In Tamil lit, an erotic bhakti for Krishna

On Janmashtami, we recall works of Tamil Vaishnava saints who expressed love for god the way a woman would for her lover

Tamil Vaishnavite Krishna bhakti poetry inaugurated a significant shift in the under standing of the role of emotions in achieving one’s liberation. In common parlance, bhakti is understood in the sense of love towards the one who is higher -a notion that is distinct from the love for one who is lower, like a child. In the hymns of Alvars, the Tamil word Patti is used for bhakti. Nammalvar mentions this word in the context of god as being readily available to those who have bhakti in him. Nammalvar immerses himself in Krishna bhakti when he imagines himself to be a gopi pining for Krishna. He sings in ‘Tiruvaymoli’.

“You’re unfair, Kanna, you’re unfair.
You’re unfair, Kanna, you’re unfair!
When you make love and embrace my full breasts,
a tidal wave of pleasure,
unchecked by our union,
rises to the firmament,
and soars beyond,
making my wits drown in the flood.

And then it recedes like a dream.
My passion permeates my inner life
and throbs in every cell of my body-
my soul cannot bear this burden.
If I am to be separated from you,
every time you go to graze the cows,
I die.”

Such a lustful bhakti known as ‘viraha bhakti’ manifested in Nammalavar is similar to that of the passion of the milkmaids of Vrindavan. In Andal, the viraha bhakti attains its most intense and acute form in ‘Nacciyar Tirumoli’. It is a work full of sexual suggestions, and wild passions. There are many classical allusions to the life of Krishna. Priya Sarukkai Chabria translates a passage from Andal’s hymn ‘Tai oru tinkal’ in Nacciyar Tirumoli to read, “God of love, I plead; aim my flower body into his. Auspicious, incandescent, virginal, am I to accept this, fire me into the dark one who will rend my body’s secret gullet as he enters me.”

Affirming the sacred status for the expressions of feminine desire and eroticism is a unique character of Tamil vaishnavite bhakti traditions, and as a cultural value, it has permeated the fabric of Tamil society. By sublimating viraha bhakti into a divine love, bhakti movement ensured that women’s sexual expressions would have a legitimate cultural space in our society.

There are predominantly four bhavas (emotional attitude or moods) with which bhakti poets approach their beloved god. Native classification would name the bhavas of bhakti as 1) Vatsalya-bhava bhakti (parental love shown to the god)
2) Sakhya-bhava-bhakti (friendship and love expressed to god)
3) Dasya-bhava bhakti (affection and servitude of a slave or a servant shown to god as one’s master) and
4) Madhurya-bhava bhakti (sweet love of a woman expressed to god as her lover)

There are several uses of categorising bhakti poetry according to the bhava they depict. The fact that Periyalvar, Kulacekaralvar, and Tirumankaialvar excel in expressing vatsalya bhava (parental love) help us to group a set of poems and identify the individual styles of the poets. The virtual absence of vatsalya bhava in saivite bhakti poetry informs us about the nature of the god worshipped in the poems. How vaishnava poets such Andal, Kulacekaralavar, Tirumankaialvar, and Nammalvar differ from saivite poets Tirunavukkarasar, Jnanacampantar, and Cuntarar in handling madhurya bhava (lover and lady love) facilitate us to chart the emotional course of religious sects. While we will be able to discern the women’s expression from analysing the madhurya bhava poems of Andal and their erotic elements, the complete absence of the madhurya bhava in the other parts of the country such as Assam inform us about the cultural uniqueness of the Tamil milieu.

Krishna is a pastoral god for the ancient Tamils. The later Tamil Sangam literature refers to Vishnu as Maal and Mayon; and Mayavan in the bhakti literature refers to Krishna as an avatar of Vishnu. The poems of Alvars established Krishna as an endearing god for the entire populace.