Speaking of Siva

by A.K. Ramanujan

Speaking of Siva is a collection of 'vacanas' or free-verse lyrics written by four major saints of the great 'bhakti' protest movement which originated in the tenth century A.D.

Composed in Kannada, a Dravidian language of South India, the poems are lyrical expressions of love for the god
Siva. They mirror the urge to bypass tradition and ritual,
to concentrate on the subject rather than the object of
worship, and to express kinship with all living things in
moving terms. Passionate, personal, fiercely monotheistic,
these free verses possess an appeal which is timeless
and universal.

Genres: Poetry, Religion, India, Philosophy, Hinduism, Classics, Indian Literature

200 pages, Paperback

First published August 30, 1973

About the author

Ramanujan was an Indian poet, scholar and author, a philologist, folklorist, translator, poet and playwright. His academic research ranged across five languages: Tamil, Kannada, Telugu, Sanskrit, and English. He published works on both classical and modern variants of these literature and also argued strongly for giving local, non-standard dialects their due.

He was called "Indo-Anglian harbingers of literary modernism". Several disciplinary areas are enriched with A.K.Ramanujan`s aesthetic and theoretical contributions. His free thinking context and his individuality which he attributes to Euro-American culture gives rise to the "universal testaments of law". A classical kind of context-sensitive theme is also found in his cultural essays especially in his writings about Indian folklore and classic poetry. He worked for non-Sanskritic Indian literature and his popular work in sociolinguistics and literature unfolds his creativity in the most striking way. English Poetry most popularly knows him for his advance guard approach.

Reviews

[Kaśyap · Rating 4 out of 5]

This is an English translation of some Kannada bhakti poems composed by four saints of the Virasaiva bhakti movement in the 12th century CE. The samplings are from Basavanna, Allama prabhu, Mahadevi akka and Dasimayya.

The Bhakti movement is a monotheistic socio-religious movement that promoted personal faith and devotion. They were opposed to Vedic rituals and caste hierarchy. They emphasised equality of everyone, as opposed to the Vedic religion where women, shudras and outcastes were treated as impure. Virasaiva saints acknowledge Siva as the Supreme Being.

The translation is excellent. Ramanujan does his best to retain the meaning and style. The poems themselves are beautiful and filled with passion and devotion. The wit of Basavanna, the allusions and paradoxes of Allama Prabhu and the love and ardour of Mahadevi akka.

There are two interesting appendices at the end. One a short one on the Virasaivik theology and philosophy and the other an anthropological article on the contemporary position of the Virasaiva movement as the Lingayat caste. That was written in 1960’s and so is a bit outdated.

[Cassidy Brinn · Rating 5 out of 5]

AK Ramanujan takes the prose of four medieval Virasaiva saints and translates it into rich haunting modern poetry. Basavanna speaks often of isolation and despair:

Don't make me hear all day
'Whose man, whose man, whose man is this?'
Let me hear, 'This man is mine, mine,
this man is mine.'

Devara Dasimayya was apparently the best missionary. He talks a lot about power and fire:

Till fire joins wind
it cannot take a step.

Do men know
it's like that
with knowing and doing?

Mahadeviyakka wandered nude and love-lorn for Siva. She talks to women and mango trees and cuckoo birds:

If He says
He has to go away
to fight battles at the front
I understand and can be quiet.

But how can I bear it
when He is here in my hands
right here in my heart
and will not take me?

O mind, O memory of pasts,
if you will not help me get to Him
how can I ever bear it?

Allama Prabhu was the most enlightened. His metaphors are academic but still shake the roots:

I saw:
heart conceive,
hand grow big with child;
ear drink up the smell
of camphor, nose eat up
the dazzle of pearls;
hungry eyes devour
diamonds.
In a blue sapphire
I saw the three worlds
hiding,
O Lord of Caves.


While the little I've seen of Ramanujan's own poetry was good but not particularly so, he has honored himself with these translations.

The intro and especially McCormack's appendix are laughably dated - not that I know enough about Lingayat culture to know about new research, but somehow the tone exudes the 1970s.

[Sanchari · Rating 5 out of 5]

"Listen, O lord of the meeting rivers,
things standing shall fall,
but the moving ever shall stay."
(Basavanna)

I read these lines in an article one day and couldn’t stop thinking about it. I wrote it down, moved on to other things, came back to it again. Eventually found this book from the 1970s; translation of poetry by saints in medieval South India, belonging to a religious movement. That was my first impression and unsurprisingly enough, I retreated. Not unimpressed, merely uninterested.

