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Hymns for the Drowning: Poems for Visnu
The poems in this book are some of the earliest about Visnu, one of the Hindu Trinity, also known as Tirumal, the Dark One. Tradition recognizes twelve alvars, saint-poets devoted to Visnu, who lived between the sixth and ninth century in the Tamil-speaking region of south India. These devotees of Visnu and their counterparts, the devotees of Siva (nayanmar), changed and revitalized Hinduism and their devotional hymns addressed to Visnu are among the earliest bhakti (devotional) texts in any Indian language. In this selection from Nammalvar's works, the translations like the originals reflect the alternations of philosophic hymns and love poems, through recurring voices, roles and places. They also enact a progression"from wonder at the Lord's works, to the experience of loving him and watching others love him, to moods of questioning and despair and finally to the experience of being devoured and possessed by him.
178 pages, Kindle Edition
First published December 1, 1981
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Displaying 1 - 19 of 19 reviews
May 8, 2024
By way of review, my own poem inspired by the dark lord, via Nammālvār, via Ramanujam:
Remember you will live
Here between the sky
Before the eternal
You will live
In the shade of fire
In the heat of deluge
Between seven rivers
You will live
And your evil heart
Is the name of god
And your dark limbs
Turn pale
Your beauty
faded
Is the name of god
Remember you will live
Here between the sky
Before the eternal
You will live
In the shade of fire
In the heat of deluge
Between seven rivers
You will live
And your evil heart
Is the name of god
And your dark limbs
Turn pale
Your beauty
faded
Is the name of god
January 4, 2022
The text itself is not as good as I'd expected for the poetical images, though there are certainly some gems. Much of the context of the poems (hymns) are explained in the afterword. Speaking of which, the afterword was exemplary, much better than I'd expected, in contrast to the poems.
However, many of the poems selected do communicate well a mystic view of phenomena. Some of which that I'm sure would surprise Abrahamists in their similar sounding to their own hymns, only with different names; although the authors here are a great deal more self-aware with regards to their human misconceptions and conceptual contradictions that go unexamined in the theosophies of other religions.
For example, the Abrahamists have the view of the godhead's omnipresence, omnipotence, and omniscience, but fail to satisfactorily explore such ideas without reverting to sayings that they tell themselves in order for them to feel free from the responsibility of understanding and examining their core beliefs. That is not to says the Hindus are free of this, but the eastern religions and philosophies of thought take larger strides towards self-examination than typically occurs in the western counterparts.
Even though Christians argue that 'God' is personal, they have a very separatist view of the divine, that it is removed from them, away somewhere else from them; this also removes from them the responsiblity to understand their own vehicle of being, which they can say is out of their ability, and in the realm of that which "Before I formed you in the womb, I knew you.", even though the 'you' in this quote is a form of consciousness they do not yet understand. Somehow personal, yet distant, in their view.
Although, there is a half-truth to it. If there be a personal, it would have to be distant, in order to bridge a (personal) relation(ship). The original Hindus were self-aware of these problems. If one examines these religions, one finds that they are in fact monothestic and not polytheistic, it is only to the ignorant that they seem polytheistic. The Hindus talk of the impersonal Lord, 'God', and of the personal 'gods', a disctinction between the distant and manifest, and that which has no distance, and is unmanifest. There are some Abrahamist individuals who realise this mystic notion, as is expected, but they are an anomaly from the tradition.
In these traditions, the wise know that these 'gods' are manifestations, disctinctions, of certain principles that have been personified, inspired by the one unmanifest principle. The energy expended in arguing about a one God over many gods, and then the naming of a one God, is a primitive banality I have no time nor will to argue with cavemen over.
And the divine of the east is not removed from the negative of the world, which the Abrahimists had removed from to an idea of 'Satan' thanks to the influence of Zoroastrianism, though if they'd take the care to examine Isaiah 45:7, they may find the case different.
Omnipresence is explained in this sense through the divine not being separate from that which is, and therefore is present in all of them.
Omniscience, explained through presence within the conscious beings, being informed (impersonally) of every element of experience and non-experience of that consciousness. The nature of that which is informed by all of this, being unknowable, because all 'knowledge' is contained within it. There is no knowledge - within our sphere - that is able to examine it.
