doubt reveal that not only are some situations better represented than others, but some turai that are hypothetically necessary to complete the story line are not represented at all. In a kovai the "holes" have been filled; the turai are evenly distributed and sequentially arranged. In other words, unlike the classical anthologies that assume a story, a kovai tells a story. It is obvious that the kovai is a descendant of classical akam poetry, but it is less well recognized that the classical tradition of heroic or puram poetry also contributed a great deal to this medieval genre. The puram contribution is found in the references to a great hero or patron that are worked into each of a kovai's 400 verses. In many kovai poems, the hero is a king. In Tirukkovaiyar the hero is the god Siva. In the language of Tamil poetics, the god or hero who receives praise in each verse, usually in the form of a reference that is worked into a description of setting or into a poetic figure, is called the "hero of the composition" (pattutai talaivan). Like the hero of puram poetry, he is a "historical" figure who bears a name and who is associated with specific historic places and events. 5The pattutai talaivan belongs to the "real world,'' while the "hero of the narrative," (kilavi talaivan) and the other characters involved in the akam narrative inhabit the special interior landscape of the poetic world. From one point of view the akam dimension of a kovai encompasses its puram dimension. Its overall narrative framework is a legacy of akam tradition, as are the situations that govern the structure of each verse. The puram contribution is restricted to localized references to the pattutai talaivan, to his realm, and to his heroic acts. There is no sequential or logical linkage between these references from verse to verse as there are between the akatturai. However, one can look at a kovai in a different way, and from this alternate perspective the puram dimension ranks first in the purposes of the poet. From this point of view the kovai poet's first concern is to honor the pattutai talaivan, and the akam framework is an instrument to this end. A few poems will help demonstrate how the generic features discussed above are actually manifested in poetry. First, consider a few poems from the classical akam anthology Kuruntokai.
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Bigger than earth, certainly, higher than the sky, more unfathomable than the waters is this love for this man of the mountain slopes where bees make rich honey from the flowers of the kurinci that has such black stalks. Tevakulattar, Kuruntokai 3, trans. A. K. Ramanujan 6 Ramanujan has shown how the sentiment expressed through the words of the akam heroine (talaivi) in this poem is artfully complemented by the poem's imagery.7 Like most classical love poems, this poem is set in one of five landscapes that are specified by convention (though inspired by real landscapes found in south India), and its sentiment expresses one of five phases of love that are associated with these landscapes.8 Tamil poeticians would assign this poem to the mountain landscape, the landscape associated with the (usually premarital) union of lovers. In Tamil the five landscape systems of akam poetryeach including within its sphere features of time and place, a selective vocabulary of images, and a phase of loveare called tinais. Each tinai is named after a flower characteristic of the region. For example, the mountain landscape is called kurinci tinai, after a mountain flower that blooms once every twelve years. Kuruntokai 3 contains several clues that it is a poem of kurinci tinai and one dead giveaway is the reference to the kurinci flower. In this poem the image of bees making honey from the kurinci flower is implicitly compared with the hero and heroine of the narrative and their union in love: the hero is likened to the bees, the heroine to the kurinci flower, and honey to their love for each other. This network of associations was well known to the audience of akam poetry, and the ability to discern this and other similarly implied meanings in the poems' imagery was an essential part of this audience's literary competence. Consequently, the suggested comparison (ullurai)9 that makes a critical contribution to the total effect of Kuruntokai 3 would also come into play in the interpretation of other poems that have bees, honey, and/ or flowers as part of their imagery. In Kuruntokai 116 several layers of meaning are suggested.
The woman I longed for, and stayed with,
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has hair that bees swoop down on; it is well arranged and wavy, like fine, black sand in ripples on the long beach of the prospering Cola's Urantai town; it is cool and fragrant. Ilankiran, Kuruntokai 116, trans. M. Shanmugam Pillai and David Ludden 10 First of all, the hero who speaks the words of this poem suggests that bees mistake his lover's hair for flowers because her hair is so fragrant. Second, the girl's youthful beauty is compared to the prosperous town of Urantai. Such comparisons, overt or implied, between a beautiful woman and a city are very common in Tamil poetry. Finally, as in the preceding poem, the hero is likened to a bee and the heroine to a flower. Yet another poem that displays this system of images is Kuruntokai 2. O bee, with your hidden wings: you have lived a life in search of honey. So tell me truly from what you have seen: among all the flowers you know, is there one that smells more sweet than the hair of this woman, with her peacock gait, and close-set teeth, and ancient eternal love? Iraiyanar, Kuruntokai 2, trans. M. Shanmugam Pillai and David Ludden11 The fact that Kuruntokai 2, 3, and 116 are attributed to different poets shows that the classical poets shared a repertoire of situations, characters, and images. Further, this repertoire ranged from basic principles of composition to fine details of imagery. Besides reinforcing one's sense of the strong conventional forces at work in classical Tamil poetry, Kuruntokai 2 serves well as a point of entry into Manikkavacakar's kovai. Consider the following verse from Tirukkovaiyar:
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O bee, in your vast fields are the lilies as sweet as the mouth of this girl whose waist is so frail it suffers like people who don't sing of Tillai and its Ambalam, home of the lord adorned with a snake who melts the bones of his devotees who worship him with hands joined in prayer? TK 11 Needless to say, this poem, which very likely was composed as much as six centuries later than Kuruntokai 2, bears more than a passing resemblance to the classical poem. In the terms of classical Tamil poetics, the two poems embody the same turai or poetic situation. This situation occurs very early in the story of the love affair between the hero and the heroine. During the first meeting of the two, the man looks for a way to tell the girl that she is very beautiful. However, she is terribly shy, so he pretends to address his words to a bee, making sure that she can overhear him. In the classical poem the speaker implies that no flower is as fragrant as the heroine's hair. Manikkavacakar works a minor variation on this theme in TK 11, where the fragrance of the heroine's mouth is compared to the scent of lilies. The syntactic kernel of the classical poem is a question: "Are any [flowers] more fragrant than the hair of this woman . . . ?" (arivai kuntalin / nariyavum ulavo). The "flesh" for this syntactic skeleton appears in the form of phrases describing the woman and a vocative phrase addressed to the bee. Here the poet works out the conventional hero-heroine-love/bee-flower-honey analogy. In Manikkavacakar's poem the syntactic kernel is a question that reads, "Do the lily buds emit fragrance like her sweet mouth . . . ?" (ival tinkani vay kamalum / ampalampotulavo). Obviously, the skeleton of this poem closely resembles that of its classical predecessor, but beyond this point Manikkavacakar and the classical poet part ways. Manikkavacakar, in keeping with the rules that govern the kovai genre, turns his attention to elements that lie outside the scope of the classical poem. The "flesh" of his verse largely concerns Siva, the pattutai talaivan of Tirukkovaiyar, and these elements are embedded in a phrase that describes the heroine. This embedding technique is typical of the various ways Manikkavacakar and other authors of kovais integrated the two registers of this genre. In Tirukkovaiyar, references to Siva most typically appear in similes and other poetic figures and in descriptions of setting. 12 Manikkavacakar's verse also carries overtones of the implicit comparison between details of a natural landscape and human protagonists that is the hallmark of classical Tamil love poetry, but the implied meaning or ullurai, which is one of the most important sources of poetic effect in the classical poem, has given way to other concerns. The poetic center of a kovai verse is
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the interface between its akam and its puram elements. This is the hinge that holds the two registers of this genre in balance. Akam and puram may be the bedrock of the classical poet's world, but the kovai shows that underlying this dualistic foundation is yet a deeper level, where these two fundamental realms of experience are unified. The akam / puram dichotomy is just the first of many analytic distinctions early Tamil thinkers made in their efforts to articulate their response to the variety of experience the world offers. The point of transition between the akam and puram registers of a kovai verse is its most interesting aspect, for it is here that one gets a glimpse of the underlying unity of the inner and outer realms of experience. 13 Before turning to Tirukkovaiyar to investigate some of the ways this principle is actually manifested in poetry, let us return for a moment to Kuruntokai 3. As noted above, this poem's effect centers on an implied comparison (ullurai) between a phenomenon in nature and the play of human emotions. The distinctive features of an ullurai are, first of all, the suppression of all explicit indications of comparison, and second, the coexistence of the terms being compared in a time / space continuum. As A. K. Ramanujan has observed, the relationship between the terms of an ullurai is both metaphoric and metonymic. In Kuruntokai 3 the human protagonists share a landscape with bees and kuriñci flowers, and at the same time they are likened to them. The implication of this poem and others like it is that humankind is like nature at the same time that it is part of nature. The relationship between the inner human life and nature in akam poetry, in certain ways, serves as a model for the relationship between the human drama and a Saiva mythological realm in Tirukkovaiyar. Occasionally the Saiva segment of a verse in Tirukkovaiyar is related to its akam frame both metaphorically and metonymically, in a manner reminiscent of the akam ullurai. More often, however, in a single verse the relationship is restricted to one or the other of these two functions. It is only by stepping back and contemplating the text as a whole that one is able to grasp the underlying message of the text: humanity is like divinity, and humanity and divinity cohabit a common universe. In verse 11 (see above), it is the metaphoric aspect of the akam/ Saiva relationship that is enacted. An exceptionally beautiful example of this metaphoric relationship appears in verse 109: Vast as the love I feel for the lord, black as my bonds that he takes away, bright as Tillai, his home, white as the ash he smears on his shoulders, long as the words we speak to praise his flower-like feet are her great eyes. TK 109 Verse 8 is one of many verses that illustrate the metonymic aspect of the relationship:
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If she is nectar and I am its savor, it is the god of fortune who made it so. Who could tell us apart here in this hidden garden protected by the bamboo that cover the rocks at Mt. Potiyil, home of Puliyur's spotless lord? TK 8 And finally verse 71 is a relatively rare example of a full-fledged ullurai or metonymic metaphor in Tirukkovaiyar: Like the crow's two eyes that share a single pupil, today these two share one life-breath in separate bodies. Here at the mountain of the lord who combines all things in himself, the lord who stays in Ambalam's great gardens, this peacock of a woman and this man share joy and pain alike. TK 71 This verse, expressed as the words of the heroine's girl friend (toli), is about the miraculous union of the two lovers. The speaker declares that the lovers' union took place at Siva's mountain abode. At the same time the poem suggests that the union of man and woman is like the union of all creatures in lord Siva. The separate identities of the lovers are effaced in their union, just as all distinctions are effaced and absorbed in the being of the god. As mentioned earlier, the segment of a kovai verse that concerns the "hero of the composition" is directly descended from classical puram poetry, and in Tirukkovaiyar this segment is taken over by Saiva mythology and expressions of devotion to Siva. It has often been said that gods and kings share many features in south Indian culture. 14 The fact that either a god or a king can fulfill the function of pattutai talaivan in a kovai and in other genres15 bears witness to this cultural pattern. In order to get a closer view of how the Saivite poet assimilates his religious concerns to the puram tradition, it will be instructive to compare Tirukkovaiyar with a kovai in which a human king fills the role of pattutai talaivan. Historically, Tirukkovaiyar is considered to be the second important representative of the kovai genre and the first that is extant in its entirety. The first important kovai, according to most scholars, is a text called Pantikkovai, dated around 700 A.D. Though the original text is lost, 350 verses (out of a presumed 400) have been reconstructed from two commentaries. The pattutai talaivan of this poem, according to some schol
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ars, is a composite hero constructed from the personalities of several Pantiya kings. R. Nagaswamy has identified the hero as Arikecari Parankuca Maravarman (c. 670-700 A.D.), and Kamil Zvelebil concurs with Nagaswamy's view. 16 Keeping Tirukkovaiyar 11 in mind, consider these two verses from Pantikkovai: O bee, you know the flowers in the vast gardens on the slopes of southern Potiyil Mountain in the realm of the valiant king who conquered his enemies and dispatched them to heaven when they dared to challenge him on the battlefield of Vilinam. Tell me, are the lily blossoms there as sweet as the coral-red mouth of this gentle girl? Pantikkovai 4 O bees with perfect spherical bodies, tell me in the groves by our seashore are the flowers as sweet as the flowing hair of this girl whose eyes shame the red mango buds from the Konku Country, land ruled by the king who destroyed a hostile army on the battlefield of Kottaru? Pantikkovai 5 Clearly, Tirukkovaiyar 11 and these verses from Pantikkovai embody the same poetic situation, and, as mentioned previously, this situation can be traced to earlier classical poetry. In verse 4, as in TK 11, the speaker compares his lover's mouth to a flower. In verse 5, as in Kuruntokai 2, the scent of flowers is likened to the heroine's fragrant hair. In both Tirukkovaiyar and in Pantikkovai, references to the pattutai talaivan are worked into the akam frame in the form of "metonymic metaphors" and, like any number of classical puram poems, Pantikkovai emphasizes its hero's prowess on the battlefield.17 By looking at verses from Tirukkovaiyar and from Pantikkovai, side by side, it is apparent that in each verse of a kovai there is a "slot" that is reserved
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for a reference to the poem's pattutai talaivan. When the pattutai talaivan is a human king, this slot is usually filled with a reference to the hero's valor, and often to specific battles where he demonstrated his heroic qualities. The poet also includes references to locales that fall within the hero's sphere of influence. In Tirukkovaiyar, where Siva fills the rule of pattutai talaivan, Manikkavacakar fills this slot with references to Siva's heroic deeds, 18 to other aspects of Siva's mythology and iconography,19 to the god's sacred places,20 and to the fruits of devotion21 (or, concomitantly, to the unenviable fate of those who lack devotion to Siva).22 The formal framework of the kovai highlights correspondences between a king's realm and a god's sacred places, and between the reverence a subject shows his king and the reverence a devotee feels for god. In short, regardless of whether a kovai's pattutai talaivan is a king or a god, the poet pulls the details he uses to fill the hero's slot in a kovai verse from a paradigm that straddles the human and the divine. It should be clear why Tirukkovaiyar is reputed to be a difficult, learned poem. To appreciate this poem fully a reader must be well versed in the conventions of classical akam and puram poetry; he must be sensitive to the kovai's subtle manipulations of these genres in relationship to one another; and he must perceive in the poem the coalescence of Saiva and puram paradigms. In Tirukkovaiyar, Manikkavacakar's Saivism stands in a twofold relationship to classical Tamil poetic tradition. In the language of semiotics, the Saiva elements in each verse stand in a syntagmatic relationship to the akam side of the tradition. Akam and Saiva elements are bound together in a common syntactic frame; they are contiguous in space and time. When verses from Tirukkovaiyar and from Pantikkovai are set beside one another, it becomes apparent that the relationship between these same Saiva elements and the puram side of the classical tradition is a paradigmatic one. As Roman Jakobson would put it, reference to the Pantiya king's heroism and to Siva's greatness are drawn from the same axis of selection.23 When these two dimensions are conjoined, the result is a subtle and complex vision of Siva's universality. The classical poets divided all experience into two realmsthe interior and the exterior. In Tirukkovaiyar Manikkavacakar shows that Siva encompasses both of these realms; he is both "insider" and"outsider."24 In this way Manikkavacakar enlists both sides of the classical tradition to glorify Siva, but at the same time he makes a very important statement about the classical poets' vision of the world. The organization of the compositions of the classical poets into separate akam and puram anthologies, and also discussions of the principles of classical poetry in treatises such as Tolkappiyam, imply that the classical Tamil view of the world was essentially dualistic. The classical poet views human experiences as a composite of two distinct domainsthe private or "interior" (akam) and the public or "exterior" (puram). But the very words classical poeticians chose to denote these
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two domains suggest that underlying the apparent dualistic vision of the classical poets was a sense of an allembracing unity of experience. Akam and puram elements belonging to multiple levels of analysis subtly interact within a single classical poem, even if nominally it is consigned to one domain or the other. 25 In Tirukkovaiyar the latent sense of an underlying unity of experience found in classical poetry is brought into the foreground. The structure of Tirukkovaiyar and of all kovai poems highlights the complementarity of akam and puram, and in Tirukkovaiyar not only is the latent monism of the classical Tamil poetic vision made manifest, but the entire classical vision is placed within a Saiva frame. Notes 1. Kamil Zvelebil, Tamil Literature (Wiesbaden: Otto Harrassowitz, 1974). 2. Ibid., p. 193. 3. This trend can be found even in later cankam poems. For instance, the classical genre arruppatai is a guide poem in which a bard praises the liberality of a king. In the late classical poem Tirumurukarruppatai, however, the bard-narrator praises the god Murukan, who bestows salvation upon his suppliant rather than food and wealth. Further, the kovai (discussed in this chapter) is not the only medieval genre in which a conventional role is sometimes assumed by a human hero and sometimes by a god. Among prabandha genres, a poem of the type called ula, for instance, describes a procession in which a hero, who may be human or divine, moves through the streets of a city, all the while inspiring love in the hearts of women of varying ages. (See Zvelebil, Tamil Literature, p. 197.) Likewise, the hero of another very popular genre, called pillaittamil, may be human or divine. In a poem of this kind the poet praises the protagonist of his poem (who may be male or female) in a conventionalized description of his or her childhood. (See Zvelebil, Tamil Literature, pp. 211-15.) 4. David Shulman has written on these two competing poetic ideals in his paper, "From Author to Non-Author in Tamil Literary Legend." 5. If the hero is a god, as in Tirukkovaiyar, the notion of history must be extended to include mythological time and space. 6. A. K. Ramanujan, The Interior Landscape (Bloomington: Indiana University Press, 1967), p. 19. 7. Ibid., pp. 108-109. 8. The five landscapes, each named for a characteristic flower, are kurñci, mullai, marutam, neytal, and palai. The five phases of love (uri) associated with each respectively are union of lovers (punartal), patient waiting (iruttal), lover's unfaithfulness and sulking (utal), anxious separation (irankutal), and elopement or hardship in separation (pirittal). 9. See chapter 1. 10. M. Shanmugam Pillai and David Ludden, trans., Kuruntokai: An Anthology of Classical Tamil Love Poetry (Madurai: Koodal Publishers, 1976), p. 43. 11. Ibid., p. 35. 12. TK 6 and TK 109 provide two clear examples of this pattern. (See Part III for translations.) 13. I am not suggesting that it is only in kovai poems that this vision is made manifest. In historical terms the trend is from almost complete separation of akam and puram in the early anthologies to a blending of the two in various ways in later works. But even in the early anthologized poems the separation is not absolute. For example,
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in Akananuru 36 (an akam poem) the noise raised by gossiping tongues (alar) is compared to the clamor of the battlefield. While the poem's subject matter unmistakably belongs to the akam realm, a puram-like image is introduced via a simile. (I wish to thank Professor V. S. Rajam for bringing this poem to my attention.) As Sally Noble has very ably demonstrated, both akam and puram traditions contribute a great deal to the epic Cilapatikaram (fifth century). (See her M.A. thesis, "Narrative, Image and Song in the Cilapatikaram" [University of Chicago, 1981].) Also, some of the medieval prabandha genres, besides the kovai, mix akam and puram elements. Among these is one called kalampakam, which literally means "mixture." (See Zvelebil, Tamil Literature, p. 200.) 14. See chapter 3, note 13. 15. See note 3 above. 16. Zvelebil, Tamil Literature, p. 203. The following poem is one of many that could be cited: O lord whose fame is past the skill of poets! There was a fortress named Kanapper. Its moat was deeper than the earth; its walls seemed to touch the sky; its bastions were like flowering stars; the forest that guarded it was so thick with trees that not a ray entered. Strong camps surrounded it. Yet that fortress is gone like water vaporized by iron heated in a glowing fire by a black-handed smith, and Venkaimarpan grieves. O king wearing the tumpai garland of victory every day, your fame exhausts the conventions of poets. As they who scorn you perish along with their name, may your spear flourish, resplendent in its renown. Aiyur Mulankilar sings Kanappereyil Katanta Ukkirapperuvaluti,Purananuru 21, trans. George L. Hart III George L. Hart III, Poets of the Tamil Anthologies (Princeton: Princeton University Press, 1979), p. 141. 18. TK 70 (see Part III for translation). 19. TK 248 (see Part III for translation). 20. TK 292 (see Part III for translation). 21. TK 144 (see Part III for translation). 22. TK 250 (see Part III for translation). 23. Roman Jakobson, "Closing Statement: Linguistics and Poetics," in T. A. Sebeok, ed., Style in Language (Cambridge: MIT Press, 1960), p. 358. 24. There is an interesting Vaisnava parallel in a verse by Nammalvar. In TVM 1.3.2, the Vaisnava saint describes Visnu as akattanan (he who possesses the nature of the interior) and as purattanan (he who possesses the nature of the exterior). For some commentators these terms indicate Visnu's qualities of saulabhya (accessibility) and paratva (remoteness). They say that Visnu is always nearby (akattanan) for his devotees and that he is always
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inaccessible (purattanan) for people who lack devotion. In my translation of this verse, I have translated purattanan as "container" and akattanan as "contained." (See Part III for translation.) 25. See A. K. Ramanujan, Poems of Love and War from the Eight Anthologies and Ten Poems of Classical Tamil (Columbia University Press, 1985), pp. 262-69.
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Chapter Five A Tamil Allegory of Love WHILE A CLOSE READING of Tirukkovaiyar yields a poetically subtle vision of Siva's universality that supports Manikkavacakar's reputation as a poet and saint, Tamil Saivites have, over time, evolved a framework for interpreting Tirukkovaiyar that builds on, but at the same time obscures, this vision. Apparently later generations of Tamil Saivites grew defensive about Tirukkovaiyar's erotic subject matter, which, as I have indicated in the previous chapter, comes to Tirukkovaiyar in a direct line of succession from classical love poetry. For theologians of the Saiva Siddhantins school, Siva's presence in Tirukkovaiyar as ''hero of the composition" could not in itself allay their fears that readers would tend to perceive this work as a secular poem about love between man and woman. Saiva Siddhantins distinguish the joys of this world, including the joys of love, which they call "lesser pleasure" (cirrinpam), from the incomparable joy of union with the godhead, which they call "greater pleasure" (perinpam). From their point of view, readers of limited insight are likely to interpret Tirukkovaiyar as a poem about the former, while readers who are spiritually further advanced will realize that "greater pleasure" is the real subject of this poem. A Siddhantin writing in 1965 asserts that it is a great error to regard Tirukkovaiyar as a work about physical love, when it is actually a work about spiritual realization. 1 One may rightly ask how it is possible to read Tirukkovaiyar without taking account of its seemingly unmistakable erotic subject matter.2 Tamil Saivites, in fact, do not attempt to dismiss these aspects of the text. Instead they assign them allegorical meanings. According to the Siddhantins' allegorical reading of the text, the "hero of the narrative" (kilavi talaivan) of Tirukkovaiyar represents uyir, a Tamil word that is often rendered in English as "soul," though "life-breath" is probably a more accurate translation. Uyir is the "breath of life" that animates the corporeal frame (utal) of a living being. The heroine (talaivi) of the kovai narrative is understood to be a personification of civam, the godhead conceived in the abstract.3 The other dramatis personae of the kovai are also assigned allegorized identities. Most notably, the heroine's girl friend (toli) is said to represent arul or "grace." The allegorical interpretation of Tirukkovaiyar is primarily an oral tradition in Tamil Saivism. For centuries Saiva savants have expounded the
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"covert" meaning of the text to their disciples, who in turn have passed on this teaching to their own disciples. Such transmission of knowledge through guru-disciple lineages (parampara) is, of course, a pattern common to virtually all Hindu spiritual traditions of learning. Because the theological interpretation of the text belongs to a tradition which is primarily oral, one cannot precisely describe the circumstances that gave birth to this "allegory of love." Saiva Siddhantins, as one would expect, hold that the allegory is implicitly in the textthat Manikkavacakar put it there. Since the text has been preserved primarily in a sectarian environment, present-day historians of Tamil literature more often than not accept this position as an article of faith; but given their cursory treatment of Tirukkovaiyar, one suspects that they have not examined the text carefully. 4 I find no reason to assume that Manikkavacakar intended for his kovai to be read as an allegory, or stated otherwise, that Tirukkovaiyar is generically an allegory. The situations that structure the narrative are conventional; they are found in other kovai poems and many are found among the early classical love poems. No one suggests that Pantikkovai, to take one example, is an allegory, though it shares a great many specific features with Tirukkovaiyar, including dramatis personae and narrative situations. It may be useful to distinguish, as some Western critics do, between allegory as a genre and allegorical interpretation or allegoresis as a critical mode. Maureen Quilligan, to cite one such critic, claims that "true" allegories generally do not respond well to allegorical criticism.5 An allegory such as Bunyan's Pilgrim's Progress, to take a well-known example, encourages the reader's awareness of multiple levels of meaning through the extensive use of personification or other devices of its language. But this is not necessarily true of texts that become the objects of allegoresis. The traditionally accepted allegorical interpretation of Tirukkovaiyar actually upsets the formal balance of the text. Siva's essential role in the poem as "hero of the composition" is pushed out of view, and the delicate balance between the poem's akam and puram registers is disturbed. I have argued that the poetic structure of Tirukkovaiyar has theological implications. By interpreting Tirukkovaiyar as an allegory, Saiva Siddhantins may have gained a useful vehicle for communicating a theology, but at a price. The Siddhantins' use of allegoresis in their interpretation of Manikkavacakar's kovai is a better reflection of their own intellectual disposition than it is of the poetic structure of the text. Sectarian interpreters of Tirukkovaiyar have been at pains to explain why Peraciriyar, the renowned thirteenthcentury commentator who is given credit for the most detailed and authoritative written commentary that has survived with the text,6 did not attend to the allegorical meaning of Manikkavacakar's poem. While Peraciriyar's commentary provides no evidence that he was cognizant of a "higher" meaning encoded in the verses of Tirukkovaiyar, a "preface to the commentary" (uraippayiram), also attributed to Peraci
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riyar, provides a very different picture. In this preface, Peraciriyar, if he is in fact its author, situates Manikkavacakar and his authorship of Tirukkovaiyar in the context of a Saiva cosmology. The idiom of this preface is pure Saiva Siddhanta, and in this respect the preface stands in sharp contrast to the commentary itself. Toward the end of the preface the author indicates that Manikkavacakar encoded two meanings in his textone that accords with "the meaning found in wisdom literature" (arivanulporul) and another that follows "the protocol of worldly literature" (ulakanul valakkam). He further explains that the subtle meaning of jnanayoga (the yoga of knowledge) that is expounded in the agamas (manuals of ritual procedure and doctrine) is difficult to grasp (akamanul valiyinutaliya nana / yoka nun porulinai yunarttutarkaritu). For this reason, he continues, he restricted the scope of his commentary to the more accessible worldly meaning of the text. Here, no doubt, is an explanation for Peraciriyar's neglect of Tirukkovaiyar's covert theological meaning. But, in my opinion, it is open to question whether or not Peraciriyar actually wrote the preface to his commentary. Given the very different idioms employed in the preface and in the commentary proper, it is tempting to postulate that the preface was appended by a Saiva Siddhantin who wished to protect a renowned commentator from the charge that he was ignorant of Tirukkovaiyar's "higher" meaning. One modern commentator humbly proposes that though Peraciriyar obviously held Tirukkovaiyar in high esteem, he was not able to perceive its true meaning clearly. Apparently this commentator takes this position because Peraciriyar sees two meanings in Tirukkovaiyar, while an enlightened reader should realize that its meaning is purely spiritual. 7 There is a further dimension to this discussion that must not be ignored. Peraciriyar's reputation rests largely on the commentary that he wrote for the early Tamil grammar and poetic treatise, Tolkappiyam. As a commentator on Tolkappiyam, Peraciriyar belonged to a community of literati whose primary intellectual preoccupation was not theological. Zvelebil has dubbed his age (thirteenth to fifteenth centuries) the" 'golden age' of the commentators," an age marked by "a definite 'return to classicism' (to the great classical literature of the 'Cankam' and post'Cankam' epoch)."8 Contemporaneous with the nonsectarian commentatorial tradition to which Peraciriyar belonged was a prolific Vaisnava commentatorial tradition. The sacred hymns of the alvars, and especially Nammalvar's Tiruvaymoli, were the objects of commentaries through which the Srivaisnava acaryas expressed their highly sophisticated theological formulations. However, a comparable literature did not develop around the hymns of the Saiva saints until the nineteenth century. Apparently Tamil Saivites associated sacredness with a kind of immunity to commentary. It therefore appears likely that Peraciriyar thought of his commentary on Tirukkovaiyar as a literary commentary, not a theological one, and that he approached Tirukkovaiyar not as a sacred text but as a work of high literary
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culture. If this is so, it is still possible that he perceived a covert theological meaning in Tirukkovaiyar that he felt he could not appropriately address in his commentary. The most important textual source we have for the sectarian tradition of interpreting Tirukkovaiyar allegorically is a compendium of colophon-like phrases called Tirukkovaiyar unmai (The "truth" of Tirukkovaiyar). The text is composed of a series of colophons that are intended to capture the allegorical significance of each of Tirukkovaiyar's four hundred verses and each of its twenty-five major divisions (atikara). Tirukkovaiyar unmai thus recasts the akam frame narrative as a story about the relationship between uyir and civam in union and in separation. The allegory, as presented in this text, is worked out in a rather mechanical fashion. One has the feeling that once "higher level" roles are assigned to the various dramatis personae of the frame narrative, the allegorical interpretation of particular situations follows automatically. To see how this works, consider the first three verses of Tirukkovaiyar, which portray the hero musing to himself after seeing the heroine for the first time. Beautiful lotus blossoms, splendid blue lilies, colorful, flowering kumil from Tillai, home of the lord, blossoms of silkwood and new November-flowers are joined in this garland filled with a divine fragrance. It is sinuous as a liana, graceful as a swan and it shines bright as the handsome Love-god's triumphant banner. TK 1 9 Is she a courier for Death, or a companion for Love, the disembodied god? Is she a woman from incomparable Tillai, or an innocent peacock? And where does she dwell in a blossom, in the sky, in the waters or in the netherworld of serpents? How can I say?