The lines came back again. Who is this lord of the meeting rivers? And even more importantly: how beautiful are the next two lines?

I went back.

Ramanujan's book consists of an introduction to Virasaivism - the protest movement against established religion; translations of "vacanas" composed by saints of Virasaivism - not poetry, but the free verse "rejection of premeditated art"; notes to accompany the translations; and an appendix on a six phase system of classification for this "poetry". With these, it includes another appendix by William McCormack on the lingayat community and the Virasaiva culture in Mysore in mid 1950s-1960s.

Virasaivism embodies the intensely personal relation between the god and the one who believes. Such is this relationship, that the Virasaiva saints have different names for the god as one would have beloved nicknames for someone they love. For Basavanna, the Lord of the Meeting Rivers is the lord who came to him at the sangam or the meeting of the rivers. For Allama Prabhu, Lord of the Caves is the one who came to him in a cave he found at a difficult period in his life. What I call the coming of the God is that moment I imagine when they realized, that moment of awareness, the moment when the conflict disappeared and belief took its place. These names are not for a Siva but for the Siva that they found, not the one found in chantings and rituals performed by others, or the books and the temples. The inertness of an universal, detached God is lost and the vitality of one's own God is gained.

More than anything else, this is what speaks to me the most. A few of my favorites:

The rich
will make temples for Siva.
What shall I,
a poor man,
do?

My legs are pillars,
the body the shrine,
the head a cupola
of gold.

Listen, O lord of the meeting rivers,
things standing shall fall,
but the moving ever shall stay.
(Basavanna)


To the utterly at-one with Siva

there's no dawn,
no new moon,
no noonday,
nor equinoxes,
nor sunsets,
nor full moons;

his front yard
is the true Benares,

O Ramanatha.
(Dasimayya)

I'm the one who has the body,
you're the one who holds the breath.

You know the secret of my body,
I know the secret of your breath.

That's why your body
is in mine.

You know
and I know, Ramanatha,

the miracle

of your breath
in my body.
(Dasimayya)

True faith is perhaps the simplest of all, and this simplicity is perhaps the hardest. Thus the Virasaiva saints reject the temples, the priests, the formulaic rituals. Ramanujan writes:
"such traditions symbolize man's attempt to establish or stabilize the universe for himself. Such traditions wish to render the universe manipulable, predictable, safe. Every prescribed ritual or magical act has given results."

Simplest and hardest of all: having faith, is replaced by the easy, vacuous 'x done at y while using z is the surest way to God.'

The six phase system of classification is remarkable. Ramanujan speaks of it as the stages or phases of the relationship between the believer and their God. Each vacana by a saint gets categorized into these phases based on the state of mind it embodies. Interesting here how Basavanna has more vacanas in a particular stage at the beginning and Allama Prabhu has more, nearly half of all his vacanas, in another stage towards the end. Mahadeviyakka breaks free from these stages, and her vacanas do not categorized as per the system. This is further proof of the personal nature of their relationship.

At the same time, Ramanujan recognizes that to the believer the "six stages may only be a manner of speaking of the unspeakable, an ascent on the ladder with no rungs."

I categorise Ramanujan's and McCormack's work differently because they feel like two different worlds, and not just temporally either. Ramanujan's exquisite rendering of the free spirited, spontaneous, personal and raw philosophy of Virasaivism of medieval south India is vastly different than McCormack's objective account of Lingayatism post 1947 that seems to me to be no different than Brahmanism - the very thing it originally claimed to reject.

I almost wish I had not read this essay, although it is important to know how the ideals get translated in the real, 'ordinary' world. There is also a point in the essay where McCormack writes of "Gandhi, a mahatma, or a religious figure, (who) led the first drive for nationhood" - which makes me sceptical. Gandhi may be revered as though a religious figure but he isn’t one. I can make this distinction because I know the background, which makes me suspicious of other such phrases that he may have used which aren't what they apparently mean.


I have had the good fortune of not having parents who doused me with rituals and beliefs since I was a child. This is mostly because they have an incredibly personal approach to religion themselves, and that allows them to not feel the need to shove beliefs down my throat. This upbringing gave me something I treasure the most: the ability to look at religion the way an outsider would, with the capacity and willingness to try and understand the essence of what it means the way an insider would. Which makes this book the most rewarding for me in recent times.

