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Updated 11-29-09
Akka Mahadevi /Mahadeviyakka
(1100s)
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"TAKE THESE HUSBANDS WHO DIE, DECAY, AND FEED THEM TO YOUR
KITCHEN FIRES!"
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Akka Mahadevi lived during the 1100s in Karnataka, a region on the southwest coast of India. "Akka" (or "yakka" if attached at the end) means "respected elder sister."
Tradition says that although she wished to remain an unmarried devotee of Shiva, her family insisted she marry the ruler of her land. Asserting that Shiva, whom she called Cenna Mallikarjuna /Channamallikarjuna, (Lord white as jasmine), was her only lover and husband, she ran away (either before or after her marriage, depending on the source). She then wished to join a community of Virasaivas (a new and radically democratic group of Shiva devotees), and many of her poems are from the report of her successful attempt to prove to the male Virasaiva leaders gathered in the city of Kalyana that she was worthy to be part of their community. She is believed to have died in her 20s.
Akka Mahadevi's poems are vacanas (literally, "sayings"), free verse lyrics written in the Kannada language. About 350 extant poems are attributed to her.
On this page you'll find:
Links to helpful sites online.
Excerpts from translations in print:
Vacanas
Dialogue at Kalyana
Information about secondary sources.
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1. Sites with translations by A.K. Ramanujan (for more, see below, under "In print"):
(a) Links to 12 poems (as well one poem translated by Armando Menezes and S. M. Angadi, "Through Thee have I forgotten Thee"; for more from Menezes and Angadi, see "In print").
(b) Four poems: "I have Maya for mother-in-law," "For hunger," "Other men are thorn," and "People, male and female."
(c) Near the bottom of the page, four more: "Like treasure hidden in the ground," "My body is dirt," "When I didn't know myself," and "If sparks fly."
(d) Half way down the page, three poems: "Make me go from house to house," "Other men are thorn," and "Why do I need this dummy of a dying world?"
(e) Halfway down the page, "Not one, not two, not three or four."
(f) After an introduction, "O mother I burned in a flameless fire."
2. By various translators:
(a) Links to 13 poems, by several translators (including Ramanujan); at the same site, an essay that includes the poem, "The arrow that is shot."
(b) At #10-17 in this collection, links to eight vacanas, each given in transliterated Kannada, followed by an English translation and notes.
(c) In an essay on women's poetry by Laurie S. Ryavec, go to "Mahadevi" for two passages: "When the mind becomes Your mind" (part of a longer poem), and the complete "I do not call it his sign"; both translations are by Jane Hirshfield.
(d) Go to "Mahadevi" for two poems: "Get back, I hate you!" (part of a longer poem) and "Fie on this body!"
(e) In a brief essay, two poems: "I am without pride of caste" and "Listen, oh, Mother! I love him."
(f) "Brother, you've come," translated by Susan Daniel.
(g) Half way down the page, "Sister, listen, I saw in a dream," translated by D.A. Shankar.
(h) "Coins in the hand," translated by Hirshfield.
(i) Go to the second use of "Mahadevi" for "Can you be scared of wild beasts, when you live on a hill top?"
3. Essays:
(a) "Riding the blue sapphire mountain: The Life and Sadhana of Akkamahadevi" (2006), by Ma Devi Saraswati, discusses Mahadevi's life and beliefs through a study of her poems (sadhana refers to the practices needed to achieve a spiritual goal).
(b) Selections from a 2002 speech on Akka Mahadevi by Vasanti Mataji, which includes several of her vacanas, given in English and usually followed by transliterated Kannada.
(c) "Who Is Akka?" by R.G. Mathapati, gives the author's translation of some of the poems.
(d) A biographical essay by Rohit Arya which includes lines from longer poems.
(e) A 2004 review by Prema Nandakumar of a translation into Tamil (another language of the south of India) of Mahadevi's Kannada poems.
4. Other reviews (for excerpts from the translations, see "In print": for more on the other books, see "Secondary sources"):
(a) Half way down the page, Kala Krishnan Ramesh on Vinaya Chaitanya's 2005 translation, Songs for Siva: Vacanas of Akka Mahadevi.
(b) Patrick A Daley on Ramanujan's 1973 collection of translations, Speaking of Siva.
(c) Sandip Roy on Wendy Doniger's 2009 book, The Hindus: An Alternative History; elsewhere, another review, this by Michael Dirda.
(d) Nilanjan Sarkar on Vijaya Ramaswamy's 1997 study, Walking Naked: Women, Society, Spirituality in South India (and on another book by the same author).