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Her lethal eyes blink, her feet touch the ground and the flowers she wears have withered O my troubled mind this girl with a small brow has a waist too frail to support her breasts and her long arms are graceful as bamboo, she is lovely as Tillai, home of Lord Hara who rides a spirited bull but she is no goddess. TK 3 10 The turais or poetic situations embodied by these three verses are called katci (sighting), ayam (doubt), and telital (clarification). In the first verse, the hero describes various aspects of the heroine's physical beauty in conventional metaphoric terms. In the second, he wonders if she is a mortal or some other kind of creature, and in the third he discerns unmistakable signs that she is indeed mortal, even though her extraordinary beauty suggests otherwise. The colophons that traditionally accompany the verses, and that may have been written by an early editor, summarize the subject matter of each as follows: TK 1: The man who holds a sharp spear sees the young girl11 whose forehead is bright as the moon. ("mativanutal valarvañciyaik katirvelavan kannurratu.") TK 2: The man from the country of great mountains wonders, "Is this thing, which is difficult to identify, a god.?" (''terivariyator teyvamenna aruvarai natan aiyurratu.") TK 3: The man who holds a sharp spear notices [her] qualities and ascertains that she is not a goddess. ("anankallalen rayilvelavan kunankalainokkik kuritturaittatu.") And this is how the author of Tirukkovaiyar unmai revalorizes the subject of the three verses: The first is about "seeing the blessed form of the spiritual preceptor" (kuruvin tirumeni kantal). The second describes "the experience of uncertainty after admiring the blessed form" (tirumeniyai viyantu aiyamurutal), and the third is about "knowing the [guru's] form in the manner of a decoy" (parvai polum vativenrarintatu). Thus poems that, to the uninitiated reader, seem to be about the first meeting of a young woman and a young man, from the theologian's point of view are said to describe the soul's12 initial attraction to god. According to this interpretation, god, who is
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actually not bound to any limited, discernible form (and who, thus conceived, is known as civam), assumes the limited, but still wondrous form of the spiritual preceptor (satguru) as an act of grace and attracts the soul as a decoy attracts a deer. 13 Tirukkovaiyar unmai provides no more than a brief, and sometimes cryptic, appraisal of the "higher" significance of the situations portrayed in the verses of Tirukkovaiyar. It provides a foundation upon which teachers of the Saiva Siddhanta tradition constructed and continue to construct14 much more elaborate interpretations of the text. In true scholastic fashion, they squeeze theologically relevant meaning from the smallest descriptive detail. Since the tradition is essentially an oral one, teachers with an inventive bent of mind may give free rein to their exegetical talents, while others may confine themselves to rather mechanical interpretive procedures. An example of the latter, and the only published commentary I know of that elaborates the allegorized reading of Tirukkovaiyar favored by Saiva Siddhanta tradition, is the Tirukkovaiyar unmaivilakkam (The "illumination" of Tirukkovaiyar unmai), written by C. Tantapani Tecikar.15 Following a traditional commentatorial format, the author describes the situation that is embodied in each verse, gives an interpretive prose paraphrase (polippurai) for each verse, and discusses in detail words and phrases deemed to be of particular interest. The first is essentially a more discursive rendition of Tirukkovaiyar unmai's terse description of the subject of each verse. Tecikar's polippurai is closely modeled after a similar paraphrase commentary written in the thirteenth century by Peraciriyar, only in the Siddhantin's commentary the dramatis personae, and sometimes other elements, are assigned allegorized meanings. Let us briefly see how the Siddhantin commentator handles the first verse of Tirukkovaiyar. Discussing the turai or situation described in the verse, he writes, "the atman, which has attained a state of cessation of active energy [cattinipatam], wanders in search of the satguru and, through the agency of divine grace [tiruvarul],16 it clearly sees his [the satguru's] blessed form and admires it." ("cattinipatam perra anma carkuruvai nati alaintu tiruvarul kutta, avar tirumeniyai nanku kantu viyattalam.") Continuing his description of the subject of Tirukkovaiyar 1, Tecikar asserts that "in Tirukkovaiyar, which, among the four aims of lifenamely, virtue [aram], material things [porul], pleasure [inpam], and liberation [vitu]expounds the pleasure of liberation [vittinpam], the first verse treats the situation of 'making [the heroine's/ satguru's] appearance manifest' [katciyai unarttutal], which is classified under 'one-sided love' [kaikkilai]."17 ("mutarpattu ennutalirro venin, aram porul inpam vitu ennum nar porulinum vittinpattai nutaliya tirukkovaiyinkan kaikkilaippalatakiya katciyai unarttutal nutalirru.'') He then writes, "If one should ask, 'how is it that this is one-sided love [kaikkilai].?' [the answer is,] the life-breath [uyir], having sought and found the satguru who is the gateway [vayil] to 'greater pleasure' [perinpam], is impatient to attain that joy;
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thus in the form of passion [kamam] experienced by the soul alone, the desire [of the soul for the satguru] develops." ("itu kaikkilaiyamaru yannanamenin, tiruvarutpativuperra uyir perinpavayilana sarkuruvai natikkantu inpantuykka viraiyumatalin uyironranmatte nikalum kamamakak kaikkilaiyakiya orumarunkupparriya viruppayirru enka.") A reader who is unfamiliar with Peraciriyar's medieval commentary on Tirukkovaiyar would most likely be baffled by the preceding discussion, for the key to understanding the motivation for this passage is a parallel passage in Peraciriyar's medieval commentary on Tirukkovaiyar 1. What Tecikar essentially has done is to translate Peraciriyar's comment into the language of theology. The medieval commentator writes, If one should ask, "what is the meaning of this verse?" [the answer is,] in the form of a double entendre [utanilaic ciletai], it treats the preliminary part of the subject of clandestine love [kalaviyal], which is described in this Tirukkovaiyar, which, among the four aims of lifenamely, virtue, material things, pleasure, and liberation tells of pleasure [inpam], and it treats the form of one-sided love called katci [manifestation], which comes first in one-sided love [kaikkilai], which is a part of it [i.e., clandestine love]. ippattennutalirro venin, aram porul inpam vitennu nanku porulinum inpattai nutali ittirukkovaiyinkan uraikkinra kalaviyar porulinatu polippilakkanattaiyum atarkuruppakiya kaikkilaittinaiyinkan mutarkitanta katci yennum orutalaik kamattinaiyum, utanilaicciletaiyaka vunarttutanutalirru. While the cumbersome translation comes across as a jumble of technical gobbledegook, in reality, Peraciriyar's meaning and purpose are straightforward. In this passage he is merely situating Tirukkovaiyar 1 within the narrative framework for akam poetry that is stipulated by classical Tamil poetics. Most importantly, the passage reveals that Peraciriyar views Tirukkovaiyar as a work of erotic love poetry and that he finds the "grammar" of classical love poetry equally applicable to Tirukkovaiyar. This "grammar" analyzes the akam frame narrative into two major movementsclandestine love (kalavu) and married life (karpu) seven phases or moods of love (uri), and many specific situations (turai). In the passage cited above, Peraciriyar attempts to precisely situate Tirukkovaiyar I within this framework. He tells us that the specific situation embodied by the verse, katci (literally, "the sighting''), belongs to the phase of one-sided love (kaikkilai), which in turn is classified as a part of the larger movement, clandestine love (kalavu). The modern-day Siddhantin reformulates Peraciriyar's explanation in a manner that supports the allegorized reading of the text accepted in Saiva Siddhanta tradition, and his reformulation is predicated upon a distinction between the "lesser pleasure" of mundane erotic love (cirrinpam) and the "greater pleasure" of spiritual love (perinpam). 18 Peraciriyar approaches the traditional scheme of the four aims of life in a straightforward manner, and,
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aligning Tirukkovaiyar with the third of these, inpam or pleasure (usually taken to mean erotic pleasure), he characterizes the subject of Tirukkovaiyar as erotic love and dissociates the text from the other three aims, including the fourth aim, vitu or "release" (i.e., spiritual emancipation). The Siddhantin refers Tirukkovaiyar to the same fourfold scheme, but he uses that scheme in a radically different way. For the Siddhantin, pleasure or joy, when understood as "greater joy" (perinpam), is actually equivalent to release (vitu). From the Siddhantin's point of view, a text like Tirukkovaiyar, though it employs the poetic forms of love poetry, is really about spiritual fulfillment. The idea that pleasure and release are equivalent is implied by a compound noun that occurs in the commentatorial passage cited above: vittinpam, ''the pleasure of release." Once it has been established that erotic love can signify spiritual fulfillment, the forms of erotic poetry become usable as a medium for theology. Consequently, the Siddhantin, like the medieval commentator, finds in the "grammar" of classical love poetry a key to the logic of Tirukkovaiyar, but in his eyes the characters in the text are not the talaivan ("hero"), the talaivi ("heroine"), etc., but the soul / life-breath (uyir), the satguru / civam, and other "characters" who dwell in the realm of theological discourse. In the next section of commentary, an interpretive prose paraphrase of the meaning of the verse, the Siddhantin again works from a model provided by Peraciriyar. To demonstrate how the Siddhantin revalorizes Peraciriyar's paraphrase and how both commentatorial renderings relate to Manikkavacakar's poem, I have provided a word-for-word gloss of Tirukkovaiyar 1, followed by translations of the two commentaries:
beauty
grow
lotus
splendor
grow
blue
lily
Siva
Tillai
tiru
valar
tamarai
cir
valar
kavikal
kavikal
icar
tillai
heavy
grow
flowering
kumil
silkwood
fresh
kantal
together
flourish
divine
kuru
valar
pun
kumil
kontu
pain
kantal
kontu
onku
teyva
fragrance
grow
garland
one
vine
bend
swan
gait
excel
maru
valar
malai
or
valliyin
olki
ana
natai
vayntu
form
grow
love-god
triumph
banner
like
shine
uru
valar
kamanran
venrik
koti
ponru
olirkinrate
Peraciriyar's paraphrase: This flourishing garland possessing a divine fragrance, which is composed of beautiful lotuses, splendid blue lilies, colorful kumil blossoms which grow at the border of Siva's Tillai, buds of silkwood, and new kantal (November-flower) blossoms, bending like a vine, and having the gait of a swan, shines like the triumphant bow of the handsome god of love. What a wonder! tiruvalarun tamaraip puvinaiyum alaku valaru nilappukkalaiyum icar tillai varaippinkanuntakiya punkumilatu niram valarum puvinaiyum konkarum-
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pukalaiyum cevvik kantatpukkalaiyum uruppakakkontu mempatta teyvamanam valarum malai oruvallipola nutanki annattinataipola natai vayntu vativuvalarum kamanatu verrik kotiponru vilankaninratu, ennaviyappo! Tantapani Tecikar's commentary This sweet-smelling garland possessing a divine fragrance and having a face like a lotus in which divine knowledge (civananam) flourishes, eyes like blue flowers abounding in the beauty of compassion (karunai), a nose like the kumil flower at the border of Siva's Tillai that abounds in the quality of the preceptor (aciriyattanmai), a bosom like silkwood buds, and hands like new November flowers, bending like a lightning-thin vine, and having the gait of a swan (as graceful as a mantra recited without effort), shines like the triumphant bow that conquers the god of love who causes fear. civananam menmelum valarum tamaraipolum mukattaiyum, karunaiyakiya alakumikum nilamalar polum kankalaiyum, icar tillaivaraippinkan untakiya aciriyattanmai valarum kumil polum mukkinaiyum, konkumalar polum marpinaiyum, cevviya kantalmalai polum kaikalaiyum, kontu mempatta teyvamanam kamalum malai oru minkotipol nutanki, hamcanataiyaki acapaiyai porunti, accamitukinra kamanaivellum venrikkotipol vilankaninratu, iktu ennaviyappo enravaru. The differences between the two commentatorial paraphrases are few, but important. The principal function of Peraciriyar's commentary is to spell out the syntax of the verse as he perceives it. The poet uses syntactical markers sparingly, and consequently, in the original, the verse is difficult to construe. In Peraciriyar's rendering, syntactic markers clearly specify relationships among the words of the verse, and at certain points the commentator substitutes more familiar words for words that may be obscure or ambiguous. In this kind of commentatorial paraphrase, the commentator directs interpretation of a poem along a straight path. Syntactic markers and lexical glosses tend to isolate a single reading of a poem where the original may allow for several. 19 The Siddhantin commentator's contribution is of a completely different order. At only one point does he fail to follow Peraciriyar's lead in construing the syntax of the verse,20 but, additionally, he finds in the verse an allegorical level of meaning about which Peraciriyar is silent. In Peraciriyar's frame of reference, the verse represents the thoughts of a young man upon first seeing the young woman who will eventually become his lover. He expresses his impression of her appearance in the form of an extended metaphor in which the girl is likened to a garland and various parts of her body to different kinds of flowers. In the Siddhantin's frame of reference the young man stands for the soul (anma) or the life-breath (uyir), and the young woman for the satguru, an embodied form of the godhead (civam). It therefore comes as no surprise when the commentator adds a theological dimension to the metaphorical association of various flowers and body parts, thereby equating the face / lotus
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with divine knowledge (civananam), the eyes / blue lilies with compassion (karunai), and the nose / kumil blossom with the "quality of preceptorship" (aciriyattanmai). The commentator elaborates the logic underlying these associations in the last section of commentary, in which he discusses in detail the meaning of particular words and phrases. Note also that the Siddhantin allegorizes only elements belonging to the akam register of Tirukkovaiyar and does not attempt to allegorize the puram-inspired references to Siva that are found in every verse. But though the Siddhantin does not uniformly transpose the meaning of all elements in the verses of Tirukkovaiyar, he does not appear to be vexed by this seeming inconsistency. Apparently he has no trouble switching levels in midstream. Members of the Saiva Siddhanta tradition approach Tirukkovaiyar as "wisdom literature," and certainly one can learn a great deal of Saiva Siddhanta theology by studying the tradition's interpretation of this complex poem. But the allegorized reading of Tirukkovaiyar is of interest because it tells us something about the criteria that Tamil Saivites brought to bear on literature they deemed "sacred." I think we can begin to understand the Siddhantins' motives for allegorizing Tirukkovaiyar by considering the place of narrative in classical and in devotional Tamil poetry. As mentioned previously, for the authors and audience of classical Tamil poetry, the dividing line between narrative and lyric poetry was far from impermeable. As Zvelebil has shown, Tamil poeticians did distinguish texts that manifest the development of a story line (totarnilaicceyul) from anthologies of verses that are not directly related to one another in a continuous narrative (tokainilaicceyul). 21 But this is not to say that narrative does not enter into the composition and interpretation of poems collected in the akam and puram anthologies, even though both would be classified as tokainilaicceyul Every classical poem addresses a particular situation and consequently it is implicitly situated within a narrative framework. In the case of puram poems, this framework is historical; in the case of akam poems it is an abstraction from human experience. The poetic principles at work in classical Tamil poetry prepare the ground for the use of narrative as an interpretive device. One arena where this device is employed is in the interpretation of devotional poetry. In previous chapters I have Stressed that sectarian commentators responded to the saints' poems as records of the spiritual careers of their authors. Traditional interpreters therefore discover, or perhaps impose, frame narratives on the devotional anthologies, and these narrative frames are coincident with traditional stories of the saints' lives. It is also clear that only some of the saints' poems easily support this mode of interpretation. Others that do not fit the bhakti ideal so comfortably are "normalized" through commentatorial maneuvering, and in the case of the akapporul verses in Tiruvaymoli, this is achieved largely by taking the dramatized narrator to be an alter ego of the author.22 In order to adequately interpret a classical poem, a reader must be
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familiar with the narrative Context in which it is situated. Hence, in classical Tamil literary culture, narrative is an indispensable aspect of interpretation. The poems of the saints are also frequently interpreted in the context of a narrative framework; but this is not always a necessary aspect of interpretation, and in some cases the poems themselves provide very little support for interpretation in these terms. Also, there is a critical difference in the nature of the narrative framework brought to bear on the interpretation of classical poems, especially of akam poems, and that invoked by sectarian commentators: the poet stands completely outside the frame story of akam poetry, whereas the frame stories posited by interpreters of the saints' poems are the stories of the poets themselves. In the classical poems, dramatized narrators stand between the poems' audience and their authors. Contrary to this pattern, the tendency to categorically identify the narrator with the author in the sacred poems is so strong, even dramatized narrators are interpreted as aspects of the saint-author's persona. This is plainly demonstrated in Srivaisnava interpretations of the akapporul portions of Tiruvaymoli, 23 where the frame narrative of akam poetry is subordinated to the autobiographical framework that these commentators bring to bear on the text as a whole. It is instructive to compare the akam portions of Nammalvar's magnum opus with Tirukkovaiyar. Both draw heavily upon classical poetic conventions, but the poetic structure of the two differs in important ways. Nammalvar's akapporul verses stand in a much freer relation to classical poetic tradition than do the verses of Tirukkovaiyar. The general outline of the akam frame narrative is implicit in Nammalvar's poems, but only in a general way. The situations described in these verses are not strictly correlated with specific poetic situations as defined by poeticians. Also, many of Nammalvar's verses portray the one-sided love of the poet's feminine alter ego for Visnu. One-sided love (called kaikkilai in the terminology of poetics) was not considered to be a fit subject for poetry by early poeticians, and thus the classical poets usually avoided one-sided love as a subject. Visnu enters these verses as an akam hero (talaivan), but here we again find a violation of classical poetic convention, for, according to the poeticians, the dramatis personae of akam poetry should not bear proper names. They represent not individuals but universal configurations of human feeling and behavior. Nammalvar brings Visnu directly into the akam frame narrative, and in so doing he violates akam convention. Srivaisnava commentators, in turn, bring Nammalvar directly into the narrative by identifying him with the female narrators of the akapporul verses. The identification of Visnu with the akam hero and of Nammalvar with the heroine brings Nammalvar's akapporul verses fully in line with the bhakti ideal; the narrative line employed as a framework for interpretation of the poems and the saint-poet's life story coincide. This pattern is found not only in the commentators' interpretation of Tiruvaymoli, but also in the interpretation of works by other Vaisnava saints that at least superficially resist autobio
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graphical interpretation. Tirumankaiyalvar's akapporul verses and Periyalvar's lullaby songs, in which the saint is said to imagine himself to be Yasoda singing to the baby Krsna, come to mind as examples. Until the nineteenth century there was no tradition of written commentary for the saints' hymns in Tamil Saivism, but on the evidence of recently composed exegetical literature, we can surmise that a similar pattern of autobiographical interpretation has been operative in Tamil Saivism in oral tradition. Manikkavacakar's Tiruvacakam, for instance, is almost always interpreted as spiritual autobiography. Like Tiruvaymoli, Tiruvacakam in-eludes verses that directly support such an interpretation, and Tamil Saivites refer to these as a norm for the interpretation of other verses that do not so obviously conform to an autobiographical narrative framework. 24 But Tirukkovaiyar, because it strictly adheres to classical convention, presents sectarian interpreters with a greater challenge. This is because the akam frame narrative in Tirukkovaiyar is preserved in its essential classical form, and, at least on the surface, Siva is not an actor in the narrative. Siva does enter the poem via a puram route as the pattutai talaivan, but even here Siva's role in the poem has no direct connection with the life of the poet. According to traditional accounts of Manikkavacakar's life,25Tiruvacakam documents the saint's spiritual evolution as he traveled to many towns and villages in the Tamil country as a spokesman for Siva. We are told that when he reached his ultimate destination, the temple of Nataraja at Chidambaram, a scribe appeared before the saint and requested that he sing all the hymns that he had composed in the course of his travels so that they could be recorded for posterity. The scribe, who was actually Siva, after recording the hymns of Tiruvacakam, asked Manikkavacakar to compose a kovai with Siva as its pattutai talaivan, and the saint fulfilled this request by composing Tirukkovaiyar. This legend situates the composition of Tirukkovaiyar in a narrative framework that directly involves Manikkavacakar's relationship to Siva, but it still does not integrate the content of Tirukkovaiyar into this framework. Is it possible to neutralize the distance that separates the poet Manikkavacakar from the several dramatized voices that narrate the verses of Tirukkovaiyar? In my view, the poetic structure of Tirukkovaiyar does not lend itself to this mode of interpretation, but the allegorical interpretation of Tirukkovaiyar can at least be regarded as a move in this direction. According to the traditional allegorical interpretation of Tirukkovaiyar, the hero represents uyir (soul) and the heroine represents civam (godhead). At least one modern interpreter attempts to go a step further toward personalizing the text. In his view, the hero / uyir is Manikkavacakar himself.26 Manikkavacakar is identified with the hero of the akam narrative, and consequently Tirukkovaiyar becomes a personal account of the poet's relationship to Siva, even if only some verses are narrated by the hero-uyir-Manikkavacakar. But even when read allegorically, Tirukkovaiyar resists thorough assimi
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lation to the bhakti ideal, because even allegoresis fails to account for the entire text as a direct expression of its author's feelings. While Saiva scholars have formulated exegeses of great subtlety, building upon their reading of the text as allegory, such interpretations fail to render Tirukkovaiyar accessible as devotional poetry on a popular level, even if they may be highly satisfying for an audience of initiates. Today Tirukkovaiyar is viewed as an arcane text, a text that can be understood only by the select few who have received appropriate exegetical training. The Srivaisnava acaryas also often introduced an allegorical dimension into their interpretations of the alvars' poems, but the Vaisnava bhakti poems, for the most part, are accessible as religious poetry on several levels and thus appeal to a mass audience of devotees as well as to an audience of sectarian scholars. I am not in a position to judge whether or not the "personalized" interpretation of Tirukkovaiyar referred to above, according to which the hero is identified with the uyir of Manikkavacakar himself, is widely accepted in Tamil Saiva circles. Most authors, when making reference to Tirukkovaiyar's allegorical dimension, simply state that the heroine represents civam and the hero represents uyir, presumably in a general sense. A personalized interpretation of the text may be viewed as an attempt to bring Tirukkovaiyar in line with other bhakti poems, but evidence suggests that interpretation on a more abstract plane is far more influential in the tradition. According to the personalized interpretation of the text, the protagonists are Manikkavacakar and Siva (civan in Tamil), the god of mythology. According to the allegorical interpretation, in its most typical form, the protagonists are uyir and civam, abstract entities. While this interpretation does not render Tirukkovaiyar a popular bhakti poem comparable to Tiruvacakam, it does successfully complement the aims of theological discourse. As noted above, Srivaisnava commentators also employed allegory as a means of placing the alvars' poems in an abstract, theological frame of reference. They fully personalized the akapporul verses of Tiruvaymoli by identifying the dramatized narrators and especially the heroine with Nammalvar. (Visnu is explicitly identified with the hero in the poems themselves.) The commentatorial process does not stop here, however. The Vaisnava acaryas also elevated the subject matter of these verses to an abstract plane of theological discourse through allegory. For example, Alakiyamanavalaperumal Nayanar, the author of Acarya Hrdayam, a theological work of the late thirteenth or early fourteenth century, developed a theological interpretation for every detail in the akapporul verses of Tiruvaymoli. Even the heroine's ornaments carry an allegorical meaning in this interpretation. The commentator's mode of exegesis is a secondary signification system. 27 In his discussion of the heroine's physical characteristics, for example, he isolates a number of metaphors that Nammalvar and other poets often include in their descriptions of the akam heroine. From the quality that binds tenor to vehicle in each of these metaphors, he develops a theological interpretation. In this way the
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commentator takes over the poet's metaphorical identification of the heroine's forehead with the moon as a signifier for the purity of the soul. The interpretive process may be visualized as follows: SIGNIFIER1 (moon)
SIGNIFIED1 (forehead)
SIGNIFIER2 (lustre)
SIGNIFIED2 (soul's purity)
The commentators' method represents an extensiona raising to a higher powerof a method used by the bhakti poets themselves. The saint-poets took over the whole erotic tradition of classical poetry with its signifiers (landscape imagery) and its signifieds (the moods of love) as a signifier for bhakti. The commentator in turn takes over the saints' poetry as a signifier for theological abstractions. 28 The route from classical akam poetry to Nammalvar's akapporul poems to the Srivaisnavas' personalized interpretation of these poems and on into abstract theological exegesis constitutes, in effect, a dialectic of the general and the particular. The world of akam poetry is a world of universal human experience, but the akam poets' conception is not explicitly religious in nature. The dramatis personae of these poems are not individuals, but generalized representations of human nature. Nammalvar sets this poetic tradition in a religious frame of reference and at least partially particularizes it by casting Visnu as the hero (talaivan). The commentators complete this process by identifying the dramatized narrators with Nammalvar, thereby bringing these poems into conformity with the bhakti ideal of personal poetry. But the commentators do not stop with the particular. Through allegory they bring the text once again into the realm of the general, but now the frame of reference is not human relationships but abstract theological conceptions. The classical poets' observations regarding human nature are thus transformed into signifiers of divine truth. The predominant allegorical interpretation of Tirukkovaiyar short-circuits this dialectical process. It moves directly from the level of poetically expressed generalizations about human nature to abstract theology. This may be because Tirukkovaiyar simply is not suited to a particularized interpretation. As in classical akam poems, the author's voice is heavily veiled by conventional situations and dramatized narrators. Nammalvar's voice is not veiled to this extent in his akam-inspired verses, and consequently his poems do not resist a personalized interpretation so stubbornly. I think it is fair to say that the allegorical interpretation of Tirukkovaiyar, when viewed in the context of the literary and interpretive traditions of Tamil
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devotional Hinduism, reveals a good deal about an intellectual climate that prevailed in medieval Tamilnadu and that lives on in modern-day Tamil Hindu scholasticism. A salient feature of this intellectual climate is the use of narrative as a framework for interpretation. Precedents for the medieval theologians' prolific applications of this principle can be found in the earliest strata of Tamil literature. For the poets of the cankam age, narrative was conventional; it was an indispensable part of literary competence for both poet and audience. Every cankam poem, whether it belongs to the akam or to the puram branch of classical tradition, requires interpretation in terms of a narrative situation that is part of a larger story frame. Innuendos conveyed by carefully crafted images acquire meaning only against the backdrop of a story. The suggested comparison, one of the most effective techniques in the classical poet's repertoire, is perhaps the quintessential example of a poetic image that rests on a foundation of narrative. Classical Tamil literary culture, with its finely honed conventional apparatus, seems to have set the tone for postclassical Tamil literary history in a number of ways. Not least of these is the close relationship between narrative and interpretation. The classical poetic tradition contributed a great deal to the bhakti movement that began to emerge in Tamilnadu in full force around the seventh century, 29 and one feature of classical poetics that continued to exert a strong influence in the intellectual climate of the "bhakti period" and beyond is the use of story to organize thought. In this regard it seems to be immaterial whether the thought forms in question are predominantly poetic or predominantly religious in nature. This may account for the close association of poetics and religious thought in Tamil intellectual history, as well as in the intellectual history of Hindu India outside of the Tamil-speaking region. The transition from classical Tamil poetics to the poetics of bhakti and subsequently to theological commentary on the saints' poems is marked by a movement from a psychological and social frame of reference to a religious frame of reference and by a back-and-forth movement between the universal and the particular. The stories that frame classical puram poems are particulartheir dramatis personae are historical characters but at the same time, the events depicted in these poems are projected onto a story line that is predetermined by convention. In akam poetry the particular yields totally to the universal. Classical love poems are populated by characters who are identified only by their roles the chief man (talaivan), the chief woman (talaivi), the girl friend (toli), the mother (tay), etc. The poetics of bhakti brings us back to the particular. The stories that frame these poems, according to tradition, are the life stories of the saint-poets. But the personae of the saints, like those of the puram heroes, are molded, to a degree, by convention. Saintly lives are not random; they follow certain patterns that are built up from hints found in the saints' own poems and from other sources.30 The saints are vivid to us as religious "heroes," but we do not feel we know them as, say,
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we feel we know Samuel Johnson when we read Boswell. Finally, in allegorical exegesis of the saints' poems we are in the realm of the universal once more. Details of the poems, which on a surface level are interpreted in biographical terms, are assigned abstract meanings. By drawing out the threads that connect medieval Tamil Hindu culture with classical Tamil literary culture, it becomes apparent that story precedes poetry, in the sense that it is a major part of the conventional apparatus poets employ when they "make" poems, and also that story generates commentary upon poetry. This suggests that historically, whether Tamils directed their aesthetic and intellectual energy toward poetic expression or toward theological expression, they often used stories to order their ideas. It is intriguing to speculate to what extent this theme in Tamil intellectual history manifests a wider Indian pattern. Indeed, stories of all kinds, whether mythological, folk, or courtly, abound in Indian languages. Just think of the Mahabharata, the Puranas, the Pañcatantra, the Jatakas, etc. Furthermore, in many of these texts, stories are strongly flavored with didacticism. Authors use stories to illustrate principles. Often stories are embedded in other stories, with the framing story containing a commentary on the story it frames. 31 This structure carries over into and perhaps originates in traditional performance genres. Storytellers throughout India offer running commentaries on the stories they perform. The Tamil material discussed in this chapter suggests that Indians are so accustomed to thinking through stories and presenting ideas in story form that they will manipulate a text in various ways to make it yield the story they need to generate a favored interpretation. Thus Srivaisnava commentators find a feminized Nammalvar in the akapporul verses of Tiruvaymoli, and the Saiva Siddhantins allegorize the familiar akam frame narrative that structures Tirukkovaiyar. It is doubtful that Manikkavacakar wrote Tirukkovaiyar as an allegory. Tirukkovaiyar demonstrates Manikkavacakar's great poetic and religious sensibility, allegory notwithstanding. However, the fact that the Siddhantins find allegory in Tirukkovaiyar reveals a great deal about the standards of interpretation that prevailed in medieval Tamilnadu and about the culture that produced these standards. Notes 1. "anupavananiyana manikkavacakar anupavanananulakac ceyta itanaik kamanulakak karutavatu ettunaip perumpilai." C. Tantapani Tecikar, Tirukkovaiyar unmaivilakkam, munnurai [introduction] (Tiruvavatuturai: Tiruvavatuturai Atinam, 1965), n.p. 2. Note, however, that Tirukkovaiyar, like the love poetry of classical Tamil, while it plainly makes reference to the physical dimension of love, is never graphically erotic, in the manner of some Sanskrit-erotic poetry. 3. Tamil Saivites distinguish between an abstract conception of divinity, which they designate civam, and the anthropomorphized god of mythology, who is known in
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Tamil as civan A. The latter term, in contrast with the former, is grammatically marked as masculine singular. 4. E.g., Kamil Zvelebil, The Smile of Murugan on Tamil Literature of South India (Leiden: E. J. Brill, 1971), p. 198, n. 1; C. and H. Jesudasan, A History of Tamil Literature (Calcutta: YMCA Publishing House, 1961), pp. 8687; T. P. Meenakshisundaram, A History of Tamil Literature (Annamalainagar: Annamalai University, 1965), p. 138. 5. Maureen Quilligan, The Language of Allegory (Ithaca: Cornell University Press, 1979), p. 20. 6. Two "old" commentaries are extant. Very little information, not even the author's name, is available concerning the second. 7. P. V. Comacuntaranar, Tirukkovaiyar: Palaiya uraiyum putiya vilakkamum (Tinnevelley: The South India Saiva Siddhanta Works Publishing Society, 1970), p. xxi. 8. Zvelebil, The Smile of Murugan, p. 248. 9. Each of the flowers in the "garland" beheld by the hero signifies a particular part of his lover's anatomy. The lotus (tamarai) is compared to her face, the blue lily (kavi) to her eyes, the kumil blossom to her chest, and the November-flower (kantal) to her hands. Though the anatomical correlate for each flower is not given in the poem, an audience familiar with poetic convention would automatically make these associations. In terms of theological allegory, each of the flowers / body parts has further significance. The lotus / face signifies divine knowledge (civananam), the lilies / eyes signify compassion, the kumil / nose signifies "the quality of preceptorship" (aciriyatanmai), the konku flower (chest), because it is golden in color, signifies the radiance of civam that attracts the soul, and the kantal (hands), which are filled with nectar, signify the nectar of divine bliss (civananatten). The commentator also points out that the five landscapes of classical poetry are represented by these flowers (lotusmarutam, lilyneytal, kumilmullai, konkupalai, kantalkuriñci). This in turn is found to have theological significance. (See Tirukkovaiyar unmaivilakkam, pp. 2-4.) 10. The heroine's eyes are lethal because her glance "cuts to the quick" like a sharp spear (see TK 250). The signs by which the hero confirms that the heroine is mortal correspond point for point with the signs whereby Damayanti was able to distinguish the real Nala from the gods who were impersonating Nala in the famous story from the Mahabharata. (The eyes of the gods never blink; their feet float above the ground; and the garlands they wear never wither.) 11. The actual term in the original Tamil is valar vañci, literally, "growing creeper," a metaphor for a slim, young girl. 12. The commentator (Tantapani Tecikar) uses the term anma. Throughout the commentary the terms anma (self) and uyir (life-breath) are used more or less interchangeably. 13. Tirukkovaiyar unmaivilakkam, p. 6. Also, note the parallel with the Srivaisnava author's statement that Visnu sent the alvars to earth in order to lure human beings to Visnu's service. (See chapter 2.) 14. Margaret T. Egnor's recent work on Tirukkovaiyar with Temmoliyar, a modern-day exponent of Saiva learning, shows that the tradition is very much alive and that it gives wide scope to the talents of a creative commentator. See Egnor's "Ambiguity in the Oral Exegesis of a Sacred Text: Tirukkovaiyar." 15. See note I for full reference. 16. Saiva Siddhanta commentators understand the character known as the toli, the heroine's female companion, to be a personification of tiruvarul, the divine grace of civam. 17. "One-sided love" or kaikkilai is one of the seven phases of love (uri) recognized
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in the poetics of classical Tamil love poetry. However, kaikkilai and perunturai, love between unrefined people or mismatched love, only come to be considered an acceptable subject for poetry during the late classical period (c. fifth to seventh centuries A.D.). 18. See above. 19. Margaret Egnor discusses the polysemy of verses from Tirukkovaiyar in her paper ''Ambiguity in the Oral Exegesis of a Sacred Text: Tirukkovaiyar." (See note 14.) 20. The phrase in question is kamanran venrik koti, which Peraciriyar glosses as kamanatu verrikkoti (Kama's victorious banner) and Tantapani Tecikar glosses as kamanai vellum verrikkoti (the victorious banner that conquers Kama). On grammatical grounds the former is most likely correct, but Tecikar's version is predictable in light of his skittishness regarding Tirukkovaiyar's eroticism. 21 See chapter 4. 22 See chapter 3. 23. See chapter I for examples. 24. Navaratnam, Vanmikanathan, and, to a certain extent, Yocum respond to Tiruvacakam as spiritual autobiography in their studies of the text. See G. Vanmikanathan, Pathway to God through Tamil Literature IThrough the Tiruvacakam (Delhi: Delhi Tamil Sangam, 1971); Ratna Navaratnam, Tiruvachakam: The Hindu Testament of Love (Bombay: Bharatiya Vidya Bhavan, 1963); and Glenn Yocum, Hymns to the Dancing Siva: A Study of Manikkavacakar's Tiruvacakam (New Delhi: Heritage Publishers, 1982). The sections of Tiruvacakam that are most resistant to such an interpretation are the "game-song" sections. The dramatized narrator of these hymns of praise to Siva, which are formally modeled after folk songs, is a group of girls. 25. There are a number of traditional literary sources of Manikkavacakar's life story. Principal among these is Tiruvatavurar Puranam by Katavul Mamunivar. M. Arunacalam suggests the fifteenth century as the most likely time for its composition. Tamil Ilakkiya Varalaru (Tiruchitrambalam: Gandhi Vidyalayam, 1969), vol. II, pp. 11639. 26. Tirukkovaiyar unmaivilakkam, munnurai [introduction]. Egnor also cites this interpretation (see note 14 above). 27. For a discussion of signifier, signified, and secondary systems, see Roland Barthes, Elements of Semiology (with Writing Degree Zero), trans. A. Lavers and C. Smith (Boston: Beacon Press, 1968). 28. A. K. Ramanujan has developed the idea of bhakti taking over the signification system of classical erotic poetry in the Afterword to his Hymns for the Drowning: Poems for Visnu by Nammalvar (Princeton: Princeton University Press, 1981). See especially pp. 157-61 on "The Signifiers of Bhakti." Also, see A. K. Ramanujan and Norman Cutler, "From Classicism to Bhakti," in Bardwell L. Smith, ed., Essays on Gupta Culture (Delhi: Motilal Banarsidass, 1983), pp. 204-207 on the commentators' method. 29. See Ramanujan and Cutler. 30. A. K. Ramanujan has analyzed recurrent patterns and typologies in legends about the lives of Hindu women saints in his paper "On Women Saints," in John S. Hawley and Donna D. Wulff, eds., The Divine Consort: Radha and the Consort Goddesses of India (Berkeley: Berkeley Theological Union, 1982). 31. During the discussion following a panel presentation on "Audience-oriented Approaches to South Asian Texts" (annual meeting of the Association for Asian Studies, Chicago, April 1982), in which I participated, Wendy O'Flaherty observed that many Indian story texts intermingle story and commentary and that many Indian stories are generated from a core idea.
