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Tradition understands Tamil Bhakti to have begun with hymns composed by the threefamous hymnists, Sampantar . Appar (Tirun vukkarasar), and Suntarar (Nampi Arur r), referredto as “the three” (m var). There is no apparent reason to doubt the historicity of these poets andthat they lived during the seventh to ninth centuries A.D although a minority of scholars woulddate them either earlier or later. Their hymns participate in a shared discourse of praise to Siva,with similar language and poetic techniques, yet there are also difference among the three interms of content and tone, which are alluded to in various popular characterizations, including“Sampantar and Appar sang of the god, while Sun arar sang of himself,” and “Sampantar is thechild of the Lord, Appar His servant and Suntarar His friend”.The hymnists’ emphasis on place was a key feature by which they distinguished Bhaktifrom other Hindu practices. The poets identified their ishtad vath s as belonging to a place.Through their pilgrimages, they established a community of bhaktas. 6In defining Bhakti as a religious path, the m var represented Bhakti as a theology ofembodiment. The m var expressed their Bhakti in their own experiences, their visions of Siva,their pilgrimages toaiva sites, and their interaction with a community of bhaktas.Representations of Tamiliva-Bhakti were from the beginning, concerned with issues ofembodiment i.e. the poet’s corporeal realization of god not only in the imagining of god but alsoin the embodiment of humanity and the questions it raised. Issues of embodiment constituted arhetoric that informed the composition and development of Tamil iva-Bhakti in the works ofTamil authors. Later interpreters understood the hymns of the early Bhakti poets to be authenticand original Tamil expressions of Bhakti and this courses of inspiration for various6Indira V Peterson, ‘Lives of the Wandering Singers: Pilgrimage and Poetry’ in Tamil aivite Hagiography inHistory of Religions, Vol.22, No.4 (May, 1983), pp.338-360.31
understanding of the path of participation in the worship of god Yet, each group also brought itsown perspective to Bhakti, their perspectives understood Bhakti to be an autonomous religiouspath yet related it to developments in their time including imperial temple worship andphilosophical writing in Tamil.In the tenth through twelfth centuries, the development of imperial stone temples bothsymbols and actualizations of the potent material and spiritual powers of kings reached a summitwith the Ch dynasty. The hymns which were unabashedly regional in comparison with theincreasingly systematized modes of priestly worship in these temples came to be an establishedpart of worship . It was in this context of imperial temples that a principal stream of Tamil Siva-Bhakti’s development became stories of the Bhak s themselves, which were depicted inpaintings and sculptures and written in verse. These stories explored details of caste, family,employment, actions of worship, and salvation. Detailed knowledge of these practitioners ofSiva-Bhakti thus became knowledge of Bhakti; Bhakti became embodied as saints (n yanm r).Telling stories of the n yanm r culminated in the twelfth century Periyapur nam (GreatTraditional Story), a multivolumed text attributed to Sekkil r.In contradiction to earlierbiographies, Sekkil r firmly contextualizes the n yanm r in imperial temple culture byreasserting the access to Siva, certainly of salvation and diversity of bhakt s on the samereligions path that characterize Tamil Siva-Bhakti but that had become negotiated in the imperialtemple culture.Although some might view these historical developments as additions on the originalformulations of Bhakti by the three poets, they are, in fact, all original understandings of Bhakti.Later interpreters of Tamil Siva-Bhakti drew upon Bhakti’s thesis of embodiment while theycontextualized the m var’s hymns and stories of the n yanm r in their distinctive world views.32
Page 1 and 2: A STUDY OF THE SONGS OF PURANDARADA
Page 4 and 5: My warm thanks go to my cousin sist
Page 6 and 7: INTRODUCTIONVijayanagara Empire occ
Page 10 and 11: saints like Vidyaranya, Vemana, Pot
Page 12 and 13: them through out the political spac
Page 14 and 15: composed and circulated in the vast
Page 16 and 17: Devotion. The poems brought togethe
Page 18 and 19: David Shulman offer translations of
Page 20 and 21: extent and social base of the worsh
Page 22 and 23: themes ofpoetry- Personal relations
Page 24 and 25: is situated in the context of the D
Page 26: of interwoven and ritually reinforc
Page 29 and 30: I have devoted a chapter for discus
Page 31 and 32: who composed songs relating to the
Page 33 and 34: CHAPTER IBHAKTI CULT IN SOUTH INDIA
Page 35 and 36: The agency of the poet is high-ligh
Page 37: The interpreters of Bhakti have in
Page 41 and 42: sense that the term passed into Chr
Page 43 and 44: the elite and the common mass respe
Page 45 and 46: the nirguna Bhakti poets, ritualize
Page 47 and 48: Kerala and Karnataka. The three mos
Page 49 and 50: placed in Tamil towns , through a v
Page 51 and 52: feature was the sin-qua-non for the
Page 53 and 54: located in the traditionalbrought o
Page 55 and 56: the Pallava period. It became a reg