5. For historical background:
(a) An essay, "Bhakti Poets," on those who write of a personal devotion to a deity; Akka Mahadevi is among the poets discussed.
(b) Although Akka Mahadevi is mentioned only once, this 2001 essay by Madhu Kishwar, "Traditional Female Moral Exemplars in India," is a useful introduction for western readers to the roles of women --- both deities and devotees.
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[Armando Menezes and S. M. Angadi have translated 315 poems by Akka Mahadevi; the book also gives the poems in Kannada script. The introduction and notes are reasonably helpful, but sometimes presume a knowledge of Virasaiva terminology. The book is not in all libraries, but it is in enough that you will be able to get it via interlibrary loan:]
Vacanas of Akkamahadevi, with the original text in Kannada
/ translated from Kannada into English by Armando Menezes, S.M.
Angadi. Dharwar: M.A. Adke, 1973. (xix, 173, 119 p.: ill.)
LCCN#: 75-905300
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[Perhaps more easily available than the book by Menezes and Angadi, Vinaya Chaitanya's translation of 203 vacanas provides an introduction that discusses the role of the vacana in Virasaiva worship, and (with the endnotes) explains the terminology used in the poems:]
Songs for Siva: vacanas of Akka Mahadevi / translated by Vinaya
Chaitanya; with a foreword by H.S. Shiya Prakash (The sacred
literature series). Walnut Creek, CA: AltaMira Press, c2005.
(137 p.)
LC#: PL4659.A34 A2 2005; ISBN: 0759108978
[Also published by Rowman & Littlefield Pub Inc. ISBN:
075910896X]
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[A. K. Ramanujan's collection of translations of Virasaiva poetry includes 48 of Akka Mahadevi's poems; the introduction is a thorough discussion of Virasaiva poetry, and the notes are detailed. (See the book's table of contents online.):]
Speaking of Siva; translated with an introduction by A. K.
Ramanujan (The Penguin classics). Harmondsworth, Penguin, 1973.
(199 p.)
LC#: PL4663.E3 R32; ISBN: 0140442707.
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"It gives me faith and then makes me forget."
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[On the difficulty of devotion. Maya is illusion, samsara the cycle of rebirth:]
Even if I want to stay apart,
Your maya will not leave me;
Even if I struggle against it, this maya stays unbroken;
Your maya doesn't leave even if one stands firm;
Those struggling to break this maya
Are themselves broken.
To the yogi, your maya became the yogini;
To the ascetic, maya was the fair woman ascetic.
For the god, the assumption of monthly
Offerings was the illusion;
If one climbed the mountain, maya,
Restless, climbed after.
If one goes into the deep forest, maya goes along;
O samsara, it does not leave my back, my hands;
It gives me faith and then makes me forget.
O mercy maker, I am afraid of your maya,
O supreme master, Channamallikarjuna, jasmine-tender,
Have mercy.
What else, O what shall I do, O great god,
O snake-adorned one, do have mercy, O god. [Chaitanya,
p. 97]
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One body only I have, one only mind:
With what mind, then, to meditate,
O Lord, and with what mind engage
In the world's business, pray?
Alas, alas, I'm utterly lost
Between this world and the other world,
Like a calf loosed to suck two cows!
How could I hold together in my hand
Two different fruits,
O Cenna Mallikarjuna? [Menezes
& Angadi, p.89]
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"The body's wrong is like mother turning vampire."
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[On the human body:]
If one could
draw the fangs of a snake
and charm the snake to play,
it's great to have snakes.
If one can single out
the body's ways
it's great to have bodies.
The body's wrong
is like mother turning vampire.
Don't say they have bodies
who have your love,
O lord
white as jasmine. [Ramanujan,
p.131]
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"...then remains eternal space."
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[On the value of experience over ritual:]
All the Vedas, scriptures and
Sacred lore, canons and codes
Are but grist and husk ground in the mill.
Why grind this, why winnow?
When you behead the mind that
Flows here and there,
O Channamallikarjuna, jasmine-tender,
Then remains eternal space. [Chaitanya,
p.59]
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"Like puppet at the end of string..."
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[On her conversion:]
Like monkey at the top of pole,
Like puppet at the end of string,
I played as Thou did make my play,
I lived as Thou did make me live,
Until Cenna Mallikarjuna, who drives
The world's machine, said, "It's enough." [Menezes&
Angadi, p.99]
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"...no bond nor fear no clan no land...."
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[Comparing human lovers to Shiva]
I love the Handsome One:
he has no death
decay or form
no place or side
no end nor birthmarks.
I love him O mother. Listen.
I love the Beautiful One
with no bond nor fear
no clan no land
no landmarks
for his beauty.