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CONCLUSION IN INDIA it is not true that all poetry is religious, nor that all religious expression takes the form of poetry; yet the relationship between the two is an especially close one. The Vedic hymns, the earliest and most carefully preserved religious texts in Hinduism, are poems. In these poems, the seers of ancient Indo-Aryan society recorded their visions of a higher dimension of reality that lay beyond the reach of the minds of ordinary human beings. With the passing of time, however, the hymns of the Veda came to be valued more for their instrumental function in a complex sacrificial ritual than as vital songs of experience; and eventually even the Vedic sacrifice was largely displaced by or, in some cases, subordinated to other forms of worship. Few Indians study the Vedas nowadays. Even among those Brahmin families that still ensure that their sons receive a traditional religious education, the texts are learned by a procedure of rote repetition that emphasizes sound over sense. Consequently, the hymns are seldom comprehended as poetry. For many generations now, the living link between poetry and religion has lain elsewhere. One context in which that link remains vital is bhakti, and nowhere in India has bhakti been a major force in religious life longer than in Tamilnadu. The phrase "bhakti poetry" potentially may signify many different things to different people. In the Tamil-speaking region of India, "bhakti poetry" signifies first and foremost the poems composed by the Vaisnava and Saiva poet-saints who lived between the sixth and ninth centuries. In their respective sectarian traditions, these poems are sometimes referred to as the "Tamil Veda" (dravidaveda), and this appellation is most appropriate in the sense that, like the hymns of the Vedic seers, Tamil bhakti poems are reflections of their authors' communion with divinity. For most Indians, however, the Vedic hymns have ceased to communicate a sense of direct communion with the divine. Furthermore, since access to the Vedas was traditionally restricted to male members of "twice-born" (dvija) castes, which in Tamilnadu essentially meant Brahmins, only a relatively small proportion of the population was ever party to the Vedic seers' experience. In contrast, the religious experience of the Tamil saints remains accessible to large numbers of devotees, largely through the medium of their poems, and access to the poems has always been unrestricted on the basis of caste or sex.
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My purpose in the preceding chapters has been, in part, to describe the various ways in which the saints' poems are verbal embodiments of their authors' experience of divinity. This description of the Tamil bhakti poems does not, however, do full justice to the important role they have played and continue to play in the lives of Tamil Vaisnava and Saiva devotees, for these poems also serve as a paradigm upon which Tamil devotees model their own experience of divinity. Bhakti poems transmute the poet's experience into the devotee-audience's experience, and in this way the audience is brought into the kind of close proximity to divinity that distinguishes the saints from ordinary mortals. The blurring of the boundary between saint and god and between devotee and saint is basic to the poetics of bhakti. Further, a traditional poetic analysis of the content and form of bhakti poems as purely verbal icons is only the first step in reconstructing a poetics of bhakti that respects the meaning of these poems for devotees. A poetic analysis of bhakti poems as they are experienced by Tamil Hindus must be complemented by a rhetorical and performative analysis if it is to remain true to the context in which they are most meaningful for their principal audience. Bhakti poems are comparable to the script of a play in that the verbal document is only one aspect of a total performance situation. Just as an adequate poetics of the drama must take into account the relationships a play establishes among characters, actors, and audience members within a fictive theatrical reality, similarly, a poetics of bhakti must take into account not only the words of a bhakti poem but also the entire context in which it is recited. One might even claim that bhakti poetry is more intimately connected with the context of its performance than is a script for a play. This is because the internal rhetorical structure of a model bhakti poem is actually projected onto the context of its performance. More specifically, the triangular relationship of poet, god, and audience that is encoded in the texts of these poems is embodied in the context of their performance. It is useful to think of Tamil bhakti poetry as a poetic corollary of a theology of embodiment. In Tamilnadu, bhakti became a major force and the saints composed their poems at the same time that Tamil kings were building stone temples that housed consecrated images of Visnu and Siva in their various local incarnations. One need not search long or far to find points of connection between the saints' poems and temple worship. On the one hand, the saints frequently refer to the locales where famous images of Visnu and Siva are enshrined, and in some of their poems they describe the physical characteristics of particular images of these gods as well as ritual acts that are included in the routines of temple worship. On the other hand, recitation of the saints' poems is an important component of the ritual performed in temples. Yet these are only the obvious ways in which bhakti poems and the worship of embodied images of god mutually implicate one another. The poetics of bhakti also mirrors the religious ideology implicit in temple worship, for just as the presence of divinity is thought to be literally embodied
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in a properly consecrated stone or metal image of god, similarly the saint's communion with divinity is literally embodied in the recitation of his or her poetry in a consecrated ritual environment. All who participate in the ritual performance of the saint's poem reenact the saint's experience of communion with the deity. My description of bhakti poems as verbal embodiments of both their author's and their audience's experience responds to the role these poems fulfill in ritual and in sectarian discourse. The poems that can be most readily accommodated to this ideal are those in which the presence of the poet, the god, and the audience are clearly delineated in the internal rhetorical structure of the poem. These poems are complemented by the hagiographic accounts of their authors' lives, by the sculptural images of their authors found in temples, and by the ritual occasions that include recitation of the poems by ritual specialists who, within the ritual context, are identified with their authors. However, some poems that are included in the canons of Tamil Vaisnavism and Saivism do not accommodate themselves so readily to this ideal. Especially in a poem where first-person narration is replaced by dramatized narration, one is less likely to interpret the poem as a direct reflection of the author's personal experience. Faced with a large number of such poems, composed by the same poets who authored poems that are paradigms of the bhakti ideal, Vaisnava and Saiva sectarian leaders are offered three possible strategies: they can reject or modify the ideal; they can shape their perceptions of these poems to fit the ideal; or they can choose not to accept poems that deviate from the ideal as "true" bhakti poems and consequently refuse to view the entire corpus of the saints' poetry as a unified oeuvre. For the most part, they choose the second alternative and interpret dramatized narrators as imaginative projections of the saints' own personae. In many cases, as in the Srivaisnava interpretation of Nammalvar's akapporul verses (discussed in chapter 5), this entails postulating that the male saint imagined himself to be a female intimate of Visnunot an entirely unlikely supposition in a theological environment where the aim of all devotees, male and female, is to identify with the female consort of god. The game-song poems included in Manikkavacakar's Tiruvacakam, which also have female narrators, are normalized in much the same way by modern Saiva commentators. But one does occasionally encounter a text such as Manikkavacakar's Tirukkovaiyar, which, because it is so rigorously structured by poetic conventions that are incompatible with the bhakti poetic ideal, cannot, through a few deft commentatorial moves, be interpreted as a direct reflection of its author's experience. For this reason, though it is included along with Tiruvacakam in the eighth Tirumurai, Tirukkovaiyar is treated by the Tamil bhakti tradition as a marginal text. It is technically considered to be part of the Tirumurai because it was composed by Manikkavacakar, but its content is not directly related to Manikkavacakar's life story, recitation of the text is not incorporated into home or temple ritual, and, for the most part, it is ignored by lay devotees. The only context in which
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Tirukkovaiyar occupies a place of any significance in the religious life of Tamil Saivas is as a vehicle for an abstruse theological allegory that is studied only by a relatively small number of Saiva savants. In conclusion, Tamil bhakti poetry as a genre is defined by the confluence of textual, rhetorical, and performative variables. In Tamil Hinduism, bhakti poetry is an ideal that is closely affiliated with the sectarian biographies of the bhakti poets and with the worship of the embodied images of the deities they celebrate. The central value in this ideal is the unification of saint, god, and devotee in a common experience of one another, and in this sense they are truly "songs of experience."
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PART III POEMS
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Karaikkalammaiyar THE POEMS OF Karaikkalammaiyar ("the lady of Karaikkal") are included in the eleventh Tirumurai of the Tamil Saiva canon. She is numbered among the sixty-three nayanmars, and consequently her story is recounted in the twelfth-century hagiography, Periya Puranam. According to the purana's account, she was the daughter of a merchant who lived in Karaikkal, a port town on the Coromandel coast, and before she attained sainthood she was called Punitavati. As a girl she was supposed to have been a great beauty as well as a dedicated devotee of Siva. She was married to a young merchant named Paramatattan, with whom she lived in Karaikkal, all the while cultivating the virtues of a faithful wife. One day a customer of Punitavati's husband gave him two mangoes, which he in turn gave to his wife to keep for his midday meal. Before Paramatattan returned, a Saiva mendicant came to the saint's house begging for alms, and she gave him rice and one of the two mangoes her husband had given her. When Paramatattan came home for his meal, Punitavati served him the other mango. After eating the fruit, which he found very tasty, Paramatattan asked his wife to bring him the second. Punitavati retired to the kitchen and prayed to Siva to help her in her predicament. Instantly another mango appeared in her hand, and she served it to her husband. This mango, however, was infinitely more delicious than the one that he had just finished eating, so the merchant knew that it could not be one of the two he had received from his customer. He asked his wife how she acquired the extraordinary fruit, and Punitavati reluctantly revealed her secret. However, Paramatattan doubted the veracity of his wife's story, and he asked her to perform the same miracle again, while he watched. Again Punitavati prayed to Siva, and again a mango appeared in her hand. Seeing this, the merchant took fright, and he fled from his wife, neglecting to release her from her conjugal responsibilities. While her husband set up another household and pursued his career as a merchant, Punitavati kept his house and looked after her physical well-being in anticipation of the day when he would return. After several years had passed, the saint's parents learned of her husband's whereabouts and brought their daughter to his house. When they arrived, Paramatattan and his second
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wife fell at her feet and worshiped her. Learning that her husband did not want her as a wife, Punitavati begged Siva to turn her body into a skeleton since she no longer had any use for her beauty. She then made a pilgrimage to Siva's abode in the Himalayas, walking on her hands with her feet dangling in the air. She was received by Siva, and the god allowed her to join his demon attendants and witness his dance at the cremation ground at Alankatu. Karaikkalammaiyar's story, like that of other Saiva devotees, expresses an underlying tension between the saint's intuitive calling to serve Siva and her responsibilities in the social realm. Karaikkalammaiyar's dedication to Siva did not mesh comfortably with her sense of wifely dharma; nevertheless, the saint refrained from defiantly throwing off her dharmic duty and pursuing a path of uncompromising bhakti. The saint was relieved when her husband released her from her obligation to keep a household for him, but she never considered walking out on him without his consent. (This more forceful sort of rejection of social role for the sake of bhakti is illustrated by the life of the Virasaiva saint Mahadevi.) The critical point in Karaikkalammaiyar's career came when her husband finally released her from her duties as a wife. Only then was she in a position to disregard the ways of the world, and this watershed in her life was dramatized by her transformation from a beautiful woman into a ghoulish skeleton. The saint's eccentric upside-down manner of walking seems to emphasize further the reversal of worldly values that, for the Saiva saint, is frequently a corollary of total dedication to god. The puranic account relates that during her journey to the Himalayas, people were struck with wonder and fear at the sight of the saint, but she was oblivious to everyone and everything around her. Karaikkalammaiyar is the attributed author of four works. These are Arputattiruvantati (one hundred verses), Tiruirattaimanimalai (twenty verses), and two short poems called Tiruvalankattu-mutta-tiruppatikam (eleven verses each). Few "hard facts" are known about the saint's life. Most scholars are of the opinion that she lived during the mid-sixth century A.D.
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Arputattiruvantati 1 When I was born and learned to speak I was overcome with love and I reached your red feet lord of gods, lord with the splendid black throat, will my sorrows never end? 5 The lord who gives birth to every living creature, the very lord who brings life to an end, will change our burning troubles to blessings if we just cryLord! My Father! 11 My mind was filled with one thing and nothing more, and when I saw it clearly I locked it inside my heart I gave myself to Ganga's lord who wears the shining moon in his hair, the lord whose palm radiates a bright light. 16 Now we have the lord's grace and we're free for all time, O my heart! We left all our sorrows behind when we swam across the pounding sea of birth, inlet to the ocean of deeds. 20 He is the knower, the one who grants knowledge, the knowledge that knows and the object of knowing, he is the brilliant sun, the earth and the sky.
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33 Whatever penance a man performs, whatever image he conjures, the perfect lord whose throat is blue as sapphire takes the form of his vision and all the while these dullards speak the wisdom of books and follow aimless paths. 37 If people are free from malice and they give their bodies and their minds to the lord who wears the moon in his long, matted hair, the lord who razed the three fortresses manned by cruel demon armies, they'll never be burdened by birth in this world. 61 I became your slave even though I couldn't see you, and now your image still eludes my eyes when people ask me, "how does your lord appear?" what can I say? which among all these forms is yours? 77 When the lord moves his feet the netherworld moves too, when he moves his head the highest heaven follows, and when he shakes his wrists, bound with bracelets, the four quarters tremble the stage will never bear the burden of his dance.
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Tiruvalankattu-mutta-tiruppatikam 1 She has shriveled breasts and bulging veins, in place of white teeth empty cavities gape. With ruddy hair on her belly, a pair of fangs, knobby ankles and long shins the demon-woman wails at the desolate cremation ground where our lord, whose hanging matted hair blows in all eight directions, dances among the flames and refreshes his limbs. His home is Alankatu 11 Demons gather around the peerless lord, beat one another with glee and rend the air with their cries, a partridge joins in the song while jackals who live nearby howl the part of the lute, and the wild-haired she-demon of Karaikkal tells about the Father, lord of splendid Alankatu in these ten verses of pure Tamil people who master them will find the path that leads to Siva and thrill with joy.
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Poykai, Putam, and Pey: The First Three Alvars'' THE FIRST THREE alvars" (mutal muvar) share a common legend in Srivaisnava hagiographic tradition. Appropriately, the first, second, and third tiruvantatis (of one hundred verses each), respectively attributed to Poykai, Putam, and Pey, are identical in form and very similar in content. Furthermore, there are some striking parallels in the first verses of each of the tiruvantatis, and these are accounted for in the legend that relates the circumstances that led the alvars to compose their poems. The legends of the alvars' lives are found in the Srivaisnava guruparampara texts. Two of the earliest and most frequently cited of these are the Arayirappati Guruparamparaprabhavam by Pinpalakiya Perumal Jiyar (thirteenth century) and the Divyasuricarita (in Sanskrit) by Garudavahana (twelfth-thirteenth century?). A summary of the hagiographic account follows. The first three alvars are said to have been "born" from flowers during three consecutive days: Poykai, an incarnation of Visnu's conch, from a lotus in a golden lotus pond at Tiruveka (present-day Kancipuram) during the Tiruvonam naksatra (the day the moon appears in the asterism Tiruvonam) of Aippaci month (OctoberNovember); Putam, an incarnation of Visnu's mace, from the blossom of a matavi vine at Tirukkatalmallai during the Avittam naksatra of Aippaci month; and Pey, an incarnation of Visnu's sword, from a red water lily growing in a well at Mayilai (present-day Mylapore, an area of Madras) during the Catayam naksatra of Aippaci month. Explanations for the alvars' names are also given: the first alvar was called Poykai because he was born in a pond (poykai); the second alvar was called Putam (Sanskrit: bhuta) because he was in communion with the most essential plane of being (according to this interpretation, the name is derived from Sanskrit bhu, "to be, to exist"); and the third alvar was called Pey (ghost) because he was so consumed by his devotion for Visnu that he behaved like a man possessed by a spirit. (Since Sanskrit bhuta is actually a close synonym for Tamil pey, Putam probably also acquired his name because he was "god-possessed.") At first, the alvars lived in their respective places of birth, each pursuing the path of devotion, unaware of one another's existence. Visnu, however,
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arranged to bring his three ardent devotees together. All three resolved to visit some of the places most sacred to Visnu, and they happened to arrive at Tirukkovalur at about the same time. When night fell, Poykai took shelter in the entrance hall of a sage's asrama, where he lay down, intending to spend the night. After some time had passed, Putam arrived at the same spot, also hoping to find shelter in the entrance hall. Upon recognizing a fellow devotee, Poykai welcomed Putam warmly and though there was little room in the hall, he said that where there is room for one to lie down, two may sit. The two saints thus resolved to spend the night sitting up in each other's company. But before long Pey arrived and he too received a warm reception from the others. Poykai and Putam told him that where there is room for two to sit, three may stand, and thus the three alvars planned to pass the night together. Visnu did not let matters rest there, however. He caused a violent storm to descend upon Tirukkovalur, and the sky grew so dark that the three alvars could not even see one another in the small entrance hall. Huddled together in their shelter, the saints gradually began to feel more and more crowded, and for no apparent reason. Then they simultaneously realized that the lord himself had joined them and that this was why there seemed to be less space in the small room. Upon attaining this realization, their "vision" was no longer hindered by the darkness, and they were able to "see" by the light of the lord's grace. This event is said to have inspired the first verse of each of their three antatis: Taking the earth as bowl, the vast sea as oil, and the burning sun as my lamp, I laid this garland of verses at the feet of the lord who holds a dazzling red wheel to keep the ocean of sorrows far away. Poykaiyalvar, MTA 1 With love as bowl, ardor as oil, and a joyful mind as wick, I swooned and lit a blazing lamp of knowledge for Naranan,
even as I delight in the sage Tamil tongue. Putattalvar, ITA 1
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I saw Tiru, I saw his body of gold, I saw his glorious hue, bright as the sun, I saw his golden wheel, triumphant in battle and the spiral conch he holds in his hand today I saw all these signs of my lord, whose body is blue as the sea. Peyalvar, MuTA 1 The alvars' experience of the lord's presence in the cramped entrance hall is also described in this verse from the first Tiruvantati: Lord who lifted a mountain to block the driving rain, in this beloved town of Koval you neither departed through the gate nor came inside, but chose to stay, together with the goddess, here in this entrance hall. Poykaiyalvar, MTA 86 The story of the first three alvars expresses in narrative form several important themes in Tamil Vaisnava thought. Miraculous birth seems to be a hallmark of major characters in Hindu myth and legend, and the alvars are no exception. Not only were the early alvars untainted by the pollution of passing through a womb (ayonija), but their birth from flowers, one of the typical offerings to a deity, adds extra emphasis to the point that they are completely pure beings (a flower is considered a suitable offering to a deity because it is pure). The story of the storm highlights the contrast between ordinary vision, which has the phenomena of the mundane world as its object, and a super-ordinary faculty, which, when developed, can enable one to catch a "glimpse" of the absolute. Metaphors of vision and light in this context are frequent in the poetry of the saints, no less so in the compositions of the Saivite saints than in the compositions of the alvars. But most important of all, this story seems to emphasize the theme of mutual respect and camaraderie among the lord's devotees. The ideal bhakta is intent upon honoring other bhaktas as much as he is intent upon honoring and worshiping the lord himself. Designated bhagavata seva (service to the devotees of Bhagavan), this theme was given considerable attention by the Srivaisnava acaryas. There is very little available information concerning the first three alvars other than the legend summarized above. Most scholars believe that they lived during the sixth century.
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Poykaiyalvar, Mutal Tiruvantati 1 Taking the earth as bowl, the vast sea as oil, and the burning sun as my lamp, I laid this garland of verses at the feet of the lord who holds a dazzling red wheel to keep the ocean of sorrows far away. 11 My mouth praises no one but the lord, my hands worship no one but the lord who bounded over the world, my ears hear no name, my eyes see no form but the name and form of the lord who made a meal of the poison he sucked from the she-devil's breast. 35 Tall lord, whatever the unchecked ardor of your servants may prompt them to say, don't take offense didn't the ten-headed demon scheme against you only to find truth and reach your feet at last? 55 See, Death's henchmen will never lay their hands on people who give themselves to the mighty cowherd who rests on a snake, for they know that whatever his servants do, our king keeps them for his own.
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61 The world and the end of the world, the black sea that flings brilliant waves, the mountains, red fire, the wind and the sky are all the creations of Tirumal's mind. 70 As long as there's life in this fleeting body worship Tirumal with garlands of perfect blossoms, with sacrifice, sacred rites and chants, and if you sing his names in praise, that's best of all. 86 Lord who lifted a mountain to block the driving rain, in this beloved town of Koval you neither departed through the gate nor came inside, but chose to stay, together with the goddess, here in this entrance hall. 92 Tirumal, lord who became sky and fire, the restless sea and the wind, lord sweet as honey and milk, how could you hope to fill your belly with the cowherd-woman's butter, when you swallowed the whole earth and spewed it up long ago?
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98 Punniyan, the god with tangled hair and body of shining gold, and Netumal, the god who leaped over the world, may wander, each his own way, in two separate forms, but one god always dwells in the other one's limbs. Putattalvar, Irantam Tiruvantati 1 With love as bowl, ardor as oil, and a joyful mind as wick, I swooned and lit a blazing lamp of knowledge for Naranan, even as I delight in the sage Tamil tongue. 14 Simple folk, don't say a word about people who make a world of their bellies, who spend their lives steeped in shameful deeds and evil ways, sing the names of the lord with four arms who stretched the eight directions, and travel the roads to sacred fords. 35 Some say the pleasures of the body are sweet, and some say water is sweeter still, O Father, if people could forget pleasure and water and just remember your grandeur, their safety would be sure.
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67 Dreaming, I saw the lord's body and the blazing wheel he holds in his hand, I saw the power of the lord who curses the disease of deeds, good and evil, the lord who cures ills of every kind. 90 When I approach Tirumal, our ruler, and offer my prayers to the tall lord with red eyes, won't I rule all the earth, won't I enter the heavens and become a god among gods? Peyalvar, Munram Tiruvantati 1 I saw Tiru, I saw his body of gold, I saw his glorious hue, bright as the sun, I saw his golden wheel, triumphant in battle and the spiral conch he holds in his hand today I saw all these signs of my lord, whose body is blue as the sea. 2 Today I saw your feet and I cut myself free from all the seven births, lord with the splendid basil-covered chest like a mountain dipped in gold, you captivated Tiru when you first caught her eye. Tirumal, my mind is all yours.
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38 The lord appears in austerities, in the stars and in burning fire, he became the lofty mountains, the eight directions, and the two spheres that illumine the sky every form is his form, only the lord can match the lord. 44 He became the world, the Eon, and the ocean, he became red fire and the sun's brilliant far-flung rays, O my heart, give your whole being to the feet of the lord who wears a crown of pure dazzling gold. 63 Two bodily forms mingle in my Father who dwells on the mountain where waterfalls cascade to earth he has long matted hair, a all crown a gleaming axe and a wheel, his waist is bound by a snake and by a thread of gold. 79 When thoughtful people stand by the lord who covers his chest with garlands and wears sweet basil on his body, black as the surging sea, when they restrain the five senses, examine them and banish them, they leave all the seven births behind.
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81 O my heart, he may elude the powers of the mind, but if we just give him a thought he comes to stay in our hearts and never leaves Be firm and tell me: who can resist his charms? 94 I lit the lamp of discernment, I searched for the lord, and caught him in my net then the lord of illusions quietly entered my heart and there he stands, sits, and reclines always without flaw. 99 The victorious lord who wields eight invincible weapons, the eight-armed lord who aimed his wheel and cut down the crocodile-monster in the pond is our refuge to the very soles of his feet.