Page 57 and 58: Bhoothath lv r, Pey lv r, Namm lv r
Page 59 and 60: extended to the shrines sung by the
Page 61 and 62: temple as a d vad si. She was calle
Page 63 and 64: patronage took place may be taken a
Page 65 and 66: understands it. 44 The songs were c
Page 67 and 68: Srisailam. A compilation and codifi
Page 69 and 70: influence saints of other regions s
Page 71 and 72: etween Brahman of the V d n a and t
Page 73 and 74: married Saraswa i , a god fearing g
Page 75 and 76: fact he developed a sense of gratit
Page 77 and 78: as the kindliness of the servants o
Page 79 and 80: changing the attitude of people fro
Page 81 and 82: Dwarasamudra came to power in its s
Page 83 and 84: Varadar ja of Kanch puram. The same
Page 85 and 86: interdependence between jn na and a
Page 87 and 88: of the region were known as the fol
Page 89 and 90:
poetic composition which is partly
Page 91 and 92:
eternal. In fact it has been said t
Page 93 and 94:
on another occasion compares God to
Page 95 and 96:
person who has acquired jn na or kn
Page 97 and 98:
ody. Just as he condemned pedants a
Page 99 and 100:
agrarian groups such as most herdsm
Page 101 and 102:
In her study entitled Fields of Vic
Page 103 and 104:
lowly scavenger and the high class
Page 105 and 106:
Agricultural activities were facili
Page 107 and 108:
sold ornaments of gold, precious st
Page 109 and 110:
India. The discovery of Ming potter
Page 111 and 112:
friendship of Vijayanagara. Even th
Page 113 and 114:
This chapter has traversed a comple
Page 115 and 116:
essentially celebrates the sacralit
Page 117 and 118:
invoked. 8 Sacred geographies are i
Page 119 and 120:
In the religious tradition of India
Page 121 and 122:
the great temples of south India, t
Page 123 and 124:
particular temple is narrated in th
Page 125 and 126:
“Hey there d s , if you come to m
Page 127 and 128:
Bless you generous feeder of the po
Page 129 and 130:
Kannada, but he has also composed s
Page 131 and 132:
literature. He effectively created
Page 133 and 134:
M dhva faith and the cult of Vi hal
Page 135 and 136:
TempleThe great Vaishnava temple of
Page 137 and 138:
and there were close links between
Page 139 and 140:
Quite a good number of inscriptions
Page 141 and 142:
the former place once during the an
Page 143 and 144:
of the hills that the Hoys la king
Page 145 and 146:
And my body is weakI have no inclin
Page 147 and 148:
she argued that temples under the i
Page 149 and 150:
CHAPTER IVPURANDARAD S AND THECULTA
Page 151 and 152:
Vijayanagara state South of the Tun
Page 153 and 154:
Rashtrakutas were overthrown by the
Page 155 and 156:
appreciated and gratefully acknowle
Page 157 and 158:
1227 A.D - beyakere, name of a vill
Page 159 and 160:
To the Varkaris, God must be unders
Page 161 and 162:
a philosophical narration and lingu
Page 163 and 164:
eason for the preservation of the c
Page 165 and 166:
1540 A.D 58 - bhatta1544 A.D 59 - V
Page 167 and 168:
from the Yadu clan with which Krish
Page 169 and 170:
admitted in the midst of this spiri
Page 171 and 172:
through his pilgrimages crossed sev
Page 173 and 174:
important Vaishnavite offering), sc
Page 175 and 176:
the half Tiru-vidaiyatta gramam giv
Page 177 and 178:
figure offor over five centuries. T
Page 179 and 180:
Mukutiya neeva purandara ” 82like
Page 181 and 182:
1880 and 1894 a collection of ’s
Page 183 and 184:
CHAPTER VVIJAYANAGARA IMPERIAL IDEO
Page 185 and 186:
fourteenth century were further str
Page 187 and 188:
A song ofalso testifies to the fact
Page 189 and 190:
the elements such as the influentia
Page 191 and 192:
ishtad vatha of Kanakad s was the m
Page 193 and 194:
Purandarad s visited the following
Page 195 and 196:
the hymnists of the early medieval
Page 197 and 198:
their alignment in the royal centre
Page 199 and 200:
oyal power. In Vijayanagara, power
Page 201 and 202:
to important shrines such as Tirupa
Page 203 and 204:
Saluva Narasimha. 26 However all in
Page 205 and 206:
K nch puram and Tirupati became cen
Page 207 and 208:
in South India during the 14 th and
Page 209 and 210:
“So what have you eaten todayO le
Page 211 and 212:
It is difficult to separate the mat
Page 213 and 214:
The imperial ideology centered arou
Page 215 and 216:
associated with the killing of V li
Page 217 and 218:
saints likewere agencies which carr
Page 219 and 220:
he had a previous background of Ved
Page 221 and 222:
mentions this aspect. The hierarchi
Page 223 and 224:
touchstone for defining the classic
Page 225 and 226:
in Madhvacharya’s philosophy of D
Page 227 and 228:
In this chapter we have also invest
Page 229 and 230:
kaliyuga. Repeating the holy name o
Page 231 and 232:
constantly bringing up the image of
Page 233 and 234:
ideology of Vijayanagara incorporat
Page 235 and 236:
Following the model of Burton Stein
Page 237 and 238:
Bhairava: ‘Terrible’, name of o
Page 239 and 240:
Pupata: A sect of aivismPrak ra: Co
Page 241 and 242:
BIBLIOGRAPHYPrimary SourcesAnnual R
Page 243 and 244:
Carman, John., Theology of Ramanuja
Page 245 and 246:
____________, Vijayanagara Visions:
Page 247 and 248:
Rajan, Rajeswari Sundar, Real and I
Page 249 and 250:
Wagoner, Phillip, B, Tidings of the
Page 251:
Sinopoli,Carla, M.,and Kathleen. D.
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