Love songs in Hindu devotion – the Tamil poets who took on the female voice to express their intense longing for the divine
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Friday, February 9, 2024
One literary tradition rarely highlighted is that of Hindu “bhakti” or ecstatic devotion, which birthed some of the most stirring mystical poetry composed in the world.
Key Points:
- One literary tradition rarely highlighted is that of Hindu “bhakti” or ecstatic devotion, which birthed some of the most stirring mystical poetry composed in the world.
- This is especially true in the poems to Vishnu, which I study, where many male poets assume the female voice to express their longing for union with the divine beloved, conceived as male.
Poetics of longing
- Much of the alvars’ poetry reveals an intense longing for a silent and absent god, so much so that it has been called “viraha bhakti,” or devotion in separation.
- The love appears, at least as presented by the poet, as completely one-sided – sparked by a chance encounter with a mysterious and inscrutable deity.
- The use of a female voice by a male poet is not unusual in the Tamil or Sanskrit literature.
- To this cast of characters, the poets also occasionally use, as Kodhai herself does, mythological female figures.
- The cowherd women of the wondrous town of Vrindavan, where the youthful divine Krishna is eternally at play, is a particular favorite for the alvar poets.
Male poets and female voice of longing
- Two ninth century alvar poets, Nammalvar and Tirumankai, are particularly deft in their use of these female voices of longing.
- Their heroine dominates their poems; her tone in turns demanding, insistent and despairing as she seeks through language to call the absent divine beloved back to her.
Love in many shades
- Not all the male alvar poets use one of these archetypal female voices, and a female voice does not always have to speak about romantic love.
- These poems are not composed from the vantage of separation; rather, they are poems of intimacy and joy, celebrating maternal love.
- In the poems of the alvar, love, directed toward Vishnu, takes many forms: humble service; unconditional, protective maternal adoration; and the intense intimacy of lovers.
Archana Venkatesan receives funding from the American Institute of Indian Studies in the form of a four-month short-term Senior Fellowship (June-Sept 30, 2024) to conduct field research in Tamil Nadu, India.