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Nammalvar The circumstances of Nammalvar's birth and upbringing, like those of many other saints, were far from ordinary.* Nammalvar's parents, a Vellala chieftain named Kariyar and his wife, Utaiyanankaiyar, are said to have lived in the village of Kurukur (present-day Alvartirunakari). The couple lived for many years without a child, and for this reason they were unhappy. Once while traveling from Tiruvanparicaram, Utaiyanankaiyar's native village, to Kurukur, they stopped at a Visnu shrine at Tirukkurunkuti and prayed to the deity for the boon of a son. Visnu appeared to the temple priest in a dream and told him to inform the alvar's future parents that he, Visnu, would be born on earth as their child. Utaiyanankaiyar subsequently conceived and gave birth to Nammalvar on the day of the Vicakam naksatra during the month of Vaikaci (May-June). The child was very tranquiltoo tranquil, his parents feared, for he never cried, ate, or even opened his eyes. According to the guruparampara accounts, the alvar did not react to his surroundings because he was entirely absorbed in his experience of the lord and therefore did not experience the physical or social needs of ordinary human beings. The parents, however, being normal human beings, were understandably alarmed. Twelve days after the alvar's birth they took him to the Visnu temple in Kurukur and left him under a tamarind tree that was growing inside the temple compound. For sixteen years the alvar remained under the tree, utterly unresponsive to the world around him. Finally, when he was approached by Maturakavi, he broke his silence in order to answer a question posed to him by the other saint. In this way Maturakavi, a Brahmin who hailed from a village not far from Kurukur, found his master, Nammalvar, after making an extensive pilgrimage to Vaisnava shrines in many parts of India. After the meeting of the two saints, Nammalvar composed his four works, and, according to tradition, Maturakavi set them to music and sang them before audiences of devotees. Maturakavi is credited with only one composition of his own, Kanninunciruttampu, a hymn of praise to Nammalvar. The guru-disciple relationship exemplified by the two saints is considered to be eminently appropriate since, in the
* Further discussion of Nammalvar's life story and its significance appears in chapter 2.
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hagiographers' view, Nammalvar is an incarnation of Visvaksena, the commanding general of Visnu's armies, and Maturakavi is an incarnation of Kumudaganesa, a subordinate of Visvaksena. The lord himself is said to have bestowed the name Nammalvar (''our alvar") upon the saint in recognition of his premier position among the alvars. He is also known as Maran, Catakopan (Sanskrit: Sathakopa), the name found in the phalasruti verses of Tiruvaymoli, and Parankucan (Sanskrit: Parankusa). Nammalvar is the bhakta par excellence in Srivaisnava tradition, and in his story this is demonstrated by his unwavering contemplation of the lord and by his absolute indifference to anything that did not concern the worship of Visnu. The saint is said to have attained the paramount goal of union with the lord, and even today this union is given palpable form in the ritual of Vaisnava temples in Tamilnadu (see Appendix A). Nammalvar did not give any sign of recognition to his own parents, yet he did recognize Maturakavi, another devotee, who subsequently became the alvar's disciple. This aspect of the saint's story illustrates the idea that ties of spiritual affinity supersede those of blood. As this story implies, calls of duty to family and the call to achieve spiritual fulfillment are often perceived to be in conflict in Hindu tradition, yet the model of blood lineage (kulaparampara) is taken over by the spiritual "establishment" and transformed into a preceptor lineage (guruparampara). The idea that family ties are detrimental to a person's spiritual development is encountered frequently, both in stories about the saints and in their poetry. While some of the saints are portrayed as being concerned only with praising and performing service for the lord, later theologians emphasized that submission to a guru (a "father" figure) and membership in a "brotherhood" of devotees are indispensable prerequisites for most people who aspire to be bhaktas. The emphasis on brotherly loyalty among bhaktas is illustrated in the story of the first three alvars, and the importance of the preceptor or acarya is illustrated in the story of Maturakavi's dedication to Nammalvar. In fact, the relationship between Nammalvar and Maturakavi became paradigmatic for later generations of Srivaisnavas who developed the idea that the acarya is a critical mediator between the devotee and the lord. Their relationship not only emphasizes the precedence of the spiritual bond over the claims of blood, but it asserts that spiritual hierarchy does not necessarily follow the hierarchy of caste in the social realm. Maturakavi, a Brahmin, declares his subservience to Nammalvar, a non-Brahmin. The author of Acarya Hrdayam, a late thirteenth-century theological text, emphatically asserts that Nammalvar is the greatest of the saints, irrespective of his birth to non-Brahmin parents, and he generalizes this assertion by claiming that devotion, not caste, is the true measure of a person's status. Nammalvar, who probably lived during the ninth century, though some would claim that he lived earlier, is the author of four works: Tiruviruttam (100 verses), Tiruvaciriyam (71 lines), Periyatiruvantati (87 verses), and Tiruvaymoli (1,102 verses).
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Tiruvayrnoli 1.1.5 Every man knows the lord in the fashion of his own knowing, and the lord takes the form of every man's god, every man's god is a god with no failing the lord stays within reach of every man's law. 1.1.7 The lord who became the firmament, fire, wind, water and dry land, the lord who hides in everything as life-breath fills the body, the lord who pervades all of space, who dwells in the luminous Vedas, is the very same lord who swallows them all. 1.1.8 The lord, First in heaven and in all other worlds, the lord who defies the gods' comprehension, the supreme lord who swallowed all of creation and razed the three cities, the lord who gives knowledge even to gods was called Aran when he destroyed, and Ayan when he created the world.
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1.1.10 In the vast, cool sea filling each drop as he fills a whole world, everywhere on earth and in heaven without any exception, in every tiny, hidden space, and in every object that shines in space, concealed, yet all-pervading is the lord who swallows all. 1.2.1 Drop everything, then release your life-breath to the lord, master of Release. 1.2.8 Examine these three thought, word, deed abolish them and contain yourself in the lord. 1.3.1 For his devoted servants he's easy to reach, but for everyone else he's a mysterious sage: our elusive lord, who kindled passion in the goddess born from a lotus, was caught in the act stealing butter from the churn. How could he bear his shame when they bound his waist and tied him fast to a mortar?
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1.3.2 In birth after birth with no fixed place or boundary, the lord comes within everyone's reach, ever radiant, filled with goodness, with no origin or demise, complete, never-ending Release, key to insight, the lord and his grace are both container and contained. 1.3.6 Think, and again think about the being not contained by any form that plunges low, spreads wide, and rises high, but after thinking and thinking, even in the act of thinking the being of the lord is rarely known. O creatures filled with life! Think, and again think about them, call, and again call to them: Ari, Ayan, Aran Think about them, call to them, what the mind knows is only One. 1.3.10 I'll never grow tired of shouting praise for the good, lotus-feet of the lord dark as black clouds, who grew taller than the sky and traversed the vast earth I'll bow my head and embrace the feet of the lord who conjures illusions that baffle even wise gods with steady minds.
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1.5.1 Laden with my deeds, I call to the lord of the gods who dwell in the sky, First in the seven fertile worlds, "Thief," I cry, "Glorying in your thievery you stole butter and gulped it down." Then I think again, my body melts and I say, "Father, you became a leader of hardy cowherds and wrestled seven young bulls to win Pinnai whose smile blossoms fresh as jasmine." 1.5.4 The lord who has a single form became a single seed, and within his own being he became the three great gods, all the gods in heaven, the sages, all mankind and every other creature. This very lord who dwells in Vaikuntha and sleeps in the ocean he created within himself is the master of gods, the great lord, my own master. 1.5.6 Lord who became the cure for the deeds of this deed-laden man, leader of gods in heaven, Kesava, head of all households in the village of cowherds, Madhava, great lord of illusions who pierced seven spreading Sal trees, Sri's protector,
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O lord who bears all these names, this servant calls you and melts with love. 1.5.8 Black God, long ago you swallowed the seven worlds, disgorged them and entered them by the power of your illusions, then you appeared with a child's humble body and feasted on butter did you eat butter to dislodge some clods of earth that lay heavy in your stomach, so you wouldn't be touched by the ills that plague mortals? 1.5.9 We won't perish if we lean on the lord who appears in radiant form, the peerless leader of the gods, mother of all creatures, the lord, his own master, who wed the lotus-born goddess, my ruler, the lord of illusions who turned poisoned milk to nectar when he became an innocent infant and foiled the treacherous she-devil who babbled corrupt words. 1.6.3 My mind won't leave the side of the lord who can't be equaled or surpassed, my tongue trills the words of his song, my dancing limbs are possessed.
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1.6.7 Bow your head at the feet of the lord who chopped off all the heads and arms of the king who ruled Lanka, land girdled by the vast sea and leave the ocean of days far behind. 1.6.10 Handsome Madhava, the lord who carries a fierce bird as his banner, annihilates evil deeds in a flash. 1.7.3 I slashed away the delusions of birth when I gulped down that pure nectar, my brilliant ruby, master of illusions, who became a tender sprout in the cowherd clan and caught a spanking at their hands. 1.7.4 How could I ever desert the lord who settles in my mind to set me free from delusion, the lord bright as a display of brightly burning lamps, leader of the gods who are never forgetful, tender sprout who gives marvelous gifts, the lord who took me into his fold. 1.7.5 Could I ever desert the lord who comes in a flash and grants salvation, my lamp, my life-breath, the prankster who lewdly peered into the eyes of cowherd maids?
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1.7.7 I never tried to make him stay inside me, the lord came on his own and stole away my heart, he sticks to my flesh and mixes with my breath of life when this is his way could he ever let me go? 1.7.8 The lord who stands first among ancient immortals, who delights in Pinnai's long arms, graceful as bamboo, will become a weakling if he tries to leave me or stray from my good heart. 1.8.7 He wrestled seven bulls, swallowed the seven worlds, filled me with the coolness of his heaven and became my very mind. 1.9.2 My Father, Kesava, who appears in infinite forms, became a boar long ago and carried off the world, this lord who eludes the thoughts of gods cracked the elephant's tusks, he dwells deep in the ocean and still is always at my side.
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1.9.4 Never parted from his three ardent ladies the goddess of riches, the Earth, and the simple cowherd maid, the lord who rules the three worlds and swallows them whole, our lord who rests on a banyan leaf and conjures great illusions in the ocean is Kannan the child I carry on my hip. 1.9.5 The lord who drank the she-demon's life-breath with her milk when she sat him on her hip and gave him her breast, the lord who created the naked god, the god without birth, Indra and all the world is the lord of illusions who lives in my heart. 2.2.9 Lord Kannan, the Protector who takes all of creation into his belly, made the creator-god who faces all the directions, he made lord Indra, the gods in the sky and the heavenly worlds. 2.3.1 O breath that gives life to my flesh, what a treasure you are!
Because you are here within me Madhu's slayer, my Father, leader of gods in heaven, and I have mingled our beings
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just as honey, milk, ghee, sugar syrup and nectar flow in a single stream. 2.3.2 Lord who can't be equaled or surpassed, great lord of illusions who assumes the form of every being, you became my life-breath, my father and the mother who bore me, O Father who reveals mysteries that defy comprehension, this slave can't fathom all you have done. 2.3.8 Others may focus their minds and perform penance for eons without end, but I reaped the fruit of penance in this very life, in a matter of days I overcame the sorrows of birth, my heart stayed true to my Master who raided the larder and ate milk and butter on the sly. 2.3.9 When I dived in and gorged myself on the virtues of the pure lord, Kannan, who wears cool basil that fills the air with its fragrance, master of gods in heaven, the lord who can't be contained on earth or in the sky, the jungle of disease withered away and then this slave went mad with joy.
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2.3.10 When will I become a brilliant light free from joy and sorrow, free from births, disease, old age and death, and when will I join the servants of the lord of illusions who holds a blazing wheel and a conch, the lord who watches over the earth and the clouds in the sky. 2.4.1 What her mother said: She dances and her mind wanders, she sings and her eyes fill with tears, she searches all over and criesNarasimhaa . . . ! This girl, bright brow and all, is wasting away. 2.4.3 What her mother said: Like a bar of lac or wax thrust into fire her mind is in peril and you are heartless. What shall I do for you, lord who razed Lanka, the land ruled by the demon? 2.4.10 What her mother said: Night and day her peerless eyes swim in tears: lord who turned Lanka's fortune into smoke, don't scorch this simple girl and make her gentle glances wither.
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2.5.1 My master with shining hair who wears a garland, sandal, and a sacred thread, who holds a conch and a wheel, showed me his love and took my life-breath into his heaven his great eyes are red lotuses, his mouth, red as ripe fruit, is a red lotus, and his feet are red lotuses, too his body is burnished gold. 2.5.7 The lord fierce as a bull in battle, who wears a crown of gold and cool, flowering basil, the lord who sleeps in the milky sea with a snake for his bed vanquished seven bulls to win Pinnai, girl with arms graceful as bamboo, and pierced seven spreading Sal trees covered with blossoms rich in honey. 2.7.5 Madhu's slayer, the lord who wears a shining crown, has lotus-feet, lotus-hands and brilliant red lotus-eyes, his body is a luminous black mountain, his wondrous conch the bright moon, and his wheel is the sun.
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2.7.9 Night and day I cried aloud, ''Lord who shelters Sri, O lord with red lotus-eyes!" I whirled around in confusion, and tears poured from my eyes till my breath came in hot sighs, then all my evil deeds fell away, my happiness grew and you stayed here inside me day after day O lord with wild hair. 2.8.3 As Ayan, the creator who appeared in his navel, as Aran, the destroyer who is part of his body, together with Tiru the goddess who rests on his chest, he performs great deeds which meet our senses at every turn. 2.8.5 The unaging lord, source of all things, who protects the three worlds, the lord who saves us from ceaseless births and from all our other sorrows, my pure lord, first among the gods, became a horse, a tortoise, a Fish and a man. 2.8.7 Who can fathom the illusions conjured by Mal on this earth, the woman with long arms locked tightly in his embrace? he measured the world with his strides, he became a boar
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and scooped up the earth from the depths of the sea, he reclines, sits, and stands on the very earth he swallowed and spewed up once more. 2.9.5 No matter if death finds me in heaven, in hell or in the glory of Release, I'll rejoice and keep my thoughts fixed on the lord without birth who has taken countless forms. 2.9.6 Lord of blissful gods, of creatures with senses and insentient things, lord who shines with the light of joy, come to me so I may worship you and delight always in joyous thoughts, words, and deeds. 2.9.10 Lord, great blazing flame, who conquered seven bulls and turned splendid Lanka to ashes, don't trust me! When you take me to your feet of gold don't ever let me run off again. 2.10.3 There's no profit in vain deeds, O heart, but to reach the temple on the mountain at Mal's dark grove surrounded by gardens of dazzling beauty, the temple where the lord dark as a storm makes his home, that is a real deed.
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2.10.4 Casting off the strong bonds of deeds, wandering in search of salvation, reaching the magnificent temple on the mountain, veiled in clouds at Mal's dark grove, home of the lord who lifted a great mountain, that is real strength. 2.10.5 To gather strength, to turn from evil deeds and travel to the temple on the mountain, surrounded by clear pools at Mal's dark grove, the temple of the lord who upholds virtue with his wheel, is real skill. Phalasrutis 1.3.11 Catakopan of Kurukur, fertile town filled with gardens, has performed humble service by singing these thousand polished verses for the lord who churned the ocean capped with waves, the lord the gods worship so they may rise to high places people who master these ten verses of the thousand will rise with the gods and escape the prison of births.
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1.6.11 Catakopan has spoken these flawless thousand verses which tell of Madhava, the lord who is never tainted by sin or loss of power people who faithfully sing these ten verses of the thousand will never be born again. 2.2.11 Catakopan of Kurukur has artfully sung these thousand verses in praise of the beautiful Dancer who rules the seven worlds people who faithfully sing these ten verses of the thousand will never be in need. 2.8.11 This man of the fertile Valuti country, where gardens swarm with bees, has sung these thousand Tamil verses and set them to music to honor the lord with black body and red eyes people who are devoted to these ten verses of the thousand will reign in heaven and win the glory of Release. 2.10.11 Accomplished Catakopan of Kurukur, fertile town never plagued by confusion attained clear vision and spoke these thousand verses about the fame of the lord who created the world and filled it with meaning these ten verses of the thousand will bring life in this world to an end and show the way to the gracious lord's feet.
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Manikkavacakar THE STORY OF Manikkavacakar's life is not included in the Periya Puranam, the "official" Tamil Saiva hagiography, but incidents relating to his life appear in other Tamil puranas such as the "Old" Tiruvilaiyatal Puranam, a work of the thirteenth century, and the better-known Tiruvilaiyatal Puranam of the seventeenth century. There is also a shorter work called Tiruvatavurar Puranam, which is exclusively devoted to an account of Manikkavacakar's life. According to these accounts, Manikkavacakar, the son of Brahmin parents, was born in Tiruvatavur, a village not far from Madurai, the capital city of the Pantiya kingdom. As a boy he showed exceptional intelligence, and he was summoned by the Pantiya king, called Arimarttanar in the puranic account, to serve as his minister when he was still a youth. Manikkavacakar's career was characterized by repeated and sometimes violent conflicts between his responsibilities to the Pantiyan and his all-consuming urge to devote himself heart and soul to the service of Siva. The beginning of this conflict was marked by a conversion experience that totally remade the saint's sense of loyalty and priorities. (See note to Tiruvammanai 9.) Because of his temporal master's lack of insight, Manikkavacakar was punished more than once for not fulfilling his ministerial duties, but the puranic account presents these incidents as a series of lessons by which Siva, through the (sometimes unwilling) instrument of his devotee, arranged to enlighten the king and secure his commitment to the Saiva cause. Manikkavacakar longed to renounce the world from the day he became Siva's disciple, but Siva appeared determined to prolong his devotee's days on earth. He would not allow the saint to resign his post as minister until the Pantiyan's commitment to Saivism was secure, and even then he ordered him to travel to various places in the Tamil country, singing his hymns. When Manikkavacakar reached Chidambaram at the end of his journey, Siva commanded him to represent the Cola king in a debate with Buddhist monks who were patronized by the king of Ceylon. In the end, the saint merged with the image of Nataraja (Siva as "lord of the dance") at Chidambaram and left the world behind, but only after Siva came to Chidambaram disguised as a scribe, recorded the hymns of Tiruvacakam, and commissioned the saint to compose Tirukkovaiyar.
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Manikkavacakar's story, like Karaikkalammaiyar's, manifests a sense of conflict between religious commitment and social responsibility, but the source and implications of this conflict are somewhat different in the two stories. But for the command of his guru, Siva, Manikkavacakar would have deserted his post as king's minister and retired from life in the world. But in the interest of propagating Saivism, the saint was required to maintain his ties with the world until he had fulfilled the task Siva had determined for him. His major contributions were to consolidate the Pantiyan's commitment to (and hence patronage of) Saivism, and to attract people to the Saiva faith through the power of his poetic talent. Manikkavacakar's story, like the stories of a number of other major Saiva figures, but unlike Karaikkalammaiyar's story, reveals a preoccupation with the relationship between representatives of the Saiva faith and the authority of the state. The saint's faith is treated not just as a personal affair, but also as an affair of vital interest for the future of Saivism. Manikkavacakar's story also shows that later generations of Tamil Saivites thought about the audience of the saint's poemshe is depicted traveling to various Saiva shrines singing his hymns and thereby winning converts, and also the scribe appears to record his hymns for the benefit of future generations of Saiviteseven if the subject of the poems themselves is the relationship between the poet and the deity. Manikkavacakar's poems and life story, taken together, reflect both the private and the public faces of Tamil bhaktiin the terminology of classical Tamil poetics, its akam and its puram dimensions. On the one hand, bhakti is psychological and emotional, a matter of communion between devotee and deity. Even in the early saints' poems this is clear, but the poems of Tiruvacakam carry a stronger emotional charge than the poetry of most of Manikkavacakar's predecessors. But, however much Manikkavacakar's poems may be admired for the "heartmelting" effect they have on their audience, the saint's life story seems to make the point that religious commitment is not only a private relationship between devotee and deity. The hagiographers also envision a Saiva social and political order, and at the top of this order is a king-devotee whose rightful role is "defender of the faith." Manikkavacakar is admired not only because his expression of personal devotion is a model for other devotees, but also because he contributed to the goal of a Saiva society. Evidence of various kinds points to the conclusion that Manikkavacakar lived during the ninth century, though some scholars have argued that the saint lived earlier. In Tirukkovaiyar Manikkavacakar refers by name to a king named Varaguna. If indeed this was Varaguna Pantiya II (reigned 862-80) and saint and king were contemporaries, as a number of scholars believe, Manikkavacakar's lifetime can be assigned with a reasonable degree of certainty to the ninth century. Manikkavacakar is the author of two works: Tiruvacakam (containing fifty-one separate poems of varied length and structure) and Tirukkovaiyar (four hundred verses).
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Tirukkovaiyar 1 What he said after seeing her for the first time Beautiful lotus blossoms, splendid blue lilies, colorful, flowering kumil from Tillai, home of the lord, blossoms of silkwood and new November-flowers are joined in this garland filled with a divine fragrance. It is sinuous as a liana, graceful as a swan and it shines bright as the handsome Love-god's triumphant banner. 2 What he said Is she a courier for Death, or a companion for Love, the disembodied god? Is she a woman from incomparable Tillai, or an innocent peacock? And where does she dwell in a blossom, in the sky, in the waters or in the netherworld of serpents? How can I say? 3 What he said Her lethal eyes blink, her feet touch the ground and the flowers she wears have withered O my troubled mind this girl with a small brow has a waist too frail to support her breasts and her long arms are graceful as bamboo,
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she is lovely as Tillai, home of Lord Hara who rides a spirited bull but she is no goddess. 6 What he said to his own heart so that she would overhear It's as if a shaft were flung from the shell-covered shore of the Eastern Sea and slipped into a great yoke on the Western Sea's shore. This girl with eyes shapely as kentai fish left her own people on Kailasa home of Tillai's ancient lord. I'll praise no god but the fate which gave her to me. No other god fills me with awe. 8 What he said after their union in love If she is nectar and I am its savor, it is the god of fortune who made it so. Who could tell us apart here in this hidden garden protected by the bamboo that cover the rocks at Mount Potiyil, home of Puliyur's spotless lord? 11 What he said to a passing bee O bee, in your vast fields are the lilies as sweet as the mouth of this girl whose waist is so frail it suffers like people who don't sing of Tillai and its Ambalam, home of the lord adorned with a snake who melts the bones of his devotees who worship him with hands joined in prayer?
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20 What his friend said to him when his body grew thin from lovesickness Did you go to study sweet Tamil verses at the academy of Kutal, high-walled city of the lord who dwells in my mind and in my heart, who stays at Tillai where flowing streams are held by dams, or did you go to study music where they play the seven tones? My lord, whatever has happened to your shoulders great as mountains? 23 What he said in response to his friend's advice You'd never say such things if you saw this golden sprout, perfect as a painting, this girl, my life-breath whose breast glitters with jewels. She's a peacock on Kailasa, the northern mountain, home of the ruby-red Dancer whose pure gold temple at Tillai's small Ambalam shines from afar. You didn't see her arms graceful as sugarcane. 70 What her girlfriend said to her after she met with her lover Tillai's lord shot a fiery blast from the eye he conceals in his brow and burnt up the god who spreads passion's contagion with his sugarcane bow,
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and here on the lord's lofty mountain your eyes change from black to red and your lips, once red as ripe fruit, turn pale. Does this mountain pool adorn itself with flowers rich in nectar to compete with your eyes, the treasure sought by all these bees? 71 What the girlfriend said about the lovers' union Like the crow's two eyes that share a single pupil, today these two share one life-breath in separate bodies. Here at the mountain of the lord who combines all things in himself, the lord who stays in Ambalam's great gardens, this peacock of a woman and this man share joy and pain alike. 75 What he said so that she and her girlfriend would overhear I'm hapless as people who live without the grace of Ambalam's lord, the god who wears a lion's skin, who stands unmoved at the end of time when the heavens fold, vast floods rise and cover the hills, and solid earth caves in. This girl, slim as a liana, makes me ride a palm-leaf horse.
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102 What her girlfriend said so that he would overhear He's overwhelmed like people filled with honest love for the feet of Ambalam's lord, the god with a jet-black throat. This man holds a skirt of leaves in his trembling hand. He asks about a buffalo, yet he carries no bow. It's a pity when such a noble man raves like one gone mad. 109 What he said to her girlfriend Vast as the love I feel for the lord, black as my bonds that he takes away, bright as Tillai, his home, white as the ash he smears on his shoulders, long as the words we speak to praise his flower-like feet are her great eyes. 115 What her girlfriend said to him My lord, you gave me riches from the countryside surrounding Tillai's Ambalam, home of the Ruler who breaks the bonds of affection, and I passed them on. And what happened next is quite a tale: There is nothing that slim-waisted girl wouldn't do with that skirt of flowers short of grinding it up and smearing it all over her limbs.
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120 What he said to her when they were alone Innocent girl with jewelled breasts, was it because you took me for lotus-eyed Netumal and this mountain he made for the hooded cobra, his bed or was it to stay in the lotus of my heart that you came to this vast garden on cool Kailasa, mountain of Tillai's lord? 144 What her girlfriend said to her own heart so that he would overhear On this tall mountain where waterfalls plunge to earth, here at the mountain-home of Ambalam's lord who shows his compassion and takes me for his own young parrots stay close to barren stalks in this meadow where the grain is all picked over. They remind me that separation is always cruel even if only from a devil Remember this well. 166 What he said She is a water lily, rich in honey that grows in forest ponds at Tillai, town of shining gardens where the lord sweet as ripe honey makes his home, the lord who takes me as his servant so I won't perish in hell, and I am the new moon that climbs high in the sky and makes her bloom with his steady light.
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178 What her girlfriend said to him, warning him of scandal If you come here and they mistake you for the son of the lord adorned with snakes who lives on Tillai's great mountain, the lord who enslaves even people free of bonds they will spread great blossoms before you, sing your praises and pay homage, but if they should find you out how can this lady survive? 248 What passersby said to the grieving foster mother whose daughter had eloped with her lover Sandalwood swarming with bees, pearls from the deep ocean floor, and white conch always go to ornament the bodies of people who crave them, and sweet-voiced girls, supple as sugarcane, beautiful as small Ambalam, home of Lord Siva who wears the great river called Ganga as a crown are just the same. 250 What her girlfriend said to him when he had failed to visit for several days Good man from the mountain where a monkey feasts on sweet plantains that grow in upturned bunches, and then sleeps in cool shade beneath the very tree he plundered,
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what sort of grace do you bring to this girl with mournful eyes that cut to the quick like well-sharpened spears? She suffers like people mindless of Ambalam's lord who ploughs the field of battle with his bloodthirsty spear. 287 What she said when her foster mother arranged for the exorcist to come If this pallor doesn't leave me as soon as the goat loses its life to their rites the neighbors will tell tales, but if I should be cured somehow, what will I be to this man of the harbor-town who makes me suffer like people who don't contemplate Ambalam, home of the unfathomable lord the two gods couldn't find in regions high or low? 289 What she said to her girlfriend in defense of her honor Let mother burn with anger, let the neighbors scold, let the town laugh, and you, girl with flashing earrings, go ahead, reproach me, I will tell how it was. I'm as pure as people who praise Tillai's lord, the One who never leaves my thoughts or my words. I give you my solemn word.
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292 What her girlfriend said in ridicule of the exorcist Let people drink toddy, if that is their way. I won't stop them. While we bathed in a spring on the towering mountain of the lord who lives at Ambalam, a man with bright shoulders stood near, but you had other ideas. O god! There is no one wise as you in all the world. 304 What her foster mother said to her mother Our girl, beautiful as small Ambalam where the gods worship the feet of Tillai's lord won't serve any god, and when her man goes to rain arrows on enemies who hold back tribute, he stays in no house but hers. This is the nature of people fine as jewels fashioned in the sea. 315 What her girlfriend said to her when she despaired because her lover had to leave Girl with shining brow, beautiful as Tillai, home of the lord who vanquishes enemies when he gives his trident a turn, the lord who raises people who love him higher than the gods, Mountain peacock, you mustn't melt away like butter in fire, like salt in water our lover won't leave, it's all a lie.
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324 What her girlfriend said to her when her lover failed to return at the appointed time Fine girl, graceful as a swan, it's not true that the rains have come: Kantal may send out snake-like shoots, they may burst into bloom and entice bees just like your thick hair, but they only hear the booming of big drums for the dance of Ambalam's lord, the lord with black throat who makes me, a lowly slave, mad with joy. They think it's a storm bringing rain. 335 What her girlfriend said when he announced his intention to seek his fortune She suffers like people who won't praise our lord, the Dancer who stays at Tillai, town protected by walls that touch the clouds. When our man said he would go into the jungle, her shining breasts turned to gold and pearls fell from her eyes, bright as flowers. What other riches can he want, this man, our king, whose garland glistens with honey? 341 What he said when he left his beloved and went to seek his fortune Wherever I look in this whole world, wrought by the One who made food from poison that appeared in the crystal sea, the lord who stays at Ambalam, city surrounded by walls that shine from afar,
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a flowering creeper appears with black carp, red fruit, golden bangles and two lovely breasts. 343 What he said to his own heart after he left his lover in search of riches You went far away as though leaving this girl of few words were a trifle, when separation even from a devil is hard. She's just like small Ambalam, where the lord with body red as fire takes me into his service, though even a dog has more virtue than I. O heart, your resolution fills me with fear. Tiruccatakam 2 I won't bother with Purantaran, Mal, or Ayan, even if my house caves in I won't care for anyone but your own servants, and if I sink into hell I won't complain Lord, our master, by your grace I won't give a thought to any god but you. 8 When will the restless wind, fire, water, earth and sky all dissolve in the deluge?