So my lord, white as jasmine, is my husband.
Take these husbands who die,
decay, and feed them
to your kitchen fires! [Ramanujan,
p.134]
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"Through Thee have I forgotten Thee!"
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[On the effects of union with Shiva:]
What is the use of knowing everything
If one does not know the self?
When one knows in oneself
Why ask others?
Channamallikarjuna, jasmine-tender,
Yourself becoming knowledge,
Showed me the way.
I know you through yourself. [ [Chaitanya,
p.114]
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After my body became
Thyself, whom could I serve?
After my mind became
Thyself, whom could I invoke?
After my consciousness was lost in Thee,
Whom could I know?
Being Thyself in Thee,
O Cenna Mallikarjuna Lord,
Through Thee have I forgotten Thee! [Menezes
& Angadi, p.109]
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"Like an elephant lost from his herd...."
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[On her desire for a renewal of union with Shiva:]
Like an elephant
lost from his herd
suddenly captured,
remembering his mountains,
his Vindyas,
I remember.
A parrot
come into a cage
remembering his mate,
I remember.
O lord white as jasmine
show me
your ways.
Call me: "Child, come here,
come this way." [Ramanujan,
p.136]
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"I will play on the swing of happiness."
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[And on her determination to worship, no matter what:]
Lord, if you will listen, listen;
If you won't, don't---
I can't bear to live without singing of you.
If you will look, look;
If you won't, don't---
I can't bear life unless I look at you and be happy.
If you will agree, agree;
If you won't don't---
I can't bear life unless I embrace you.
If you will be pleased, be pleased,
If you won't, don't---
I can't bear life unless I worship you.
O Channamallikarjuna, jasmine-tender,
Offering you worship, I will play
On the swing of happiness. [Chaitanya,
p. 33]
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"And if I want companionship..."
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[On the life of a devotee:]
It's difficult to be small,
Not difficult to be great!
Not difficult to be a devotee.
It's difficult to be a sign, though not
To be the Tranquil One,
O Cenna Mallikarjuna Lord! [Menezes
& Angadi, p.122]
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Should I feel hungry, there be alms;
Should I feel thirsty, well, there be
Tanks, streams and wells;
Ruins of temples for my sleep;
And if I want companionship,
Why, Thou are there,
O Cenna Mallikarjuna Lord! [Menezes
& Angadi, p.20]
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"...how would these, these mosquitoes on the buffalo's hide?"
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[On non-devotees:]
Would a circling surface vulture
know such depths of sky
as the moon would know?
would a weed on the riverbank
know such depths of water
as the lotus would know?
would a fly darting nearby
know the smell of flowers
as the bee would know?
O lord white as jasmine
only you would know
the way of your devotees:
how would these,
these
mosquitoes
on the buffalo's hide? [Ramanujan,
p.123]
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Like a statue listening
To the recital of a wax parrot,
The one reciting has no life,
The listener has no knowledge;
The devotion of one
Who does not know you
Is like the statue listening to the wax parrot,
O Channamallikarjuna, jasmine-tender. [Chaitanya,
p. 80]
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[Danesh A. Chekki's study includes a prose translation of the Sunyasampadane, a 1400s collection of 21 dialogues among the major figures of the 1100s Virasaiva community of Shiva devotees. One of these dialogues, here called "Love of the Divine: Sister Mahadevi," presents Akka Mahadevi's attempt to prove to the male Virasaiva leaders gathered at Kalyana that she was worthy to be part of their community, and contains over 30 of her vacanas. Chekki's detailed general introduction also speaks of "Sister Mahadevi" (see the index), and the book provides a useful glossary. (See the book's table of contents online.):]
Chekki, Danesh A. The philosophy and ethics of the Virasaiva
community (Studies in Asian thought and religion; v. 26). Lewiston,
N.Y.: Edwin Mellen Press, c2003. (xxv, 287 p.)
LC#: BL1281.245 .C44 2003; ISBN: 0773467343
Includes bibliographical references (p. [269]-277) and index
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"For me, there are no other husbands in this world."
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[When Akka Mahadevi first meets with the Virasaiva leaders at Kalyana, their holiest man, Prabhu, tests her:]
Prabhu: Why have you come here in the prime of your youth? Our saints resent the sight of a young woman. If you can disclose the identity of your husband, you can join the fellowship of our saints, or else you can depart. A woman's company is like poison. Tell us, who is your husband?
Mahadevi: I was engrossed in penance for many years so that Siva might become my wedded lord! My own people wedded me to Siva by smearing my body with ashes and tying the marital bracelet to my wrist.... All the world knows that the innumerable saints have been my parents. Therefore, O Prabhu, God is my lord; for me, there are no other husbands in this world. [pp. 183-84]
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"...so that the sight of seals of love may not hurt you."
