Poems to Siva: The Hymns of the Tamil Saints

The Tevaram hymns are the fundamental text of Tamil Saivism, which was one of the earliest prominent large-scale devotional groups within Hinduism. These lyrics were written by three poet saints during the sixth and eighth centuries A.D. Tevaram hymns were composed within this time period. These hymns provide vivid and moving portraits of the images, myths, rites, and adoration of Siva, and they continue to be loved and sung by the millions of followers of the Tamil Saiva tradition. Indira Peterson eloquently renders into English a substantial portion of these hymns, and she does so in a way that makes them accessible to English readers. This anthology is a valuable resource for the study of South Indian popular religion as a result of her introduction and annotations, which provide light on the literary, theological, and cultural settings in which the work was produced. Indira Peterson identifies the Tevaram as a pivotal work in the history of Tamil culture. The Tevaram is both a synthesis of pan-Indian civilisation and Tamil civilization, as well as a uniquely Tamil expression of the love of song, holy landscape, and ceremonial religion. Her examination of this work leans heavily on her ground-breaking research into the performance of the hymns and its relationship to the art and ritual of the South Indian temple.

Review(s)

“Peterson’s graceful and clear style makes for a smooth reading of this arcane study, which is supplied with voluminous footnotes, a glossary and an indexÄ . Peterson has broken new ground in introducing to her readers the first large-scale devotional son

Author

Indira Viswanathan Peterson