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O lord, you'll become the dissolution and when time ends you'll keep this servant safe from the snare of stubborn deeds. 11 Like an actor in a play I imitate your servants and clamor to enter the inner chamber of your house, Master, lord brilliant as a mountain of gems set in gold, give your grace so I can love you with love so unceasing my heart overflows. 14 I don't surrender my heart at your feet, I don't melt with love, sing your praise or bring garlands, I don't tell of your glory, tend your temple, or dance King among gods, refuge for worthy people, I rush toward my death. 15 You became the sky and the earth, wind and light, flesh and life-breath, that which is and that which is not, you are the king, the lord who made everyone dance in the play of me and mine. How can I sing your praise with mere words?
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26 Dog that I am, I turned all my thoughts to you, I filled my eyes with the image of your feet, bright as flowers and bowed before them, I surrendered my voice to your bell-like words, then you came to me, and all my five senses rejoiced, O wonder-worker who comes inside me and rules me, great ocean of nectar, lord tall as the mountains with body bright as a red-lotus forest, you gave yourself to this lonely man who has no place in this world or in any other. 28 The lord no one can hear, the lord who never fails, the lord with no relations who hears all sounds without even trying placed me on a throne while everyone stared with wonder, though I'm just a lowly dog he showed me things never shown before, and let me hear what no one else has heard, he kept me safe from rebirth and made me his own: this is the magic our lord performs. 29 Could there ever be magic as wondrous as this? The lord let me serve his own loving servants, he released me from fear
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and took me for his own, he entered my being and so overwhelmed me with love my heart dissolved and flowed like nectar, our Father became man, woman and one without gender, sky, raging fire and the End of all things, lord Siva with body red as a great ceccai blossom is king of the gods, our lord who stands on the other shore. 32 Dead heart, you resist the lord who entered me and took me, an utter fool, for his own, my father who graced me with knowledge and showed me all noble paths, lord who cut my bonds and gave his sweet, unfailing grace you plunge headlong into falsehood and condemn me to ruin. 36 I didn't shed my desires so I could enter that golden city people enter, never to return, I didn't melt with love for the feet of my father, my lord and ruler sweeter than nectar, sweeter than honey, milk and sugar-candy, so what can I do, laden with deeds as I am?
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41 I saw only misery I failed to see that the seed of all being resides in my own heart. O lord who has no peer in heaven, you called me to serve you, but I can't like an elephant with two trunks I can only stuff myself with food. 43 When will I see you, lord who eludes the thoughts of gods in heaven, beautiful lord, Dancer who rules me you are the earth and the heavens and time that comes and goes. 47 The lordmy father, my mother, my master, father, mother, master for all the world, the lord with no father, no mother, no master of his own is the precious lord no one can know who came to stay inside me. 55 O lord who keeps doe-eyed Uma as part of your own body, lord sweet as honey, nectar and clear sugarcane syrup who came here to make me your own, lord Siva, king of Tillai, the southern town,
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while other devotees know your mind and reside at your feet, I just stay here guarding this body of flesh, no better than a nest of worms. 72 Peerless lord, I don't ask for pleasure or the joys of Purantaran and the gods. My lord, your two feet are all I have my body melts, I'm filled with trembling, my hands join in prayer above my head, and my tears flow like a river, O master. 90 I'm a fraud, my heart is a fraud, even my love is false, but if, bound to my deeds, I implore you, can I still reach you? Honey! Nectar! Clear sugarcane essence! Sweet lord! Give your grace so this servant may come to you. Tiruvammanai 2 No one can see him, be they from earth, heaven, or hell or even regions beyond, yet the lord who rules the South at Perunturai came to me with perfect ease he made me go mad and set me on the road with no return, filling my heart like a stream of nectar that never runs dry.
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Let's sing about the lord, the ocean of bliss who cast his net in the wave-tossed sea. Let's sing an ammanai 5 Wretched dog that I am, the mighty Lord drove me mad and made my hard stone of a mind soft as ripe fruit the lord of the Vedas, who dwells in the South at Perunturai, drowned me in a flood of compassion and set me free from my deeds. Let's sing about the lord who rode a swift bull and came to stay at the small Ambalam in Tillai town. Let's sing an ammanai 6 Friend, did you hear about his magic? The lord who dwells in the South at Perunturai, the town enclosed in painted walls, showed me things no one has ever seen his infinite goodness, his lotus-like feet and his grace, sweet as honey. People of this land may mock, but we'll sing about the way he took us for his own so we could rise and be free. We'll sing an ammanai 9 Let's sing about the lord who wears a lean crescent and a sacred thread, lord of the Vedas
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who appeared at Perunturai and rode a fine steed, the lord with black throat and red body who wears white ash, the lord, first in all the worlds, who gave endless bliss to his old servants and made the world marvel. Let's sing an ammanai 10 Let's sing about the lord more exalted than the gods who reign in heaven, lord of the Vedas, greater than all the kings in the world, who stays in the fertile Pantiya country where cool Tamil thrives. At Perunturai, the town we hold dear, the lord who is half-woman showed me his feet, a sight to fill the eyes Annamalai's lord took this dog for his own. Let's sing an ammanai 12 Listen, girl with bright eyes, black with kohl, in birth after birth Mal, Ayan and Indra seek him in vain, yet in this very lifetime he showed me his sweet grace, he took me for his own and keeps me safe from births to come. Let's sing for our Siva, the lord who appears in all that is true, refuge for truth and all that exists, the End of all things. Let's sing an ammanai
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14 As an elephant, a worm, as a man and a god, in bodies beyond counting I was born and then died then he melted my flesh and freed me from my deeds. The lord, sweet as honey, milk and sugar-candy, came to me like a king and made me his slave. Let's sing about the lord of the sky and his feet, bright as flowers. Let's sing an ammanai 16 As flesh, as breath, as feeling he mingles with my being, as honey, as nectar, as sweet sugar-candy this hero who wears cassia blossoms filled with honey, shows me a path unknown to gods. Let's tell how the lord, the light of unfading knowledge, became king for the countless creatures that draw breath in this world. Let's sing an ammanai 17 I wear a cassia garland and cling to Siva's round shoulders, locked in his embrace, I swoon and then we quarrel like lovers. His red lips make me giddy with longing, my heart melting, I search everywhere and fix my thoughts on his feet. I wither,
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then I blossom once more. Let's sing about the red feet of the lord who dances flame in hand. Let's sing an ammanai 18 Let's sing about the lord whose radiant body holds the goddess who speaks words gentle as a parrot's, the mysterious lord Mal and Ayan sought in vain, the lord pure as clearest honey came with perfect ease to Perunturai, the town renowned for its virtues. Filled with grace so sweet it defies the mind's powers, this generous Brahmin sage took pity and illumined the innermost chamber of my heart. Let's sing an ammanai 20 For others he's the lord beyond reach, but for his servants Perunturai's lord appears on a regal steed he removes their faults and nurtures their virtues, he frees them from the tangle of family ties. Clinging fast to his ancient fame we'll let go every other passion, we'll sing about the bliss we've found and claim the lord for our own. We'll sing an ammanai
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Annaippattu 1 She saysMother! His words are the Vedas, his body is red, he adorns himself with white ash and he holds a thundering drum, She saysMother! The lord of lords who holds a thundering drum rules the god with four faces and Mal. 2 She saysMother! His eyes are black with kohl, his compassion is an ocean, he's the lord who melts our hearts, She saysMother! When he melts our hearts from within we'll shed tears of endless joy. 3 She saysMother! He's the eternal bridegroom, so very handsome, who dwells in the mind, She saysMother! The lord who dwells in the mind and in the South at Perunturai is the image of bliss. 4 She saysMother! Instead of clothes he wears a dancing snake, the skin of a tiger, and ash, She saysMother! Why does my heart wither when I gaze at the lord who dresses this way?
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5 She saysMother! He has long hands and he wears a topknot, he's the king of the good Pantiya country who shows us the way, She saysMother! This Pantiya king tames our restless thoughts and fills us with joy. 6 She saysMother! The lord of Northern Kocamankai who's so hard to know is fixed in my heart, She saysMother! It's a wonder that he stays in my heart when he eludes even Ayan and Mal. 7 She saysMother! The lord wears a white cloth, smears white ash on his brow and dresses like a hermit, She saysMother! The lord who dresses like a hermit rode a prancing horse and stole away my mind. 8 She saysMother! The lord who wears sandal and an aruku garland takes us for his own, She saysMother! The lord who takes us for his own holds cymbals in his hand.
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9 She saysMother! He's the lord who's half-woman, who wears a hermit's robe and begs for alms, She saysMother! Why does my heart fail when he goes on his rounds? 10 She saysMother! He adorns his hair with cassia, bilva, the flower of madness and the moon, She saysMother! Why do those flowers of madness make me lose my mind? Tiruttacankam 1 Parrot, in the prime of youth's splendor, ponder the glorious name of the King who rules Perunturai, and sing it aloud. Sing his name like the god who sits on a white lotus and the other who rests in the milky sea who cryLord of Arur, Ruddy Lord, Leader of gods, our Master. 2 Emerald-green parrot who speaks sweet, faultless words, clearly sing of the country of the lord who makes us his own, master of the seven garden-worlds. The lord who rules his ardent devotees with love and saves them from rebirth in this world always resides in the southern land of Panti.
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3 Parrot who dwells among blossoms covered with pollen, sing of the town of our ruler, the lord, half-woman. He dwells in Northern Kocamankai, the town all the bhaktas praise as Siva's own city on earth. 4 Little girl with red beak and green wings, sing of the river of our Father, lord of Perunturai who dwells in our mind. Girl, don't you see? The Master's river is the flood of bliss that washes all taint from the mind so it can soar and touch the sky. 5 Parrot with beak red as a coral-flower, sing of the mountain of the invincible King, the lord lofty as the clouds who rules Perunturai. Don't you see? That mountain is the grace that dispels the heart's darkness and brings Release with its radiant joy. 6 My own parrot, don't fly away to your nest. Come here and sing of the chariot of the lord without peer who comes rejoicing with horses from heaven while celestial maidens think thoughts sweet as honey and sing hymns of praise.
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7 Parrot who speaks words sweet as wild honey, sing of the weapon that crushes the foes of the faultless King who rules Perunturai. Don't you see? The weapon he wields is the trident that drives off the three taints so the spotless hearts of his servants will melt with love. 8 Parrot who speaks words sweet as milk, sing of the drum that heralds the coming of our lord, King of Perunturai. Bliss soars on its thundering beat while the curse of birth founders on his love. 9 Parrot who speaks elegant words, sing of the garland that adorns the chest of the lord of Perunturai who cherishes friends whose bones melt with love The lord who takes me, a dog, for his slave and dispels evil deeds for all time delights in a garland of aruku grass. 10 Green parrot who dwells in gardens, sing of the splendid banner that flies for the king who rules Perunturai, the town flowing with pure water. This banner, emblazoned with his faultless bull, spreads beauty far and wide and makes his foes tremble with fear.
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Notes to the Poems The following notes explain mythological and iconographic allusions as well as names of deities and sacred places that occur in the poems. Also, in some instances, cultural and literary conventions that would be familiar only to an audience well versed in Hinduism and/or Tamil arts and letters are annotated. Some annotated items occur with considerable frequency, and in most cases I have included a note only for the first occurrence. Additional occurrences are noted in the index to mythological and iconographic allusions and proper names included in Appendix B. Poems of Karaikkalammaiyar Karaikkalammaiyar's Arputattiruvantati contains one hundred verses in venpa meter, a meter also employed by many of the poets who composed the so-called eighteen minor works (patinenkirkkanakku) of classical Tamil. Some of these poets lived earlier than Karaikkalammaiyar, and some were her contemporaries. The one hundred verses of Arputattiruvantati are linked together by means of a prosodic device called antati (Sanskrit anta, ''end" + adi, "beginning"). In a poem that follows the rule of antati, the first syllable or several syllables of one verse replicate the last syllable or several syllables of the preceding verse. Further, the first syllable or syllables of the poem's first verse are repeated at the end of the last verse, thus binding the entire text together in a "garland" of verses. The antati technique became very popular with the Tamil saints, both Saivites and Vaisnavites. Formally, the three antati poems attributed to Poykai, Putam, and Pey, the first three alvars, are nearly identical to Karaikkalammaiyar's poem. ATA 1. Siva's throat is. black because he swallowed the deadly poison called halahala, which appeared when the gods and demons were churning the primeval ocean of milk in hope of obtaining the nectar of immortality. The poison posed a threat to the universe, and Siva warded off calamity by swallowing the virulent substance. He was not harmed, but the poison, which he held in his throat, made his throat turn black. ATA 11. The river Ganga (Ganges), which is also represented anthropomorphically as a goddess, was originally a river of heaven. Ganga was summoned to earth by Bhagiratha so that her waters would cleanse the bones of his great-uncles who were cursed by the sage Kapila, whom they had abused, and burned by his fiery wrath. However, because the earth would be unable to withstand the impact of Ganga's fall from heaven, Bhagiratha entreated Siva to break the river's fall and thus enable his ancestors to win a place in heaven. Siva consented and caught the river in his tangled locks of hair, only then allowing the river to reach earth in a harmless trickle. Siva is also often depicted wearing the crescent moon in his hair. It is said that he placed the moon on his head to cool himself after he swallowed the halahala poison (see note for ATA 1). ATA 16. This verse, like many others among the poems of the Tamil saints, assumes a familiarity with the doctrine of karma, the idea that the moral residue of action performed in one lifetime affects a person's fate in future embodiments. Samsara, the never-ending cycle of birth and death, is frequently imagined as an endless ocean. The saints affirm that sincere devotion enables the devotee to cross over the samsaric ocean and to escape the relentless cycle of rebirth. ATA 37. Siva came to the rescue of the gods when the demon residents of Tripura, "the three fortresses," were causing the gods great affliction. This story is just one of many that describe a struggle on a cosmic scale between two orders of beings in the universe, the devas or gods and the asuras or "demons." The story begins, as do many
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others, with the demons securing a boon from the creator-god, Brahma, as a reward for performing rigorous penance. Granting the demons' request, Brahma allowed them to establish three great cities, one in heaven, one in the air, and one on earth. Brahma also granted that the only way these cities could ever come to ruin would be if they were somehow consolidated as one and then destroyed by a single arrow. The demons flourished in their cities, and in the course of time, in their arrogance, they began to act in a manner offensive to morality and justice. The gods, who were being oppressed by the arrogant demons, eventually turned to Siva for aid in their distress. Consolidating the combined energies of the many gods and constructing a chariot from various elements of the cosmos, Siva waged war on Tripura and demolished the demon fortresses with a single fiery arrow. ATA 77. One of Siva's most important iconographic forms is Nataraja, lord of the dance. Siva is the cosmic dancer who performs both a dance of universal creation and a dance of universal destruction. Thus, by dancing, Siva provides the energy that keeps the cosmic cycle of creation, destruction, and re-creation in motion. This verse, like others among the poems of the early Tamil saints, alludes to the god's iconography in a playful manner. Karaikkalammaiyar composed two short texts (eleven verses each) that go by the name Tiruvalankattu-muttatiruppatikam (The ancient patikam of Tiruvalankatu). The word patikam, related to the Tamil word for "ten" (pattu), denotes a formal device that became very popular with the saint-poets. A patikam is a set often verses, almost always related by meter and usually by theme, followed by an eleventh, so-called phalasruti verse, which identifies the poet by name and tells of the fruit (phala) to be gained by listening to (sruti) and/or reciting the preceding group of ten verses. Some earlier classical texts also are subdivided into verse sets containing ten verses each, and the bhakti patikam appears to be an extension of the classical convention. Karaikkalammaiyar's two patikams are considered to be the earliest in the bhakti corpus. In these two poems Karaikkalammaiyar describes a horrific Siva, dancing amid cremated bodies at the cremation ground at Alankatu. She also describes a demonwoman (pey) who watches Siva as he dances, and worships him. The demon-woman of the poems is taken to be the saint herself, who, according to legend, was turned into a pey or ghoul by Siva at her own request so that she could reside with Siva's ghostly hordes and serve him at the cremation ground. (See the introduction to translations of poems by Karaikkalammaiyar for a synopsis of the saint's life story.) Poems of the "First Three Alvars" (mutal muvar) "The first three alvars, Poykai, Putam, and Pey, each composed an antati poem of one hundred verses. (On antati, see above.) These are known, respectively, as the "first," "second,'' and "third" antatis of the Tamil Vaisnava canon. MTA 1. Visnu is frequently depicted holding four emblematic objects, one in each of his four hands: a conch, a mace, a lotus, and a discus. The cakra or discus is Visnu's special weapon, and it figures prominently in myths. (See the introduction to translations of poems by the first three divers for further discussion of this poem.) MTA 11. When Krsna was just a baby living under the care of the cowherd chieftain Nandagopala and his wife, Yasoda, the she-demon Putana assumed the form of a beautiful woman and came to Gokula, where Krsna and his family were residing, intending to kill Krsna, who was a potential threat to all demons. She picked up the baby Krsna and gave him her breast to suckle, assuming that the child would die from drinking the deadly poison contained in her own body. However, Krsna was unharmed by the she-demon's poisonous milk and sucked on her breast until she assumed her true demonic form and died.
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MTA 35. The ten-headed demon is Ravana, the king who ruled in the demon kingdom of Lanka. Ravana was the archenemy of Rama, Visnu incarnate as the son of King Dasaratha of Kosala. It is frequently said that Ravana attained spiritual release when he died by Rama's hand, because, even though he harbored only hostility for the man-god, his thoughts were always focused on Rama. This back-door route to salvation is known as dvesa bhakti, devotion through enmity. MTA 55. Not infrequently bhakti poems contain descriptive phrases that conflate allusions to more than one aspect of the god's mythology or iconography. Such a conflated allusion occurs in this verse, which makes reference both to Visnu in his incarnation as Krsna, who lived his early life in the community of cowherds, and to the image of Visnu sleeping on-the snake Ananta in the primeval, cosmic sea when the universe is in dissolution. According to Indian cosmology, the universe is periodically created, dissolved, and re-formed. When Visnu is awake, the universe is alive with the activity of its countless creatures, but when Visnu is asleep the universe reverts to an undifferentiated, potential state. MTA 61. Tirumal, also sometimes known as Netumal or simply Mal, is a Tamil name for Visnu that frequently occurs in the alvars poems. The name can be interpreted alternatively as "the black god" or "the great god," both appropriate appellations for Visnu. Some scholars have speculated that originally Mal was a Tamil god who later was identified with the Sanskritic Visnu. MTA 86. The first two lines of this poem allude to a well-known Krsnaite myth. According to this tale, Krsna provoked the god Indra by advising the cowherds to make offerings to Mt. Govardhana instead of to Indra. In retaliation Indra sent down a torrent of rain and hail, but Krsna proved his superiority by lifting the mountain and using it as an umbrella to shield the cowherds and their cows. (For further discussion of this poem, see the introduction to translations of poems by the first three alvars.) MTA 92. Some of the most popular myths concerning Krsna's childhood in Gokula relate the child-god's pranks. A favorite story tells how Yasoda bound Krsna by the waist and tied him to a mortar in a fruitless attempt to prevent Krsna from surreptitiously stealing and eating all the butter that she churned. The child continued to crawl along, dragging the heavy mortar behind until it lodged between two Arjuna trees that grew in front of his parents' house. Continuing to pull on the rope that bound his waist, Krsna uprooted the two trees, thereby liberating two spirits that had been imprisoned in the trees because of a curse. This verse ironically plays the myth of Krsna, the butter thief, against the image of Visnu, the universal god, who, during the cosmic dissolution, takes the whole world into himself. MTA 98. Punniyan, which literally means "the auspicious one" refers here to Siva. Netumal, "the tall, black god," is a Tamil name for Visnu (see note above). The idea, expressed in this verse, that the two great gods of Hinduism are essentially one and the same is found more frequently in Vaisnava than in Saiva poetry. The verse also alludes to the story of Visnu's incarnation as Vamana, the dwarf. The story tells of a time when the world was ruled by Bali, a demon, who nevertheless was a model ruler. In order to trick Bali into relinquishing his hegemony and thereby further the cause of the gods, Visnu took the form of a dwarf and went to Bali's court as a supplicant. Vamana-Visnu asked Bali for a boon, and, being the virtuous ruler that he was, Bali agreed. The boon Vamana requested was to be granted as much territory as he could traverse in three strides. When Bali agreed to grant this request, the dwarf grew to enormous size and traversed all of heaven and the whole earth in his first two strides. When Vamana asked Bali to suggest where he might place his third step, Bali entreated Vamana to tread upon his own head. Vamana complied, and in this way Bali's salvation was assured by the touch of the god's foot. ITA 1. Naranan is a Tamil form of the Sanskrit name Narayana, a frequently occurring name of Visnu.
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ITA 14. The phrase "who stretched the eight directions" is an allusion to Visnu's avatara as Vamana (see note for MTA 98 above). ITA 90. Visnu's eyes are frequently described as resembling red lotuses. In Sanskrit the god is known as Pundarikaksa, the lord with red-lotus eyes. However, the Tamil poets do not ordinarily use the Sanskrit epithet. MuTA 1. Tiru is a Tamil equivalent for Sanskrit Sri. In the abstract this word denotes wealth and auspiciousness. It is also an alternate name for Visnu's consort Laksmi, the goddess of wealth and good fortune. Both Sanskrit and Tamil forms also occur as an honorific prefix that is attached to the names of both persons and texts. The conch is one of Visnu's four emblems. (See note for MTA 1 above.) MuTA 2. The alvar's declaration that he has freed himself from all the seven births most likely is a way of saying that he will not be reborn in any form whatsoever. In Hinduism there is a classification of all living beings into seven classes, with each successive class being one step higher on a hierarchical scale of sentience and consciousness than the class preceding it. The classes range from insentient plant life to the gods. Also, in some poems the phrase elu pirappu (seven births) occurs in the sense of seven generations in a family lineage or parampara. In some poems a narrator may speak of winning salvation for seven anterior and seven posterior generations in his family through his devotion. "Holy basil" (tulasi in Sanskrit, tulay in Tamil) is a plant of special significance for Vaisnavas. Typically, tulasi will be given to worshipers as prasada, the god's grace in tangible form, at worship ceremonies in Vaisnava temples, and the plant is considered to be a form of Visnu's consort, Sri (or Tiru in Tamil), who resides on Visnu's chest. MuTA 63. In this verse characteristic attributes of Siva and Visnu are combined to form a single, composite image of god. Siva's iconography contributes the long matted hair, the axe, and the snake (see note for TK 178), all attributes of the ascetic god, while the royal imagery typically associated with Visnu contributes the crown, the discus or wheel, and the thread of gold. MuTA 94. The various iconic representations of Visnu (arca) enshrined in Visnu temples throughout Tamilnadu are categorized on the basis of the god's posture. The ritual manuals (agamas) that describe procedures for creating, installing, and worshiping icons of the god specify that Visnu may be represented in standing, sitting, or reclining posture and discuss various special qualities of each. MuTA 99. At the Visnu temple at Tirukacci, Visnu is depicted with eight arms and is known as Astabhujan, "the eight-armed one." In each of his eight hands the god holds a weapon. The eight weapons are arrow, bow, club, sword, discus, conch, shield, and lotus (counted here as a "weapon"). The verse also alludes to the story of Gajendra, an elephant who was a great devotee of Visnu One day when Gajendra came to a river pool to bathe, a crocodile seized his foot and began to drag him into the water, intending to kill him. The elephant called to Visnu for help, whereupon Visnu immediately appeared and rescued his devotee by killing the crocodile with his discus. Poems of Nammalvar Among Nammalvar's four works, Tiruvaymoli is by far the most ambitious and the work that has had the greatest enduring impact on Tamil Vaisnavas Conventionally, the text is spoken of as having one thousand verses; however, a more literal accounting of the number of verses in this text yields a total of 1,102 verses. The text is subdivided into ten large subsections, known in the tradition as pattu (ten). Each of these in turn is composed often smaller verse sets consisting often verses each plus a phalasruti verse. Generically, these verse sets would be known by the name patikam (see above), but in this text each is known as a tiruvaymoli. One "deviant" tiruvaymoli contains thirteen rather than eleven verses. While Nammalvar changes meter from one tiruvaymoli to
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another, the entire text of 1,102 verses is bound together by antati links (see note above for poems of Karaikkalammaiyar). All the verses translated here are taken from the first two major sections of Tiruvaymoli. Verses are identified by three numbers separated by periods. The first number identifies the pattu or major section; the second number identifies the tiruvaymoli or smaller verse set within the pattu; and the last number identifies the verse within the tiruvaymoli. The five phalasruti verses translated here have been grouped at the end of Nammalvar's section of the anthology and thus appear out of sequence. TVM 1.1.8. Aran is a Tamilized form of Hara, a name of Siva. Ayan is similarly a Tamil form of Sanskrit a-ja ("without birth"), an appellation of Brahma. This verse asserts that Siva and Brahma are multiforms of Visnu In order to emphasize this point, Nammalvar attributes to Visnu the feat of destroying Tripura (see note for A TA 37 above), a well-known mythological attribute of Siva. TVM 1.2.1. The word translated here as "Release" is vitu, a nominal form of the verb vitu, "to leave, release." Vitu often occurs as an equivalent to Sanskrit moksa, release from the cycle of birth and death. TVM 1.3.1. According to mythological accounts, Visnu's consort Sri (also known as Laksmi), the goddess of wealth and good fortune, emerged seated on a red lotus from the primeval ocean of milk when the gods and demons churned the ocean in hope of obtaining the elixir of immortality. The idea expressed in this verse illustrates a well-known theme in Srivaisnava thought, namely, that Visnu simultaneously embodies the traits of accessibility (saulabhya) and remoteness (paratva). In this verse the allusion to Krsna, the butter-thief, emphasizes Visnu's saulabhya aspect, while the image of Visnu as the lord of Sri emphasizes the god's paratva aspect. TVM 1.3.2. The corresponding Tamil for "container" and "contained" in this translation is akattanan and purattanan. See chapter 4, n. 24, for a discussion of the significance of these terms. TVM 1.3.6. Ari is a Tamil form of Sanskrit Hari, a frequently occurring name of Visnu (On Ayan and Aran, see above.) TVM 1.5.1. According to Hindu cosmography, Mt. Meru, the central axis of the universe, is surrounded by seven continents or "worlds." In this system India is known as jambudvipa, the island of rose-apple trees. Pinnai, also known as Nappinnai, is an important figure in Tamil Krsnaite mythology Pinnai is a girl from the community of cowherds who became Krsna's wife. Krsna won the girl as his bride by successfully wrestling seven of her father's bulls in a bull-baiting contest. References to Pinnai are frequent in the alvars poems, and she is also mentioned in the earlier Tamil epic Cilappatikaram. TVM 1.5.4. The three great gods of Hinduism, known collectively as the Trimurti, are Brahma (the creator), Visnu (the preserver), and Siva (the destroyer). Visnu's heavenly abode is known as Vaikuntha. TVM 1.5.6. Kesava and Madhava are names for Krsna. Kesava literally means "one with long hair," but it is usually interpreted as a designation for Krsna as destroyer of the horse-demon, Kesinasura. Madhava can be interpreted to mean "sweet one," from Sanskrit madhu, "sweet." It also can be taken as a patronymic, since a progenitor of Krsna's Yadava clan was named Madhu; and further, it can be taken as a designation of Krsna as destroyer of a demon named Madhu. (In this regard Krsna is also known as Madhusudana.) The story of the seven Sal trees (maramaram in Tamil) belongs to the Rama cycle. Rama pierced seven Sal trees with a single arrow in order to prove his prowess to the monkey-king Sugriva, who sought Rama's aid against his brother Vali. TVM 1.5.8. This verse, like others, alludes to Visnu's double nature as saulabhya and paratva (see note for TVM 1.3.1), but in this case the two aspects of the god's
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nature are juxtaposed in a playful manner. At the end of a cosmic cycle, Visnu, as lord of the universe, "swallows" the world, and therefore the poet jests that the god has clods of earth in his stomach. TVM 1.6.10. Each of the major Hindu gods is associated with an animal vehicle, which the god also carries as a standard. Visnu's vehicle is Garuda, the eagle. TVM 1.7.5. Krsna is known for his amorous sports with the young women of the cowherds' community. TVM 1.9.2. Visnu assumed the form of a boar, known as Varaha, in order to rescue the goddess Earth when the demon Hiranyaksa abducted her and hid her in the depths of the ocean. The elephant referred to here is Kuvalayapida, an elephant sent by Krsna's demonic uncle Kamsa to kill Krsna. Kuvalayapida was eventually killed by the god. TVM 1.9.4. Visnu is sometimes depicted with two consorts, Sri (the goddess of wealth) and Bhu (Earth), and sometimes with a third wife, known in some Sanskrit sources as Nila, but known in most Tamil sources as Pinnai or Nappinnai (see note for TVM 1.5.1 above). The three worlds are heaven, earth, and hell. In some versions of Hindu cosmology an embryonic Visnu is said to rest on a banyan leaf that floats on the primeval ocean when the universe is in the phase of dissolution. Kannan is a Tamil name for Krsna, probably derived from Kanha, a Prakritization of Krsna. In this verse the narrator assumes the persona of Yasoda, the cowherd woman who raised Krsna during his childhood. TVM 1.9.5. The naked god is Siva (the ascetic); the god without birth is Brahma, who emerged from Visnu's navel seated on a lotus. TVM 2.2.9. Brahma is usually depicted with four faces, one facing each of the cardinal directions. In Tamil, Brahma is sometimes known as ticaimukan, "he whose faces are the directions," or alternatively, nanmukan, "the four-faced one." TVM 2.4.1. Narasimha is the man-lion incarnation of Visnu. Visnu assumed this form in order to rescue his devotee Prahlada from the persecutions of his demon-father, Hiranyakasipu, who had been granted a boon that stipulated that he could not be destroyed by man or beast, either indoors or outdoors, during the day or during the night. Taking the man-lion form (neither man nor beast), Visnu killed Hiranyakasipu by ripping open his chest on the threshold (neither indoors nor outside) at twilight (neither day nor night). TVM 2.5.1. All male members of the Brahmin caste who have undergone initiation into adulthood are supposed to wear a thread that is draped over one shoulder and encircles the torso. TVM 2.7.9. "Lord with wild hair" is a possible translation of Hrsikesa, an appellation of Krsna. TVM 2.8.5. References to four of Visnu's incarnations are found in this verse, although one, the horse, is not usually included among the standard ten avataras of the god. The horse is Hayagriva, a form Visnu assumed in order to rescue the Vedas when they were stolen by two demons. The tortoise is Kurma, Visnu's tortoise-avatara, and the fish is Matsya, Visnu's fish-avatara. Visnu assumed the form of a tortoise in order to stabilize the mountain Mandara, which the gods and demons used as a churning rod when they churned the ocean of milk. The story of Visnu's incarnation as a fish is an Indian version of an ancient flood myth found in many cultures. According to this story, the man Manu saved a small fish from a predator. The fish gradually grew larger and larger and later towed Manu's boat over the flood waters that destroyed all other creatures. Visnu was incarnated as a man when he appeared on earth as Rama. TVM 2.10.3, 2.10.4, 2.10.5. The ten verses of TVM 2.10 celebrate an ancient site sacred to Tamil Vaisnavas located near Madurai called Maliruncolai, "Mal's dark grove," known today as Alakarkoyil. References to this site appear in the late classical anthology Paripatal as well as in the alvars' poems.
