When God Is A Customer

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When God Is a Customer
Preferred Citation: Ramanujan, A. K., Velcheru Narayana Rao, and David Shulman When God is a Customer: Telugu Courtesan Songs by Ksetrayya and Others. Berkeley: University of California Press, c1994 1994. http://ark.cdlib.org/ark:/13030/ft1k4003tz/
When God Is a Customer Telugu Courtesan Songs by Ksetrayya and Others Edited and Translated by A. K. Ramanujan, Velcheru Narayana Rao, and David Shulman
UNIVERSITY OF CA LIFORNIA PRESS B erkel ey Los Angel es Oxf ord 1994 The Regent s of the University of Calif ornia
for W e ndy Doniger
Preferred Citation: Ramanujan, A. K., Velcheru Narayana Rao, and David Shulman When God is a Customer: Telugu Courtesan Songs by Ksetrayya and Others. Berkeley: University of California Press, c1994 1994. http://ark.cdlib.org/ark:/13030/ft1k4003tz/ for Wendy Doniger 1
PREFACE
The poems translated here belong to the c ategory of padams short musical c ompositions of a light classical nature, intended to be sung and, often, danced. Originally, they belonged to the professional caste of dancers and singers, devadasis or vesyas (and their male counterparts, the nattuvanar musicians), who were associated with both temples and royal courts in late medieval South India. Padams were c omposed throughout India, early examples in Sanskrit occ urring in Jayadeva's famous devotional poem, the Gitagovinda (twelfth century).[1] In South India the genre assumed a standardized form in the second half of the fifteenth century with the Telugu padams composed by the great temple-poet Tallapaka Annamacarya, also known by the popular name Annamayya, at Tirupati.[2] This form includes an opening line called pallavi that functions as a refrain, often in conjunction with the sec ond line, anupallavi . This refrain is repeated after eac h of the (usually three) caranam verses. Padams have been and are still being c omposed in the major languages of South India: Telugu, Tamil, and Kannada. However, the padam tradition reached its expressive peak in Telugu, the primary language for South Indian classical music , during the fifteenth to eighteenth centuries in southern Andhra and the Tamil region.[3]
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In general, Telugu padams are devotional in c haracter and thus find their place within the wider c orpus of South Indian 2 bhakti poetry. The early examples by Annamayya are wholly located within the context of temple worship and are direc ted toward the deity Venkatesvara and his consort, Alamelumanga, at the Tirupati shrine. Later poets, suc h as Ksetrayya, the central figure in this volume, seem to have c omposed their songs outside the temples, but they nevertheless usually mention the deity as the male protagonist of the poem. Indeed, the god's titleMuvva Gopala for Ksetrayya, Venugopala for his suc cessor Sarangapaniserves as an identifying "signature," a mudra , for each of these poets. The god assumes here the role of a lover, seen, for the most part, through the eyes of one of his courtesans, mistresses, or wives, whose persona the poet adopts. These are, then, devotional works of an erotic cast, composed by male poets using a feminine voice and performed by women. As such, they articulate the relationship between the devotee and his god in terms of an intensely imagined erotic experience, expressed in bold but also delicately nuanc ed tones. Their devotional character notwithstanding, one can also read them as simple love poems. Indeed, one often feels that, for Ksetrayya at least, the devotional component, with its suggestive ironies, is overshadowed by the emotional and sensual immediacy of the material.
The Three Major Poets of the Padam Tradition

Tallapaka Annamac arya (1424-1503), a Telugu Brahmin, represents to perfection the Telugu temple-poet.[4] Legend, filling out his image, claims he refused to sing before one of the Vijayanagara kings, Saluva Narasimharaya, so exclusively was his devotion focused upon the god. Apparently supported by the temple estab3 lishment at Tirupati, loc ated on the boundary between the Telugu and Tamil regions, Annamayya composed over fourteen thousand padams to the god Venkatesvara. The poems were engraved on copperplates and kept in the temple, where they were rediscovered, hidden in a loc ked room, in the second decade of this century. Colophons on the copperplates divide Annamayya's poems into two major typessrngarasankirtanalu , those of an erotic nature, and adhyatmasankirtanalu , "metaphysical" poems. Annamayya's sons and grandsons continued to compose devotional works at Tirupati, c reating a Tallapaka c orpus of truly enormous scope. His grandson Cinatirumalacarya even wrote a sastra -like normative grammar for padam poems, the Sankirtanalaksanamu . We know next to nothing about the most versatile and central of the Telugu padam poets, Ksetrayya (or Ksetraya). His god is Muvva Gopala, the Cowherd of Muvva (or, alternatively, Gopala of the Jingling Bells), and he mentions a village called Muvvapuri in some of his poems. This has led sc holars to locate his birthplace in the village of Muvva or Movva, near Kucipudi (the center of the Kucipudi danc e tradition), in Krishna distric t. There is a temple in this village to Krishna as the cowherd (gopala ). Still, the association of Ksetrayya with Muvva is far from certain, and even if that village was indeed the poet's first home, he is most clearly associated with places far to the south, in Tamil Nadu of the Nayaka period. A famous padam by this poet tells us he sang two thousand padams for King Tirumala Nayaka of Madurai, a thousand for Vijayaraghava, the last Nayaka king of Tanjavur, and fifteen hundred, composed in forty days, before the Padshah of Golconda.[5] This dates him securely to the mid-seventeenth century. Of these thousands of poems, less than four hundred survive. In addition to 4 Muvva Gopala, the poet sometimes mentions other deities or human patrons (the two categories having merged in Nayaka times).[6] Thus we have poems on the gods Adivaraha, Kaci Varada, Cevvandi Lingadu, Tilla Govindaraja, Kadapa Venkatesa, Hemadrisvami, Yadugiri Celuvarayadu, Vedanarayana, Palagiri Cennudu, Tiruvalluri Viraraghava, Sri Rangesa,
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Madhurapurisa, Satyapuri Vasudeva, and Sri Nagasaila Mallikarjuna, as well as on the kings Vijayaraghava Nayaka and Tupakula Venkatakrsna. The range of deities is sometimes used to explain this poet's nameKsetrayya or, in Sanskritized form, Ksetrajna, "one who knows sacred places"so that he becomes yet another peripatetic bhakti poetsaint, singing his way from temple to temple. But this explanation smacks of popular etymology and certainly distorts the poet's image. Despite the modern stories and improvised legends about him c urrent today in South India, Ksetrayya belongs less to the temple than to the courtesans' quarters of the Nayaka royal towns. We see him as a poet composing for, and with the assumed persona of, the sophisticated and c ultured courtesans who performed before gods and kings.[7] This community of highly literate performers, the natural consumers of Ksetrayya's works, provides an entirely different c ultural context than Annamayya's temple-setting. Ksetrayya thus gives voice, in rather realistic vignettes taken from the ambienc e of the South Indian courtesans he knew, to a major shift in the development of the Telugu padam . If Ksetrayya perhaps marks the padam tradition at its most subtle and refined, Sarangapani, in the early eighteenth c entury, shows us its further evolution in the direction of a yet more concrete, imaginative, and sometimes c oarse erotic ism. He is linked with the little kingdom of Karvetinagaram in the Chittoor district of 5 southern Andhra and with the minor ruler Makaraju Venkata Perumal Raju (d. 1732). Only some two hundred padams by this poet survive in print, nearly all of them addressed to the god Venugopala of Karvetinagaram. A few of the poems attributed to Sarangapani also appear in the Ksetrayya collections, despite the palpable differenc e in tone between the two poets. These names by no means exhaust the list of padam c omposers in Telugu. The Maratha kings of Tanjavur figure as the patron-lovers in a ric h literature of padams composed at their court.[8] Similar works were sung in the palaces of zamindars throughout South India right up to modern times. With the abolition of the devadasi tradition by the British, padams , like other genres proper to this community, made their way to the c oncert stage. They still comprise a major part of the repertoire of classic al vocal music and dance, alongside related forms such as the kirttanam (whic h is never danced).
A Note on the Translation

We have selec ted the poems that follow largely on the basis of our own tastes, from the large collections of padams by Annamayya, Ksetrayya, and Sarangapani. We have also included a translation of Kandukuri Rudrakavi's Janardanastakamu , a poem dating from the early sixteenth century and linked thematically (but not formally) with the emerging padam tradition. An anonymous padam addressed to Konkanesvara closes the translation. To some extent, we were also guided by a list prepared by T. Visvanathan, of Wesleyan University, of padams current in his own family tradition. Some of the poems included here are among the most popu6 lar in current performances in South India; others were chosen because they seemed to us representative of the poets, or simply because of their lyrical and expressive qualities. In general, we have adhered closely to the literal force of the Telugu text and to the order of its sentences. At times, though, because of the colloquial and popular character of some of these texts, we have allowed ourselves to paraphrase slightly, using an English idiom or expression. We have also frequently removed, as tedious in translation, the repeated vocatives that dot the versesas when the c ourtesan speaks to her friend, who is habitually referred to by conventional epithets such as vanajaksiro , "woman with lotus-eyes," or komaliro , "delicate lady." Telugu is graced with a truly remarkable number of nouns meaning "woman," and these are amply represented in our texts. The heroine is sometimes referred to by stylized titles such as kanakangi , "having a golden body," epithets that could also be interpreted as proper names. For the most part, this wealth of feminine reference, so beautifully evoc ative in the original, finds only pale and reductive equivalents in the English.
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The format we have adopted seeks to mirror the essential features of the original, above all the division into stanzas and the role of the pallavi refrain. While we have always translated both pallavi and anupallavi in full, we have usually chosen only some part of these two lines sometimes in connection with a later phrasefor our refrains. We hope this will suggest something of the expressive forc e of the pallavi and, in some c ases at least, its syntactic linkage with the stanzas, while eliminating lengthy repetition. The headings provide simple contexts for the poems. We have attempted to avoid heavy annotation in the translations, preferring to let the 7 poems speak for themselves. Where a note seemed necessary, we have signaled its existenc e by plac ing an asterisk in the text. The source for each poem, as well as its opening phrase in Telugu and the raga in which it is sung, appear beneath the translation.
Editions Used as Base Texts