[Sonali V · Rating 5 out of 5]

I am not a religious person, that is established religion. But I enjoy attending and watching the rituals. I like delving into how those rituals had developed over time, what it had actually meant and how they have become completely redundant in the modern world. But people need the comfort of them, of feeling that some things will never change in a frighteningly fast-changing world. Of course I had read about the Bhakti movement in my country, in school level history, but I had not known much about the Kannada saints or Vachanakaras. This book is very informative and presented in an interesting way. I have always been intrigued about the concept of Shiva. If I have to be religious I would probably follow him. He has a distinct presence in both heiratic and lay tradition. In one he is the Destroyer of worlds , in the other he is the addicted husband with no-gooders as followers. This of course is only one part of his various presences. I enjoyed the Introduction and the lives of the four Saints as well as their 'vacanas' and their deeper meaning. But I loved Mahadeviakkas life and her vacanas the most, they are passionate, lyrical, tender; a deep cry for the Eternal which resonated with me.

[Sumirti · Rating 5 out of 5]

"I don't know anything like time-beats
and metre
nor the arithmetic of strings and drums;
I don't know the count of iamb and
dactyl.

My lord of meeting rivers,
as nothing will hurt you
I'll sing as I love."

A.K. Ramanujan's translations of Vacanas aka the poems of Virsaivism, a movement against the Hindu religion which was born somewhere near the heart of South India, is an absolute delight to read. Ramanujan captures the essence of the poems, like a true master, letting the reader understand them in their moving spirit and earnest devotion. Virsaivism considers that there's only one God, who is all-pervading, without any form, and who is in all beings - living and non-living. The movement denounced and mocked the rituals, Vedas, Upanishads, Casteism and other hierarchies of Hinduism, and it has invited Saints and masters from all caste and class. It's quite heartening to read the poems of a woman saint here, Mahadeviakka, whose poems place the God as a lover, and sometimes even as her only object of lust.

More praise has to go to A.K.Ramanujan who provides elaborate information on the movement, the core beliefs of the poets, the history on the rise and fall of the movement, its impact on Hinduism and Jainism. He also acknowledges the limitations of a translation in understanding the wit and cleverness in the wordplay of the original poems, which can never be encapsulated in the translated versions. For instance, A K Ramanujan makes us notice the wordplay in one of Mahadeviakka's poems, in which she uses a Sanskrit word in a Kannada poem (All poems of Virsaivism is in Kannada, a South Indian Dravidian language), where the only Sanskrit word plays both to mean its actual meaning and the symbology of oppression of wordly chains:

"Like a Silk work weaving
her house with love
from her marrow,
and dying
in her body's threads
winding tight, round and round...."

"In the Kannada clause, there's only one Sanskrit word Sneha', meaning in common usage 'friendship, fondness, love, and any attachment'; but etymologically it means sticky substance like oil or marrow (in my translation of the untranslatable I have used both 'love and marrow'). The word stands out gathering double meanings to itself. The sticky substance out of which the worm weaves its threads, as well as attachments in which the humans trammel themselves, are suggested in interrelated in one stroke by the word 'Sneha'."

Here, the Sanskrit is used not only as the word to mean worldly chains which prevents an individual to reach God but also the structural oppression of the traditional Hinduism (where Vedas, Upanishads are written in Sanskrit) and the how it is antithetical to the realization of everything Godly.

A K Ramanujan's translations are free-flowing in the style (which he admits himself) yet he has made it possible for every reader to fully realize the glory of the Vacanas. The poems themselves are full of deep devotion where God takes the idea of being alive in all and he is the only one alive. The poets open up to invite the Lord to guide them and liberate them, and such poems take the shape of a pleading, mocking, crying, lover's cry for unison, mother's warmth to her child, a teacher calling out to the student, disappointment, anger, and what not. The poems, just like the movement, exudes freedom from structure, accepted concepts of literary merits, grammar, and social hierarchy.

Yet, for a movement which denounces every myth and mythology, it is deeply ironical to read through the introductions provided for each of the Saint-poets where they are exuded to the level of super-natural individuals (except perhaps Mahadeviakka, who was said to have met harassments and abuse just because she was a woman). This is no fault of the translator but the lack of any authentic history in Indian society, and its overt obsession with anyone who talks on God and its innate nature to turn them God-like.