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TVM 1.3.11. Catakopan is a name of Nammalvar, and Kurukur is the name of the saint's native village. (See introductory section accompanying translations of Nammalvar's poems.) TVM 2.8.11. Valuti is an epithet of the Pantiya kings. Kurukur is located within the Pantiya king's domain. Poems of Manikkavacakar In order to fully appreciate verses from Tirukkovaiyar, it is necessary to understand which of the dramatis personae involved in the frame drama is narrating the words of the verse and what situation or turai underlies the verse. This is the kind of information often found in the colophons that accompany the classical poems collected in the akam anthologies. (On the relationship of Tirukkovaiyar to classical Tamil akam poetry, see chapter 4.) In published editions of Tirukkovaiyar, commentatorial apparatus and colophons serve much the same purpose. The colophons that accompany the translations do not, however, correspond with the colophons that traditionally appear in the Tamil text. Rather than translating the Tamil colophons, which tend to paraphrase the gist of each verse but often do not identify the speaker and addressee, I have devised my own colophons, ased upon information provided by commentators, in order to help the reader situate each verse. I have followed the practice introduced by A. K. Ramanujan in his translations of classical akam poems by using phrases such as "what he said," "what she said," etc. TK 1. The Love-god is Kama, the personification of sexual desire. TK 2. "The disembodied god" (anankan) is an epithet of Kama (see note for TK 70). In Hinduism death is personified as the god Yama. TK 3. Siva's vahana or vehicle is the bull Nandi. Further discussion of TK 1-3 is found in chapter 5. TK 6. Siva is often depicted as a yogi, seated in meditation upon Mt. Kailasa in the Himalayas. Many verses in Tirukkovaiyar mention Tillai and/or Ambalam. Both refer to the site sacred to Tamil Saivites at present-day Chidambaram, Tillai referring to the town and Ambalam to Siva's "court" at Tillai. Amabalam literally means court or public hall, but in a Saiva context it almost always refers to Siva's temple at Chidambaram. Sometimes the Chidambaram site is referred to as Cirrambalam, "small Ambalam," to differentiate it from Siva's Perambalam or "large Ambalam" at Madurai. In some verses of Tirukkovaiyar reference is made to both Tillai and Ambalam or Cirrambalam, in other cases to only one or the other. In a few verses I have managed to incorporate only one or the other into the translation where both occur in the original Tamil. TK 8. Mt. Potiyil, located in south India near Cape Comorin, is said to be the abode of the sage Agastya, a figure who is very prominent in Tamil literary legend, for it is Agastya who is traditionally credited with having written the first formal Tamil grammar, though the work is not extant. As the reference in this verse implies, Agastya is often considered to be a manifestation of Siva. Puliyur (tiger-town) is a name for the sacred Saiva site commonly known as Tillai or Chidambaram. This particular name alludes to the story of a Saiva devotee named Vyaghrapada (tiger-foot). TK 20. Kutal, literally the "confluence," is an alternate name for the Pantiya capital city, Madurai, a city renowned in literary legend for its literary academy or cankam. "The seven tones" are the seven tones of a musical scale. TK 70. This verse alludes to the myth that tells how Siva burned up the body of Kama, the god of passion, with a blast of fire from his third eye. The universe was threatened by a fierce demon, Taraka, and only a son of Siva would be able to stand up against the formidable demon. Parvati, the daughter of the Himalaya, wished to marry
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Siva, but the ascetic god, who was totally absorbed in his meditation, took no notice of her. When Kama (the Indian Cupid) attempted to arouse Siva by shooting one of his flower-arrows at him, Siva opened his third eye only long enough to emit a jet of flame that reduced Kama's body to ashes. Because the heroine's eyes are red and her lips are white, her friend knows that she has recently made love. The underlying conceit of the verse is that the colorful change in the heroine's appearance causes bees to be attracted to her as if she were a beautiful flower. TK 71. In Tamil folklore one encounters the belief that crows have only one pupil that migrates from one eye to the other. This idea is based, at least in part, on the observation that crows always cock their heads to one side or the other when they look at an object. TK 75. Siva is frequently depicted wearing a tiger's, or sometimes a lion's skin (see note for TK 178). According to the Hindu view of time and the cosmos, periodically the entire universe is destroyed in a great conflagration called the pralaya. As the lord of destruction, Siva presides over the pralaya, and further, because Siva's existence is absolute while that of the universe is provisional, the god is untouched by the pralaya. The "palm-leaf horse" referred to in the verse is called matal in Tamil. At a certain stage in the development of the romance between the hero and the heroine, the hero is consumed by pain and frustration because the heroine is holding herself aloof from him. He threatens to construct a horse from the sharp leaves of the palmyra palm and to ride through the town proclaiming his love for the girl and simultaneously causing himself great pain. This will ruin the girl's reputation, and consequently no one else will want to marry her. TK 102. The skirt of leaves (or sometimes flowers) referred to here is called talai in Tamil. If a girl accepts a talai from a young man, she, in effect, is indicating that she agrees to become his lover. When the hero encounters the heroine and her girl friends in the forest, he pretends to be hunting and asks about the buffalo as a pretense in order to initiate conversation. TK 109. Saiva devotees often smear ash on their bodies, emulating Siva, who is covered with ash because he resides at the cremation ground. In Saiva temples worshipers receive sacred ash (tiruniru, viputi) as a sign of Siva's grace. TIC 115. See note for TK 102. TIC 120. Netumal is a name for Visnu (see note for MTA 61). TIC 144. In akam poetry and in some of the medieval genres that developed from it, suggestion (iraicci) is an important source of poetic effect. In this verse the heroine's girl friend implies that the hero ought to give some thought to marrying his lover. The parrots have consumed all the grain growing in the meadow, but even though the stalks are now devoid of grain, the birds still remain loyal to their meadow. The narrator implies that the hero should not abandon his lover just because he has enjoyed her favors. Rather, he should be loyal to her and marry her. TK 178. Siva is typically depicted wearing a snake around his waist or in his hair. According to Saiva myth, a group of forest sages became furious with Siva when the god purposefully disrupted their sacrificial rites with his dancing. They conjured a deadly serpent in the sacrificial fire and turned it against the god, but Siva effortlessly subdued the serpent and wrapped it around his waist. The sages also conjured a tiger (or in some versions, a lion) in the fire, and the god likewise killed it and wore its skin as a garment. TK 250. This verse contains a good example of a poetic figure called ullurai, a kind of implied comparison. The verse implies that the hero who first made love to the heroine and now has been neglecting her is like the monkey that first plunders the plantain's fruit and then adds insult to injury by enjoying the tree's cool shade. TK 287. The cause of the heroine's pallor is lovesickness, but her parents are
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unaware of this. Thinking that the girl is the victim of a malignant spirit, they arrange for the velan, a kind of priest-exorcist, to come and try to work a cure. In this verse the heroine describes the problematic situation this creates for her. The verse also contains an allusion to the famous pillar-of-fire myth, which asserts Siva's supremacy over Brahma and Visnu. According to the myth, Brahma and Visnu each claimed to be the supreme god, and consequently the two gods became embroiled in an argument. Just then a pillar of fire appeared before them. Brahma and Visnu were baffled by this and determined to find the apex and the base of the mysterious pillar. Brahma mounted his vehicle, the swan, and flew up into the heavens in hope of finding the pillar's apex. Visnu assumed the form of a boar and began to burrow into the ground in order to find the pillar's base. However, both gods were unsuccessful, and thus they realized that Siva, whose symbol is the lingam or phallus (here represented by the pillar of fire) was superior to them both. TK 292. Here the heroine's girl friend mocks the velan, knowing that his attempt to rid her friend of the "malignant spirit" that plagues her is doomed to failure. (See note to TK 287.) The velan drinks toddy (palm wine) in preparation for the ritual. TK 324. The hero has promised to return by the onset of the rainy season. The heroine is distraught because, though the rains are imminent, the hero has not yet returned. TK 335. According to poetic convention, when the heroine is suffering from lovesickness, usually due to separation from her lover, her chocolate brown complexion (mamai: the color of a new mango leaf) turns a sallow color (pacalai). The heroine's girl friend compares the heroine's yellowed complexion to gold and the tears she sheds in anticipation of separation from her lover to pearls. She then asks rhetorically, with these "riches" so close by, why should the hero feel the need to travel to distant lands in search of wealth? TK 341. Several conventional metaphors for female beauty are worked into this verse. A beautiful woman is compared to a creeper (which I have sometimes translated as "liana") because her waist is so thin. Her black eyes are shaped like small fish, and her lips are as red as the ripe kovai fruit. In this verse the hero declares that even in separation from his lover, his eyes are still filled with her image. Manikkavacakar's Tiruvacakam is one of the most popular texts in the Tamil Saiva corpus. The text is actually a compendium of fifty-one poems that range in length from two short verses (Tiruppataiyelucci) to one hundred verses (Tiruccatakam, from Sanskrit sataka, "one hundred"). Translations from four of the fifty-one component poems of Tiruvacakam are included here. These are Tiruccatakam, Tiruvammanai, Annaippattu, and Tiruttacankam, respectively the fifth, eighth, seventeenth, and nineteenth sections of the text. Tiruccatakam, the longest and most varied of these four sections, is composed often subsections consisting often verses each. All ten verses in each subsection share a common meter, and each set often is identified by an underlying theme, e.g., "realizing the truth," "acquiring knowledge," etc. TC 2. Purantaran (Puramdara in Sanskrit), which means "sacker of fortresses," is a frequently occurring epithet of Indra, a god who, while quite prominent in the Vedas, is accorded a much lower status than Brahma, Visnu, and Siva in later Hindu literature. TC 8. This verse describes the pralaya, the periodic dissolution of the world into unformed primordial matter, described in Hindu cosmologies. TC 26. The word nayen (or in this case, nayinen) frequently occurs in Manikkavacakar's poems. This word, which is a compound of the morphemes nay (dog) and en (first person singular) means something on the order of "I who am a dog," a term of self-denigration.
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TC 29. The theme of bhakta worship, that is, worship of the lord's true devotees, is prominent in Manikkavacakar's poetry. TC 36. According to the commentator, the "golden city" mentioned in this verse is Sivaloka, Siva's heaven. TC 55. Uma is Siva's consort. The verse alludes to a popular iconographic form of Siva called Ardhanarisvara, "the lord whose one half is woman." To emphasize that Siva's full nature encompasses both male and female genders, the god's right side is represented as male and his/her left side as female. Tiruvammanai is one of nine sections in Tiruvacakam that are modeled after game songs. In each case the narrator is a group of girls who sing while they play a game or engage in other activities especially associated with young women or girls. In the case of Tiruvammanai they are playing a game very similar to jacks. One of the hallmarks of Tiruvammanai and the other game-song sections of Tiruvacakam is the refrains that conclude each verse, which undoubtedly are very similar to the refrains of "authentic" folk songs. TA 2. The town of Perunturai (known as Avataiyarkoyil in present-day Tamilnadu) figures prominently in Manikkavacakar's life story. It was at Perunturai that Manikkavacakar first came face to face with Siva and was moved to dedicate his life to the Saiva cause. The verse also alludes to a Saiva tale that is well known in Tamilnadu. A brief summary follows: Once Siva was expounding the meaning of the agamas (texts on ritual and doctrine) to his consort Parvati. However, Parvati was inattentive, and Siva angrily cursed her to be born as a fisherman's daughter. Siva's sons, Ganesa and Skanda, were greatly upset by this. Seizing the ägamas, they cast the sacred books into the sea. Siva had not instructed his gatekeeper, the bull Nandi, to allow the two boys inside his chamber, and so he cursed Nandi to become a shark as punishment. Later Siva came to earth as a fisherman, recovered the agamas, redeemed Nandi, and married the fisherman's daughter. TA 9. This verse contains an allusion to an episode in Manikkavacakar's life story. Manikkavacakar, before adopting the life style of an ascetic saint, was the chief minister of the Pantiya king. Once the Pantiyan entrusted Manikkavacakar with a large sum of money to purchase horses for the royal stables. Manikkavacakar journeyed to Perunturai to fulfill his mission, but there he met Siva, who had assumed the form of a guru. Realizing at once that he had found his true master, he donated all the king's money to the Saiva cause. When Manikkavacakar returned to the palace without horses or money, the king had him punished. But on avani mula day (the day when the moon appears in the constellation Mulam during the month of Avani [August-September]), Siva appeared in the guise of a foreign horseman leading a herd of fine horses to the the Pantiyan's stable. The "horses," however, were really wild jackals, and later they reverted to their original form and caused havoc within the palace. The saint was punished once more. TA 10. The Pantiyas ruled over a territory that encompassed the southern districts of present-day Tamilnadu, and they resided in Madurai, their capital city. The Pantiyas figure prominently in Tamil Saiva mythology. For instance, Siva is said to have married a Pantiya princess, Minaksi, and to have ruled the Pantiya territory as Cuntara Pantiyan. Also, Manikkavacakar served as chief minister for another Pantiya king. Annamalai is the site of a famous Saiva temple in Tamilnadu. TA 14. This verse contains a clear-cut reference to the Hindu doctrine of transmigration of the soul. As the verse indicates, during the course of its journey through the cycle of birth, death, and rebirth, the soul may assume a wide variety of embodiments. The "god" referred to here does not mean one of the great Hindu gods, but a deva, a being of greater refinement than a human being but nevertheless subject to the law of transmigration.
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TA 16. Cassia (konrai in Tamil) is a flower that is especially associated with Siva. TA 17. Nataraja, Siva as lord of the dance, is depicted with four arms: one hand points to his lifted foot (as a symbol of spiritual liberation), one hand is held in the position that signifies freedom from fear (abhayamudra), a third hand holds a drum, and the fourth hand holds a flame, symbols respectively of cosmic creation and destruction. The ten short verses of Annaippattu ("the ten spoken to the mother") display the direct, almost naive quality of folk songs, yet at the same time they presume familiarity with the dramatis personae and the conventional narrative outline of classical akam poetry. The narrator for the verses of Annaippattu is understood to be the akam heroine's girl friend (toli), who is speaking to the heroine's foster mother (cevvili tay), who also happens to be her own natural mother. In each verse the toli reports what the heroine has told her about her love for Siva. The word "mother" (annai), which appears twice in each verse, is not to be taken in a literal sense, Here it is an affectionate address form spoken by the heroine to her girl friend. AP 1. "The god with four faces" (nanmukan) is Brahma (see note for TVM 2.2.9). At the pralaya (see note for TC 8), Siva dances the tandava dance, and as he dances he plays an hourglass-shaped drum. AP 6. Uttarakocamankai (Northern Kocamankai) is the site of a Siva temple where Manikkavacakar is said to have spent some time shortly after his conversion experience. Presumably he was instructed to go there by Siva. AP 8. Aruku is a type of grass that is frequently associated with Siva. Although in the standard image of Nataraja, Siva is not depicted holding finger cymbals (talam), the reference to cymbals here is clearly a corollary of Siva's status as lord of the dance. AP 10. "The flower of madness" mentioned here is umattam (or simply mattam), known in English as datura. When ingested this plant has a hallucinogenic effect, and thus it is appropriately associated with Siva, who sometimes behaves like a "madman." Tiruttacankam (the ten limbs [of the kingdom]) is a clear expression of the close relationship between south Indian conceptions of gods and kings. The ten verses of this poem describe the ten "limbs" (anga) of Siva's kingdom. In the translation each of the ten "limbs" appears in italics. TT 1. "The god who sits on a white lotus" is Brahma. According to Hindu mythology, cosmic creation begins with the creator-god, Brahma, appearing from Visnu's navel seated on a white lotus. Thus Visnu is seen as the ultimate source of creation, while Brahma is the active agent of creation. Arur is the site of an important Saiva temple in Tamilnadu. TT 7. "The three taints" (mu-malam) figure prominently in Tamil Saiva theology. These three psycho-metaphysical entities cloud the intelligence of human beings and keep them mired in the cycle of birth and death. The three taints (malam literally means "dirt") are anavam, "egoism," mayai, the power of illusion, which causes people to believe in the reality of the empirical world; and kanmam or karma, the accumulated effects of action, which entraps living beings in samsara, the cycle of births and deaths.
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APPENDIX A THE SAINTS' HYMNS IN PRESENT-DAY TEMPLE RITUAL The Tamil saints were witnesses to the rise of the Hindu temple in south Indian religious life, and it was not long after their lifetimes that the saints' hymns were incorporated into the ritual routines of major temples. 1 The pattern of worship that evolved in medieval Tamilnadu is vital today, for both temples and the canonical hymns continue to play a major role in the religious lives of Tamil Hindus. In the following pages I will describe particular occasions for recitation of the sacred Tamil hymns in modern-day Saiva and Vaisnava temples. This description is based upon personal observation and upon interviews I conducted in 1978-79 at two templesthe Atinatar (Visnu) temple at Alvartirunakari in Tinnevelly District and the Kapalisvara (Siva) temple in the Mylapore area of Madras. While the details of ritual organization do vary somewhat from one temple to another, the basic agamic paradigm for worship is fairly uniform. Therefore these descriptions will give a rough idea of how the Tamil hymns figure into the ritual of Saiva and Vaisnava temples throughout Tamil-speaking south India. Selected hymns from the Tirumurai and from the Nalayira-tiviyapirapantam are recited respectively at Saiva and Vaisnava temples for both daily (nitya) and special, festival (naimittika) worship ceremonies. The ritual event that, by far, focuses the greatest amount of attention on the Tamil canon is the Vaisnava Adhyayanotsava or ''recitation festival." 2 The Adhyayanotsava is still celebrated in Tamil Vaisnava temples, but only the temples at Srirankam, Srivilliputtur, and Alvartirunakari (the name by which Nammalvar's native town of Kurukur is presently known) continue the tradition of araiyar cevai ("worship by the araiyar," the temple functionary who leads recitation of the Tamil hymns). 3 At these temples, the araiyar recites the verses of the Nalayiram before the festival image of the deity, and, employing the stylized pantomime technique called abhinaya, he symbolically acts out the meaning of selected verses with hand gestures (mudra) and facial expressions (bhava). He also recites portions of a traditional commentary for some of the verses. The araiyar's recitation generally conforms to the schedule that Nathamuni is said to have established in the tenth century, and the araiyar, who traces his descent from Nathamuni, receives the vestments and garlands that had adorned the deity, just as his ancestors had. The musical modes employed by the araiyar when he recites the alvars hymns are collectively referred to as devagana, a word that can be translated as "divine melody." This word is motivated by the identification of the Nalayiram with the Vedas and their "limbs," because the word gana denotes a prosodic/ musical unit of the Samaveda. The araiyar's role seems to be specifically
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identified with musical recitation of the Tamil hymns, and this is probably the reason why the araiyar recites only three of the four "thousands" of the Tamil pirapantam during the twenty days of the Adhyayanotsava. The verses of the remaining iyarpa "thousand" are recited in a nonmusical manner on the day following the conclusion of the festival. The word iyarpa, from iyal, "literary composition" + pa, "verse," denotes a poem that is not intended for musical performance. Metrical structure seems to be the primary consideration for identifying a verse as iyarpa or icaippa (musical verse). The climax of the Adhyayanotsava, called carrumurai (from carru, ''to declare") falls on the final night of the festival, when the last portion of Tiruvaymoli is recited. In these verses Nammalvar declares that he has finally received the lord's grace and that he now dwells at the lord's feet. At a specified point in his recitation the araiyar lifts the festival image of Nammalvar and touches its head to the feet of Perumal's (i.e., Visnu's) image, thus symbolizing that the alvar has found refuge with the lord. The Adhyayanotsava is the most explicit demonstration of the significance of the saints and their hymns in the context of temple worship, but this festival is by no means the only occasion for recitation of the Tamil hymns in Vaisnava temples. Practice varies from one temple to another, but in most, provisions are made for the recitation of at least some portions of the Nalayiram during one or more of the daily pujas and during festivals, when the deity rides in procession through the streets. Vaisnava temples also celebrate the janma naksatras of the alvars, i.e., the conjunctions of the months and the lunar asterisms during which, according to tradition, the alvars were born. The traditional view that Maturakavi established a shrine for Nammalvar in the Visnu temple of Kurukur establishes a precedent for the practice of enshrining iconic images of the saints in temples. Today almost every Tamil Vaisnava temple houses a shrine for Antal, the "bride" of the lord, and usually an image of one of the alvars, whose biography may be connected with the temple's history, is kept in the prakara (temple corridor) just outside the main sanctum. Some temples may house icons for all twelve alvars. In most instances, after one of the daily pujas, the oil lamp (arati), which has been displayed before the lord, is taken to the alvars shrine and is displayed there for the saint's benefit. The ceremonial act of displaying the lamp is called diparadhana. Antal is given special attention during the month of Markali (December-January), when there are special recitations of her poem, Tiruppavai, and other acts of worship are performed at her shrine. Nammalvar also has a unique status in the temple, which is demonstrated during the daily puja. After puja is performed in the main sanctum, the temple priest may touch the head of a worshiper with a metallic crown as a mark of honor. The crown, called Catakopan., one of the names of Nammalvar, symbolizes Visnu's feet. For a devotee to be touched by the lord's feet is a great honor. Since Nammalvar, Visnu's greatest devotee, eternally abides at the feet of the lord, the crown that symbolizes Visnu's feet bears the name of the saint.
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Following is a summary description of the occasions for ritual recitation of the alvars hymns at the Atinatar temple at Alvartirunakari. 4 There are probably few, if any, Vaisnava temples where the alvars hymns receive such thorough attention at the present time, though they receive at least some attention at virtually all agamic Vaisnava temples in Tamilnadu. As is the case at most temples, the deity's day is composed of two segments. The temple is opened and the deity receives worshipers from the early morning, when he is awakened, until midday. After the midday puja has been completed, the doors of the sanctum are closed, and the deity "rests" until about 4:00 P.M., when the doors of the sanctum are opened and the deity can again be viewed by the public. After the last evening rituals are completed, the deity "sleeps" for the duration of the night. In ideal terms, there are said to be six daily pujas, three in the morning and three in the evening, but there are actually eighteen separate ritual events listed on the schedule of daily ritual activity that is displayed in the temple. Ten of these, the first at 6:00 A.M. and the last at 11:00 A.M., are designated "daytime" (pakal) events, and eight more, beginning at 5:00 P.M. and ending at 8:45 P.M., are designated "nighttime" (iravu) events. It is therefore more useful to think in terms of a bipartite ritual day, divided between morning and evening. Selections from the alvars hymns are recited twice daily, once in the morning and once in the evening. At Alvartirunakari certain select hymns are recited every day, and there is also a provision to recite the entire Nalayiram over the course of a month. The corpus is divided into twenty-seven portions, each corresponding to one of the twenty-seven naksatras (segments of the ecliptic identified by particular stars they contain) through which the moon passes in its orbit, and each day one of these portions is recited. In the morning when the deity is being bathed and anointed, the araiyar sings ten verses from Periyalvartirumoli. In these verses the poet, Periyalvar, describes Yasoda bathing Krsna. In this instance the textual portion is obviously of particular relevance to the ongoing ritual activity. Afterward, while the deity is being adorned (alankaram), the gosthi (i.e., the community of male Srivaisnavas attending the puja) chants Kanninunciruttampu by Maturakavi, Antal's Tiruppavai, and the daily portion of the Nalayiram, which is determined by the current naksatra. The araiyar alone sings the first and last verse of each text. During the evening the Nityanucantanam, a selection of verses from the Nalayiram, is recited. Alvartirunakari, first nine compositions are recited before the image of Visnu, and then three more are recited before Nammalvar's image. This, for the most part, is the daily schedule for recitation of the alvars hymns, but during festival times it is superseded by the special festival schedule. At Alvartirunakari, four great ten-day festivals, or Brahmotsavas, are celebrated annually during the Tamil months of Cittirai (April-May), Vaikaci (May-June), Maci (February-March), and Pankuni (March-April). All temples celebrate at least one annual Brahmotsava, which may fall at different
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times of the year at different temples, depending upon the local mythology of the temple. Four, however, is an unusually large number of major festivals for a temple to celebrate in a year. The most important ritual events of the Brahmotsavas are the ceremonial processions that are conducted in the streets surrounding the temple, once in the morning and once again in the evening. The ritual schedules for the four annual festivals celebrated at Alvartirunakari are essentially identical. During the Brahmotsavas the alvars hymns are recited during the ten days of the festival. Portions of the first "thousand" and of Tiruvaymoli are recited daily in one of the temple mantapams (pillared halls), and the other half of the corpus is recited in the street during the morning and evening processions. This does not exhaust all the occasions for recitation of the alvars hymns at Alvartirunakari. At this temple the entire Nalayiram is recited eighteen times and Tiruvaymoli even more often during the course of a year. The occasions for recitation of the hymns include the monthly recitation by naksatra, the celebrations of the alvars' janma naksatras, the four Brahmotsavas, and the Adhyayanotsava. But even in Vaisnava temples that do not lavish so much attention on the alvars hymns, at least some portions of the Nalayiram are recited during the daily puja ceremonies, and the hymns are recited in procession during the annual festival(s). Turning now to recitation of the Tamil Saiva hymns, the occasions for ritual recitation are, by and large, quite similar to those described above, only there is no Saiva equivalent to the Vaisnava Adhyayanotsava, which is devoted to recitation of the entire canon. Today, in the Kapalisvarar temple, puja, defined as a ritual occasion which includes displaying the flame of an oil lamp before the deity's image (diparadhana), is performed five times daily in the main temple sanctum, and hymns from the Tirumurai are recited during all five of these ceremonies. 5 Recitation of the Tamil hymns is one of the final events of the puja. In the latter portion of the puja, the lamp is displayed for the deity, and Sanskrit mantras from the Vedas and other sources are recited by Brahmin priests (gurukkal). After the Sanskrit recitation, the gurukkal indicates that it is time for the recitation of the dravidaveda, and the otuvar, a non-Brahmin, sings five hymns selected from the Tirumurai, called panca puranam (the five puranas). The first is one of the Tevaram hymns (first through seventh Tirumurai, by the saints Campantar, Appar, and Cuntarar); the second is a hymn from Tiruvacakam; the third is one of the Tiruvicaippa hymns collected in the ninth Tirumurai; the fourth is a verse from the Tiruppallantu by Cetanar, a poem also included in the ninth Tirumurai; and the last is a verse from Periya Puranam, Cekkilar's twelfth-century hagiography of the sixty-three nayanmar. The choice of particular verses for ritual recitation is often determined by the local mythology of the temple. Tirukkovaiyar, Tirumular's Tirumantiram (the tenth Tirumurai), and the poems anthologized in the eleventh Tirumurai are not included among the Tamil hymns
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recited in the temple. The most obvious explanation is that these compositions are not written in meters that are appropriate for musical recitation, and music is central to the otuvar tradition. At the Kapalisvarar temple a procession of priests and other temple functionaries visits all the subsidiary shrines in the temple twice daily, once after the noon puja, and again after the evening twilight puja ceremony. At each shrine the Brahmin priest performs diparadhana, and at most of the shrines the otuvar also recites one of the Tevaram hymns. While making the rounds of the temple shrines, the procession visits a shrine that houses the icons of the four premier saints of Tamil Saivism, known as the nalvar (the three Tevaram poets and Manikkavacakar) and another that houses the icons of the sixty-three nayanmar. At the first, the otuvar recites a verse of praise to the nalvar (the four), written by a poet named Caivayellappa Navalar, and at the second he sings one of the Tevaram hymns by Cuntarar, the saint who first praised the nayanmar in poetry. The dual role of the saints as the lord's servants and as recipients of service performed by worshipers is plainly expressed in the daily ritual routine of the Kapalisvarar temple and of many other Saiva temples where the ritual day follows the same basic pattern. In the main sanctum the saints' hymns are recited as an act of service to Siva. During the daily tour of the temple's secondary shrines, the saints are honored with a display of the oil lamp and a hymn of praise. In both aspects of their ritual role the Saiva saints are not unlike the alvars, only in the Saiva context the saint's status as the lord's servant and as recipient of the lord's grace is not represented as graphically as it is the Vaisnava Adhyayanotsava. Also, it does not appear that the otuvar is explicitly identified as the saint's representative, while the Vaisnava araiyar clearly is so identified. The saints' hymns are recited during two other types of temple events. At many major Saiva temples a period of time is set aside for musical performance of the hymns, especially of the Tevaram hymns. These performances take place in a mantapam, which is located within the temple precincts, but outside the main sanctum. For these occasions, called Tirumurai parayanam (reading of the Tirumurai), the otuvar sings the Tamil hymns to the accompaniment of musical instruments. These performances are not as formal as the ritual recitation of the hymns for the pujas, and consequently they are not subject to the rules that govern ritual performances. Instrumental accompaniment is allowed at a Tirumurai parayanam, and the performers are not required to render each hymn in the musical mode that is traditionally thought to be proper to it. Recitation of the hymns during festival processions outside the temple walls is similar in performance style. On these occasions the otuvars and accompanists walk at the very end of the procession and sing the Tamil hymns. The importance attached to musical rendition of the Saiva hymns has a long history in Tamil Saiva lore. Numbered among the sixty-three nayanmar
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is a musician named Tirunilakanta Yalppanar, a player of the yal (an ancient south Indian instrument of the lute family) and member of the panar caste of musicians. He accompanied the Tevaram poet Campantar on his numerous visits to Saiva shrines, and as the saint composed devotional hymns, the panar set them to music. Tirunilakanta Yalppanar set a precedent for musical performance of the Tevaram hymns, and when Nampi Antar Nampi recovered the Tevaram manuscripts from the locked room at Chidambaram, 6he also had to reconstruct the proper musical modes for their performance. He accomplished this by visiting the native village of Tirunilakanta Yalppanar, where he met a woman of the panar caste who learned the modes by divine revelation. She returned to Chidambaram with Nampi, and there she sang and danced for Siva. In both Vaisnava and Saiva temple settings, the hymns of the Tamil saints are recited as an act of service to the deity, and the saints themselves are members of the divine population that inhabits the numerous shrines housed within the temple walls. Worship of the saints follows the same forms that are employed for worship of the principal deity, but on a commensurately smaller scale.7 The diparadhana performed daily at the shrines of the saints is not preceded by an elaborate puja as in the shrine of the principal deity, nor is it performed as many times during the day. On the level of periodic ritual, Vaisnavites honor the saints by celebrating the janma naksatras, or birthdays, of the alvars, and Saivites annually observe the moksa atainta naksatras of their saints, the asterisms under which the saints attained moksa, i.e., the anniversaries of their deaths. These periodic observances in honor of the saints fit into the paradigm of the great annual festivals, which reenact important events in the mythical biography of the presiding deity. The differences between the ways the Tamil saints and their hymns are incorporated into the ritual of Vaisnava and Saiva temples tend to reflect certain differences between Vaisnava and Saiva theological traditions in Tamilnadu. Ritual performances in Vaisnava temples reiterate the Srivaisnava doctrine of ubhayavedanta, the doctrine that both Sanskrit scripture and the alvars' hymns are equally sacred. In Vaisnava temples, both Sanskrit and Tamil texts are recited as part of the daily ritual, and, at least in the three temples where the araiyar tradition survives intact, the Tamil tradition is vested in the araiyar and the Vedic tradition is vested in the priest or pattar (Sanskrit: bhatta) who recites Vedic mantras during ritual performances. Both functionaries are given opportunities to receive highly prized tokens of honor from the deity. Also, during festivals, provision is made for Vedic recitation of the Vedas and the Tamil pirapantam recitation when the deity travels through the streets in procession. The gosthi of pirapantam reciters walks immediately in front of the deity, and the reciters of Vedic hymns walk immediately behind the deity as the procession moves through the streets. Thus, the deity is supported on either side by the reciters of the sacred texts,
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and recitation of both is viewed as divine service (kainkarya). In Tamil Vaisnavism the Tamil hymns of the alvars and Sanskrit Vedic hymns occupy essentially symmetrical positions in the structure of daily pujas and festival celebrations, and both are recited by Brahmin functionaries. In the broad view, the organization of ritual in Vaisnava temples highlights the continuities that bind Sanskrit and Tamil elements together in a unified system. In Saiva temple ritual, Sanskritic and Tamil spheres are not as closely bound. During the daily performance of puja a non-Brahmin functionary recites the Tamil hymns, and while performing his service he stands slightly farther from the deity than the Brahmin priest who recites Vedic hymns for the puja. Also, in festival processions, the otuvars and musicians stand at the end of the procession, not in immediate proximity to the deity as the Vaisnava pirapantarn reciters do. On the surface these characteristics of Saiva temple ritual suggest that the Tamil element in the ritual is subordinate to the Sanskrit element, but it is doubtful that the otuvars who recite the Tamil hymns would agree. They would look not to the Brahmin temple priests but to the non-Brahmin heads of Saiva mathas (monasteries) for authoritative pronouncements on religious matters. In fact, frequently the affairs of the temples are administered by these mathas. The organization of ritual activity in the Saiva temples of Tamilnadu may reflect a history of incomplete fusion between a Sanskritic tradition, which is represented by the Brahmin priesthood, and a Tamil tradition, which is maintained by non-Brahmin temple servants and monastic authorities. In this context, there would have been less opportunity for thorough integration of Sanskrit and Tamil elements, such as one finds in Srivaisnavism, because study and transmission of the two traditions took place within separate social spheres. The Srivaisnava Brahmins who took the Tamil saints and their poetry into their fold also knew Vedic literature, and thus they were in a position to develop a doctrine that would bring the two together. Vedic study, however, was not traditionally pursued by non-Brahmins; to the contrary, sastraic law denied non-Brahmins access to the Vedas. The Saiva non-Brahmin groups who have been the transmitters of Tamil Saiva literature therefore tended to regard the Tamil element in Saivism as an autonomous domain, even though it did not become the dominant ritual language in the temple. Notes 1. According to Nilakanta Sastri, inscriptional evidence reveals that the saints' hymns were incorporated into the ritual of certain major temples at least by the tenth century. K. A. Nilakanta Sastri, The Colas (Madras: University of Madras, 1954), pp. 637, 639. 2. The origin of this festival is discussed in chapter 2. 3. See chapter 2 for a discussion of the araiyar's role as described in the chronicle of the Srirankam temple.