P. T. Jagannatha Ravu, ed., Srngara sankirtanalu (annamacarya viracitamulu ), vol. 18 of Sritallapakavari geyaracanalu . Tirupati: Tirumala Tirupati Devasthanam Press, 1964. Gauripeddi Ramasubbasarma, ed., Srngara sankirtanalu (annamacarya virac itamulu ), vol. 12 of Tallapaka padasahityamu . Tirupati: Tirumala Tirupati Devasthanam Press, 1976. (Cited as GR.) Vissa Apparavu, ed., Ksetrayya padamulu . 2d ed. Rajahmundry: Saraswati Power Press, 1963. (Unless otherwise noted, all the Ksetrayya texts are taken from this edition.) Mancala Jagannatha Ravu, ed., Ksetrayya padamulu . Hyderabad: Andhra Pradesh Sangita Nataka Akadami, 1978. Gidugu Venkata Sitapati, ed., Ksetraya padamulu . Madras: Kubera Printers Ltd., 1952. (Cited as GVS.) Srinivasacakravarti, ed., Ksetrayya padalu . Vijayavada: Jayanti Pablikesansu, 1966. Veturi Prabhakara Sastri, ed., Catupadyamanimanjari . Hyderabad: Veturi Prabhakara Sastri Memorial Trust, 1988 [1913]. Nedunuri Gangadharam, ed., Sarangapani padamulu . Rajahmundry: Saraswati Power Press, 1963. 9
INTRODUCTION
On Erotic Devotion
From its formative period in the seventh to ninth centuries onward, South Indian devotional poetry was permeated by erotic themes and images. In the Tamil poems of the Saiva Nayanmar and the Vaisnava Alvars, god appears frequently as a lover, in roles inherited from the more anc ient Tamil love poetry of the so-called sangam period (the first centuries A.D. ). Poems of this sort are generally placed, alongside their classical sangam models, in the c ategory of akam , the "inner" poetry of emotion, espec ially the varied emotions of love in its c hanging aspects. Such akam poemsaddressed ultimately to the god, Siva or Visnu, and contextualized by a devotional framework, usually that of worship in the god's templeare early South Indian examples of the literary linkage between mystical devotion and erotic discourse so prevalent in the world's major religions.
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A historical continuum stretches from these Tamil poets of devotion all the way to Ksetrayya and Sarangapani, a millenium later. The padam poets c learly draw on the vast cultural reserves of Tamil bhakti , in its institutional as well as its affec tive and personal forms. Their god, like that of the Tamil poet-devotees, is a deity both embodied in temple images and yet finally transc ending these icons, and they sing to him with all the emotional and sensual 10 intensity that so clearly charac terizes the inner world of medieval South Indian Hinduism.[1] And yet these Telugu devotees also present us with their own irreduc ible vision, or series of visions, of the divine, at play with the world, and perhaps the most conspicuous attribute of this refashioned cosmology is its powerful erotic coloring. As we seek to understand the import of the Telugu padams translated here, we need to ask: What is distinctive about the erotic imagination ac tivated in these works? How do they relate to the earlier tradition of South Indian bhakti , with its conventional erotic c omponents? What changes have taken place in the conceptualization of the deity, his human devotee, and the intimate relationship that binds them? Why this hypertrophy of overt eroticism, and what does it mean to love god in this way? Let us begin with an example from Nammalvar, the c entral poet among the Tamil worshipers of Visnu, who wrote in the southern Tamil area during the eighth century:
The whole town fast asle e p, the whole world pitch da rk , a nd the se a s utte rly still, whe n it's one long e xtended night, if He who sle e ps on the sna ke , who once de voured the e arth, and k ept it in his be lly, will not com e to the re scue, who will sa ve m y life ? (5.2.1) De e p oce an, e a rth a nd sky hidde n a wa y, it's one long m onstrous night: if m y Ka nna n too, dark a s the blue lily, will not com e,
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now who will save m y life , sinne r tha t I a m ? O hea rt, you too a re not on m y side . (5.2.2) O hea rt, you too a re not on m y side . The long night with no e nd has le ngthe ne d into a n e on. My Lord R a m a will not com e , with his protecting bow. I do not k now how it will e nd I with a ll m y pote nt sins, born a s a wom an. (5.2.3) "Those born a s wom en see m uch grief, but I'll not look a t it," sa ys the Sun a nd he hide s him se lf; our Da rk Lord, with re d lips a nd gre a t e ye s, who once m e a sured this e a rth, he too will not com e . W ho will quell the unthink able ills of m y he art? (5.2.4) This love sick ness sta nds be hind m e a nd torm e nts m y he art. This con of a night fa ces m e a nd burie s m y sight. My lord, the whee l fore ve r firm in his hands, will not com e.
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So who will sa ve this long life of m ine tha t finds no e nd a t a ll? (5.2.6)
The speaker is a young woman, obviously separated from her lover, who is identified as Kannan/Krsna, the Dark God, Rama, and othersthat is, the various forms of Visnu as known to the Alvar devotees. The c entral "fact" stated in eac h of the verseswhich are 12 taken from a c losely knit decade on this theme and in this voic eis that the god-lover refuses to come. The woman is alone at night, in an enveloping black, rainy world; everyone else in the village, including her friends and family, has gone to sleep. She, of c ourse, cannot sleep: her heart is tortured by longing, an unfulfilled love that can be redeemed only by the arrival of the recalcitrant lover. She seems quite certain that this will never happen. Her very life is in danger bec ause of this painful inner state, but there is no one to help her. She blames herself, her "sins," her womanhoodand perhaps, by subtle intimation, the god-lover as well, callously sleeping on his serpent-bed (or, in the final verse of the sequenc e, "engaged in yoga though he seems to sleep"). All in all, it is a pic ture of plaintive and frustrated desire. It would be all too easy to allegorize the verses, to see here some version of a soul pining for its possessing deity, translated into the language of akam love poetry. Indeed, the medieval Vaisnava commentators go some way in this direc tion, although their allegoresis is neither as mechanic al nor as unimaginative as is sometimes claimed.[2] But scholars suc h as Friedhelm Hardy and Norman Cutler are surely right to insist on the autonomy of the poetic universe alive in the Alvars' akam poems. To reduce this poetic autonomy to metaphysic al allegory is to destroy the poems' integrity, and with it most of their suggestive power.[3] So we are left with the basic lineaments of the love situation, so delicately drawn in by the poet, and above all with its emotional reality, as the bedrock on which the poem rests. Using the language of classical Tamil poetic s, whic h certainly helped to shape the poem, we can label the situation as proper to the mullai landsc ape of the forests, with its associated state of patient waiting for the absent lover. The god himself, 13 Mayon, the Dark One (Krsna), is the mullai deity, and the ceaseless rain is another conventional marker of this landscape.[4] As always in Tamil poetry, the external world is continuous with, and expressive of, inner experience. Thus, in verse 10:
Eve n a s I m elt continually, the wide sk y m elts into a fine m ist this night, a nd the world just slee ps through it sa ying not a word, not e ve n once , tha t the Lord who pace d the e a rth long a go will not com e.
The heroine is slowly turning to water, "melting," in the language of Tamil devotion, and although there is pain in this statethe pain of unanswered longingit is also no doubt a stage in the progressive softening (urukutal ) of the self that Tamil bhakti regards as the ultimate process whereby one achieves c onnection with the object of one's love. And things are yet more complex. The blackness of night seems to imitate the role of the god; like the latter, the darkness is enveloping, saturating the world. It is also, again like the deity, cruelly indifferent to the heroine's distressanother form of detac hment, like the sleep that has overwhelmed the village (and the god). Internal markers of the mullai landscape thus resonate and alternate with one another, reinforc ing its emotional essence within the speaker's consc iousness. And, again, the basic experience is one of separation (Sanskrit: viraha ), nearly always a constitutive feature of the bhakti relationship between god and human devotee. Other features of this relationship are also evident in the poem. For example, one immediately observes the utter asymmetry
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14 built into the relation: the heroine, who in some sense speaks for the poet, is relatively helpless vis--vis her beloved. She can only wait for him and suffer the torment of his absence. He, in contrast, is free to come or not, to show compassion, if he wishes, and save her lifeor let her die of love. There is no way for her to rec onstitute his presence. The whole universe proclaims to her his remoteness, seemingly both physic al and emotional; she is dwarfed by the inherent lack of equality between them. Interestingly, she blames her situation in part on her womanhood. Being a woman puts her prec isely in this position of helpless dependenc e. She is not even in control of her emotional life: she accuses her heart of having turned against her ("you too are not on my side"), as if a part of herself had split away. This sense of a torn and conflicted personality is typical of the Tamil bhakti presentation of self. Overruling passion for the unpredictable and usually distant deity has disrupted the harmony and coherenc e of the devotee's inner being. Contrast this picturebloc ked desire, unending separation, a world turned dark on many levels, the helplessness of womanhood, a shattered selfwith one we find in Ksetrayya:
W om a n! He 's none other tha n C ennudu of P a la giri. Ha ve n't you hea rd? He rule s the worlds. W hen he wante d you, you took his gold but couldn't you tell him your a ddre ss? Som e love r you a re ! He 's hook ed on you. And he rules the worlds
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I found him wa nde ring the a lle yways, too shy to ask a nyone. I had to bring him hom e with m e . W ould it ha ve be en such a crim e if you or your girls had wa ited for him by the door? You re a lly think it's e nough to get the m oney in your ha nd? Ca n't you tell who's big, who's sm a ll? W ho do you think he is? And he rules the worlds This ha ndsom e Ce nnudu of Pa lagiri, this Muvva Gopa la , has fa lle n to your lot. W hen he sa id he 'd com e tom orrow, couldn't you conse nt just a little ? Did you rea lly ha ve to sa y no? W hat ca n I sa y a bout you? And he rules the worlds
The senior courtesan or madam is chiding her younger colleague. God himself has come as a customer to this young woman, but she has treated him rather haughtilytaking his money but refusing even to give him her address. The madam finds him wandering the narrow streets of the c ourtesan colony, too embarrassed to ask for directions. Although his real nature and power are clear enough as the refrain tells us (and the young c ourtesan), this c ustomer rules the worldsit is the woman who has the upper hand in this transac tion, while the deity behaves as an awkward and essentially helppublishing.cdlib.org/ucpressebooks/vie 7/63
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16 less plaything in her control. He wants her, lusts for her, and yet she easily eludes him. Their relationship, such as it is, is transactional and mercenary, and the advantage wholly hers. if Nammalvar showed us an asymmetrical bond between the god and his lover (who speaks for the poet-devotee), here the asymmetry, still very much in evidence, is boldly reversed. Moreover, the emotional tone of the Telugu padam is radic ally different from that of the Tamil dec ade. The atmosphere of tormenting separation, viraha , has dissolved, to be replaced by a playful though still far from harmonious tone. God and woman are involved here in a kind of teasing hide-and-seek, with money as part of the stakes, and the woman is an active, independent partner to the game. It is not always the woman's voice we hear in Ksetrayya; on rare oc casions, the male deity-lover is the speaker. But the image of the womanthe human partner to the transaction is on the whole quite consistent. Usually, though again not always, she is a c ourtesan, practiced in the arts of love, which she freely describes in graphic, if formulaic, terms. She tends to be worldly, educated, articulate, perhaps a little given to sarcasm. In most padams she has something to c omplain about, usually her divine lover's new infatuation with some rival woman. So she may be angry at him although she is also, at times, all too easily appeased, susceptible to his fac ile oaths of devotion. Indeed, this type of angera lover's pique, never entirely or irrevocably seriousis the real equivalent in these poems to the earlier ideology of viraha . The relationship thus retains elements of friction and tension, though they are less intense than in the Tamil bhakti c orpus. Loving god, like loving another human being, is never a simple matter. One might even argue that the god's persistent betrayals, his constant affairs with 17 other women, are felt to be an integral and necessary part of the love bond (just as quarrels are seen as adding spice and verve to love in both Sanskrit erotic poetry and classical Tamil poems). Indeed, these tiffs and sulkings, so perfectly conventionalized, come close to defining the padam genre from the point of view of its contents, which sometimes function in a seemingly incongruous c ontext. Thus, in a dance-drama composed during the rule of Vijayaraghava Nayaka at Tanjavur and describing his marriage to a courtesan, the bride sings a padam immediately after the wedding ceremony, in whic h she naturally c omplains that her husband is (already?) betraying her: "You are telling lies. Why are you trying to hide the red marks she left on your lips?"[5] We should also note that, despite the angry rec riminations, the quarrels, and even the heroine's occasional resolve never to see her capricious lover again, many of the padams end in an intimation of sexual union and orgasm. A cycle is c ompleted: initial love, sexually realized, leads to the lover's loss of interest or temporary disappearance and to his affairs with other women. But none of this prevents him from returning to make love to the speaker, however disenchanted she may be, as Ksetrayya tells us:
I ca n se e a ll the signs of wha t you've be e n doing till m idnight, you pla yboy. Still you com e rushing through the stre e ts, sly a s a thief, to untie m y blouse .
18 In general, physical union represents a potential resolution of the tensions expressed in many of the poems. In this respect, too, the padam contrasts strongly with the Tamil bhakti models. It should now be clear why the courtesan appears as the major figure in this poetry of love. As an expressive vehicle for the manifold relations between devotee and deity, the courtesan offers rich possibilities. She is bold, unattached, free from the c onstraints of home and family. In some sense, she represents the possibility of c hoice and spontaneous affection, in
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opposition to the largely predetermined, and rather calc ulated, marital tie. She can also manipulate her c ustomers to no small extent, as the devotee wishes and believes he c an manipulate his god. But above all, the c ourtesan signals a particular kind of knowledge, one that achieved preeminenc e in the late medieval c ultural order in South India. Bodily experienc e bec omes a c rucial mode of knowing, especially in this devotional context: the c ourtesan experienc es her divine client by taking him physic ally into her body. Even Annamayya, who is primarily c oncerned not with courtesans but with a still idealized series of (nonmercenary) love situations, shows us this fascination with bodily knowledge of the god:
Don't you k now m y house , garla nd in the pa lace of the Love God, whe re flowe rs ca st the ir fra grance everywhe re ? Don't you k now the house hidde n by tam a rind tre e s, in tha t na rrow space m arke d by the two golde n hills? Tha t's where you lose your sense s, whe re the Love God hunts without fe a r.
19 The woman's "house of love" (madanagrha ) is the true point of connection between her and the deity-lover. This notion, which is basic to the entire padam tradition, takes us considerably beyond the sensual and emotional openness of earlier South Indian bhakti . The Tamil devotee worships his deity in a sensually accessible form and through the ac tive exploration of his emotions; he sees, hears, tastes, smells, and, perhaps above all, touches the god. But for the Telugu padam poets, the relation has become fully eroticized, in a manner quite devoid of any facile dualistic division between body and metaphysical or psyc hological substratum. Put starkly, for these devotees love of god is not like a sexual experienc eas if eros were but a metaphor for devotion (as so many modern South Indian apologists for Ksetrayya insist). Rather, it is erotic in its own right, and in as comprehensive and c onsuming a form as one enc ounters in any human love. Still, this conceptualization of the relationship does have a literary history, and here we c an speak of a series of transformations that take us from sangam poetry through the Alvars and Nayanmar to the padam poets. As already stated, the ancient tradition of Tamil love poetry, with its rich body of c onventions, its dramatis personae, and its set themes, was absorbed into the literature of Tamil bhakti . In effect, bhakti comes to "frame" poems composed after the prototypes of akam love poems. The verses from Nammalvar cited above, in whic h the lovesick heroine laments the absence of her lover who is the god, are good examples of this proc ess:
If m y Ka nna n too, dark a s the blue lily, will not com e,
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now who will save m y life , sinne r tha t I a m ?
What might look like a simple love poem has bec ome something elsea lyric of devotion, which uses the signs and language of akam poetics but whic h subordinates this usage to its new aim by internal referenc e to the divine object of worship, replete with mythic and ic onic identifying traits.[6] By the time we reach the Telugu padams , the process has been taken a step further. The "reframed," bhakti -oriented love lyric has now ac quired yet another frame, which reeroticizes the poem, turning it into a courtesan's love song that is, nonetheless, still impregnated with devotional elements, by virtue of the prehistory of the genre. This development, however, takes somewhat different forms with each of the major padam poets and thus needs to be examined more closely, in context, according to the sequence in which it
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evolved. Indeed, if we foc us more on context than content, our perspective on these poems changes significantly. Although all of them, even those seemingly closest to out-and-out love poems, retain a metaphysical aspec t, the exigencies and implications of their soc ial and cultural milieux now come to the fore. In what follows, we briefly trac e the evolution of the padam in context from Annamayya to Ksetrayya.
On Contexts
Tallapaka Annamayya composed a song a day for his deity, Lord Venkatesvara of the temple on Tirupati Hill, where the Tamil and Telugu lands meet. Ac cording to Annamayya's hagiographer his own grandson, TiruvengalanathaAnnamayya's son Peda Tiru 21 malayya had these songs inscribed on copperplates together with his own compositions. Considering the total number of songsTiruvengalanatha speaks of some thirty-two thousand[7] -this was a very expensive enterprise indeed, which reflec ts the status of the poet's family as servants of this most wealthy of the South Indian temple gods. The copperplates were housed in a separate treasure room within the Venkatesvara temple at Tirupati; inscriptions suggest that the treasure room was itself an object of worship. Annamayya's songs were probably sung by courtesans who led the processions and danc ed before the deity in the temple. The c opperplates divide Annamayya's songs into two c ategories: the metaphysical and the erotic. It is conceivable that Annamayya's c areer had two corresponding phases, but it is more likely that this classification resulted from a later ac t of ordering the c orpus. In any case, the two categories are reminiscent of Nammalvar's poems. Indeed, Annamayya is believed to have been born under the same astrological star as Nammalvar and is sometimes regarded as a reincarnation of the Tamil poet. Our first concern, then, is with the manner in which Annamayya uses the language and imagery of eroticism to express his type of devotion. The c ourtly tradition in both Sanskrit and Telugu subsumed sexual themes under the category of srngararasa , the aesthetic experience of desire. Many long erotic poems were composed on mythological subjects, with gods as the protagonists, as well as on more sec ular themes, with human beings as the heroes. Still, it was considered unsuitable to depict the lovemaking of a god and a goddess, even for devotional purposes; suc h depictions were thought to block the highest aesthetic experience. (Hence the controversy in Sanskrit aesthetic texts over whether bhakti is an aesthetic experi 22 enc e, a rasa , or not.) Some even insist that suc h descriptions constitute a blemish because the god and the goddess are father and mother of the universe; explicit reference to their lovemaking is thus offensive. But for Annamayya no such barriers exist. He describes how Padmavati Lord Venkatesvara's consort, sleeps after making love to her husband:
Mothe r, who spea k s so swe e tly, has gone to slee p: she has m a de love to he r husba nd with a ll he r fe m inine skills a nd is now sle e ping long into the day, her ha ir sca tte red on her fa ce .[8]
Annamayya has songs desc ribing the lovemaking of the goddess, Alamelumanga/Padmavati, in all conc eivable roles and situations. Nor is Annamayya c ontent with love between god and his consort. He goes on to describe the lovemaking of other women with Venkatesvara, these women representing every erotic type described in the manuals of love (kamasastra ).