As much as I am an atheist, the poems moved me and left me asking for more of them. They are delightful because the idea of God is earthly and human than the God who belongs to heaven and count our deeds for measuring our karma. The God of the Virsaivism is in not in the rituals or sacrifices but in the all things existing around. It's the God who shall prevail as such, in this moment, not participating yet well alive. A God who makes humans and other lives (and non-living) equal. And, that's a God worth having.

Knowing one's lowliness
in every word;

the spray of insects
in every gesture of the hand;

things living, things moving
come sprung from the earth
under every footfall;

and when holding a plant
or joining it to another
or letting it go

to be all mercy
to be all light
as a dusting brush
of peacock feathers;

such moving, such awareness
is love that
makes us one with Lord
Dasareswara."

- Dasareswara (Poet).

[Ivan Granger · Rating 5 out of 5]

This book became an immediate favorite of mine ever since I picked up a copy of it a couple of years ago. Stunning poems from the Shiva bhakti tradition of India. Basava, Devara Dasimayya, Akka Mahadevi, Allama Prabhu. The commentary in the book, though a little academic, is genuinely insightful. Enthusiastically recommended!


The pot is a God. The winnowing
fan is a God. The stone in the
street is a God. The comb is a
God. The bowstring is also a
God. The bushel is a God and the
spouted cup is a God.

Gods, gods, there are so many
there’s no place left
for a foot.
There is only
one God. He is our Lord
of the Meeting Rivers.

– Basava


Table of Contents

Introduction
Further Readings in English
The Poems:
Basavanna
Devara Dasimayya
Mahadeviyakka
Allama Prabhu
Appendix I. The Six-Phase System
Appendix II. On Lingayat Culture by William McCormack
Notes to the Poems

[Rei ⭐ [TrulyBooked] · Rating 4 out of 5]

I wasn't expecting to like this, but the poetry is absolutely gorgeous although sometimes in amusing ways. The poetry is really pretty though, one day when I'm not reading it for school and have more time to appreciate it, I'll go back. In the same way that the Christian Medieval tradition treated Jesus like a lover, Siva is often written to as if he were a lover even going so far as in Mahadeviyakka 88 to say

He bartered my heart,
looted my flesh,
claimed as tribute
my pleasure,
took over
all of me.

I'm the woman of love
for my lord, white as jasmine.

[navu · Rating 5 out of 5]

Really beautiful. As always, I love A. K. Ramanujan's commentary and translations. I recommend this book in particular to people interested in devotional poetry, bhakti and mystic traditions, and the intersection of religion and social issues in South Asia. I think it's best to have some grounding in Hindu philosophy and literature prior to reading this book.

I specify who this recommendation is for because I am truly annoyed that many of the reviews for this and the other edition seem to boil down to "I don't like poetry so I disliked this book of poems" "I don't like devotional poetry so I disliked this book of devotional poems" "I don't know anything about Hinduism so I found this book of Hindu poems inaccessible" and of course, "I dislike non-rhyming poetry so I dislike this book of translated poems and will have to read them in the original Hindi" (the book repeatedly discusses that the originals are in Kannada). The entitlement of the Goodreads reviewer strikes again!

[Nick · Rating 5 out of 5]

SO GOOD. Poetry from Virasaiva poets aka Lingayats. Probably one of the most rhetorically interesting and revolutionary Bhakti sects. Read if you are interested in South India or Hinduism especially the more subversive and counter-cultural side of it. Ramanujan is also a great scholar on this subject so his introductions and notes and blurbs on each poet are amazing.

[Ghia Osseiran · Rating 4 out of 5]

This is a beautiful selection of bhakti poems from four saints from the Virasaiva tradition (followers of Siva). The poems are surprisingly counter establishment, challenging the traditions, rituals and polytheism prevalent at the time. Uninterested in form and formalities, these poems advocate a return to the essence.

Basavanna speaks against Hindu polytheism, clearly advocating monotheism instead:
'God, gods, there are so many
There's no place left
For a foot.
There is only/ one god. He is our lord/ of the Meeting Rivers.'

These vacanas or religious compositions of 'what is said' are expressed not in Sanskrit but in the local spoken dialect. They reject the quid pro quo worship of the Lord, following prescribed rituals to obtain certain results. And so Allama says you may do all these good deeds and 'you may then go to heaven / after death, but you'll go nowhere / near the truth of our Lord.'