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4. The informants who provided this information include P. Sarangacharya, araiyar at the Atinatar temple, and other residents of Alvartirunakari. 5. My information concerning the ritual of the Kapalisvarar temple comes primarily from conversations with P. A. S. Rajasekharan, a professional reciter of the Tamil Saiva hymns. 6. See chapter 2. 7. For a concise description of the basic agamic paradigm for deity worship in south Indian temples, see Arjun Appadurai and Carol Breckenridge, "The south Indian temple: authority, honor and redistribution," Contributions to Indian Sociology, n. s., 10, no. 2 (December 1976): 187-212.
APPENDIX B INDEX OF MYTHOLOGICAL/ICONOGRAPHIC ALLUSIONS AND PROPER NAMES OCCURRING IN THE POEMS I. Saiva myths and iconography (a) Ardhanarisavara (Siva in half-male/half-female form): TC 55; TA I0, 18; AP 9; TT 3. (b) Burning of Kama: TK 70. (c) Crescent moon in Siva's hair: ATA 11, 37; TA 9; AP 10. (d) Destruction of Tirupura (the three demon cities): A TA 37; TVM 1.1.8. (e) Ganga held in Siva's hair: A TA 11; TK 248. (f) Mt. Kailasa (Siva's abode): TK 6, 23, 120. (g) Nandi (bull), Siva's mount and banner: TK 3; TA 5; TT 10. (h) Nataraja (Siva as lord of the dance): A TA 77; TK 23, 335; TC 43; AP 8. (i) "Pillar of fire" myth: TK 287; TA 18; AP 6. (j) Sacred ash: TK 109; TA 9; AP 1, 4, 7. (k) Siva as fisherman: TA 2. (l) Siva as horseman: TA 9, 20; AP 7. (m) Siva holds flame in his hand: TA 17. (n) Siva's black (blue) throat: A TA 1, 33; TK 102, 324, 341; TA 9. (o) Siva wears a snake: MuTA 63; TK 11, 178; AP 4. (p) Siva wears a tiger's (lion's) skin: TK 75; AP 4. II. Vaisnava myths and iconography (a) Embryonic Visnu afloat on banyan leaf in primal ocean: TVM 1.9.4. (b) Gagendra (Visnu's elephant-devotee): MuTA 99. (c) Garuda (eagle), Visnu's mount and banner: TVM 1.6.10. file:///C|/Cutler_Songs%20of%20Experience/0253353343/files/page_194.html[21.03.2011 18:21:45]
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(d) Hayagriva (Visnu's horse incarnation): TVM 2.8.5. (e) Krsna as a cowherd: MTA 55; TVM 1.5.6, 1.7.3, 1.7.5. (f) Krsna kills Kuvalaypida (elephant-demon): TVM 1.9.2. (g) Krsna kills Madhu (Madhusudana): TVM 2.3.1, 2.7.5. (h) Krsna kills Putana: MTA 11; TVM 1.5.9, 1.6.7, 1.9.5.
(i) Krsna lifts Mt. Govardhana: MTA 86; TVM 2.10.4.
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(j) Krsna steals butter: MTA 92; TVM 1.3.1, 1.5.1, 1.5.8, 2.3.8. (k) Krsna wins Pinnai as his bride by wrestling seven bulls: TVM 1.5.1, 1.7.8, 1.8.7, 2.5.7, 2.9.10. (1) Kurma (Visnu's tortoise incarnation): TVM 2.8.5. (m) Laksmi born from a lotus: TVM 1.3.1, 1.5.9. (n) Matsya (Visnu's fish incarnation): TVM 2.8.5. (o) Rama defeats Ravana and conquers Lanka: MTA 35; TVM 1.6.7, 2.4.3, 2.4.10, 2.9.10. (p) Rama pierces seven Sal trees with a single arrow: TVM 1.5.6, 2.5.7. (q) Tulasi (sacred basil): MuTA 2, 79; TVM 2.3.9, 2.5.7. (r) Vaikuntha (Visnu's heaven): TVM 1.5.4. (s) Vamana (Visnu's dwarf incarnation): MTA 98; ITA 14; TVM 1.3.10, 2.8.7. (t) Varaha (Visnu's boar incarnation): TVM 1.9.2, 2.8.7. (u) Visnu's discus, conch, etc.: MTA 1, ITA 67; MuTA 1, 63, 99; TVM 2.3.10, 2.5.1, 2.7.5, 2.10.5. (v) Visnu sleeps on his snake-bed in the ocean of milk: MTA 55; TVM 1.5.4, 2.5.7; TK 120; TT 1. (w) Visnu's red-lotus eyes: ITA 90; TVM 2.5.1, 2.7.5, 2.7.9, 2.8.11. (x) Visnu's three consorts: TVM 1.9.4. (y) Visnu's three postures: MuTA 94; TVM 2.8.7. (z) Visnu "swallows" the universe: TVM 1.5.8, 1.8.7, 1.9.4, 2.8.7. III. Other mythological and iconographic allusions and culture-bound references (a) Brahma seated on a lotus: TT 1. (b) Sacred thread (worn by Siva/Visnu): TVM 2.5.1, TA 9. (c) Seven births: MuTA 2, 79. (d) Seven worlds: TVM 1.5.1, 1.5.8, 1.8.7, 2.2.11; TT 2. (e) Three worlds: TVM 1.9.4, 2.8.5. (f) Trimurti (Brahma, Visnu, and Siva): TVM 1.5.4 IV. Names of Hindu gods appearing in the translations (a) Aran (Hara): TVM 1.1.8, 1.3.6, 2.8.3; TK 3. (b) Ari (Hari): TVM 1.3.6. (c) Ayan (Aja): TVM 1.1.8, 1.3.6, 2.8.3; TC 2; TA 12, 18; AP 6. (d) Kannan: TVM 1.9.4, 2.2.9, 2.3.9. (e) Kesava: TVM 1.5.6, 1.9.2.
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(f) Madhava: TVM 1.5.6, 1.6.10, 1.6.11, 2.3.1, 2.7.5. (g) Mal (Tirumal, Netumal): MTA 61, 70, 92, 98; ITA 90; MuTA 2; TVM 2.8.7, 2.10.3, 2.10.4, 2.10.5; TK 120; TC 2; TA 12, 18; AP 1, 6. (h) Naranan: ITA 1. (i) Narasimha: TVM 2.4.1. (j) Punniyan: MTA 98. (k) Purantaran: TC 2, 72.
(l) Sri/Tiru: MuTA 1, 2; TVM 1.5.6, 2.7.9, 2.8.3.
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V. Local place names (a) Alankatu: TAMTP 1, 11. (b) Annamalai: TA 10. (c) Arur: TT 1. (d) Karaikkal: TAMTP 11. (e) Kurukur: TVM 1.3.11, 1.6.11, 2.2.11, 2.8.11, 2.10.11. (f) Kutal: TK 20. (g) Mal's dark grove (Maliruncolai): TVM 2.10.3, 2.10.4, 2.10.5. (h) Northern Kocamankai (Uttarakocamankai): AP 6; TT 2. (i) Pantiya country (Pantinatu): TA 10; AP 5; TT 2. (j) Perunturai: TA 2, 5, 6, 9, 10, 18, 20; TT 1, 4, 5, 7, 8, 9, 10; AP 3. (k) Potiyil: TK 8. (l) Puliyur: TK 8. (m) Tillai/Ambalam: TK 6, 11, 20, 23, 70, 71, 75, 102, 109, 115, 120, 144, 166, 178, 248, 250, 287, 289, 292, 304, 315, 324, 335, 341, 343; TC 55; TA 5. (n) Valuti country (Valutinatu): TVM 2.8.11.
APPENDIX C INDEX OF MOTIFS With one exception, the motifs listed below emphasize the large thematic territory that is shared by Tamil Vaisnava and Saiva bhakti traditions. No doubt there are a fair number of motifs that are restricted to the poetry of one branch of Hinduism or the other, but there is also a whole range of motifs concerning attributes of the deity, the poet, and the nature of bhakti that the Tamil canons of Vaisnavism and Saivism share in common. I have chosen to emphasize these because all too often Tamil Vaisnavites and Saivites are familiar only with the literature and customs favored by their own family traditions, and they fail to perceive that many themes run through the literature of both branches of Hinduism. This can be attributed partly to a lack of exposure and partly to the specialized, sectarian-specific languages of exegesis that refract and sometimes restrict people's experience of the saints' poems. Twentieth-century scholarly literature on the subject of Tamil religious literature usually appears in the form of either in-depth studies of a single religious tradition or studies that strive for a comprehensive view of cultural development and consequently confine their observations concerning literature to broad generalizations. The motifs enumerated here emerged from my own experience with the Tamil bhakti poems. Some may duplicate themes that are discussed in theological literature, but I did not purposefully attempt to authenticate each motif I chose by tracing its history in traditional exegesis. This is not intended to be a complete catalogue of the motifs that appear in the poems of the Tamil saints, nor are the motifs I have identified sacrosanct. But still, I believe that
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the scheme has a firm grounding in the poems and that it elucidates some of the preoccupations of their authors. The twenty motifs catalogued below are a mixed lot. Sometimes they appear in the poems in the form of formulaic expressions (e.g., "the lord of the gods," "the lord sweet as honey"). In other instances they may be enacted in a poem although they are not expressed in so many words. (For instance, a poem that speaks of the lord's transcendence and his astounding deeds in one line and then of his humility in the next, enacts the idea that the lord is simultaneously remote and accessible.) Some of the motifs are actually clusters of related idea units; e.g., devotion to sensual enjoyment, affection for anyone and anything other than the lord, and dedication to family are all impediments to spiritual fulfillment. And conversely, some motifs spill over into others; for instance, the idea that the lord breaks the bonds of karma for his devotees and that the lord is a refuge for his devotees are closely related. This motif index is based upon what is, after all, a small sample of the entire Tamil bhakti corpus. It is just a beginning. The reader will doubtlessly notice other thematic patterns that emerge from these translations, not to speak of themes that are given greater emphasis by poets who are not directly treated in this study. In this motif index I offer my own experience of the poems as a guide to other readers. But of course readers are also invited to alert themselves to other ways in which the poems interact with one another. Motif 1: The lord is the master of gods Under this motif I have included descriptions of Siva and Visnu as the leader or king of the gods, the lord who is superior to the gods, and the lord who is worshiped by the gods. These descriptions most commonly appear in the form of a formulaic phrase or epithet, often in apposition with other descriptive phrases or names that isolate particular aspects of the god's nature. "The gods" are designated by a number of words in these poems such as tevar (Sanskrit: deva), amarar (the immortal ones), vanor (they who dwell in the sky), and vinnor (they who dwell in heaven). Poems: TVM 1.1.8, 1.3.10, 1.3.11, 1.5.1, 1.5.4, 1.5.9, 1.7.4, 1.7.8, 1.9.5, 2.3.1, 2.3.9, 2.8.5; TC 14, 29, 43; TA 10; TK 304. Motif 2a: The great gods are really one This motif appears, as far as I can tell, primarily in Vaisnava poems. The two early Vaisnava poems in the sample affirm that Visnu and Siva are identical, or at least inseparable. Nammalvar more often speaks of the three murtis as aspects of one supreme god. Sometimes he does not name Visnu in the poem, but merely states that "the lord" or "he" became Brahma and Siva, or that he contains Brahma and Siva. In some of his poems Nammalvar implies that Visnu is prior to or superior to the other murtis, but in others the three great gods are grouped together as three manifestations of one supreme being. Poems: MTA 98; MuTA 63; TVM 1.1.8, 1.3.6, 1.5.4, 2.8.3.
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Motif 2b: Siva is superior to Indra, Brahma, and/or Visnu Although I have found a verse by Karaikkalammaiyar (A TA 18, not translated here) that manifests motif 2a, Siva poets, or at least Manikkavacakar, tend to emphasize Siva's superiority to the other great gods of Hinduism. In many instances this claim is couched in an allusion to the ''pillar of fire" myth (see note for TK 287). Poems: TK 287; TC 2; TA 12, 18; AP 1, 6. Motif 3: The lord is simultaneously accessible and remote This motif, which occurs with great frequency in the poems of both Vaisnava and Saiva poets, also receives ample attention in theological literature. The motif is manifested in a number of ways. A poet may declare that the lord is remote to the faithless but near-at-hand for his devotees, or he may contrast his own intimate relations with the lord and the gods' inability to ever know him. Some poems enact this motif by first describing the lord as an awesome being who performs heroic deeds and then speaking of the simple, natural way he appears for his devotees. Poems: MuTA 81; TVM 1.1.8, 1.3.1, 1.5.1, 1.5.8, 1.7.3, 1.9.2, 1.9.4, 1.9.5; TC 29, 47; TA 2, 12, 16, 18, 20. Motif 4: The lord encompasses the whole world The Tamil bhakti poets were fond of the idea that the lord is omnipresent in space and in time. They say that he is the first cause and the final cause of everything in the world; he encompasses the vastness of the universe and permeates the tiniest atom; he even exists in the nonexistent. In many of these poems we are told that the lord became the five elementsearth, water, fire, wind, and ether. He also exists in every living creature, from the simplest forms of life to the gods in heaven. The poets construct their characterizations of the lord's universality from elementary ontological categories. Thus in · these poems we can perceive the basic outlines of the poets' world view. Poems: ATA 20, 77; MTA 61, 92; MuTA 38, 44; TVM 1.1.7, 1.1.10, 1.3.2, 1.5.4, 1.9.5, 2.2.9, 2.3.2, 2.7.5, 2.8.5, 2.9.6; TK 71; TC 15, 29, 43; TA 12. Motif 5: The lord dwells within the devotee The poet-saint often affirms that the lord dwells in his heart or in his mind, or that he and the lord are inextricably intermingled. In many poems this motif appears as a kind of "personalization" of the idea that the lord is omnipresent. The lord exists everywhere, but what matters most to the devotee is that the lord is present in his own being. Srivaisnava theologians expressed this idea in their conception of the antaryamin (one who goes within) or harda (one who dwells in the heart) form of Visnu. Sometimes the motif takes on a very physical, erotic coloring. In many verses of Tiruvacakam Manikkavacakar speaks of Siva as the lord who "enters" him, in language that is unabashedly
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erotic. The motif may be expressed as a state of being or, in its erotic manifestation, as an experienced event. Poems: ATA 11; MuTA 81, 94; TVM 1.7.4, 1.7.5, 1.7.7, 1.7.8, 1.8.7, 1.9.2, 1.9,4, 1.9.5, 2.3.1, 2.7.9; TK 289; TC 26, 29, 32, 41, 47; TA 2, 16, 18; AP 3. Motif 6: The lord is unfathomable Visnu and Siva are often described as the lord who cannot be seen, the lord who cannot be described, or the lord who is beyond comprehension. Sometimes the poets say that the mysteries of the lord's nature even defy the acute mental faculties of the gods. Poems: ATA 61; MuTA 81; TVM 1.1.8, 1.3.6, 1.3.10, 2.3.2, 2.8.7; TK 287; TC 15, 43, 47; TA 18. Motif 7: The lord destroys karma Siva and Visnu are both often described as the lord who destroys the karma of his devotees, the lord who frees his devotees from their past deeds (vinai), or the lord who saves his devotees from rebirth. Many of the poems conjure an image of salvation as a physical act, for they speak of the lord as one who cuts (aru) his devotees' bonds (parru). Poems: ATA 16, 37; ITA 67; MuTA 2, 79; TVM 1.3.11, 1.5.6, 1.6.7, 1.6.10, 1.6.11, 1.7.3, 2.3.8, 2.7.9, 2.8.5, 2.10.11; TC 8, 28; TA 5, 12, 14; TT 2, 8. Motif 8: The lord protects his devotees The themes of protection and service are two sides of the same coin in the saints' poems. The lord offers protection and is served by his devotees. In this sense the god/devotee relationship is similar to the relationship between king and subject or between master and servant. Closely related to this theme is the idea that the lord grants marvelous favors to his servants. The lord does more than protect his devotees from threatening forces; he cares for them and brings them positive benefits. For this reason it is a great privilege to be accepted into the lord's service. Poems: ATA 5; MTA 55; MuTA 99; TVM 1.5.9, 1.7.4, 1.7.5, 2.3.9, 2.5.1, 2.8.5; TK 144, 166, 315, 343; TC 14, 26, 28, 32, 43; TA 6, 9, 10, 18, 20. Motif 9: Sensuous descriptions of the lord The hymns of the saints are filled with metaphors that liken the lord to brightly colored flowers, brilliant jewels, and the sweetest, most delicate foods. The Vaisnava poets especially favor visual metaphors. They place great emphasis on the idea that Visnu's physical presence delights the eyes of his beholders. Manikkavacakar is fond of describing Siva as the "sweet lord." His taste-oriented metaphors give a sense of the devotee's experience of Siva's presence. Poems: MTA 92; TVM 1.7.3, 2.5.1, 2.7.5, 2.9.10; TC 11, 26, 36, 55, 90; TA 6, 14, 16.
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Motif 10: The lord harmonizes with his devotee The lord reveals his gracious nature by harmonizing his form with the perceptive powers and the temperament of his devotee. The devotee need not tax his imagination to approach the lord; the lord takes the form of his imagining. This motif, in a sense, is an epistemological complement to the idea that the lord is omnipresent. His universality encompasses thoughts as well as things. Poems: ATA 33; TVM 1.1.5. Motif 11: Obstacles to devotion Sensory pleasures, affection for other human beings, and family responsibilities divert the devotee's attention from the lord. The devotee therefore must overcome these obstacles if he hopes to receive the lord's grace. Poems: ITA 14, 35; TK 115; TC 41; TA 20. Motif 12: The devotee is concerned for the lord and nothing else The bhakta is indifferent to everyone and everything but the lord. Compared with his devotion to Visnu or to Siva, nothing else appears valuable to him. The poets also assert that penances and other practices intended to bring merit are irrelevant if one has devotion, and that the distinction between pleasure and pain, heaven and hell has no meaning for the lord's devotee. Poems: ATA 11; MTA 11; ITA 35; TVM 2.9.5; TC 2, 72; TA 20. Motif 13: The pain of separation from the lord The anguish of separation is as much a part of the bhakta's experience as the joy of union. This motif evolves out of two of the most prevalent formats for devotion in the Tamil poemsthe lover/beloved relationship and the master/ servant (or king/subject) relationship. The first often appears in the garb of traditional love poetry and focuses upon the suffering of the female beloved who languishes in separation from her lover. Nammalvar included many poems of this type in Tiruvaymoli (see chapter 1). The devotee who aspires to serve the lord is also vulnerable because he may not be accepted into the select ranks of the lord's servants; or, even if the lord is willing to have him, he may find himself unequal to the task. Poems undergirded by this theme often emphasize the devotee's unworthiness. They also speak of the devotee's isolation from the lord's worthy servants who receive the lord's protection. The suffering devotee is always portrayed as an utterly helpless figure. Poems: TVM 2.3.10, 2.7.9; TC 11, 14, 36, 41, 55, 90; TA 17.
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Motif 14: The devotee becomes possessed by the lord The idea that a devotee's love for the lord can so overwhelm him that he behaves like a madman appears very early in the history of Tamil bhakti. Karaikkalammaiyar begged Siva to let her become a "ghost" (pey) so she could ignore the society of men and give herself fully to her devotion. Likewise, Peyalvar's name suggests that his obsessive preoccupation with Visnu made him behave like a "ghost." The later poets also say that the lord drives them mad or that devotion impels them to dance, sing, cry, or even lose consciousness. Poems: TAMTP 1, 11; TVM 1.6.3, 2.3.9, 2.4,1; TK 324; TA 2,5,17; AP 7, 10. Motif 15: Bhakti glorifies the devotee In some poems the saints say that the lord rewards his devotees with power and glory. Juxtaposed with other prevalent themes in the poems, this motif implies at least two paradoxes. First, there is an implication that one attains power and glory through humility and renunciation, because the devotee must surrender his will to the lord to prove himself worthy to receive the lord's grace. The second paradox is that the devotee attains the very rewards that are supposed to be of no consequence to him. Of course the claim that the devotee is rewarded with the glories of heaven can also be interpreted metaphorically: the fruit of devotion is as marvelous as the glories of heaven. Poems: ITA 90; TVM 1.3.11, 2.8.11; TK 315; TC 28. Motif 16: The lord is mother and father to the devotee This motif can be interpreted in two ways, one metaphorical and one literal. The poets may be saying that for his devotees, the lord is everything that parents are for their children. But since the poets also stress that the lord literally is the whole world and every creature in the world, it is also possible to interpret this motif to mean that the devotee's actual parents are one of the many manifestations of the lord. Only poems in which the lord is spoken of as the poet's mother and father are listed below. In a much larger number of poems the poets address the lord as "my father." Poems: TVM 2.3.2; TC 47. Motif 17: Witty allusions to myth and iconography The bhakti poets sometimes liked to display their wit by inventing poetic "jokes" involving Visnu's and Siva's mythology and iconography. Usually the poets' witticisms take the form of a direct question to the god, in which two of the god's myths or two aspects of the god's iconography are juxtaposed in a clever, but unconventional way. The early poets especially favored this form, and Nammalvar also gave it some attention. Poems: ATA 77; MTA 92; TVM 1.5.8.
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Motif 18: God as warrior and king The heroic, kingly nature of the lord comes through plainly in the Tamil bhakti poems, and this aspect of the lord's character is the central theme of several poetic genres included in the bhakti corpus. In the kovai genre there is a "slot" in each verse that is filled with a laudatory reference to a king and the land he rules. In Manikkavacakar's Tirukkovaiyar this slot is filled with references to Siva and to his abode at Tillai (Chidambaram). (See chapter 4.) Each verse of Tiruttacankam identifies one of the ten "limbs" of Siva's kingdom. Further, both Vaisnava and Saiva canons contain an "awakening hymn'' (Tiruppalliyelucci) adapted from a type of song sung to awaken a king. Poems: MTA 55; TVM 2.5.7; TK (all); TC 15; TA 2, 10, 16; TT (all). Motif 19: Sacred places The saints played a seminal role in the cult of sacred places, for the most important temples of Visnu and Siva are located at the sites that they celebrated in their hymns. Sometimes the cult of sacred places is linked to the idea that Siva or Visnu is a king. In these instances, the poets speak of the god's earthly abode as his kingdom or as his capital city. Sometimes they make claims for the benefits of making pilgrimages to the places favored by the lord. There are some texts in which every verse includes a reference to a particular abode of the god. Manikkavacakar praises Chidambaram (known by the name of Tillai or Ambalam) in every verse of Tirukkovaiyar, and Perunturai in Tiruvammanai, Tiruttacankam, and other verses of Tiruvacakam. The ten verses of verse set 2.10 in Tiruvaymoli celebrate Visnu's temple at Tirumaliruncolai (Mal's dark grove), known today as Alakarkoyil. Poems: TAMTP 1, 11; TVM 2.10 (all); TK (all); TC 55; TA 2, 5, 9, 10, 18; TT 2, 3, 8; AP 6. Motif 20: Verses of pure Tamil The bhakti poets take great pride in the Tamil language. In Srivaisnavism the idea that Tamil is a sacred language on a par with Sanskrit is given explicit treatment in the doctrine known as ubhayavedanta (twofold Vedanta). Tamil Saivism is, in some ways, even more devoted to the Tamil language, as witnessed by the fact that its foundational theological texts, the Saiva Siddhanta sastras, are written in Tamil. Poems: TAMTP 11; ITA 1, TVM 2.8.11; TA 10.
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BIBLIOGRAPHY
Primary Sources: Tamil Texts Annankarcariyar, P. B., ed. Tiruvaymoli: Mutal Pattu. Kanchipuram: Granthamala Office, 1969. . Tiruvaymoli: Irantam Pattu. Kanchipuram: Granthamala Office, 1974. . Mutal Tiruvantatiyum Irantam Tiruvantatiyum. Kanchipuram: Granthamala Office, 1973. . Munram Tiruvantatiyum Nanmukan Tiruvantatiyum. Kanchipuram: Granthamala Office, 1974. Comacuntaranar, P. V., ed. Tirukkovaiyar Palaiya Uraiyum Putiya Vilakkamum. Madras: South India Saiva Siddhanta Works Publishing Society, 1970. Purushotama Naidu, B. R., ed. Tiruvaymoli Ittin Tamilakkam (in ten volumes). Madras: University of Madras, 1971. Ramacami, C. A., ed. Patinoran Tirumurai. Madras: The South India Saiva Siddhanta Works Publishing Society, 1971. Sri, P., ed. Tiruvaymoli Telivurai. Madras: Cekar Press, 1966. Tantapani Tecikar, C., ed. Tirukkovaiyar unmaivilakkam. Tiruvavatuturai: Tiruvavatuturai Atinam, 1965. Turaicami, V., ed. Panti Kovai. Madras: Star Publications, 1957. Varadarajan, G., ed. Tiruvacakam. Madras: Palani Brothers, 1971.