Omnipotence can be argued whether or not - and to what extent - it exists, and in my view is not as important to understand as the other two, because it cannot be known to what degree it exists, whereas the other two can be known by us experientially if we are to delve deep enough within ourselves, as the Christians should examine, Luke 17:21: "nor will they say, ‘See here!’ or ‘See there!’ For indeed, the kingdom of God is within you." They do not understand such a saying from their own scripture, due to their core belief of a separate personal divine being 'the one'.
Now that that's out of the way, time for the book review.
It's good. Worth it just for afterword. The author understands many subtle mystic concepts well.
However, many of the poems selected do communicate well a mystic view of phenomena. Some of which that I'm sure would surprise Abrahamists in their similar sounding to their own hymns, only with different names; although the authors here are a great deal more self-aware with regards to their human misconceptions and conceptual contradictions that go unexamined in the theosophies of other religions.
For example, the Abrahamists have the view of the godhead's omnipresence, omnipotence, and omniscience, but fail to satisfactorily explore such ideas without reverting to sayings that they tell themselves in order for them to feel free from the responsibility of understanding and examining their core beliefs. That is not to says the Hindus are free of this, but the eastern religions and philosophies of thought take larger strides towards self-examination than typically occurs in the western counterparts.
Even though Christians argue that 'God' is personal, they have a very separatist view of the divine, that it is removed from them, away somewhere else from them; this also removes from them the responsiblity to understand their own vehicle of being, which they can say is out of their ability, and in the realm of that which "Before I formed you in the womb, I knew you.", even though the 'you' in this quote is a form of consciousness they do not yet understand. Somehow personal, yet distant, in their view.
Although, there is a half-truth to it. If there be a personal, it would have to be distant, in order to bridge a (personal) relation(ship). The original Hindus were self-aware of these problems. If one examines these religions, one finds that they are in fact monothestic and not polytheistic, it is only to the ignorant that they seem polytheistic. The Hindus talk of the impersonal Lord, 'God', and of the personal 'gods', a disctinction between the distant and manifest, and that which has no distance, and is unmanifest. There are some Abrahamist individuals who realise this mystic notion, as is expected, but they are an anomaly from the tradition.
In these traditions, the wise know that these 'gods' are manifestations, disctinctions, of certain principles that have been personified, inspired by the one unmanifest principle. The energy expended in arguing about a one God over many gods, and then the naming of a one God, is a primitive banality I have no time nor will to argue with cavemen over.
And the divine of the east is not removed from the negative of the world, which the Abrahimists had removed from to an idea of 'Satan' thanks to the influence of Zoroastrianism, though if they'd take the care to examine Isaiah 45:7, they may find the case different.
Omnipresence is explained in this sense through the divine not being separate from that which is, and therefore is present in all of them.
Omniscience, explained through presence within the conscious beings, being informed (impersonally) of every element of experience and non-experience of that consciousness. The nature of that which is informed by all of this, being unknowable, because all 'knowledge' is contained within it. There is no knowledge - within our sphere - that is able to examine it.
Omnipotence can be argued whether or not - and to what extent - it exists, and in my view is not as important to understand as the other two, because it cannot be known to what degree it exists, whereas the other two can be known by us experientially if we are to delve deep enough within ourselves, as the Christians should examine, Luke 17:21: "nor will they say, ‘See here!’ or ‘See there!’ For indeed, the kingdom of God is within you." They do not understand such a saying from their own scripture, due to their core belief of a separate personal divine being 'the one'.
Now that that's out of the way, time for the book review.
It's good. Worth it just for afterword. The author understands many subtle mystic concepts well.
August 4, 2024
Another superbly translated and curated set of Bhakti poetry from Ramanujan. The essay is excellent. Reflects the type of mastery over multiple disciplines that no longer seems to be possible in academia.
Read
February 20, 2011Nammalvar was one of the twelve Alvars, well-known for his many hymns on devotion to Vishnu. Tradition gives him the date 3102 B.C. (i.e., the beginning of the kali yuga). He was born in the asterism Visakham, in what is now Alwarthirunagiri (also known as Tirukkurugur), Tamil Nadu. His name means "our own alvar" (alvar means "one immersed in God"). He was also known as Maran and Satakopan.