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For Annamayya, love/devotion is an exploration of the ideal experience of the divine. Most often, he assumes the persona of the woman who is in love with the godeither the consort herself or another woman. Unlike later padam writers, Annamayya does not describe a courtesan/c ustomer relationship between the devotee and the god. No money changes hands, and the woman does not manipulate the c ustomer to get the best deal. In Annamayya it is always an ideal love relationship, whic h ultimately achieves harmony. God here is always male, and he is usually in control. He 23 has the upper hand, even when he adopts a subservient posture to please his woman. The woman might complain, get angry, and fight with him, but in the end they make love and the god wins. When we c ome to Ksetrayya, however, the situation is transformed. For one thing, Ksetrayya composed during the period of Vijayaraghava Nayaka (1633-1673), the Telugu king who ruled Tanjavur and the Kaveri delta. This period witnessed a signific ant shift, leading to the identification of the king with the deity.[9] Earlier, the god was treated as a king; now the king has become god. For the bhakti poets of Andhra, however, especially of Annamayya's period, the king was only too human, at most sharing an aspect of divinity, in the strict Brahminical dharmasastra tradition. These poets did not recognize him as their true sovereign since for them the real king was the god in the temple. But during the Nayaka period in South India (roughly the mid-sixteenth to mid-eighteenth centuries), the distinction between the king in his palace and the god in the temple blurs and even disappears. Ksetrayya c ould thus address his songs to the king and at the same time invoke the god. Furthermore, this was also the time when cash began to play a more powerful role in interpersonal transac tions. A new elite was emerging, one composed not of landed peasants, as in Vijayanagara times, but of soldier-traders, who c ut across traditional social boundaries. These people c ombined two qualities usually considered incompatible in the Brahminical worldviewmartial valor and concern for profit, the quality of a ksatriya (warrior) and the quality of a vaisya (trader). Earlier, when god was king or when the king shared only an aspect of the divine, kingship was asc riptive. To be recognized as a king, one had either to be born in a particular 24 caste as a legitimate heir or to fabricate some such pedigree. Now, in the more fluid social universe of Nayaka times, ascriptive qualities like birth became less important than acquired qualities like wealth. If a king is god, and if anyone who has money is a king, anyone who has money is also god. For Ksetrayya, therefore, who sings of kings as gods, the shift to c ustomer as god was not far-fetc hed. Courtesans, who earlier were associated with temples, were now linked to kingsany "king," that is, who had money. The devotional mode, however, did not change. The new god, who was not much more than a wealthy customer, was addressed as Muvva Gopala, as Krsna is known in the local temple. The shift did not happen overnight. Even in Ksetrayya we still encounter songs in which the divine aspec ts are more dominant than those of the human customer. But there are songs unmistakably addressed to the latter. Although the devotional meanings still linger, one sometimes suspects that they are simply part of the idiom, often not much more than a habit. The direction is clear and pronounc ed when we reach Sarangapani, where money is almost the only thing of value. Here any customer is the god, known as Venugopala (again after the local name of Krsna). We have a slightly earlier precedent for this shift in Rudrakavi's Janardanastakamu , a composition of eight stanzas that are also sung, though not to elaborate music like the padams (nor are they danc ed to). The theme of this sixteenth-c entury poem is familiar: the poet assumes the persona of a woman who is in love with the god Janardana (Krsna); she c omplains that her divine lover is seeing another woman. These songs are very much like Annamayya's, except for one major difference. Here the woman threatens the god, although in the end she is still taken by her cunning lover.
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25 Rudrakavi antic ipates Ksetrayya's attitudes; he represents a transition. Annamayya's songs (and probably also Rudrakavi's) were sung in the temple. There is, however, no evidence that Ksetrayya's songs were sung in temple rituals. Ksetrayya's songs survived among c ourtesans and in the repertoire of the male Brahmin danc ers of the Kuc ipudi tradition who played female roles. That Ksetrayya traveled to many places to visit courts and temples is clear from the many specific vocatives in his songs (including one even to the Muslim Padshah of Golconda). As we have already mentioned, temples and palaces were associated with courtesan c olonies, and it is quite likely that Ksetrayya was composing songs for these courtesans to singto a deity, king, or customer, the three categories having been, in any case, conflated into one. We should also note that in these songs the courtesan and the god-customer acquire individual identities. Telugu scholarly tradition later attempted to reduce them to charac ter types, based on conventional Sanskrit texts on erotics and poetic s, but such c lassifications miss the special quality of Ksetrayya's poems and personae. For instance, women's roles in drama, danc e, and poetry were classified into fixed types ac cording to the woman's age, body type, and sexual availability. For example, a heroine is sviya , "one's own wife," anya , "another man's wife," or samanya , "common property," like a courtesan. Depending on her experience, she is mugdha , "an innoc ent," praudha , "the bold one," or madhya , "the in-between." Heroines are also classified into eight types ac cording to their attitudes toward their lovers. Permutations and combinations of these and other categories yield a staggering number of different types of heroines. An anonymous late-eighteenth 26 century Telugu work, the Srnigararasamanjari , attempts to apply suc h a sc heme to Ksetrayya's songs and even expands the classific ations further. Ksetrayya's depic tions are, however, much too individuated to fit any such prefabricated typology. The attempt to justify these songs by invoking ac ademic (sastric ) c ategories is a characteristic response to perc eived needs. First, there was a wish to make Ksetrayya's work acc eptable to sc holarsto legitimize his status as a poet in a way that would allow his courtesan songs to be read as poems of srngararasa , the refined "taste" or "essence" of sexual love, thus giving them a plac e with the works of the great poets of Sanskrit and courtly Telugu. Second, there was a concomitant desire to dilute the realistic sexuality of the courtesans and to read into these texts elevated meanings of spiritual love. These are two sides of a single proc ess, whic h requires some further explication if we are to understand the evolution of current attitudes toward Ksetrayya and his "biography." Around the turn of the century, with the advent of Vic torian moralistic attitudes in public life, sexuality and erotic ism in Hindu culture and literature came to be seen as a problem. In the late nineteenth and early twentieth c enturies soc ial reformers in Andhra opposed the institution of courtesans per se. Kandukuri Viresalingam (1848-1919) started the antinautch movement, which advocated that respectable men should not visit courtesans. Until this time it had been considered prestigious for a man from an upper-caste family to maintain a courtesan. Important men in society prided themselves on their association with courtesan dance groups, whic h were named after them. People in high positions, suc h as distric t magistrates and polic e commissioners, sponsored courtesan singing groups (melams ); anyone who had business with 27 the officer was expec ted to attend such performances and give a suitable gift (osagulu ) to the c ourtesans, a percentage of whic h went to the sponsoring offic er. As can be imagined, this practice led to c orruption in high plac es. The antinautch movement addressed itself to these social ills with puritanical zeal. But the movement had a negative effect on dance and music. The courtesan had traditionally been the center of song and danc e in South India. Housewives were normally prohibited from appearing in public, and certainly from singing or dancing before men. By contrast, the c ourtesan enjoyed a freedom usually reserved for the men; not only did she not suffer from many of the restrictions imposed on women but she was given the same
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honor shown to poets in a royal court. Names of great c ourtesans such as Macaladevi are known in literature dating from the Kakatiya period.[10] Some, suc h as the learned Rangajamma, were prominent poets in the Nayaka c ourts. But all this was possible only to a woman born in a courtesan caste. By the nineteenth century women born in other castes, for whom marriage was prescribed, were not free to cultivate any of the skills courtesans prac tic ed. Any effort on the part of the family woman even to try to look beautiful or display womanly skills was severely censured. Thus, looking into a mirror at night or wearing too many flowers on certain occasions would bring down the wrath of the elders and acc usations that the woman was behaving no better than a c ourtesan. No insult c ould be worse: in family households a c ourtesan was regarded as the most despicable thing a woman c ould become. By this time, then, the world of women was clearly divided into two opposed parts, that of the courtesan and that of the family woman, and neither of the two wished to be mistaken for the other. Chastity, modesty, innocence, dependency, 28 the responsibility to bear male children to continue the line, and the bringing of prosperity to the family by proper ritual behavior these were the roles and values assigned to the housewife. These very qualities would be considered defects in a courtesan, whose virtues were beauty, boldness in sex and its cultivation, and a talent for dancing and singing in public. A c ourtesan could be independent, own property, earn and handle her own money; cunning and coquetry were part of her repertoire. She had no responsibility to bear c hildren, but if she did have a child, a female was preferred to a male. Indeed, a male child in a courtesan's household was both a practic al problem and an embarrassment. Given that these two worlds were so c learly divided, a movement to abolish all c ourtesans endangered a valuable part of the cultureall that related to song and dance. Granted, in the twentieth century attempts were made to interest young women from respec table families in dance and music so that they could perform in public. Prestigious institutions like Kalakshetra in Madras presented the courtesan danc es in a cleaned-up form, renamed the genre Bharata Natyam, and provided it with an antiquity and respectability aimed at making it ac ceptable to educated, upper-middle-c lass family women. Still, it was not easy to get these women to sing Ksetrayya's songs, with all their uninhibited erotic ism. Doubts and hesitations persisted. Thus, E. Krishna Iyer writes in his English introduction to G. V. Sitapati's 1952 edition of Ksetrayya's padams : "Is it proper or safe to encourage present day family girls to go in for Ksetraya padas and are they likely to handle them with understanding of their true devotional spirit? At any rate can a pada like 'Oka Sarike ' ["if you are so tired after making love just once"] be ever touched by our girls?"[11] Apologetics mix with a 29 palpable fear of the explic it eroticism of these poems, Krishna Iyer arguing that the people of Ksetrayya's time had a strength of mind we no longer possess. The trend was now to reinterpret sexual references and representations in Hindu religious texts, ritual, art, and literature by assigning exalted spiritual meanings to them. Even so, many valuable religious and literary texts were prosc ribed as obscene, while others were published with dots replacing objectionable verses, sometimes spanning whole pages.[12] In an effort to protect traditional texts from disappearing altogether, c ertain scholars and patrons of art produced limited unexpurgated editions exclusively for scholarly distribution. For works like Ksetrayya's there was yet no reliable printed edition; the songs were preserved in palm-leaf or paper manuscripts. Scholars like Vissa Apparavu and patrons like the Maharaja of Pithapuram (who had long family associations with courtesans) attempted to collect and publish these texts, the Maharaja, for example, sponsoring G.V. Sitapati's volume of Ksetrayya's songs. The effort was laudable and did save the literature from utter extinction. But in order to save the songs the new patrons and scholars "spiritualized" them, arguing that these were by no means erotic courtesan songs. The apparent erotic ism was only an allegory for the union of jiva and isvara , the yearning human soul and god. Acc ording to hagiographic legends recorded at this stage, Ksetrayya was above all a devotee. Subbarama Diksitulu, author of the Sangitasampradayapradarsini (1904), tells a story
02/11/2010 When Sangitasampradayapradarsini (1904), tells a story devotee. Subbarama Diksitulu, author of theGod Is a Customer
about "Ksetrajna," as he c alls him in a c onspicuously Sanskritized form. This Ksetrajna, while still a c hild, was taught a gopalamantra by a great yogi. The boy spent many days uttering the mantra in the 30 temple, and eventually the god Gopa1adeity Gopaladeity and patron of the erotic appeared before him and blessed him. Ksetrajna immediately broke into song. He traveled to the courts of Tanjavur, Madurai, and Golc onda, composed songs in praise of the kings there, and was honored in turn by those kings.[13] In another story, reported by the scholar Rallapalli Anantakrsna Sarma, Ksetrayya, a singer and poet who had earned the patronage of kings for his songs about them, returned one day to his native village, Muvva, where he fell in love with a courtesan at the local temple of Muvva Gopala. The courtesan objected that he sang only about kings, never about the god of Muvva, with whom she was in love. So, in order to please her, Ksetrayya sat in meditation for a long time until the god appeared to him and blessed him. From then on, in an ecstasy of divine love, Ksetrayya went from temple to temple, singing to Muvva Gopala. That was why he was called Ksetrayya, one who knows the ksetras or holy places. Vissa Apparavu reports that a similar story is told by the villagers of Movva, supposedly Ksetrayya's place of birth. Acc ording to this story, Ksetrayya's real name was Varadayya. He was an illiterate cowherd who often whiled away his time sitting in the local Gopala temple. Once he fell in love with a shepherdess (or, in another version, a courtesan) who rejec ted him bec ause he was an unlettered lout. Varadayya then sat, adamant, inside the temple until the god appeared before him and gave him the gift of song and poetry. Varadayya became a devotee of the god, and his love for the woman was transformed into a spiritual quest in which she, too, took part. The two of them are said to have roamed the countryside, singing together.[14] This type of story is obviously intended to "reframe," and there 31 by deeroticize, Ksetrayya's poetry. Modern Telugu films about Ksetrayya have also followed this line. Another, perhaps older, type of legend, however, c elebrates Ksetrayya's role as a court poet. Vijayaraghava Nayaka, the king of Tanjavur, is said to have honored Ksetrayya and given him a high position at c ourt. At this, the other poets grew jealous and c omplained that it was inappropriate for the king, who was a great scholar himself, to elevate Ksetrayya to this level. When Ksetrayya learned of this opposition, he left the last two lines of a song (the padam known as vadaraka po pore ) unfinished, telling the king that he should have it completed by his other poets while Ksetrayya was away for three months on a pilgrimage.[15] The poets struggled for three months but were unable to complete the poem. When Ksetrayya returned, the humiliated poets fell at his feet and begged forgiveness for talking ill of him. Ksetrayya then finished the song. This kind of legend, typically told about court poets suc h as Kalidasa, tries to assimilate Ksetrayya to the category of court poet, whereas the legends retold by Vissa Apparavu and Rallapalli Anantakrsna Sarma attempt to make him into a temple poet.[16] In both cases, though, we observe a similar drive to obsc ure or explain away the underlying eroticism of the padam corpus.
On Reading a Padam
Employing but a small number of themes and voices (the c ourtesan, the god/customer, a senior courtesan who may even be the madam of the house, and sometimes a married woman who has taken a lover), Ksetrayya creates a lively variety of poems with unusual details. In one, a married woman who finds herself pregnant berates 32 her lover, demanding that he "go find a root or something" to terminate the pregnancy. In another, a senior courtesan, talking to a younger one who is discontented with her lover, says,
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somewhat testily, "When your Muvva Gopala joins you in bed, if you, my lovely, get tic klish, why complain to me?" We have chosen here only one of the poems for detailed commentand bear in mind that, in other poems, similar devic es may c arry very different nuances. Even though these poems belong to the tradition of "light" music (as opposed to the classical tradition, though they do find their way into classical repertoires) and some even sound like American pop songs of the "he-done-me-wrong" variety, every one of the poems in this volume would repay the kind of attention we suggest in what follows, however lighthearted, simple, or even pornographic they may appear at first sight. And indeed they are pornographic in the etymological sense of the term: they are songs for and about courtesans (Greek porne , "prostitute"). Here is poem 175 from the Ksetrayya collection:[17]
A Woman to Her Lover How soon it's m orning alre a dy! The re 's som e thing ne w in m y he a rt, Muvva Gopa la . Ha ve we ta lk e d e ve n a little while to undo the pain of our sepa ra tion till now? You ca ll m e in your pa ssion, "W om a n, com e to m e ," a nd while your m outh is still on m ine , it's morning already ! Ca ught in the grip of the Love God, angry with him , we find re le a se drink ing at ea ch othe r's lips.
33
You say, "My girl, your body is te nde r a s a le af," a nd be fore you ca n loose n your tight e m bra ce, it's morning already ! Liste ning to m y m oans a s you touch ce rta in spots, the pe t pa rrot m im ics m e , a nd O how we laugh in be d! You say, "C om e close , m y girl," a nd m a k e love to m e lik e a wild m a n, Muvva Gopa la , a nd a s I ge t re ady to m ove on top, it's morning already. !
As mentioned earlier, every padam begins with an opening stanza, which provides the refrain. This is divided in the original into two parts called pallavi and anupallavi , refrain and subrefrain. The refrain is repeated at the end of each caranam or stanza, as the translation suggests, although we have chosen to abridge the refrain to a phrase. Characteristic of the refrain is the way it brings closure to each stanza yet returns the listener to the opening lines. The refrain c ompletes the sentence, the syntax of the stanza; it also satisfies the expectation of the listener each time it occurs. Thus, with each succeeding stanza there is a progression and at the end of each a regression, a return that nonetheless gives the repeated phrase a new c ontext, a new meaning. In this poem, the stanzas together also move toward a completion of the sexual act, with the lovers asking for more. When the poem is sung or danced to, the pallavi line is played with, reached differently each time and variously enac ted, suggesting different moods in song and different stances and narrative scenes in a danc e performance. In this sense, only the 34
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words of the refrain are the same with eac h repetition: the more it remains the same, the more it c hanges. Yet each time the refrain occ urs, it laments the lack of c ompletion. "It's morning already! " bemoans the frustration of unsated desire. In the original Telugu, all the verbs of the stanza are non-finite, whereas the verb in the refrain is finite and thus c ompletes the sentence. In terms of meaning, however, the refrain insists on the lac k of any satisfying c limax and closure. This self-contradictory structurethe form at odds with the meaningseems to suggest the insatiability of sexual satisfaction. Desire always wants more; the appetite grows on what it feeds on. This piec elike all Ksetrayya's poems, even the ones that depict lovers' quarrels and infidelitiesends in union: "and [you] make love to me like a wild man, Muvva Gopala." Still, the next line, which begins a new sexual move, ends in dissatisfaction, as the speaker blames that intrusive, ever-recurring morning. These featuresthe context of dance and song, and the poem's very form, which rec apitulates desire from arousal to climax and maybe a return to another beginninggive such songs a light-winged quality of celebration and a very physic al playfulness. Likewise, the dic tion of the padam tends to the colloquial and the familiar. For example, the language of the poems consists mostly of pure Dravidian words, with very few Sanskritized forms, and the poet often uses the intimate voc ative ra , whichso a popular oral verse tells us is appropriate to the speech of young people, to the battlefield, to poetry, and to situations of lovemaking.[18] In general, the sounds reinforce the meanings, often subliminally. For instanc e, in the second stanza the lines have four second-syllable rhymes: iddara, koddiga , niddara , and muddu . The soft dental double consonants 35 (-dd -) tend to remind a Telugu speaker of touching, pressing, tightening, embracing, and other such kinesthetic sensations. This particular series also constitutes an internal progression that culminates in muddu , a c ommon word for "tender" or "sweet." The poem is thus building toward this moment of tenderness, before the refrain cuts it off with the dawn. Similarly, the last stanza has second-syllable rhymes on liquidskalala , ciluka, kaliki, kalasi which suggest gliding and quick movements. Language-bound as they are, such phonesthemes are impossible to render in another tongue; they are, like so much else in poetry, a translator's despair.
Conclusion
If we compare the padam just analyzed to the Nammalvar poem with whic h this introduc tion began, we c an sense the distinct evolution of the padam tradition away from its roots in Tamil devotionalism. Here there is no sense that the speaker is in the wrong; she is not waiting eternally for her lover's arrival; there is no landscape of sky and cloud and dark night waiting with her, symbolic of the god's engulfing nature. Nor is the god himself invoked with all his insignia (wheel, mace, lotus feet), nor are we reminded of his many cosmic avatars and acts, against which the speaker's little drama of unrequited love is played out. Viraha , separationa dominant mood in Nammalvar and other bhakti poetsis here located in the past and thus relegated to the early part of the poem ("Have we talked even a little while to undo the pain of our separation till now?"). If the tradition of love poetry and all its signifiers are enlisted to speak of the human yearning for the divine, here the signifiers of bhakti poetry are only fleetingly alluded to, often by no more than the local name of the god, Muvva Gopala. 36 To repeat: the original context of the Ksetrayya padams was the courtesan's bedroom, where she entertained a customer identified as a god. No amount of apologetic spiritualizing, no hypertrophied classification in terms of the Sanskrit courtly types, should be allowed to distort the sensibility that gave rise to these poemseven, or espec ially, if this sensibility has largely died away in contemporary South India. At the same time, we should not make the mistake of underestimating the vitality of the devotional impulse at work in the padams . These are still poems embodying an experienc e of the divine. The bhakti idiom is never truly lost through the long process of reframing. One indic ation of its survival is the existenc e in the padams of
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strong intertextual resonances, as themes and phrases proper to South Indian devotionalism and familiar from its basic texts are assimilated to the padam's erotic context. Thus Ksetrayya's heroine c omplains that she has wasted much of her life in ways remote from her real goal, sexual union with her lover:
W hen will I ge t m a rrie d to the fa m ous Ma nnaru R anga? A daughter's life in a lord's fa m ily, I wouldn't wish it on m y e ne m ies. Som e da ys pa ss a s your pa rents do your think ing for you. Som e da ys pa ss brooding a nd wa iting for the m om e nt. Som e da ys pa ss ponde ring caste rule s. Me anwhile the bloom of youth is gone lik e the fra gra nce of a flowe r, like a trick of fate . I wouldn't wish it on my enemies
The literature of bhakti is full of such laments. In Tamil we have Cuntaramurttinayanar (9th century), who often reproac hes himself in similar terms: 37
So m uch tim e ha s bee n lost! . . . I have wa ste d so m uch tim e be ing stubborn. I don't think of you, don't k e ep you in m y m ind. [19]
Or, in a manner verbally very close to Ksetrayya's formula:

Those da ys tha t I le a ve you a re the da ys consciousne ss fails, whe n life le aves the body a nd one is ca rrie d a wa y on a high fune ra l bier. [20]
The prec ise formula"some days (konnallu ) pass"occurs elsewhere in Telugu, for example in the Venugopalasatakamu , sometimes attributed to Sarangapani (though it was more probably written by a later poet at the Karvetinagaram court, Polipeddi Venkatarayakavi):
Som e da ys pa sse d not k nowing the difference be twe en grief and ha ppine ss. Som e da ys pa sse d in youthful longing for othe r m en's wives, without knowing it wa s a sin. Som e da ys pa sse d be gging kings to fill m y stom a ch, as I suffered in pove rty. Tim e ha s passed lik e this e ver since I wa s born, swim m ing in the te rrible ocea n of life in this world. O Venugopa la , show m e com passion in whatever wa y you lik e, just don't tak e a ccount of m y pa st. [21]
Echoes such as these help establish the padam's peculiar cultural resonanc e as a devotional genre building upon, but also transforming, powerful literary precedents. Let us try to sum up and reformulate the distinc tive features of 38 this form. Like muc h of the earlier bhakti poetry, the padam generally prefers the female voice. Some padams present us with the persona of a married woman addressing her lover, in a mode of erotic violation. Here, marriage and the husband function as the necessary backdrop to the excitement of real passion, as in many of the poems of Krsna-bhakti from Bengal, although in the padams the woman largely retains the initiative.[22] But, from Ksetrayya on, the female voice is most often that of the courtesan, a symbol of open, intensely sensual, but also
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mercenary and potentially manipulative sexuality. We thus achieve an image of autonomous, even brazen, womanhood, a far c ry from the rather helpless female victim of the absent god in Tamil bhakti . In other respects, too, the differences are impressive. The torments of viraha have given way to less severe tensions relating to the lover's playboy nature, his betrayal of one c ourtesan with another, his irrepressible mischief and erotic games. Desire is far less likely to be bloc ked forever, and many of the poems culminate in orgasm, often openly mentioned. This, then, is more a poetry of union than of separation. In contrast to the torn female personality of Tamil bhakti , the courtesan in these poems is remarkably self-possessed. Indeed, the balanc e of power has dramatically shifted, so that it is the god who frequently loses himself in this woman, while she is capable of toying with her lover, feigning anger, or mercilessly teasing him. She may also, of c ourse, be truly abandoned, left languishing in ways reminiscent of earlier models, but more often she embodies a mode of experiencing the divine that is characterized by emotional freedom, concrete physical satisfac tion, and active c ontrol. It is the courtesan, after all, who has only to name her price. Undoubtedly the most tren 39 chant expression of this perspective is the anonymous padam addressed to Lord Konkanesvara:
I'm not lik e the othe rs. You m a y e nte r m y house , but only if you ha ve the m one y. If you don't have a s m uch a s I a sk , a little le ss would do. But I'll not a cce pt ve ry little , Lord Konk a ne sva ra . To ste p across the thre shold of m y m a in door, it'll cost you a hundre d in gold. For two hundre d you ca n se e m y be droom , m y be d of silk , a nd clim b into it. Only if you have the money To sit by m y side a nd to put your hand boldly inside m y sa ri: tha t will cost ten thousand. And seve nty thousa nd will ge t you a touch of m y full round bre a sts. Only if you have the money Three crore s to bring your m outh close to m ine , touch m y lips and k iss. To hug m e tight,
40
to touch m y place of love , a nd ge t to tota l union, listen we ll, you m ust bathe m e in a shower of gold. But only if you have the money
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What could be clearer than this escalating scale of prices? The god can decide for himself what he wantsor rather, can afford. One is reminded, somewhat ironic ally, of the list of rituals, each with its set pric e, performed for pilgrims at South Indian temples. There, however, it is the devotee who pays the fee, while the god, addressed in the act of worship, is the ultimate beneficiary of the gift. An even more powerful inversionand an indication of just how far the padam tradition has traveled away from earlier bhakti modelsis expressed in an image painted by the Virasaiva poet Basavanna (12th c entury), with reference to rituals of a different sort:
I drink the wa te r we wa sh your fe e t with, I e at the food of worship, a nd I sa y it's yours, e ve rything, goods, life, honour: he 's re a lly the whore who ta k e s e ve ry last bit of he r night's wa ge s, and will ta ke no words for paym e nt, he , m y lord of the m e e ting rive rs![23]
41
THE SONGS
43
Annamayya
45
A Woman to Her Lover