Secondary Sources and Translations Appadurai, Arjun, and Carol Breckenridge. "The south Indian temple: authority, honor and redistribution." Contributions to Indian Sociology, n.s., 10, no. 2 (December 1976): 181-212. Arunachalam, M. Tamil Ilakkiya Varalaru, Tamil Pulavar Varalaru (multiple volumes)·Tiruccirrampalam: Gandhi Vidyalayam, 1969-. Barthes, Roland. Elements of Semiology (with Writing Degree Zero). Translated by A. Lavers and C. Smith. Boston: Beacon Press, 1968. Bharati, Agehananda. The Tantric Tradition. London: Rider and Company, 1965. Booth, Wayne C. The Rhetoric of Fiction. Chicago: University of Chicago Press, 1961. Bryant, Kenneth E. Poems to the Child-God: Structures and Strategies in the Poetry of Surdas. Berkeley: University of California Press, 1978. Buck, David C., trans. Dance, Snake/Dance! A Translation with Comments of the Song of Pampatti-Cittar. Calcutta: Writers Workshop, 1976. Corbett, Edward P. J., ed. Rhetorical Analyses of Literary Works. New York: Oxford University Press, 1969.
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Culler, Jonathan. Structuralist Poetics: Structuralism, Linguistics and the Study of Literature. Ithaca: Cornell University Press, 1975. . On Deconstruction: Theory and Criticism after Structuralism. Ithaca: Cornell University Press, 1982. Cutler, Norman. Consider Our Vow: An English Translation of Tiruppavai And Tiruvempavai. Madurai: Muthu Patippakam, 1979. . "The Poetry of the Tamil Saints." Ph.D. diss., University of Chicago, 1980. Damodaran, G. Acarya Hrdayam: A Critical Study. Tirupati: Tirumala Tirupati Devasthanams, 1976. . The Literary Value of Tiruvaymoli. Tirupati: Sri Venkatesvara University, 1978.
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Dhavamony, Mariasusai. Love of God According to Saiva Siddhanta. Oxford: The Clarendon Press, 1971. Dimock, Edward C., and Denise Levertov. In Praise of Krishna: Songs from the Bengali. New York: Anchor Books, 1967. Dimock, Edward C., et al. The Literatures of India: An Introduction. Chicago and London: University of Chicago Press, 1974. Egnor, Margaret T. "Ambiguity in the Oral Exegesis of a Sacred Text: Tirukkovaiyar" (typescript). Gerow, Edwin. Indian Poetics. Wiesbaden: Otto Harrassowitz, 1977. . "Plot Structure and the Development of Rasa in the Sakuntala." Journal of the American Oriental Society 99 (1979): 559-72, and JAOS 100 (1980): 267-82. Gnanambal, K. "The Srivaisnavas and their Religious Institutions." Bulletin of the Anthropological Survey of India 20 (July-December 1971): 97-187. Gonda, Jan. Vedic Literature. Wiesbaden: Otto Harrassowitz, 1975. Hardy, Friedhelm. "Ideology and Social Contexts of the Srivaisnava Temple." Indian Economic and Social History Review 14 (January-March 1977): 119-51. . "The Tamil Veda of a Sudra Saint (The Srivaisnava Interpretation of Nammalvar)." In Gopal Krishna, ed., Contributions to South Asian Studies 1. Delhi: Oxford University Press, 1979. . Viraha-Bhakti: The early history of Krsna devotion in South India. Delhi: Oxford University Press, 1983. Hari Rao, V. N., ed. and trans. Koil Olugu: The Chronicle of the Srirangam Temple with Historical Notes. Madras: Rochouse and Sons, 1961. Hart, George L., III. "The Nature of Tamil Devotion." In M. M. Deshpande and Peter Hook, eds., Aryan and Nonaryan in India. Ann Arbor: Center for South and Southeast Asian Studies, University of Michigan, 1979, pp. 1133. . The Poems of Ancient Tamil: Their Milieu and Their Sanskrit Counterparts. Berkeley: University of California Press, 1975. Hart, George L., III., trans. Poets of the Tamil Anthologies. Princeton: Princeton University Press, 1979. Inden, Ronald B. "Ritual, Authority and Cyclic Time in Hindu Kingship." In J. F. Richards, ed., Kingship and Authority in South Asia. Madison: University of Wisconsin South Asian Studies Publications, 1978, pp. 28-73. Ingalls, Daniel, trans. Sanskrit Poetry from Vidyakara's Treasury. Cambridge, Mass.: Harvard University Press, 1968. Jakobson, Roman. "Closing Statement: Linguistics and Poetics." In T. A. Sebeok, ed., Style in Language. Cambridge, Mass.: MIT Press, 1960. . "Shifters, Verbal Categories, and the Russian Verb." Russian Language Project, Department of Slavic Languages and Literatures, Harvard University, 1957. Jesudasan, C. and H. A History of Tamil Literature. Calcutta: YMCA Publishing House, 1961. Kailasapathy, K. Tamil Heroic Poetry. Oxford: The Clarendon Press, 1968. Kârâvêlane, ed. and trans. Kâreikkâlammeiyâr: Oeuvres Éditées et Traduites. Pondicherry: Institut Français d'Indologie, 1956. file:///C|/Cutler_Songs%20of%20Experience/0253353343/files/page_204.html[21.03.2011 18:21:49]
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Meenakshisundaram, T. P. A History of Tamil Literature. Annamalainagar: Annamalai University, 1965. Miller, Barbara Stoler. The Hermit and the Love- Thief: Sanskrit Poems of Bhartrihari and Bilhana. New York: Columbia University Press, 1978. Narayanan, Vasudha. "The Srivaisnava Understanding of Bhakti and Prapatti." Ph.D. diss., Bombay University, 1978. Navaratnam, Ratna. Tiruvachakam: The Hindu Testament of Love. Bombay: Bharatiya Vidya Bhavan, 1963.
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Nilakanta Sastri, K. A. The Colas. Madras: University of Madras, 1955. . A History of South India from Prehistoric Times to the Fall of Vijayanagar. Madras: Oxford University Press, 1966. Noble, Sally. "Narrative, Image and Song in the Cilappatikaram." M.A. thesis, University of Chicago, 1981. Parameswaran, M. R. "The Two-fold Vedanta of Srivaisnavism" (manuscript). Peterson, Indira V. "Singing of a Place: Pilgrimage as Metaphor and Motif in the Tevaram Songs of the Tamil Saiva Saints." Journal of the American Oriental Society 102, no. 1 (1982): 69-90. . "Poems to Siva: The Hymns of the Tamil Saints" (manuscript). Pope, G. U., trans. The Tiruvacagam or 'Sacred Utterances' of the Tamil Poet Saint and Sage Manikkavacagar. 1900; reprint ed. Madras: University of Madras, 1970. Quilligan, Maureen. The Language of Allegory. Ithaca: Cornell University Press, 1979. Ramanujam, B. V. History of Vaishnavism in South India up to Ramanuja. Annamalainagar: Annamalai University, 1973. Ramanujan, A. K. Hymns for the Drowning: Poems for Visnu by Nammalvar. Princeton: Princeton University Press, 1981. . "On Women Saints." In John S. Hawley and Donna D. Wulff, eds., The Divine Consort: Radha and the Consort Goddesses of India. Berkeley: Berkeley Theological Union, 1982. . Poems of Love and Fear from the Eight Anthologies and the Ten Songs of Classical Tamil. New York: Columbia University Press, 1985. . Speaking of Siva. Baltimore: Penguin Books, 1973. . The Interior Landscape: Love Poems from a Classical Tamil Anthology. Bloomington: Indiana University Press, 1967. Ramanujan, A. K., and Norman Cutler. "From Classicism to Bhakti." In Bardwell L. Smith, ed., Essays in Gupta Culture. Delhi: Motilal Banarsidass, 1983. Shanmugam Pillai, M., and David Ludden, trans. Kuruntokai: An Anthology of Classical Tamil Love Poetry. Madurai: Koodal Publishers, 1976. Shulman, David. "From Author to Non-Author in Tamil Literary Legend" (typescript). . Tamil Temple Myths: Sacrifice and Divine Marriage in the South Indian Saiva Tradition. Princeton: Princeton University Press, 1980. Smith, Barbara Herrnstein. On the Margins of Discourse: The Relation of Literature to Language. Chicago and London: University of Chicago Press, 1978. Srinivasa Raghavan, A. Nammalvar. New Delhi: Sahitya Akademi, 1975. Vanmikanatan, G. Pathway to God through Tamil Literature IThrough the Tiruvacakam. Delhi: Delhi Tamil Sangam, 1971. Venkatachari, K. K. A. The Manipravala> Literature of the Srivaisnava Acaryas. Bombay: Anantacharya Research Institute, 1978. Waghorne, Joanne Punzo, and Norman Cutler, eds., in association with Vasudha Narayanan. Gods of Flesh/Gods file:///C|/Cutler_Songs%20of%20Experience/0253353343/files/page_205.html[21.03.2011 18:21:49]
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of Stone: The Embodiment of Divinity in India. Chambersburg, Pa.: Anima Publications, 1984. Yocum, Glenn E. Hymns to the Dancing Siva: A Study of Manikkavacakar's Tiruvacakam. New Delhi: Heritage Publishers, 1982. Young, Katherine K. Beloved Places (Ukantarulinanilaikal): The Correlation of Topography and Theology in the Srivaisnva Tradition of South India. Delhi: Motilal Banarsidass, 1984. Younger, Paul. "Singing the Tamil Hymnbook in the Tradition of Ramanuja: The Adyayanotsava Festival in Srirankam." History of Religions 21, no. 3 (February 1982): 272-93.
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Zvelebil, Kamil. The Poets of the Powers. London: Rider and Company, 1973. . The Smile of Murugan on Tamil Literature of South India. Leiden: E. J. Brill, 1973. . Tamil Literature. Wiesbaden: Otto Harrassowitz, 1974.
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INDEX
A Abhaya Kulasekhara: recovery of Saiva poems, 8 Abhinavagupta: and theory of rasa, 58-61; on fictiveness of Sanskrit drama, 71 Abhinaya. See araiyar Acarya Hrdayam: theological interpretation of Tiruaymoli, 105; caste and spiritual hierarchy, 132 Adhyayanotsava: defined, 8; celebration of, 45, 187, 188, 190; role of araiyar, 54n Agastya: allusion to, 181n Aiyur Mulankilar: poetry, 92n Akam: defined, 62; and Sanskrit drama, 65; compared to bhakti poetry, 68-69, 106; fictiveness of, 71; and kovai, 82-83; landscape imagery, 84; world view of classical poets, 90-91; and puram, 62, 91n-92n; narrative framework of, 103; Tiruvaymoli and Tirukkovaiyar compared, 103; use of suggestion as poetic effect, 182n Akapporul: defined, 32; examples of, 34; rhetorical unity of, 37; Vaisnava interpretation of Nammalvar's poetry, 69, 113; file:///C|/Cutler_Songs%20of%20Experience/0253353343/files/page_207.html[21.03.2011 18:21:50]
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narrative framework of Tiruvaymoli, 103-104 Alakarkoyil. See Maliruncolai Alakiyamanavalaperumal Nayanar: bhakti poetry and Veda, 14n; theological interpretation of Tiruvaymoli, 105 Allegory: Saiva interpretation of Tirukkovaiyar, 93-94, 98-99, 102, 104-105, 106-107; Vaisnava interpretation of Tiruvaymoli, 105-106 Alvar: defined, 2, 13n; intermediary role of, 44; dating controversy, 54n; modern temple icons, 188 Alvartirunkari: modern celebration of araiyar cevai, 187-88 Arnabalam: defined, 181n Antal: as goddess incarnate, 13n; legend of, 14n-15n; modern temple ritual, 188, 189. See also Tiruppavai Antati: defined, 38n Anubhavagrantha: defined, 43-44; and meyppatu, 75n Appar: inclusion in Tirumurai, 48; divinity of, 49; and Campantar, 49; conversion of Pallava kings, 49-50; modern recitation of poetry, 190. See also Tevaram Araiyar: defined, 45; origin of title, 54n; modern ritual role, 187-88 Arayirappati Guruparamparaprabhavam: as hagiographic source, 122 Ardhanarisvara: female aspect of Siva, 184n Arikecari Parankuca Maravarman: identified as hero of Pantikkovai, 89 Arputattiruvantati: poetry, 119-21. See also Karaikkalammaiyar Arruppatai: defined, 91n Aruku: defined, 185n
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Astabhujan. See Visnu Atinatar: ritual use of poetry at, 187-90, 192-93 Auvaiyar: puram verse, 64
B Bali: allusion to, 177n Bhakti: defined, 1-2; and literature, 5-7; as vernacular religious movement, 7-8; comparison of poetry with Vedic hymns, 9, 10; view of gods, 51-52; and Vedic mantra, 52; brotherhood of saints, 132. See also Poetry, bhakti; Religion; Saivism; Vaisnava Bhanita: as distinct from phalasruti, 38n Bhava: defined, 59 Brahma: allusions to, 180n, 185n; relationship to Siva and Visnu, 183n Brahmin. See Caste Brahmotsavas: modem celebration of, 189-90
C Caivayellappa Navalar: modern recitation of poetry, 191 Campantar: association with temple, 8; inclusion in Tirumurai, 48; legendary life history, 49; divinity, 49; and Appar, 49; conversion of Pantiya kings, 49-50; modern recitation of poetry, 190. See also Tevaram Cankam: rhetorical structure, 25 Caste: Vellalas, 53n; Brahmin education and access to Veda, 111, 193;
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superseded by spiritual hierarchy, 132. See also Class Catakopan. See Nammalvar Cekkilar: hagiography, 4; modern recitation, 190. See also Hagiography; Periya Puranam Ceraman Perumal: and Cuntarar, 49 Cetanar: modern recitation of poetry, 190. See also Tiruppallantu Chidambaram: recovery of Saiva hymns, 50; allusions to 181n; in Tirukkovaiyar, 202 Cilapatikaram: and akam/puram tradition, 92n Cittars: defined, 14n Cuntarar: association with temple, 8; model for Periya Puranam, 13n; inclusion in Tirumurai, 48; divinity, 49; and Ceraman Perumal, 49;
modern recitation of poetry, 190, 191. See also Tevaram
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D Divyasuricarita: as hagiographic source, 41-42, 44, 122
G Gajendra: allusion to, 178n Ganga (Ganges): allusion to, 175n Garudavahana: as hagiographic source, 122
H Hagiography: Saiva, 4; as interpretive framework, 68; use of conventions, 107; as complement to poems, 113; hagiographic sources, 117, 122, 148; expression of Vaisnava themes, 124; Nammalvar viewed as incarnation of Visvaksena, 132; vision of Saiva society, 149; modern recitation of, 190 Hiranyakasipu: allusion to, 180n
I Iconography: allusions in bhakti poetry, 175n-185n Ilankiran: example of akam, 85 Iraiyanar: example of akam, 85 Irantam Tiruvantati: poetry, 127-28 Itaikkunrurkilar: puram verse, 64
K
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Kama: allusions to, 181n, 182n Kanninunciruttampu: praised Nammalvar, 131; modern recitation of, 189. See also Maturakavi Kapalisvara: ritual use of poetry at, 187, 190-93 Kapilar: puram verse, 64-65 Karaikkalammaiyar: inclusion in nayanmar, 4, 117; rhetorical variants in bhakti poetry, 21, 22, 27; example of phalasruti, 28; legendary life story, 29, 117-18; example of puram/bhakti structural parallels, 66; dating, 118; poetry, 119-21; mythological and iconographic allusions in poetry of, 175n-176n; view of Visnu, 198; possession as motif, 201. See also Arputattiruvantati; Tiruvalankattu-mutta-tiruppatikam Kesava. See Krsna Kovai: characteristics of, 82-83; and puram, 83; in Tirukkovaiyar, 85-91; akam/puram transition, 87; dating of first use, 88 Koyil Oluku: as temple chronicle, 8; inclusion of poems in temple ritual, 44-46; origin and role of araiyar, 54n Krsna: allusions to, 176n, 177n, 179n, 180n Kuruntokai: examples of akam, 84, 85, 86 Kuruparamparai pirapavam: dating controversy, 53n Kutal: allusion to, 181n Kuvalayapida: allusion to, 180n
L Lila: as paradigm for bhakti poetry, 10-11
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Literature: and bhakti, 1-2, 5-7; problem of definition, 57; Indian theories of, 57-61; evaluation of through rasa, 60; Tamil use of stories, 108
M Madhava. See Krsna Maliruncolai: allusion to, 180n; in Tiruvaymoli, 202 Manikkavacakar, 2, 4, 12; date controversy, 13n, 149; example of expanded model of poem as verbal event, 21; rhetorical structure, 29-30; recurring themes, 39, 40; inclusion in Tirumurai, 48; divinity, 49; example of puram/bhakti structural parallels, 67; inclusion of Tirukkovaiyar in Saiva canon, 82; use of kovai, 85-91; legendary life story, 148-49, 184n, 185n; poetry, 150-74; mythological and iconographic allusions in poetry of, 181n-185n; view of Siva, 198-99; motif of god as king, 202; praise of sacred places, 202. See also Tirukkovaiyar; Tiruvacakam Marutan Ilanakanar: puram verse, 63 Maturakavi: associated with Nammalvar, 13n, 41-43, 45, 131, 132; role in Vaisnava tradition, 49. See also Kanninunciruttampu Meyppatu: defined, 61; and anubhava, 75n Mocikiranar: puram verse, 64
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Munram Tiruvantati: poetry, 128-30 Mutal Tiruvantati: poetry, 125-27 Mythology: allusions to in Tamil poetry, 23, 175n-185n; and history in bhakti poetry, 76n; humor in allusions, 201
N Nammalvar: dating controversy, 2, 54n, 132; Visnu as author of poems, 9; and phalasruti, 28, 29; rhetorical structure, 32, 35, 36, 37; poetry, 32-35, 35-36, 133-47; recurrent themes, 39; place in Vaisnava tradition, 40-43, 48, 187, 188, 189; legendary life story, 41-42, 49, 131-32; and Visvaksena, 53n, 132; alternative names, 53n, 132; example of puram/bhakti structural parallels, 67, 68; Vaisnava interpretation of poems, 69, 113; view of Visnu, 76n, 92n; narrative framework of akapporul verses, 103-104; mythological and iconographic allusions in poetry of, 178n-181n; relationship of Brahma, Siva, and Visnu, 197; use of love imagery, 200. See also Tiruvaymoli Nampi Antar Nampi: recovery of Saiva hymns, 8, 50 Nanjiyar: commented on Tiruvaymoli, 41, 44, 46 Narasimha. See Visnu Nataraja. See Siva
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Nathamuni: place in Vaisnava tradition, 40, 50; and Nammalvar, 44, 53n; revival of recitation festival, 45 Natyasastra: defined, 58; analysis of plot, 60-61 Nayanmar: inclusion of poets, 5, 13n, 48 Nayen: defined, 183n
O Otuvar: role in Saivism, 50, 190-91; defined, 55n
P Pantikkovai: first use of kovai, 88; poetry, 89; compared with Tirukkovaiyar, 89-90 Pantiyas: in Saiva mythology, 184n Paramatattan: husband of Karaikkalammaiyar, 117 Parankuca Nayaki: as female expression of Nammalvar, 69 Paraikucan. See Nammalvar Patikams: defined, 27 Parvati: allusions to, 181n-182n, 184n Peraciriyar: commented on Tirukkovaiyar, 94-96; commentary compared to Saiva interpretation of Tirukkovaiyar. 99-102 Periyalvartirumoli: modern recitation of, 189 Periya Puranam, 4; source of life story of Karaikkalammaiyar, 117; Manikkavacakar not included, 148; modern recitation of, 190. See also Cekkilar Perumal. See Visnu file:///C|/Cutler_Songs%20of%20Experience/0253353343/files/page_209.html[21.03.2011 18:21:51]
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Perunturai: allusions to, 184n; in Tiruvacakam, 202 Peyalvar: status as alvar, 2; use of ullurai, 23-24; example of rhetorical variant, 26; legendary life story, 122-23; dating, 124; poetry, 124, 128-30; mythological and iconographic allusions in poetry of, 176n-178n; possession as motif, 201 Phalasruti: defined, 27; as genre, 27-29; examples of, 34-35 Pillaittamil: defined, 91n Pinnai: allusion to, 179n Pinpalakiya Perumal Jiyar: as hagiographic source, 53n Pirapantarn. See prabandha Poetics: and bhakti poetry, 7, 12-13; and rasa, 60; Sanskrit and Tamil, 61-63, 65-66; bhakti poetry and Western criticism, 70-73; bhakti poetry compared to rasa, 74-75; influence of classical tradition on bhakti poetry, 107 Poetry, bhakti: as literary genre, 5-7; typol-ogy, 11-12; as verbal event, 20, 21; and Western literary criticism, 36-37, 70-73; recurrent themes, 39, 40; similarity to puram, 66, 68, 69-70; compared to akam, 68-69; historicity and fictiveness, 72-73; audience psychology, 74;
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place of narrative, 102-103; in modem India, 111-13; motifs shared in Saiva and Vaisnava traditions, 196-202. See also Bhakti; Religion; Ritual; Saiva; Vaisnava Poetry, love: poetic phases of love, 75n, 109n-110n; landscape imagery, 84, 91n; flower symbolism, 109n. See also akam Poykaiyalvar: status as alvar, 2; rhetorical framework, 22-23; use of shifters, 25; example of puram/bhakti structural parallels, 66, 67; legendary life history, 122-23; poetry, 123, 124, 125-27; dating, 124; mythological and iconographic allusions in poetry of, 176n-178n Prabandha: defined, 81; characteristics of, 81-82 Pralaya: allusions to, 182n, 183n Puja: as Saiva ritual, 188, 189, 190, 191 Punitavati. See Karaikkalammaiyar Punniyan. See Siva Puram: defined, 62; compared to akam, 62; role of listener, 62-63, 65; examples of rhetorical variants, 63-65; and bhakti poetry, 66, 68, 69-70; historicity, 72; and kovai, 83; world view of classical poets, 90-91; separation from akam, 91n-92n Purananuru: poetry, 92n Purantaran: allusion to, 183n Putam. See Putattalvar
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Putattalvar: Jakobsonian diagram of poem by, 20-21; example of rhetorical variant, 26; example of puram/bhakti structural parallels, 67; legendary life story, 122-23; poetry, 123, 127-28; dating, 124; mythological and iconographic allusions in poetry of, 176n-178n
R Rajaraja Cola: recovery of Saiva hymns, 50 Rama: allusions to, 22-23 Ramanuja: promoted recitation of poems in Vaisnava temples, 40 Rasa: as aesthetic theory, 58-61; defined, 59; audience response required, 74 Ravana: allusion to, 22-23 Religion: bhakti movement, 1-2; development of Vaisnava, 40; modern role of bhakti poetry, 111-13, 187-93. See also Bhakti; Ritual; Saiva; Vaisnava Ritual: use of bhakti poetry, 7-10, 112; Vedic sacrifice and temple worship, 52; and interpretation of bhakti poetry, 70; modern role of poetry, 187-93 Rsis: composition of poems, 8-9 Rupagoswamin: bhakti theology, 14n
S Saint. See alvar Saiva: and Tamil Veda, 7; ritual use of poetry, 8, 187, 190-93;
compared to Vaisnava,
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47-50; rhetorical model of, 48-49; recovery of hymns, 50; inclusion of prabandha poem in canon, 82; and Tirukkovaiyar, 90; allegorical interpretation of Tirukkovaiyar, 93-94, 98-99, 102; interpretation compared to Peraciriyar's commentary on Tirukkovaiyar, 99-102; oral interpretive tradition, 104; modern role of bhakti poetry, 112-13; interpretation of variant poetry, 113-14; role of Manikkavacakar, 149; motifs shared with Vaisnava, 196-202; Tamil as sacred language, 202. See also Siva Sanskrit: transliteration, ix; literature and bhakti, 1; influence on Tamil poetry, 6; theories of literature, 58; drama, 60, 61, 65; poetics, 61-63, 65-66. See also Saiva; Tamil; Vaisnava Siddhas. See Cittars Siva: poetry of devotees, 2-4; addressed in poem, 28, 29; as theme of Tiruvacakam, 29; perception of in bhakti poetry, 51-52, 198-99; and Tirukkovaiyar, 86, 90, 104; and Manikkavacakar, 148; allusions to, 175n, 176n, 178n, 180n, 181n-182n, 184n; relationship to Brahma, and Visnu, 183n; descriptions of as motif, 197. See also Saiva Sri: allusion to, 179n
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Srirankam: modern celebration of araiyar cevai, 187-88 Sriranka Nacciyar. See Visnu Srivilliputtur: modern celebration of araiyar cevai, 187-88
T Taints: symbolism of in Saiva theology, 185n Tamil: transliteration, ix; literary history, 9-10; manipravala, 40; theory of literature and bhakti poetry, 58; poetics, 61-66; as sacred language, 202 Taniyan: defined, 28 Tevakulattar: example of akam, 84 Tevaram: association with temples, 8; modern recitation of, 190, 191. See also Appar; Campantar; Cuntarar Thanjavur: recitation of hymns at, 8 Tinai: defined, 84 Tiru: allusion to, 24 Tiruccatakam. See Tiruvacakam Tiruirattaimanimalai. See Karaikkalammaiyar Tirukkovaiyar: inclusion in Saiva canon, 82; and kovai, 85-91; poetry, 86, 96-97, 150-60; and Siva, 86, 104; compared with Pantikkovai, 89-90; Saiva interpretation of, 12, 93-94, 98-99, 102, 113-14; commented on by Peraciriyar, 94-96; comparison of Saiva interpretation and Peraciriyar's commentary, 99-102; legend of composition, 104, 148; colophons, 181n; motif of god as king, 202;
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praise of sacred places, 202. See also Manikkavacakar Tirumal. See Visnu Tirumankai: legendary life story, 45 Tirumurai: inclusion of poets, 48; recovery of, 50; loss of Saiva hymns, 55n Tirumurukarruppatai: variant of arruppatai, 91n Tirunilakanta Yalppanar: set hymns to music, 191-92 Tiruppallantu: modern recitation of, 190. See also Cetanar Tiruppavai: modern recitation of, 188, 189. See also Antal Tiruvacakam: rhetorical structure, 29-30; poetry, 30-31; and Tirukkovaiyar, 82; interpreted as spiritual autobiography, 104; Siva's recording of, 104, 148; Saiva interpretation, 113-14; described, 183n; modern recitation of, 190; view of Siva, 198-99; praise of sacred places, 202. See also Manikkavacakar Tiruvalankattu-mutta-tiruppatikam: poetry, 121; described, 176n. See also Karaikkalammaiyar Tiruvatavurar Puranam: hagiographic source, 148 Tiruvaymoli: and phalasruti, 28, 29; rhetorical structure, 32, 35, 36; poetry, 32-35, 35-36, 133-47; commented on by Nanjiyar, 41, 44, 46; Visnu as source, 42; recitation as temple ritual, 45, 190; narrative framework, 103-104; Vaisnava interpretation, 105-106; described, 178n-179n;
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love imagery, 200; praise of sacred places, 202. See also Nammalvar Tiruvilaiyatal Puranam: hagiographic source, 148 Tolkappiyam: elements of classical Tamil poetry, 61; historicity and fictiveness of akam and puram, 72; chronology and authorship, 75n Turai: definition and function, 62
U Ubhayavedanta: Vaisnava doctrine of, 190.See also Veda Ula: defined, 91n Ullurai: defined, 23; example of use, 23-24, 182n; characteristics of, 87 Umapati Civacariyar: loss of Saiva hymns, 55n Upangas: defined, 14n Uttarakocamankai: site of temple, 185n Uyir: defined, 93
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V Vaisnava: poetic tradition, 2; ritual use of poems, 8, 187-90, 192-93; parallelism with sacred Sanskrit literature, 7, 15n; development of sect, 40; rhetorical model, 44; compared to Saiva, 47-50; theology, 48; divine origin of poets, 49; subsects, 53n; interpretation of Nammalvar's poems, 69, 105-106; theological interpretation of saints' poems, 74; modern role of bhakti poetry, 112-13; interpretation of variant poetry, 113-14; themes expressed in hagiography, 124; place of Nammalvar, 132; aspects of Visnu, 179n; motifs shared with Saiva, 196-202; Tamil as sacred language, 202. See also Visnu Vamana. See Visnu Veda: and Tamil poetry, 7-10, 49; metaphysics of poetry composition, 8-9; in modern India, 111, 190. See also Caste Vedangas: defined, 14n Velan: defined, 183n Vellalas: caste, 53n Visnu: poetry Of devotees, 3; addressed in poem, 22-23, 23-24, 46-47; as theme of Tiruvaymoli, 32, 36;
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and Nammalvar, 41-43, 76n, 92n, 131-32; perception of in bhakti poetry, 51-52, 199; progenitor of parampara, 53n; aspects of, 54n; lives of Poykai, Putam, and Pey, 122-23; allusions to, 176n, 177n, 178n, 179n-180n; relationship to Brahms and Siva, 183n; descriptions of as motif, 197. See also Vaisnava Visvaksena: Nammalvar as incarnation of, 53n, 132 Page 212 NORMAN CUTLER is Associate Professor in the Department of South Asian Languages and Civilizations at the University of Chicago. He is coeditor with Joanne Punzo Waghorne of Gods of Flesh/Gods of Stone: The Embodiment of Divinity in India.
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