Songs for Siva: Vacanas of Akka Mahadevi

by Akka Mahadevi, Vinaya Chaitanya (Translator)

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Genres: Poetry, India, Philosophy

240 pages, Hardcover

First published May 28, 2005

About the author

Akka Mahadevi (ಅಕ್ಕ ಮಹಾದೇವಿ) (c.1130-1160), one of the early female poets in the Kannada language was a prominent figure in the Veerashaiva Bhakti movement of the 12th century. Her 430 extant Vachana poems (a form of spontaneous mystical poems), and the two short writings called Mantrogopya and the Yogangatrividhi are considered her most notable contribution to Kannada literature. She composed relatively fewer poems than other saints of the movement. Yet the term Akka ("elder Sister"), which is an honorific given to her by great Veerashaiva saints such as Basavanna, Siddharama and Allamaprabhu is an indication of her contribution to the spiritual discussions held at the "Anubhava Mantapa". She is in hindsight seen as an inspirational woman for Kannada literature and the history of Karnataka. She is known to have considered the god Shiva ('Chenna Mallikarjuna') as her husband, (traditionally understood as the 'madhura bhava' or 'madhurya' form of devotion).

Akka Mahadevi was born in 1130 in Udutadi (or Udugani) near the ancient city of Banavasi in the modern Shimoga district of Karnataka state, India.

(from Wikipedia)

Reviews

[Sookie · Rating 4 out of 5]

As far as the translation goes, this is quite good. However there are places where the translations just doesn't work. Its just the issue with boundaries of language because so much of meaning and cultural history is crammed into certain words that when translated, it gets lost or it comes off jagged and out-of-place. It requires very detailed footnotes to make a reader understand why certain words were chosen in the context or the translator could have retained the kannada words and provided an extensive summary instead.

The vachanas are fairly spiritual, some social commentaries where Akka comments on men who lust after her, about women about samsara and the hypocritical society in general.

Also, I had hoped to see the verses in Kannada itself. That would have been a nice touch.

[Sem · Rating 4 out of 5]

It may be, as the writer of the foreword says (more than once), that Ramanujan's translations of Akka Mahadeva in Speaking of Siva have 'shortcomings' - I'm not equipped to judge - but nonetheless when I binged on Ramanujan decades ago his translations bowled me over in a way that I haven't forgotten. Had these translations come to me first I'd have remained unbowled. Surely, if Ramanujan was able to 'capture successfully those aspects of his source texts that lent themselves to translation into the Anglo-American poetic language of the time' he did what was necessary, what was essential? I liked Chaitanya's translations, sometimes very much, but when I finished I was as solid as I had been when I began instead of thoroughly melted. I must read Ramanujan again...

[Kaye · Rating 5 out of 5]

These short devotional pieces are very good, and I found them very relatable — not the monotheizing context, as I'm very much a polytheist, but that indescribable feeling when in contemplation of the God whom one is particularly devoted to and the way in which all of the other Gods sort of fall away while in that state. (The intensity for someone like Akka Mahadevi who was a renunciate was obviously so, so much greater.) It was the first time I had encountered any writings from someone in the Lingayat Shiva tradition, and it's curious to me that nobody mentions that there's been resistance to caste and sexism from within Hinduism for at least a millennium (even if they see themselves as somewhat separate nowadays). So I learned a lot while reading this.

[Ben · Rating 3 out of 5]

One thought I had while reading this was how many of the ascetic writers from the myriad religions were asexual with how much they consider sexuality to be degenerate. Only a few, I'm sure, as most are likely just prudish sadists (*cough* Paul *cough*) and/or totalitarians (...Paul again), but of all that I've read Mahadevi had a distinct feeling of sexual indifference although vacana 174 is a counterpoint to my hypothesis.