Don't you know my house, garland in the palac e of the Love God, where flowers cast their fragranc e everywhere? Don't you know the house hidden by tamarind trees, in that narrow space marked by the two golden hills? That's where you lose your senses, where the Love God hunts without fear. Don't you know my house ? Don't you know the house, the Love God's marketplace of passions, the dusk where the dark clears and yet is not clear? Don't you know the house where you live in your own heart? That's where all affec tions hold c ourt. Don't you know my house ? Don't you know the house where the garden of daturas make you go mad with love? You should know: you're the lord of Venkata hill.
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46 Its gates are signed by the Love God, and you should know that's where you heap all your wealth. Don't you know my house ?
Annamayya 262, GR "maruninagari danda" raga sri
47
The Other Woman to Venkatesa

Why blame me that I'm jealous? When she's with you, shouldn't I be embarrassed? When you and she talk in private, shouldn't I stay outside the gate? When you signal each other with your hands, shouldn't I hide and look away? When she's with you When you and she look at each other's fac es with me around, shouldn't I hide my face in my hands? When you two are covered in a shawl, isn't it right for me to go play dice? When she's with you When your Alamelu* is here in town for you, what's left for me to do but bow my head to the two of you? 48 O Venkatesa, the two of you have ruled me. Isn't it a pleasure to serve you both? When she's with you
Annamayya, copperplate 485:448 "enta kuccituralanta" raga: mukhari
49
Her Friends Tease the Woman in Love

These marks of black musk on her lips red as buds, what are they but letters of love sent by our lady to her lord? Her eyes the eyes of a cakora bird,
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why are they red in the corners? Think it over, my friends: what is it but the blood still staining the long glanc es that pierced her beloved after she drew them from his body bac k to her eyes? What are they but letters of love ? How is it that this woman's breasts. show so bright through her sari? Can't you guess, my friends? What are they but rays. from the crescents left by the nails of her lover pressing her in his passion, 50 rays now luminous as the moonlight of a summer night? What are they but letters of love ? What are these graces, these pearls raining down your cheeks? Can't you imagine, friends? What c ould they be but the beads of sweat left on her lotus-fac e by the Lord of the Hills when he pressed hard, frantic in love? What are they but letters of love ?
Annamayya 82, GR "emoko cigurutadharamuna" raga: nadanamakriya
51
A Woman Talking to Herself

Better keep one's distance than love and part espec ially if one can't manage seizures of passion. Make love, get close, ask for more but it's hard to separate and burn. Gaze and open your eyes to desire, then you can't bear to shut it out. Better keep one's distance The first tight embrace is easy, but later you c an never let go. Begin your love talk onc e hooked, you c an never forget. Better keep one's distance Twining and joining, you can laugh; soon you can't hide the love in your heart. Once the lord of the Lady on the Flower
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has made love to you, you c an no longer say it was this muc h and that much. Better keep one's distance
Annamayya, copperplate 484:440 "tagili payuta kante" raga: ahiri
52

O you lover of whores: I know your ways, I c an see them all. Why do you need a mirror to see the jewel on your wrist? Some woman has tried to hug you hard with her hand covered with bracelets. I c an still see the print of their c urves on your shoulder. Why tell me lies? I know your tricks. You lover of whores, why do you need a mirror ? Some woman has comfortably slept on your c hest and the sapphires of her necklace have left a print on your skin. Why contest it over and over? O you love expert, I c an't be harsh. You lover of whores, why do you need a mirror ? Some woman has made love to you, Lord of Venkata hill, plundered your body's perfumes. 53 Soon after, you come into my arms. How can I blame you? My weariness is gone. You lover of whores, why do you need a mirror ?
Annamayya 84, GR "lanjakadav'auduvura" raga: ahiri
55
Rudrakavi
57
Eight on Janardana of Kandukuru

02/11/2010
You've come, haven't you, showing off your beauty, your shining gold-embroidered shawl slipping from your shoulder, body c asting moonbeams on your lotus-feet, with your enchanting form surpassing all, rider of the Garuda bird, crusher of demons,
you Janardanaof Kandukuru .
Three days ago, in spite of my oaths, you didn't show. Let it go. The day before yesterday I kept calling you, but you didn't hear. You sneaked away. Yesterday, even as I was looking, you walked away, dressed to kill. Just you wait! you great crusher of demons,
you Janardanaof Kandukuru .
58 3 You and she, you spent last night in the alcove together. I heard everything you did from a woman I know. I didn't just hear it, I saw you on the street with my own eyes, you crusher of demons,
you Janardana of Kandukuru .
Who was that shy girl who left those little red marks on your lips? Who was she with such big breasts who has fallen for you? Who pressed your cheeks and left finger marks with nails sharp as knives,
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you crusher of demons,
you Janardana of Kandukuru ?
I know all your secrets. Don't make false promises. Don't come to me, over and over, with those drowsy, clouded eyes. Keep your c lumsy hands
59 off my body. Don't work yourself up over me, you stubborn crusher of demons,
you Janardanaof Kandukuru !
You were my constant support, but that was once. Why burn and get angry now? Go back to where you c ame from. Stop! I can't bear your words. You're a big scoundrel, O c rusher of demons,
Janardana of Kandukuru .
All my anger is gone. When did you come c lose to me? When did you give me those jewels with nine gems? Loving me, and making me love you, being one with me, you cover me with praise. When did you do all this, O c rusher of demons,
Janardanaof Kandukuru ?
60 8 When you fill my two eyes, it's a flowering of jasmine. I watch the skies, the c louds
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c olor everything. Why does moonlight shine in my eyes? I've seen it all, you crusher of demons,
Janardana of Kandukuru .*
61
Ksetrayya
63
The Madam to a Courtesan

Woman! He's none other than Cennudu of Palagiri. Haven't you heard? He rules the worlds. When he wanted you, you took his gold but c ouldn't you tell him your address? Some lover you are! He's hooked on you. And he rules the worlds I found him wandering the alleyways, too shy to ask anyone. I had to bring him home with me. Would it have been such a crime if you or your girls had waited for him by the door? You really think it's enough to get the money in your hand? Can't you tell who's big, who's small? Who do you think he is? And he rules the worlds This handsome Cennudu of Palagiri, this Muvva Gopala, has falled to your lot. 64 When he said he'd come tomorrow, c ouldn't you consent just a little? Did you really have to say no? What c an I say about you? And he rules the worlds
Ksetrayya 176
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"cellabo palagiri cennude vidu komma" raga: sankarabharanamu
65

"Your body is my body," you used to say, and it has come true, Muvva Gopala. Though I was with you all these days, I wasn't sure. Some woman has scratc hed nail marks on your chest, but I'm the one who feels the hurt. You go sleepless all night, but it's my eyes that turn red. "Your body is my body ," you used to say Ever since you fell for that woman, it's my mind that's in distress. When I look at those charming love bites she has left on your lips, it's my lip that shakes. "Your body is my body ," you used to say 66 Maybe you made love to another woman, for, O lord who rules me, my desire is sated. Forgive me, Gopala, but when you come back here, I'm the one who feels small with shame. "Your body is my body," you used to say
Ksetrayya, GVS 1:2 "ni menu na men'anucunu" raga: yadukula kambhoji
67
A Man Speaks of His Love

What c an I do to c ool my passion? Who will bring her, that gem of a woman, bac k to me? I was able to draw your face, bright as a lotus,
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but c ould I paint in its fragrance? I have drawn your lips, glowing with desire, but I couldn't put in their honey. Who will bring her ? I knew how to draw your lovely eyes, but not the trembling glance; painted the soft lines of the throat I know so well, but c ould not fill it with birdlike tones. Who will bring her ? 68 I even painted the lovemaking, bodies coiled in the Snake Position, but I couldn't paint you as you cried, all alive, "Come, come to me again, Muvva Gopala!" Who will bring her ?
Ksetrayya 126 "emi seyudu" raga: kambhoji
69
A Courtesan to a Young Customer

You are handsome, aren't you, Adivaraha,* and quite skilled at it, too. Stop these foolish games. You think there are no other men in these parts? Asking for me on credit, Adivaraha? I told you even then I won't stand for your lies. Handsome, aren't you ? Prince of playboys you may be, but is it fair to ask me to forget the money? I earned it, after all, by spending time with you. Stop this trickery at once. Put up the gold you owe me
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and then you c an talk, Adivaraha. Handsome, aren't you ? Young man: why are you trying to talk big, as if you were Muvva Gopala? 70 You can make love like nobody else, but just don't make promises you c an't keep. Pay up, it's wrong to break your word. Handsome, aren't you ?
Ksetrayya 1 "andagadav'auduvu lera" raga: sankarabharanamu
71
A Young Woman to a Friend