He must have been born fully enlightened because as a baby he never cried or suckled and never opened his eyes. According to tradition, as a child he responded to no external stimuli and his parents left him at the feet of the deity of Lord Vishnu. The child then got up and climbed into a hole in a tamarind, sat in the lotus position, and began to meditate. It appears he was in this state for as long as sixteen years when a Tamil poet and scholar in North India named Madhurakavi Alvar saw a bright light shining to the south, and followed it until he reached Nammalvar's tree. Unable to elicit any reaction from the child, he asked him a riddle: "If the small is born in a dead's body(or stomach), what will it eat and where will it stay?" meaning, if the subtle soul is embodied in the gross body, what are its actions and thoughts? Nammalvar broke his lifelong silence and responded, "That it will eat, and there it will rest!" meaning that if the soul identifies with the body, it will be the body but if it serves the divine, it will stay in vaikunta and eat(think) of God. Madhura-kavi realized the divinity of this child.
Madhura-kavi was himself a great devotee, when he asked Nammalvar the "right" question and made him speak. Immediately he took him for his Acharya (Teacher, Guru). Nammalvar consented to being his guru, instructed him in the doctrines of Vaishnavism and thereafter glorified Lord Vishnu. He composed on the spot a thousand hymns praising Vishnu, each one starting with the last word of the previous poem. We owe it to Madhurakavi for setting them to music. Madhurakavi became the Alvar's student and went on to compose poems about his prodigal master.
His contribution of four works (numbering 1296 hymns) to the four thousand of the Divya Prabhandham includes the entire fourth thousand and part of the third thousand. these works are: TiruvAymozhi (1102 verses), Tiruviruttam (100 verses), TiruvAsiriam (7 verses) and Periya Tiruvanthadi (87 verses).
The subject matter of the four works was certainly the five principles, namely, the Lord, the soul, the means, the end, and the obstacles to spirituality. Through all this ran a thread of the acme of devotion to Lord Krishna. Whatever Krishna ate, whatever He drank, whatever betel He chewed was the dearest to the saint. The supreme object of life was to be at the Lord's lotus feet and to serve him eternally in blissful love. Therefore seek Him all your life, praise Him, surrender to Him, speak of His glories and exploits, revel in His majesty and continue the recitation of His names. This was his message to the world at large. Like the Buddha who appeared in the northernmost part of India and finally engulfed not only India but Asia and the whole world by his teachings, Nammalvar was the star of the southernmost part of India whose work engulfed the whole world of Vaishnavism.
He must have been born fully enlightened because as a baby he never cried or suckled and never opened his eyes. According to tradition, as a child he responded to no external stimuli and his parents left him at the feet of the deity of Lord Vishnu. The child then got up and climbed into a hole in a tamarind, sat in the lotus position, and began to meditate. It appears he was in this state for as long as sixteen years when a Tamil poet and scholar in North India named Madhurakavi Alvar saw a bright light shining to the south, and followed it until he reached Nammalvar's tree. Unable to elicit any reaction from the child, he asked him a riddle: "If the small is born in a dead's body(or stomach), what will it eat and where will it stay?" meaning, if the subtle soul is embodied in the gross body, what are its actions and thoughts? Nammalvar broke his lifelong silence and responded, "That it will eat, and there it will rest!" meaning that if the soul identifies with the body, it will be the body but if it serves the divine, it will stay in vaikunta and eat(think) of God. Madhura-kavi realized the divinity of this child.
Madhura-kavi was himself a great devotee, when he asked Nammalvar the "right" question and made him speak. Immediately he took him for his Acharya (Teacher, Guru). Nammalvar consented to being his guru, instructed him in the doctrines of Vaishnavism and thereafter glorified Lord Vishnu. He composed on the spot a thousand hymns praising Vishnu, each one starting with the last word of the previous poem. We owe it to Madhurakavi for setting them to music. Madhurakavi became the Alvar's student and went on to compose poems about his prodigal master.
His contribution of four works (numbering 1296 hymns) to the four thousand of the Divya Prabhandham includes the entire fourth thousand and part of the third thousand. these works are: TiruvAymozhi (1102 verses), Tiruviruttam (100 verses), TiruvAsiriam (7 verses) and Periya Tiruvanthadi (87 verses).