The vacanas themselves are free from the dictates of metre and rhyme, with Basavanna simply declaring 'I'll sing as I love.'

These poets do not only challenge polytheism and rituals but also notions of gender. In one of Basavanna's poems he says: 'Look here, dear fellow: / I wear these men's clothes only for you./ Sometimes I am man, sometimes I am woman.'

This is echoed in Dasimayya's free verse: 'If they see/ breasts and long hair coming/ they call it woman,/ if beard and whiskers/ they call it man:/ but, look, the self that hovers/ in between/ is neither man/ nor woman.'

The vacana poems featured in this book are a plea for reunion:
'Cripple me, father,/ that I may not go here and there./ Blind me father, that I may not look at this and that./ Deafen me father/ that I may not hear anything else./ Keep me...' (Basavanna)

And underlying this yearning for union, there is anger at the body and realization we are at the mercy of the gunas and the mind in our journey. This is evident in the tone of Basavanna's questioning: 'The master of the house, is he at home or isn't he? / Grass on the threshold, / dirt in the house; / The master of the house, is he at home, or isn't he?/ Lies in the body / lust in the heart;/ no, the master of the house is not at home.'

Dasimayya also questions the body and the extent to which we indeed are its master, asking: 'If this is my body/ would it not follow my will? / If this is your body/ would it not follow your will? / Obviously it is neither your body/ nor mine:/ it is the fickle body/ of the burning world you made, Ramanatha.'

Mahadevi, a woman Saint abhisarika who stole away from home to be with the Lord, also depicted the body and the three gunas as potential obstructions in her journey toward liberation:
'I have maya for mother in law;/the world for father in law;/three brothers in law [the gunas] like tigers...My mind is my maid:/ by her kindness, I join/ my Lord.' She, thus, concedes, 'Till the fruit is ripe
Inside/ the skin will not fall off.'

Basavanna urges carpe dium except it is carpe dium to worship the Lord: 'Before... the body becomes a cage of bones/... before age corrodes your form.../ worship/ our Lord/ of the meeting rivers.'

And so to Basavanna even the rituals of worship are empty without the Lord's grace:
'I'm no worshipper; / I'm no giver;/ I'm not even beggar/ O Lord/ without your grace.'

[Revanth Ukkalam · Rating 5 out of 5]

Suppose that you cut a
tall bamboo in two;
make the bottom piece a woman,
the headpiece a man,
rub them together
till they kindle:

tell me now,
the fire that's born,
is it male or female?

- Devara Dasimayya

Lingayatism is one of the many marvels in the pan-Indian Bhakti tradition. It is elegant because of its simplicity and unprecedented for its efforts to effect the union between social justice or spirituality. In this edition, AK Ramanujan, does a great deal to elucidate the Lingayat philosophy and offers much to enjoy and chew on.

[Abhishek · Rating 5 out of 5]

Given the huge chasm of knowledge between somebody like me and A. K. Ramanujan, it's hard to do anything else but praise the book. This will probably be picked up by people who have had a first hand experience to vachanas, lingayatism, or one of the vachana saints. AKR does well to make it accessible to everybody with a detailed introduction on the society at the time, religion, history, anthropology and so on. There's a small biography of each of the 4 vachanakaras before the translations feature. The Vachanas, of course, are striking and it's all up to the reader to draw various meanings from them. Whilst the fierce desire to be one with Shiva and the religious fervour is a touch hard to appreciate (for the not-so-religious agnostic types) the tolerance, humanism, rejection of hypocrisy make it timeless. For example, there are multiple vachanas which challenge the traditional gender binary. The 4 vacanakaras are different enough to let you appreciate different facets of their poetry.

As one reads it, one falls in love with Lingayatism as it existed then. A tolerant, egalitarian belief system with minimal rituals that focused on one's union with Siva. It's of course both natural and a pity that it didn't last; but the fire is very much alive and burns brightly.

[Angela · Rating 4 out of 5]

This was a fantastic read, and I certainly will try to find more translations by this author, and by these saints. I'm particularly facinated by Basavanna now, as well as Mahadeviyakka! Basavanna speaks more to my own personal feelings toward God. Mahadeviyakka speaks to my feminine desires. My facination with Shiva is growing by the minute!

I think I can make the rest of you facinated if I just post one vacana (from Basavanna):

The crookedness of the serpent
is straight enough for the snake-hole.