Those women, they deceived me. They told me he was a woman, and now my heart is troubled by what he did. First I thought she was my aunt and uncle's daughter, so I bow to her, and she blesses me: "You'll get married soon, don't be bashful. I will bring you the man of your heart." "Those firm little breasts of yours will soon grow round and full," she says. And she fondles them and scratches them with the edge of her nail. "Come eat with me," she says, as she holds me close and feeds me as at a wedding. Those women, they told me he was a woman ! Then she announces: "My husband is not in town. 72 Come home with me." So I go and sleep in her bed. After a while she says, "I'm bored. Let's play a kissing game, shall we? Too bad we're both women."
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Then, as she sees me falling asleep, off my guard, she tries some strange things on me. Those women, they told me he was a woman ! She says, "I can't sleep. Let's do what men do." Thinking "she" was a woman, I get on top of him. Then he doesn't let go: he holds me so tight he loses himself in me. Wic ked as ever, he declares: "I am your Muvva Gopala!" And he touches me expertly and makes love to me. Those women, they told me he was a woman !
Ksetrayya 264 "mosabuccir'amma magavani yadad'anta" raga: saveri
73
A Courtesan to Her Lover

Who was that woman sleeping in the space between you and me? Muvva Gopala, you sly one: I heard her bangles jingle. As I would kiss you now and then, I took her lips into mine, the lips of that woman fragrant as camphor. You must have kissed her long. But when I tasted them, they were insipid as the chewed-out fiber of sugarcane. Who was that woman ? Thinking it was you, I reac hed out for a hug. Those big breasts c ollided with mine. That seemed a little strange, but I didn't make a fuss lest I hurt you, lord, and I turned aside. Who was that woman ? You made love to me first, and then was it her turn? Does she come here every day? 74 Muvva Gopala, you who fathered the god of desire, you c an't be trusted.
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I know your tricks now and the truth of your heart. Who was that woman ?
Ksetrayya 61 "iddari sanduna" raga: kalyani
75
A Courtesan to Her Friend

It's so late. He's not c oming, no way. No use worrying about him. Just because you've the misfortune to be my friend, you needn't wait up till dawn. You can throw away the sandal and the musk and go to sleep. Who knows where he is spending the night, and with what woman? The whole village is fast asleep. It's so late Listen: every bird has gone home to his mate. It's rare we get what we desire. Still, what was my special sin? It's so late All excited, I made the bedroom ready, waiting for my man. What's the point now 76 of these ornaments, all these flowers? Who will see this beauty? He's not to be trusted, this Muvva Gopala, who has ruled in my bed. It's so late
Ksetrayya 37 "inta prodd'aye" raga: pantuvarali
77
The Courtesan Speaks to Her Lover

02/11/2010
I'm seeing you at last. It's been four or five months, Muvva Gopala! Last night in my dream you took shape before my eyes. I got up with a start, looked for you, didn't find you. The top of my sari was soaked with tears. I turned to water, gave in to sorrow. I asked myself if you might not be thinking of me, too. I'm seeing you at last, the answer to my prayers Ever since we parted, there's been no betel for me, no food, no fun, no sleep. I'm like a lone woman in a forest after sunset, 78 soaked through by the rain in the heavy dark, unable to find a way. I'm seeing you at last, the answer to my prayers My parents blame me, my girlfriends mock. This may sound strange, but I can tell you: ever since we first made love, my world has bec ome you. I have no mind other than yours. I'm seeing you at last, the answer to my prayers
Ksetrayya 213 "ninnu juda galigene" raga: punnagavarali
79

Why are you so taken? Is she really more beautiful than all these women? You can't stop looking at her for a moment.
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Why don't you speak your mind? Does she come to you flowing with affection to gather you up in her embrace? Does she roll you betel leaves, praise you as the lover most suited to her love? Does her passion overwhelm? I'd love to hear the details over and over of what you do when your minds are one. Tell me now. Why are you so taken ? Does she let you drink at her lips, make you beg for one more and one more? Bring you flowers, tell you how right you are for her beauty? Does she really give you her heart? Tell me the name of that woman 80 who prayed to the god of desire to have you for a husband. You don't have to be shy. Why are you so taken ? Does she dance with pleasure, pluck the strings and sing seduc tive songs? Invent new ways of making love and plead with you then not to stop, even as she celebrates your skill? What's left? Why tell lies, Muvva Gopala, when c learly she's the one you c rave while all the time you're making love to me? Why are you so taken ?
Ksetrayya 39 "inta moham'emi ra" raga: sankarabharanarnu
81
A Woman to Her Friend

Friend, I didn't say a word. It would be a shame if others were to hear. He came with a glisten of mascara still on his lips. When I said it hurt me,
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he made a scene. When my friends asked me what had happened, I laughed it off, covered it up. I didn't say a word He wasn't afraid to come home with the red lac from her feet on his forehead. Still, he had the nerve to ask for a hug. I was furious but, hiding it, I protested gently. I said it wasn't right. He raised his voic e and, 82 fearing where it might lead, I gave in. As in the saying about the thorn and the banana leaf, it's always the leaf that gets torn. I didn't say a word Friend, he came here with her betel juice staining his neck, yet asked me for a kiss. It seemed improper to hurt a man who had c ome to me. But when he made love to me as well as ever, I felt obliged, and I didn't say a word
Ksetrayya 229 "nor'ettan'aitin'amma" raga: kambhoji
83
A Courtesan to a Messenger
Why does he send an embassy, standing right in front of me? Ask him to c ome in, that Muvva Gopala: he once lathered the Love God. There he is, all dressed up; as the women watc h, he displays his charms. He stands at the main door and c omplains, he curses me every day. I don't know how long he has stood there. But why send an embassy ?
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Yesterday he seems to have come all the way here at midnight and then he turns back some maid tells him this is no time to visit: what are we, princ esses? But why send an embassy ? What, hasn't he c ome and gone as he pleases? Hasn't he ever joined me in bed? Now do I have to go all the way and give him a rec eption? Maybe my Muvva Gopala is just testing my heart. But why send an embassy ?
Ksetrayya 269 "ramm anave" raga: kedara
84
A Woman to Her Reluctant Lover

Bec ause I'm a good woman, I forgave you this time. Would any other woman have let you off? You follow me around like a servant, you say humble things, yet when I ask you to come home, you don't. Why do you hurt me like this? Now I've got you all alone. If I hold you prisoner in this house, who is there to release you? Because I'm a good woman You hold my hands, you say nic e things. But when I ask you to get into bed, you say, "I've taken a vow," and do nothing. Now I've c aught you. If I tie you down to my bed, who is there to release you? Because I'm a good woman Only for a bet in a game you enter my bedroom. When I call you, "My handsome, 85 my Muvva Gopala!" why this indifference, dear parrot in the hand of the Love God? If I choose to make love to you now, who is there to stop me? Because I'm a good woman
Ksetrayya 228 "nenu mancidana" raga: pantuvarali
86
An Older Woman to a Younger

02/11/2010
Why complain to me? What are you, a little girl? Was it a crime to bring you two together? Well, well. When you two play at love as husband and wife, if he says something against you, you answer back! Why complain to me ? When he pulls your sari in his passion, tell him it's not fair! Why complain to me ? When your Muvva Gopala joins you in bed, if you, my lovely, get ticklish, Why complain to me ?
Ksetrayya 204 "nann'aneva" raga: mukhari
87

When will I get married to the famous Mannaru Ranga? A daughter's life in a lord's family, I wouldn't wish it on my enemies. Some days pass as your parents do your thinking for you. Some days pass brooding and waiting for the moment. Some days pass pondering c aste rules. Meanwhile the bloom of youth is gone like the fragrance of a flower, like a trick of fate. I wouldn't wish it on my enemies Some days pass without any pleasure from your husband. Some days pass in mere courtesies. Some days pass in the pride that we are palace women, looking for quality. It's a pity all this high passion is like moonlight in a forest. I wouldn't wish it on my enemies Some days pass shilly-shallying, knowing and not knowing. Some days pass ignorant of the ways of experience. Some days pass listening to friends' stories of lovemaking. Alas, womanhood itself has become my enemy, and I'm tired. I wouldn't wish it on my enemies
Ksestrayya, GVS 5:17 "perubada raga: natakuranji
88
A Woman to Her Messenger

Has he forgotten me or what? Go ask him. He knows. He knows how I went to fetc h water. He knows where he stood at the shore.
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He knows when he rattled the chain on the door. He knows how he asked me, hungrily, to show him my breasts. Go ask him, he knows He knows how he begged me. He knows how he seductively tossed his kerchief at me. He knows how he shook his head and laughed. He knows how he c ouldn't bear it any more. Go ask him, he knows He knows where he left tooth marks on my lips. He knows how he said, folding me in his arms, he is Muvva Gopala. He knows the sheets we were wrapped in. And he knows how he made room and played the Love God with me. Go ask him, he knows
Ksetrayya 251 "maracinad'ata" raga: gaulipantu
89
A Married Woman to Her Lover

Let me go now to the man who put the marriage chain* round my neck, for how long c an a married woman stay in her mother's house, Muvva Gopala? I can be back in a month for my sister's wedding. Meanwhile, friend, don't forget our friendship. This is the only way for family women and it's laid down by the gods. If your kindness lasts, this body belongs to you. Let me go for now Couldn't you come and visit me once when the fair is on? And give me the ring as a mark of love. You say you can't bear to be away: that goes for both of us. When again and again I beg leave to go, don't hold me back by talking. Let me go for now 90 We have done it once. Why don't you let me leave? Muvva Gopala, is it fair to pester me like this? If people around hear about us, won't it be disastrous? There's no other way, what can I do? God is not pleased with us. Let me go for now
Ksetrayya, GVS 1:18 "bottugattina" raga: bhairavi
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91

Friend, tell me, who is more wicked, he or I? Explain it. Now we'll know who's what. When we are on the bed of gold, playing at love talk, he calls me Kamalakshi, the other woman's name: I am so mad, I hit him as hard as I can with my braid. Now tell me, who is more wicked ? When lustily I jump on top and pound his chest with my pointed nipples, he says, "That girl Kanakangi is very good at this." I slap him hard with all five fingers. Now tell me, who is more wicked ? After making love, as always, I fondle his feet, soft as a young leaf, when the other woman's love potion goes to his head, he talks in his sleep about her, lying right next to me: so I sink my teeth into his lips. Now tell me, who is more wicked ?
Ksetrayya 104 "evarivalla duduku" raga: surata
92
A Courtesan to Her Messenger

Today is a good day. Let him c ome like a princ e. Maybe that woman has been watc hing Muvva Gopala. So what? Isn't this body of mine his property? In this business I'm in, is it right to rant and rave? Let him come like a prince Should I leave him just because he is kind? Tell him then I won't fault him if he mentions her name. When he comes, I won't treat him any different. Isn't this place his house? Let him come like a prince Besides, I'm just as pretty as that pretty thing. Who took him to task? Not I. Why get a bad name for nothing? When Muvva Gopala himself makes love to her and likes it, who am I to say it isn't proper? Let him come like a prince
Ksetrayya, GVS 1:28
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"manci dinamu nede" raga: anandabhairavi
93
A Wife to a Friend
Don't tell me what he did in some other country. What has it got to do with me? For god's sake, stop it. What are you saying: that he went to her house, fell for her, gave her money and begged her? More likely, she saw his beauty, wanted him, fell all over him, begged him, melted him with her music. After all, he's a man. He couldn't contain himself, that's all. Don't tell me what he did All dec ked in jewelry like a wild cassia in bloom, a temptress on a mission from the Love God, she must have stood there and said, "Hey, handsome! It's not good for you to stay alone. Come over and sleep in my house." Don't tall me what he did That Muvva Gopala, Lord of Madhura, from the day he made love to me he hasn't known anyone else. Nor is he up to any tricks, he is a dignified man. He must have been angry that I wasn't anywhere near. Don't tell me what he did
Ksetrayya 233 "paradesamuna" raga: mohana
94
A Girlfriend to the Woman

Woman: that Varada* loves you so. I'm here bec ause I couldn't watch him suffer. He puts his hand on his c heek, smiles his little smile, and says to himself, "Oh I knew it: she'll never come back. I c an't forget the love we had before. To live without making love to that lovely girl is that called living?" That Varada, he loves you so He is quiet for a while, and then he sighs: "Where did I go wrong? I c an't bear to be apart from you even for a little while. My mouth c annot speak," he says,
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and buries his head in his hands. If I ask, he only says, "What help can you be?" That Varada, he loves you so 95 That Varada, that Muvva Gopala, he babbles on and on. "The miracle that happened then, will it happen again?" He thinks, and sighs, and sighs again, and says, "This is what fate has done. This dreadful thing called love I wouldn't wish it on my enemies." That Varada, he loves you so
Ksetrayya 43 "intiro varaduniki" raga: dhanyasi
96