The subject matter of the four works was certainly the five principles, namely, the Lord, the soul, the means, the end, and the obstacles to spirituality. Through all this ran a thread of the acme of devotion to Lord Krishna. Whatever Krishna ate, whatever He drank, whatever betel He chewed was the dearest to the saint. The supreme object of life was to be at the Lord's lotus feet and to serve him eternally in blissful love. Therefore seek Him all your life, praise Him, surrender to Him, speak of His glories and exploits, revel in His majesty and continue the recitation of His names. This was his message to the world at large. Like the Buddha who appeared in the northernmost part of India and finally engulfed not only India but Asia and the whole world by his teachings, Nammalvar was the star of the southernmost part of India whose work engulfed the whole world of Vaishnavism.
January 14, 2018
This is the kind of book you can read in an hour but the endnotes/appendix section will keep you occupied for much longer, if you care about all those details. And they are pretty necessary to understand some of whats going on poetically, if you dont understand Tamil.
May 14, 2025
"The cold wind threads through my bones.
Remembering only my faults,
my lord doesn’t show me any grace.
Go ask him,
“What wrong did she do?”
Dear parrot gnawing at a bone,
please, go ask him.
I brought you up, didn’t I?"
Remembering only my faults,
my lord doesn’t show me any grace.
Go ask him,
“What wrong did she do?”
Dear parrot gnawing at a bone,
please, go ask him.
I brought you up, didn’t I?"
October 8, 2015
Beautiful poetry. I loved it. It's crazy how they can reference these huge stories in just a few lines. Love poetry was very touching as well.
August 19, 2017
Great poems, but the Ramanujan's afterword is what you read this book for.
March 2, 2022
There are no more stars; five needed for Nammalvar, but Ramanujam requires another five stars. Amazing poems and amazing analysis- that transcends disciplines and even language. Must read.
February 12, 2025
I don't believe books like these can be surmised in a 5-star rating system, but well. Ramanujan's explanations flow like a favourite professor's lecture; they are balanced, easy, yet open doors to ideas that seem obvious yet innovative. As someone who has little idea of older literary traditions of South India, this piqued my interest. But nowhere did I find my ignorance a cause of incomprehension.
The thing about texts like these is that, there's very little that the internet has to offer if you look generally. The extensive bibliography and footnotes are a blessing this book provides. Any section can be explored in further detail, only demanding interest and time.
There's certainly little to say about Nammalvar's merit that hasn't already been said (his deification is proof enough). The arrangement of poems provide an insight into why Vaishnavism is what it is. It explains the way the Puranas, the epics, and the Vedas and Upanishads were adopted by a population tired of having faith gatekept. The process of democratising the divine is in its nascent stage in this text, and it breaks any notion of homogeneity around Vaishnavism or other Bhakti movements. The transformation of a deity into the supreme godhead is interesting, and certainly explains a lot of socio-political features of current religious culture.
Supplied by the notes and the afterword, these poems become vital in accomodating various worldviews, holding at once contrasting ideas. It charts a cultural evolution where both local folk and dogmatic system take part. Essentially, the absence of these ideas and interpretations are what causes modern followers to be problematic. Unfortunately, these connections would probably be seen as "agendas" by such individuals, who memorise the text rather than understand it (unlike Nammalvar). From this book you understand the need to dive deeper, and given that certain folks read such texts from whatsapp forwards, a lack this nuanced understanding is truly tragic for a colourful culture like India's.
Ramanujan makes several references to another translation, called Speaking of Siva, which is on my radar. The two books seem very complementary, and only time will tell how this process plays out. So look out for that little update once I read the other book as well.
The thing about texts like these is that, there's very little that the internet has to offer if you look generally. The extensive bibliography and footnotes are a blessing this book provides. Any section can be explored in further detail, only demanding interest and time.
There's certainly little to say about Nammalvar's merit that hasn't already been said (his deification is proof enough). The arrangement of poems provide an insight into why Vaishnavism is what it is. It explains the way the Puranas, the epics, and the Vedas and Upanishads were adopted by a population tired of having faith gatekept. The process of democratising the divine is in its nascent stage in this text, and it breaks any notion of homogeneity around Vaishnavism or other Bhakti movements. The transformation of a deity into the supreme godhead is interesting, and certainly explains a lot of socio-political features of current religious culture.
