Āṇṭāḷ and Her Path of Love

Vidya Dehejia is Associate Professor at Columbia University. She has written Slaves of the Lord: the Path of the Tamil Saints.

"I liked the clear and idiomatic translation. Dehejia introduces the reader to a world of religious experience that is little known. In doing so, she recaptures Anl's very personal appropriation of the world of Hindu Vaisnava myth. This book will make an important contribution towards widening our knowledge of women mystics." — Paul E. Muller-Ortega, Department of Religious Studies, Michigan State University"As an aesthetically successful English translation of an important but hitherto neglected Tamil bhakti text, this book represents a major contribution to the study of south Indian Hinduism. the text translated is exemplary of an important variety of religious experience in Hinduism which is prominent in many regions of India. It is therefore significant both in terms of the study of Tamil Hinduism and from a broader pan-regional perspective." — Norman Cutler, Department of South Asian Languages and Civilizations, The University of Chicago

• Acknowledgments INTRODUCTION: WOMAN, POET, AND MYSTIC TIRUPPAVAI: THE PATH TO KRSNA Notes to Tiruppavai NACCIYAR TIRUMOLI: THE ANGUISH OF SEPARATION 1. Unite Me with My Lord, O Kamadeva2. Do Not Break Our Sandcastles3. Give Back Our Clothes4. Join Up, O Kutal5. Koelbird, Call Him to Me6. I Dreamt This Dream, My Friend7. White Conch from the Fathomless Sea8. O Dark Rain Clouds9. In the Grove of My Lord10. Thirsting for The Lord11. He Has Taken All12. Take Me to The Land of My Lord13. The Agony of Desire14. We Saw Him There in Vrindavan Notes On The Poems Appendix One: Srivilliputtur Temple Inscription of 1454 A.D. Appendix Two: Periyavaccan Pillai, Thirteenth Century Commentator on Antal Glossary: Flora and Fauna Select Bibliography Index