What c an he do worse than this? And what's left? Out of sheer spite, he stays in that woman's house. When I go hungrily to embrac e him, he says, "Stay away!" When innocently I say, "Give me the honey of your lips," he says, "That's pollution." When I say, without thinking, "Give me a bit of that betel in your mouth," he yells at me and says, "No!" Such indifference in front of my peers is too muc h! What c an he do worse ? When I'm c lose, if I offer to roll betel for him, he says, "Not my taste." If I say, "Let me look at your face from this far," he says, "No, don't." When I go to massage his feet, he says, "It's too late. Go away." 97 He says, "I've forgotten
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all my love for you." What c an he do worse ? Even to people in the street he says, "My love for her has turned." He vows never to speak nicely to me again. Arguing, he says, "I want nothing to do with you" and gives me the betel* this same Muvva Gopala who once so lustily made love to me. Whan c an he do worse than this ?
Ksetrayya 33 "intakante da nann'emi cesini" raga: pantuvarali
98

Pour gold as high as I stand, I still won't sleep with you. Why be stubborn, Muvva Gopala? Why all these tricks? You set women afloat on your words, break into their sec ret places, dec eive them with affec tionate lies, excite them in love play, get together the whole crowd one day, and then you steal away like a spinac h thief. Pour gold as high as I stand You c oax women's affections, make them amorous and faint, do things you shouldn't be doing, confuse them, lie in bed with them, and then you leave without a sound, shaking your dust all over them. Pour gold as high as I stand You opportunist, you exc ite them from moment to moment, make mouths water, show them love to make them surrender, drown them in a sea of passion, 99 and by the time the morning star appears you get up and vanish. Pour gold as high as I stand
Ksetrayya 216 "niluvuna nilivedu" raga: kalyani
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100

Go ask him: is it for nothing I get angry? Don't be naive. Go ask him and make him swear to tell the truth When my maid runs into him when he is on his way to that woman's house, who gets scared and offers her the bribe, is it him or is it me? I'm not imagining things. Who is it that said before all the neighborhood women, "I can't live without seeing that woman," is it him or is it me? Go ask him and make him swear Standing on her doorstep as if he had no fears, who sees me in the street 101 and hides behind the door? Is it him or is it me? When he comes home tired and I give him porridge with sugar, who is it that says, "The taste isn't half as good as her lips," is it him or is it me? Go ask him and make him swear Languishing, who draws her picture on a slate, holds it in his palm and stares at it, is it him or is it me? When, in making love, I embrace Muvva Gopala, who sighs and sighs for that other woman, is it him or is it me? Go ask him and make him swear to tell the truth
Ksetrayya 9 "adugar'amma" raga: mukhari
102
A Married Woman Speaks to Her Lover

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I c an't stay too long. I have to get home. There's no time for all the fun. Don't get me in trouble, my clever man. I left my husband's embrac e to come here just bec ause you c alled. You want to leave your nail marks on my breasts I'm no prostitute! I have no quarrel with you. Satisfy your need and send me away. Listen, lover: it's not good for your health to lose too much sleep. Why argue with me? Can't stay too long You're biting my lips too hard. How can I hide the marks? Bec ause sugarcane is sweet, you want to pull it up, root and all. 103 It's hard to bear. Just because I'm so taken with you, you trap me in your net of magic, you c lever man. Can't stay too long You've made love to me often enough for today. Let go for now, Muvva Gopala, my lord. Is it right to be stubborn now? Is there a limit to greed? The more you make love, the more you want it. This body of mine is your property. I'll come whenever you want me. Be good to me, my clever man. Can't stay too long
Ksetrayya 55 "iccotanu cala prodd'unda celladu" raga: kambhoji
104
A Woman to Her Girlfriends

What c an I do about this? What c an I say?
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This stupid heart of mine has lost all shame. When I hear from the girls that he has gone to her house, I promise myself I'll swear an oath and say: Don't ever come here. But the moment I see his fac e, my desire doubles. Where does it go, my fury, a tigress with new cubs? This stupid heart I hear he has sent gifts to her door and I dec ide I'll never see his face. And you know what happens? He comes to me, holds me, and I don't even remember my rage. This stupid heart 105 I hear he was seen in her house and I dec ide: from now on, I'll make his life miserable. Then that Muvva Gopala, he comes happily and makes love to me, and I forget all my vows. This stupid heart
Ksetrayya 47 uku nen'emi setune" raga: bilahari
106
A Courtesan to Her Girlfriend

Fate that brought us together so soon has put us apart. No point in thinking: that's what I get for all my worship. Did we spend even six months happily in one place? When I was hurting, passionate for love, were our minds really one? I only suffered the scandal, but did we ever spend an hour touching thigh to thigh? Did we ever have a day whispering eac h other's names? Fate has put us apart Did my lord and I, any day, play properly
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at love? Did we ever press lip to red lip, tasting the sweetness? Fate has put us apart Did we ever lie twined, till we were done, 107 in each other's arms? In bed, did we ever play even for fun at husband and wife? Fate has put us apart Did we ever sing, in pleasure, even one measly song about Muvva Gopala? Did we ever talk sweetly about nothing in particular, lying on flowers? Did we ever stay up all night long after sundown? Fate has put us apart Time that brought us c lose has left me burning: fate that brought us together so soon has put us apart.
Ksetrayya 41 "intalone allavani nannu gurci" raga: yadukula kambhoji
108

My old husband is better than you, and that's the truth. You promise sweet things in private and only now you show your face! Where c an I hide my desire, to whom shall I give it now? Enough, enough, go away. Enough of this adventure at this ungodly hour! My old husband is better than you ! Like a parrot waiting for the fruit of the silk-cotton tree I fell for your looks and c ame to you. My old husband is better than you ! Fighting off sleep all night waiting for you, it was like pouring into water what was meant for a fire. It's late. I've got to go home, Muvva Gopala. My old husband is better than you !
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Ksetrayya 217 "nikanna na mogude melu" raga: navaroju
109
A Courtesan to the Messenger

Don't go on chattering, just go away. Why should he c ome here? Tell him not to come. It all happened so long ago, in a different age, another life. Who is he to me, anyway? Think of the long nights I spent waiting for him, minute after minute, saying to myself, "He'll come today, he'll come tomorrow!" the hot sighs, lips dry with longing, nights aflame with moonlight. What more is there to say? Just go away ! I wore myself out watching the road. Counting the moons, I grieved. Holding back a love I could not hold, listening to the screec hing of peac ocks and parrots, I passed the months of spring. Let's have no more empty words. 110 Just go away ! I even asked the birds for omens if Muvva Gopala was coming. I grew weak, watching my girlfriends join their husbands for love. O god, do I ever have to see his face again with this body of mine? Once was enough! lust go away !
Ksetrayya 283 "vadaraka po pove" raga kambhoji
111
A Courtesan to Her Friend

Let him go as he pleases.
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Friend, let my lord Muvva Gopala go as he pleases. I hear he begged his girlfriend, bowed to her, folding both his hands, complained of this and that to her about me, and he promised her things, behind the temple. Let my lord be well, wherever he is, that's enough. Let him go as he pleases I hear he said he would be Struck by evil if he even looked in my direction; he fingered his mustache and bragged to her. I hear he said my name, broke a reed and threw it away.* A thousand qualities at every step, who can straighten him out? Let him go as he pleases I hear he said he first made love to me just bec ause he was tricked; 112 he swore to god never to touc h me again; in an assembly he said I'm a brazen woman. Yet if love has taken root in his heart, he'll be kind one day. Let him go as he pleases
Ksetrayya 181 "tana cittamu" raga: mukhari
113
A Senior Courtesan to a Younger One

Are you done with your anger? Have you finally talked, my dear, to one another, you and your Muvva Gopala, and stopped being angry at last? Have your hearts cooled off and found a little peace? Tell me the truth: is all that grieving over for today? Could you finally have one good day? He over there, you here, with these endless sighs in between! Are you done with your anger ? Have you looked at each other's fac es, taken sweet kisses
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from your lips, pressed body against body? Why treat one another like a hunter and his prey? 114 Are you done with your anger ? Today, at least, have you shared a single bed and praised, I hope, eac h other's skills in love? You've finally come together, haven't you, you and your Muvva Gopala, confessing over and over that you listened to slander like fools. Are you done with your anger ?
Ksetrayya 25 "aluka direna" raga: saranga
115
A Courtesan to a Messenger
You want to know, my graceful friend, how skilled he has become at making love? Just go bring that Muvva Gopala to me. All I know is that he came here, smiling that smile of his, and took me by the hand, but I don't even know that he took off the sari from my breast. I know he combed down my long hair and c overed it with flowers, but I know nothing of those violent red lips pressed on mine. Just go bring that Muvva Gopala to me I know he leaned toward my ear to tell me secrets, but I couldn't hear his words. I know he kissed my neck with passion, but I don't know of any fingernails clawing at my cheeks. 116 Just go bring that Muvva Gopala to me
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I know he embraced me, my lover, Muvva Gopala, but I know nothing about the c rush of our two bodies. You know, my friend with the body of a flower, that I don't really know he untied the knot of my sari and did, inside me, whatever he has done. Just go bring that Muvva Gopala to me
Ksetrayya 17 "ammamma vid'enta" raga: maruva
117

Go find a root or something. I have no girlfriends here I can trust. When I swore at you, you didn't listen. You said all my c urses were blessings. You grabbed me, you bastard, and had me by forc e. I've now missed my period, and my husband is not in town. Go find a root or something I have set myself up for blame. What's the use of blaming you? I've even lost my taste for food. What c an I do now? Go to the midwives and get me a drug before the women begin to talk. Go find a root or something As if he fell from the ceiling, my husband is suddenly home. He made love to me last night. Now I fear no sc andal. All my wishes, Muvva Gopala, 118 have reached their end, so, in your image, I'll bear you a son. Go find a root or something
KsetrayyA 296 "vetaki tera poyi" raga: begada
119
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If your mind is like mine, my prayers will be answered. As if sugarc ane should begin to bear fruit, my pleasures would be doubled many times if your mind is like mine If aimlessly I doodle with my fingernail, it's your shape that appears. The moment I wake from sleep, it seems you're close to me. You know such is my love, Varada. To whom can I say your mind is like mine ? If I turn as I go upstairs and see my shadow, I feel you're coming with me. When I sing with the tambura drone,* it feels like you are singing along. The very sound of what I say sounds like your reply. There's nothing like my love, Varada. You know that: to whom c an I say your mind is like mine ? 120 I'm always filled with joy, and the joy is always of holding you. Even if I think your name, O Varada with the goddess,* it's as if we're making love. It pleases me when all my girlfriends say you're my friend. You alone know the secret of my longing. Whom can I ask if your mind is like mine ?
Ksetrayya, GVA 3:62 "na manasuvantidi" raga kalyani
121

The lord who always slept with his head on my breasts isayyayyo! now sick of me. His eyes fixed, unblinking, on my face,
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he would say, "When dusk falls, your face, alas, will be hidden in the dark," and than ask me, in broad daylight, for a lamp. Ayyayyo, he's now sick of me Biting my mouth in love play, since to talk would be to let go, my lord would speak only with his hands. Ayyayyo, he's now sick of me Lest in sleep his embrace should loosen, 122 he would ask me to tie down the four corners of our blanket. Ayyayyo, he's now sick of me
Ksetrayya 20 "ayyayyo vegat'ayene" raga: nadanamakriya
123

Why have you come here? Go away, her house is not here on this street. Muvva Gopala, you who lifted the Mandara mountain,* are you here looking for that woman with teeth like jasmine buds? You must have lost your way in this flooding moonlight, or else you lost yourself in that woman, with eyes darting like fish. I know I'm not the one who embrac ed you and put your mind at rest. Go away, her house is not here I can see all the signs of what you've been doing till midnight, you wicked man. Still you come rushing through the streets, sly as a thief, hurrying to untie my blouse.
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124 Go away, her house is not here You're much too drunk with passion to leave me. Stop now. You're making love to me with twice the fury. It's morning. Get up, before the women come and see us. Go away, her house is not here
Ksetrayya 310 "ind' endu vaccitivi ra" raga: surati
125

If the betel girl* him, wouldn't it be a scandal? My Muvva Gopala has gone astray. When I'm not around he worships her with his eyes. Like a randy rogue, he puckers his mouth for a kiss. When he takes the folded betel from her, he's thrilled and scratches her hand with his fingernail. She backs away and says, "O no! With me, it's wrong!" and c omes running to me in haste. Wouldn't it be a sc andal! It seems he says, "People are around. Close the door and come in." Again and again, he makes obscene jokes. When she says, "No, don't come too close," he tries to put his hand in her sari. Bec ause she's a proper woman, she talks back and c omes running to me. Wouldn't it be a sc andal! 126 It seems he says, "I'm here only for you." He even gnashes his teeth and threatens her. He says, "Look, if I don't make love to you, then call me a betel woman." And to think I rushed to make friends with this Muvva Gopala! Wouldn't it be a sc andal!
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Ksetrayya 8 "adapagatte vanivantid'aite" raga: pantuvarali
127

