Āṇṭāḷ and Her Path of Love

Poems of a Woman Saint from South India

By Vidya Dehejia

Subjects: Hindu Studies
Series: SUNY series in Hindu Studies
Paperback : 9780791403969, 183 pages, August 1990
Hardcover : 9780791403952, 183 pages, August 1990

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Table of contents

Acknowledgments

INTRODUCTION: WOMAN, POET, AND MYSTIC

TIRUPPAVAI: THE PATH TO KRSNA

Notes to Tiruppavai

NACCIYAR TIRUMOLI: THE ANGUISH OF SEPARATION

 

1. Unite Me with My Lord, O Kamadeva
2. Do Not Break Our Sandcastles
3. Give Back Our Clothes
4. Join Up, O Kutal
5. Koelbird, Call Him to Me
6. I Dreamt This Dream, My Friend
7. White Conch from the Fathomless Sea
8. O Dark Rain Clouds
9. In the Grove of My Lord
10. Thirsting for The Lord
11. He Has Taken All
12. Take Me to The Land of My Lord
13. The Agony of Desire
14. We Saw Him There in Vrindavan

 

Notes On The Poems

Appendix One: Srivilliputtur Temple Inscription of 1454 A. D.

Appendix Two: Periyavaccan Pillai, Thirteenth Century Commentator on Antal

Glossary: Flora and Fauna

Select Bibliography

Index

Description

This book is a translation and study of the poems of a ninth-century woman saint and mystic. The Introduction is designed to make the translations accessible to a non-specialist audience, while the Notes provide insights into the poems and useful explications of allusions and convention with which readers who do not possess a specialized knowledge of Tamil Vaisnava bhakti may be unfamiliar.

Vidya Dehejia is Associate Professor at Columbia University. She has written Slaves of the Lord: the Path of the Tamil Saints.

Reviews

"I liked the clear and idiomatic translation. Dehejia introduces the reader to a world of religious experience that is little known. In doing so, she recaptures Anl's very personal appropriation of the world of Hindu Vaisnava myth. This book will make an important contribution towards widening our knowledge of women mystics. " -- Paul E. Muller-Ortega, Department of Religious Studies, Michigan State University

"As an aesthetically successful English translation of an important but hitherto neglected Tamil bhakti text, this book represents a major contribution to the study of south Indian Hinduism. the text translated is exemplary of an important variety of religious experience in Hinduism which is prominent in many regions of India. It is therefore significant both in terms of the study of Tamil Hinduism and from a broader pan-regional perspective. " -- Norman Cutler, Department of South Asian Languages and Civilizations, The University of Chicago