The crookedness of the river
is straight enough for the sea.

And the crookedness of our Lord's men
is straight enough for our Lord!

[woodshadows · Rating 3 out of 5]

this is one of those books which im supposed to say i loved and cherish blah blah, but in truth as i was reading it i was pretty bored half the time. partly i dont have a very poetic spirit i think, partly my attention span probably isnt good enough to stay focused enough upon these small poems to really penetrate deeply into their core. the introduction and appendix were also extremely boring and long. for religious poems i think ill stick to ikkyu sojun, there's a raw beauty and wisdom to his words where here despite the vacanas attempts to be free of strict format nevertheless it often feels like 'same old same old', same old hindu/indian metaphors, a bit stale and unappealing.

[Don Hackett · Rating 4 out of 5]

Free verse devotional poetry from a sect in southern India, written in a southern dialect (Kannada?) and translated by an Indian-born English-language poet who taught at the University of Chicago. Four poets ranging, for me, from good to excellent (the last two poets in the book), presenting insight into the devotional life.

[Parvathy · Rating 5 out of 5]

What an introduction to medieval Kannada Bhakti poetry. Even when the mysticism obscures more than clarifies, the sheer beauty of the poetry touches you. If the translation does this to you, I can only imagine what reading the vacanas in the original can do. It's the perfect book to lay by your bedside - dip into it, read a poem or two, and then lie back and savor it. Bliss.

[Larissa Shmailo · Rating 5 out of 5]

This book contains translations by the remarkable A.J. Ramanujan of the vacuna-form poetry of Akka-Mahadevi. This Godiva precursor, by legend, left kingdom, king, and wise men behind to become a homeless wanderer writing devotional poetry to Siva. You can learn everything necessary from her.

[Sarah · Rating 5 out of 5]

The poetry translations were beautiful. The introduction to each of the poet-saints, as well as the background information on the overall climate of the time added greatly to its rich portrayal of this particular Saivite movement.

[Sachin · Rating 5 out of 5]

A superb translation of Kannada Vachankaras. A marvelous feat which demonstrates that Indian medieval poetry is a fabulous thing and that Ramanujan is one the best poet-translators we have.

[Yoana · Rating 5 out of 5]

If poetry were easily ratable, this would probably rate first for me. Divine in every sense of the word. Got the English language version in Berlin yesterday!

[Christine · Rating 5 out of 5]

I am enjoying this book, over and over again. I'll never be finished with it.

[Lija · Rating 4 out of 5]

pretty DANG good but I wish I understood more references

[mahesh · Rating 1 out of 5]

I have always liked Vachanas, And I grew up reading Vachanas. However, what I have learned is from the author's point of view Lingayitha Dharma is the resistance against Brahminism. When exactly did Brahmisim come into existence? The authors' introduction about the life of Basavana, Alama Prabhu, and Devara Dasimaya, Made me think they were religious zealots, and who are wicked missionaries. At least this is not what I learned about them from my childhood. They were social reformers, These reformers existed in Dharmic society for thousands of years in this land whenever Adharma raised his head. But if you read the author's introduction about these 4 saints, They look more adharmic.
How long we are going to hate Brahmins for caste? I am not even Brahmin by birth. But these authors dare to blame everything on Brahmins to feel intellectually superior. In the modern world, Brahmins are the ones who are not still stuck to caste, it's the people from other communities who are stuck to it while blaming Brahmins for caste.
Maybe these kinds of nuisance arise because Authors Like A.K Ramanujan, To get the applause of Western masters sold his people and divided the society with more hatred and venom which is the deadly opposite of what all 4 saints tried to abolish in society.

When you read Vachanasa, It should unite you with Brahman but if you read this work Brhman will run away from you.

I am Kannadiga, We grew up listening to Vachanas in schools. I know the merit of them. But this book's introduction about saints gives the wrong impression about them. Also, these Indian people who go and settle in other countries, To please their masters end up selling their people, These people are a disgrace. Even the translation of Vachans, Seems so western than Dharmic.

Shitty work, This work is a disgrace to the tradition of lingayita or veera shiva.

[Ganesha · Rating 5 out of 5]

Delving into Devotion: A Review of "Speaking of Siva"

"Speaking of Siva," edited by A. K. Ramanujan, is a unique window into the world of Veerashaiva saint poets from 12th-century India. It presents a collection of vachanas, free-verse poems characterized by intense devotion and a rebellious spirit directed towards the Hindu god Shiva.