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[When Prabhu scolds her first for her nakedness and then for covering that nakedness with her long hair, Akka Mahadevi responds:]
It is not the condition of the body that counts but, instead, a pure heart which wins the favor of God....
I have covered my body with my tresses so that the sight of seals of love may not hurt you. Don't you tease, for I am abiding in God. [p.184]
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"The deprivation is yours."
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[Prabhu questions whether Akka Mahadevi can be "one with God" when she still has human form (and, worse, a female body). She describes the superficiality of appearance, and of the leaders' reluctance to accept her:]
Would the sandalwood cease its fragrance when it's cut into pieces? Would a piece of gold, even when cut and heated, lose its lustre? Would the sugar cane lose its sweetness when it is squeezed within a press and then heated?
When you search for my bygone sins and hurl them at my face, the deprivation is yours. O Lord, though you may slay me, I will never cease to love Lord Siva. [p.188]
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"When you praise me..., how can I attain divinity?"
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[Prabhu pays her his ultimate compliment: "Your body is female in appearance, but you mind is merged with God." The dialogue continues with each of the leaders praising her until she becomes embarrassed:]
Because you are like water mixed with milk, I know not who is the master and who is the disciple, what is noble and what is not noble, and what is the antecedent and what is consequent. When you praise me out of your love, how can I attain divinity? [p.189]
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"I do not see Him."
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[Akka Mahadevi eventually leaves Kalyana and wanders alone through a forest and then up a mountain, where she will be "united with God like hailstone melting in water, salt dissolving in water, and milk mixing with milk":]
O parrots, cuckoos, bees and swans, have you seen my Lord? Tell me where he is. O God, Thou art the forest; Thou art the sacred trees, the birds and the beasts. When thou art omnipresent, why can't I see Thyself?....
I climbed the holy mountain... with the aid of the root of righteous deeds and along renunciation's stairs. O Lord, lift me by the hand. Shall I say that the space is God? I do not see Him when I walk through it. Shall I say that a mountain is God? I do not see Him when I climb and stand upon it.... Do not reject me, Lord, quickly take me into Thine arms! [p.191]
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[Vijaya Ramaswamy's study includes a section on Akka Mahadevi (pp.152-74), with translations of several poems, some not given in the works cited above. (See the book's table of contents online.):]
Ramaswamy, Vijaya. Walking naked: women, society, spirituality
in South India. Shimla: Indian Institute of Advanced Study, 1997.
(x, 257 p.)
LC#: HQ1393 .V55 1997; ISBN: 8185952396
Includes bibliographical references and index
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[This article by Chandra Mudaliar provides a close reading and translation of 13 poems. (See the volume's table of contents online.):]
Mudaliar, Chandra. Religious experiences of Hindu women: A
study of Akka Mahadevi. Mystics Quarterly, 17:3 (1991),
137-146.
LC#: BV5077.G7 A13; ISSN: 0742-5503
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[This collection contains A.K. Ramanujan's 1982 essay, "On
Women Saints," a valuable analysis of the similarities and
differences among the lives of the women saints of India; the
essay began in a study of Akka Mahadevi and discusses her in
some detail:]
The Divine consort: Radha and the goddesses of India / edited
by John Stratton Hawley and Donna Marie Wulff ( Beacon paperback
; 734). Boston: Beacon Press, 1986, c1982. (xviii, 414 p., [16]
p. of plates : ill. (some col.)
LC#: BL1225.R24 D58 1986; ISBN: 080701303X
Papers presented at a conference held June 1978 at Harvard University,
sponsored by the Center for the Study of World Religions. Includes
index. Bibliography: p. 383-403.
[ Originally published: Berkeley, Calif. : Berkeley Religious
Studies Series, c1982. ISBN: 0895811022]
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[One of Wendy Doniger's goals for her "alternative history" is to show "the contributions of women, the lower castes, and other religions" (p.18). One of her chapters, "Bhakti in South India," provides a detailed description of the devotional movement of which Akka Mahadevi is a part. The poet is also discussed and quoted in another chapter, "Fusion and Rivalry under the Delhi Sultanate." The book has a helpful chronology and glossary. (See the book's table of contents online.)]
Doniger, Wendy. The Hindus: an alternative history. New York:
Penguin Press, c2009. (779 p.: ill., maps)
LC#: BL1151.3 .D66 2009; ISBN: 9780670020317
Includes bibliographical references (p. [729]-753) and index.
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Updated 11-29-09