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  ‘The Gallery of Upside Women’ - the title taken on from the legend of Karaikkal Ammaiyar's walk towards the Kailasapathi which we who grew up near Thiruvalangadu believe ended there. Nataraja performed Urdhva Thandava at the Ratna Sabha, and told Ammaiyar to go to Thiruvalangadu if she wanted to witness the rare dance. A modern, cosmopolitan poet, a spiritual practitioner and a researcher on lady bhakti poets was speaking about them at the book reading of the latest and the last of her trilogy.  A couple of things, very commonly found statements either touching on feminism, marginalization, emancipation etc., came up, naturally. The title of sainthood that adorned the bhaktas doesn't seem to go well either with the academicians or the city readers. Nor does the idea of saranagati (surrender or servility is the word used in general as the translation by those who think saranagati as regressive) seem to be acceptable.  Then came a question from my friend - “were the...

Kulasekhara Perumal's lullaby to Ram Lalla  I was away enjoying Carnatic music in Chennai when the whole country was getting engaged with the details of the upcoming Ayodhya Ram Janmabhumi temple consecration. There was little time to look at news then, but once I returned, I could see lots of debates, especially in the Tamil country over our connections with Sri Rama. Luckily, with social media many scholars have started sharing diverse details, ranging from temples, literature, epigraphy etc., to show how deep our connections are. The last time, when the foundation stone laying ceremony happened, I blogged on one particular connection, the elaborate Ramayana dance drama of Sirgazhi Arunachala Kavi. I hope and pray some day like the Banaras Ram Lila, the Arunachala Kavi’s Rama Nataka will also be performed in Ayodhya. This time around, coming fresh from that immersive music season where we definitely hear, debate Rama kirtanais, kritis, my mind has been thinking of the temple cere...

“This joyful practitioner of yoga, Spends all his lawful earnings In providing food for the devotees of Vishnu Who travel between the Himalaya and the Malaya Mountains!”           (Amuktamalyada – translation Srinivas Sistla) That was how the mighty emperor Krishnadeva Raya described our Vishnuchitta. He was hailed as Periyalvar, for the mighty deed of going to the Pandya Sri Vallaba’s court to establishe the Paratva and having had a divine vision of Garudaruda Vishnu and singing ‘Pallandu’ (hail! live long) to Him. This great feat earned not only the title of Periyalvar (Periya = big), but his Prabandham as described by many became the gateway for the divine 4000 verse compilation, ‘Nalayira Diva Prabandham’. In the order of contents in the 4000, 'Tirupallandu' and 'Periyalvar Tirumozhi' are the first prabandhams, followed by 'Tiruppavai' and 'Nachiyar Tirumozhi' of his foster daughter Andal. But, to know him first as V...

  It is heartening to see so many posts today on Subramania Bharati.  It reminds me of my elementary school days. There was not an Independence Day or Republic Day that passed without singing Bharati’s songs. In that small school, the flagstaff was just outside the compound and we would stand there and sing “thaayin manikkodi paareer”. There would be singing and dancing to his “aaduvome pallu paaduvome”, “vetri ettu thikkum etta kottu murase” etc., Our headmaster at that time would teach all of us to sing Bharati’s songs. I got introduced to almost all the Deshbhakti songs of Bharati at that time. “paarukkulle nalla naadu”, “bharatha samudayam vaazhgave” and many others. We used to have a collection of his poems at home, printed in some poor, dull paper. I didn’t know music, I didn’t know the ragas that are printed alongside some of the poems. But I used to sit near the window, and keep humming something. I used to even try the “eesan vandhu siluvayil mandan” trying to imitate...