Supplied by the notes and the afterword, these poems become vital in accomodating various worldviews, holding at once contrasting ideas. It charts a cultural evolution where both local folk and dogmatic system take part. Essentially, the absence of these ideas and interpretations are what causes modern followers to be problematic. Unfortunately, these connections would probably be seen as "agendas" by such individuals, who memorise the text rather than understand it (unlike Nammalvar). From this book you understand the need to dive deeper, and given that certain folks read such texts from whatsapp forwards, a lack this nuanced understanding is truly tragic for a colourful culture like India's.
Ramanujan makes several references to another translation, called Speaking of Siva, which is on my radar. The two books seem very complementary, and only time will tell how this process plays out. So look out for that little update once I read the other book as well.
December 24, 2019
This is an incredible selection of poems from the writings of Nammalvar, one of the iconic 12 Alwar Saints in the Sri Vaishnava Tradition of Tamil Nadu.
It is so, so difficult to translate the literary nuances of Tamil, but Ramanujan manages to do it with such inimitable flair. It is clear that he has a great respect for the language as well as the sheer emotion of Bhakti.
Nammalvar is one of the greatest poets of this country, and I am so glad to have read at least a part of the beauty of his work.
It is so, so difficult to translate the literary nuances of Tamil, but Ramanujan manages to do it with such inimitable flair. It is clear that he has a great respect for the language as well as the sheer emotion of Bhakti.
Nammalvar is one of the greatest poets of this country, and I am so glad to have read at least a part of the beauty of his work.
November 16, 2025
Disparate selections from the writings.
I'm from the sect that thinks considers these holy.
Most of them would not sit next to a Shudra today. casteism is ingrained deeply. I like the very first poem that's selected here, and in Tamil is really amazing how it flows. but it's hard to place this work honestly. I don't think it's accessible enough or interesting enough. is it for Indians? Or for foreigners? I think it's for the latter.
Took me an hour to read so it's a very short read.
I'm from the sect that thinks considers these holy.
Most of them would not sit next to a Shudra today. casteism is ingrained deeply. I like the very first poem that's selected here, and in Tamil is really amazing how it flows. but it's hard to place this work honestly. I don't think it's accessible enough or interesting enough. is it for Indians? Or for foreigners? I think it's for the latter.
Took me an hour to read so it's a very short read.
February 24, 2018
Although the book has a few great poems, it feels quite dry to read. Many metaphors and similes must have been lost in translation. For example, the metaphor "dark as the sea" has been used multiple times in the translation, but I am not quite sure if the original meant dark as the bottom of the sea.
May 12, 2017
syair Nammalvar memuja Vishnu, sangat berpengaruh di selatan India.
May 22, 2021
Struggled a bit to understand what was going on. I understood some of the context given my basic knowledge on Hinduism but I wasn't clear on every poem.
January 4, 2024
The most delightful start to 2024!
October 9, 2023
Bhakti poetry is that sublime set of poems that those who are really divinely inspired can write and enjoy. And this selection of Bhakti poems are absolute gems taken as samples from that vast treasure trove. There are quite a lot of verses that have touched my heart, left me dewy - eyed. I just loved this anthology.
It's ever too hard to translate poems and especially those poems that contain in them oceans of emotions and devotion. It takes courage to even attempt such a translation. For the courage he had and the skill he exhibited, the pioneer A. K. Ramanujan must be praised.
If it sounds a bit odd in places, it's not the poet's fault nor the translator's. The reason is just the difference in the languages and the gulf of differences in the cultures.
It's ever too hard to translate poems and especially those poems that contain in them oceans of emotions and devotion. It takes courage to even attempt such a translation. For the courage he had and the skill he exhibited, the pioneer A. K. Ramanujan must be praised.
If it sounds a bit odd in places, it's not the poet's fault nor the translator's. The reason is just the difference in the languages and the gulf of differences in the cultures.
Read
March 5, 2009A great book on one of the foremost alwars -- nammalwar -- and his verses.
August 8, 2016
The afterword is what the book is worth for; where the author atempts to explain/trace a mosaic of esoteric philosophy.
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