The book's greatest strength lies in introducing readers to a lesser-known religious movement. Ramanujan's selection of vachanas offers a glimpse into the passionate and unconventional Bhakti (devotional) practices of the Veerashaivas. These poems challenge traditional rituals and social hierarchies, emphasizing direct, emotional connection with Shiva.

The vachanas themselves are captivating, often brimming with raw emotion and vivid imagery. They express love, longing, and even anger directed at Shiva, portraying a dynamic and personal relationship between the devotee and the divine. Ramanujan's translations effectively capture the essence of the poems, allowing their emotional power and poetic beauty to resonate with contemporary readers.

"Speaking of Siva" assumes some familiarity with Hinduism and the concept of Shiva. Readers unfamiliar with these aspects might find the poems challenging to understand without additional context. For those interested in exploring the rich tapestry of Hinduism, particularly the Bhakti movement and the concept of Shiva worship, "Speaking of Siva" offers an invaluable resource. The book's introduction provides some background information, but supplemental reading on Veerashaivism and Hinduism could further enrich the experience.

[J]

Basanava:

"Look, the world, in a swell / of waves, is beating upon my face"

"Does it matter how long / a rock soaks in the water: / will it ever grow soft? / Does it matter how long / I've spent in worship / when the heart is fickle?"

"Listen, O lord of the meeting rivers / things standing shall fall / but the moving ever shall stay."

Devara Dasimayya:

"Obviously, it is neither your body / nor mine: / it is the fickle body / of the burning world you made."

Mahadeviyakka:

"Like a silkworm weaving / her house with love / from her marrow, / and dying / in her body's threads / winding tight, round / and round / I burn / desiring what the heart desires."

Allama Prabhu:

"Looking for your light, / I went out: / it was like the sudden dawn / of a million million suns / a ganglion of lighting / for my wonder."

Great intro by Ramanujan.

[Klara Abelone · Rating 5 out of 5]

The book contains poems written by ancient virasaivists (part of the hindu bhakti movement espechially devoted to Shiva). The poems reflect an intense love for Shiva, or God, but also a sort of alienation from the world as it is - topics found in all mysticism - which is often found relatable for all religious people. The poems are split into different stages of the poets' mystic journey, and really illustrates the different realizations one goes through in the search for closeness with God. The translator and author of the prefix etc. provides very interesting background knowledge on the different poets and on virasaivism in general. A beautifull reading experience.

[Ritika · Rating 4 out of 5]

I keep coming back to that which is not. He is everything yet nothing at the same time. Sadhna was never easy for me, no matter how hard I try. People have caged him to temples and rituals, this action of making him a commodity never sat right with me. Maybe this conflict of blind devotion never suited my palate but I keep trying to remind myself his message was to devote yourself to the stillness that he provides and with this I started sadhna again. This tiny book revived something that was dormant for quite a while.
‘O lord white as jasmine
Your love’s blade stabbed
And broken in my flesh,’

[Sreena · Rating 3 out of 5]

Here are a few poignant quotes from the book which I liked.

"My heart is a pilgrimage place, all gods
are there. They go to sleep inside me."

This verse encapsulates the idea that divinity resides within each individual. The heart, as a sacred space, becomes a meeting ground for gods, inviting us to explore our own inner divinity.
"For whom is the God of gods?"

This rhetorical question challenges our preconceived notions of divine hierarchy. It urges us to question the idea of a higher power and consider that the ultimate reality may be beyond our limited understanding.

[J Pooja · Rating 5 out of 5]

I have read vacanas in Kannada. It was first time I read vacanas in English translated by A. K. Ramanujan. I have read many vacanas of Basavanna in Kannada language, it was nice and good to read in English.
Speaking of Siva, all about bhakti or devotion in lord Shiva, expressed in form of vacanas by four famous vacahanakara or vachana poets Basavanna, Mahadeviyakka, Allama Prabhu, Devara Dasimayya.

[Bhavesh Mehta · Rating 3 out of 5]

Maybe the reason I am so critical on this book is because I was never able to understand the poetry of Rupi Kaur. Definitely, most verses were poetic in their appearance but they lacked the essential element that is needed in poetry: Rhyme and Depth.

I do not question the aptitude of these poets but is only not satisfied with the translation. I will have to dip into this verses in Hindi to experience the joy I was expecting.