How soon it's morning already! There's something new in my heart, Muvva Gopala. Have we talked even a little while to undo the pain of our separation till now? You call me in your passion, "Woman, come to me," and while your mouth is still on mine, it's morning already! Caught in the grip of the Love God, angry with him, we find release drinking at each other's lips. You say, "My girl, your body is tender as a leaf," and before you can loosen your tight embrace, it's morning already ! Listening to my moans as you touch certain spots, the pet parrot mimics me, and O how we laugh in bed! You say, "Come c lose, my girl," and make love to me like a wild man, Muvva Gopala, and as I get ready to move on top, it's morning already!
Ksetrayya 175 "cellabo yentavegame" raga: useni
129
Sarangapani
131
The Madam to a Courtesan

He pays you in rupees of lead knotted to your sari: couldn't you even c hec k, you fool? He makes promises, then works on you till dawn, that Muvva Gopala, and pays you in rupees of lead. Like an honest man, he sends you letters, that cheat who turns you on, then eats you out of betel leaves,
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stic ks his tongue out at you, and pays you in rupees of lead Holds you tight, not letting you go, attacks and wounds your lips, touching you in places you don't let anyone touc h, making you shameless. Pluc ks a hair off his body and throws it at your house, and pays you in rupees of lead 132 Makes love to you and rouses you, then tucks the pleats of your sari back in plac e. If you fall asleep, he slaps you awake and shows you what he's got, and pays you in rupees of lead
Sarangapani 99 "sisapu rukalu" raga: saurastra
133
A Customer to a Courtesan
Is there any rule that it must be you? If I have money, there's always your sister. Or if not her, her sister. No one does it for merit. Even Rambha in heaven demands her fee.* Where was this love of yours when I came begging to you then and fell, infatuated, at your feet? Didn't you say you wouldn't talk unless you got the pendant? If I scatter rice, will there be a shortage of crows? There's always your sister When I put in your box a sixty-rupee roll of nagiri silk, didn't you wear it as a frock? If it rains, will it cure my welts? There's always your sister
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134 So what if you c alled to me, "Venugopala!" craved me, made love on top of me? It's even better than the story of the date-palm seed. Why would a picotta* stoop so low except to bring water from the depths? There's always your sister
Sarangapani 102 "niv'ena" raga: mohana
135
The Madam to a Young Courtesan

Grab whatever c ash he has, that Venugopala, and think nothing of the rest. As they say about lentils, don't worry about the c haff. Does it matter to which woman he goes, or how late he stays there? Just pass the days saying yes and no,. till the month is over and grab the cash What is it to you if he runs into debt or if he has an income? Quietly, tactfully, lie in wait like a cat on a wall and grab the cash 136 What if he makes love to her and only then to you? What's there to be jealous about? When youth passes, nothing will go your way, so grab the c ash
Sarangapani 98 "kaligina kasu" raga: saurastra
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137
A Married Woman's Complaint

If my husband becomes my pimp, what am I then to him? Venugopala throws away money, and says to my husband, "I'll build you a two-storied house; look at these ornaments, this c artload of vessels," and adds, "You won't have a worry in the world".: so my husband becomes my pimp The man says he can't earn any more. He's fed up with working. Not even one child is in good shape. And if I don't agree, he'll renounce the world. My husband becomes my pimp . He says he can't take poverty, that whoring is no sin, espec ially with his permission. If I don't consent, he calls me "Ah, Super-Chaste." He can't wait to see me sell myself. My husband becomes my pimp 138 He says you can't cross a husband's word, and c ites a thousand precedents in the texts. Past sixty, and in his dotage, my husband becomes my pimp He says I should sleep with Venugopala, dress up like a harlot. But is life worth more than honor? Friend, tomorrow he'll find out for himself. My husband becomes my pimp
Sarangapani 124 "inti magadu" raga: dhanyasi
139
A Wife's Complaint
How is this household going to survive? Tell me what to do
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with all these lewd antics of lord Venugopala, scion of the Gokula c lan. Takes no care of his house. Finds good advice bitter. Wants spec ial meals. Hangs out with pimps. Tell me what to do Sleeps in whorehouses. Throws away money on sluts. Scratches his creditors for luxuries, with not a drop of ghee in our house. Tell me what to do But there's no end of danc ing songs, not to speak of the lute. He bets on coc ks at the fights.* Tell me what to do 140 I have a single sari to wear and to wash. Can't even mention a second blouse. Turmeric has bec ome my gold, and my ears are bare. Tell me what to do And then I have to listen daily to his affairs with those women. Even my c urses don't stir him. It's been seven years since we've been in bed. Women of my age are mothers of c hildren. Tell me what to do
Sarangapani 127 "i kapuram'etl'akrti" raga: anandabhairavi
141
To an Older Woman
All those days he c alled you, you were too proud. Now you're circling his house. Are you in love, after you're past the age for men? Don't be coquettish now. All those days Venugopala c alled you, you were too proud. Now you're circling his house
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Hasn't your face hardened with age? Pale lips, wobbling rows of teeth, body lustreless, beauty dulled. But all those days that kind man fell at your feet and begged, you were too proud. Now you're circling his house Look at you: half your hair is gray. You barely look like a woman. 142 Forty, and nearsighted, you don't have breath enough to sing. All those days that handsome man begged you not to be c ross, you were too proud. Now you're circling his house You've c leaned up your place of love and made it look new. You've come alone at this time of night on this lonely path. If Venugopala does you the favor of sleeping with you, won't people laugh? Now you're circling his house
Sarangapani 128 "pilacina nad'ella" raga: bilahari
143
POEM TO LORD KONKANESVARA

145

I'm not like the others. You may enter my house, but only if you have the money. If you don't have as muc h as I ask, a little less would do. But I'll not acc ept very little, Lord Konkanesvara. To step ac ross the threshold
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of my main door, it'll cost you a hundred in gold. For two hundred you can see my bedroom, my bed of silk, and c limb into it. Only if you have the money To sit by my side and to put your hand boldly inside my sari: that will cost ten thousand. And seventy thousand will get you a touch of my full round breasts. 146 Only if you have the money Three crores to bring your mouth close to mine, touch my lips and kiss. To hug me tight, to touch my place of love, and get to total union, listen well, you must bathe me in a shower of gold. But only if you have the money*
Anonymous "intaku galigite" raga: bilahari
147 149 Notes PREFACE

1. See Ba rbara Stole r Mille r, Love Song of the Dark Lord: Jayadeva's Gitagovinda (Ne w York: Colum bia Unive rsity P re ss, 1977), pp. 7-14. 2. Telugu is a Dra vidia n langua ge spok e n by som e fifty m illion pe ople in the pre se nt-da y sta te of Andhra P ra de sh. 3. Matthe w Alle n ha s com ple ted a P h.D. disse rta tion a t W e sle ya n University on the Ta m il padam tra dition: "The Tam il Pa da m : A Da nce -Music Ge nre of South India " (1992). 4. The re is som e controve rsy ove r the e arlier of Talla pa ka 's dates, since it ca n be rea d in diffe re nt wa ys in the re le va nt coppe rpla te inscription. See Ve turi Ana ndam urti, Tallapakakavula krtulu, vividha sahitiprakriyalu (Hyde ra bad: P rivate ly publishe d, 1974), vol. l, p. 60. 5. Vissa Apparavu, e d., Ksetrayya padamulu , 2d ed. (R a jahm undry: Sa ra swa ti P owe r P re ss, 1963), song no. 297. 6. See Ve lcheru Na ra ya na R ao, Da vid Shulm a n, a nd Sanja y Subrahm a nyam , Symbols of Substance: Court and State in Nayaka Period Tamil Nadu (Delhi: O x ford Unive rsity P re ss, 1992). 7. O ne of Kse tra yya 's padams tells us that the courtesans m ust be a ble to write down a nd re ad ba ck the padams com pose d by the ir roya l love r. Se e Vissa Appa ra vu, e d., Ksetrayya padamulu , p. 213. 8. See Srngarapadamulu , P . Sita pa ti a nd K. Ve nk a te sva ra R a vu, e ds., with a n introduction by Va dlam udi Gopala krsnayya (Hyde ra bad: Andhra P rade sh Gove rnm ent O rienta l Manuscripts Libra ry a nd R e se arch Institute , 1972).
INTRODUCTION
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1. O n Ta m il bhakti , se e Frie dhe lm E. Ha rdy, Viraha-bhakti: The Early History of Krsna Devotion in South India (Delhi: O xford Unive rsity P re ss, 1983); Norm a n Cutler, Songs of Experience: The Poetics of Tamil Devotion (Bloom ington: Indiana Unive rsity P ress, 1987); Indira Viswa na tha n P e terson, Poems to Siva: The Hymns of the Tamil Saints (Prince ton: Prince ton University Press, 1979); a nd A. K. R a m a nuja n, Hymns for the Drowning (P rince ton: P rince ton University P ress, 1979). 2. O n allegore sis in the m edieval com m e nta rie s, see C utle r, Songs of Experience , pp. 93-110; a nd F. Cloone y, "I Cre a te d Land a nd Se a : A Ta m il Ca se of God-Consciousness a nd Its Sriva isna va Interpre ta tion," Numen 35, Fasc. 2 (1988): 238-59. 3. Ha rdy, Viraha-bhakti , pp. 318-25, Cutle r, Songs of Experience , pp. 93-110. Se e also R a m a nujan, Hymns for the Drowning , p. 155. 4. See A. K. R am a nuja n, Poems of Love and War (Ne w York : Colum bia Unive rsity P re ss, 1985), pp. 236-43, on the conve ntions of akam poetry. 5. Vijayaraghavakalyanamu of Kone ti Dik situlu, in Ga nti Jogisom ayaji, e d., Yaksaganamulu (Tanjavuru ), vol. 2 (Wa lta ir: Andhra Unive rsity, 1956), p. 187. 6. See R am a nuja n, Hymns for the Drowning , p. 160. 7. This num be r is ba se d on the lite ra ry e vide nce give n by Ta lla pak a Cina Tiruve nga la natha in his Annamacaryacaritra , ed. Ve turi P ra bhak a ra Sa stri (Tirupa ti: Tirum a la Tirupa ti De va stha na m P re ss, 1949), p. 45. The a ctual num be r of a va ila ble songs is m uch sm alle r: 14,358 a ccording to Veturi Ana ndam urti, Tallapakakavula padakavitalu: Bhasaprayogavisesalu (Hyde ra ba d: P riva te ly publishe d, 1976), p. 74. 8. Anna m ayya , palukutenela talli pavalincenu : se e Ve turi Pra bhak a ra Sa stri, ed., Srngara sankirtanalu , vol. 4 (Tirupati: Tirum a la Tirupa ti Devastha na m Pre ss, 1974), song no. 74. 9. For a full discussion of this de ve lopm ent, see Ve lche ru Na ra ya na R ao, David Shulm an, a nd Sa nja y Subra hm anya m , Symbols of Substance: Court and State in Nayaka Period Tamil Nadu (De lhi: O x ford University Press, 1992). 10. Se e the Kridabhiramamu of Vallabha raya (15th ce ntury?), Banda ru Ta m m a yya , e d. (Ma dras: Va villa R a m a swa m i Sastrulu & Sons, 1953), ve rse 180. 11. E. Krishna Iye r, introduction to Gidugu Ve nk ata Sita pa ti, e d., Ksetraya padamulu (Madra s: Kube ra Printe rs Ltd., 1952), p. x ix . 12. Eve n Vissa Appa ra vu's gene ra lly re lia ble e dition ( Ksetrayya padamulu , 2d ed. [R a jahm undry: Sa raswa ti P owe r P re ss, 1963]) occasionally succum bs to this tem pta tion, a s, for ex a m ple , on p. 81. The ofte n highly ex plicit Nayak a -pe riod srngarakavyas prove d pa rticula rly vulne ra ble to this type of e diting, e spe cia lly given pre va iling Victorian se nsibilitie s. Ea rly e ditions of Se sa m u Ve nk ata pa ti's Tarasasankavijayamu , for e xa m ple , ofte n re pla ce whole se ctions of te xt, which de scribe love rs' union, with a ste risk s. 13. Subbara m a Diksitulu, Sangita sampradaya pradarsini , 2d e d., 2 vols. (Hyde ra bad: Andhra P rade sh Sangita Natak a Aka da m i, 1973), 1:9. 14. Vissa Appa ra vu, Ksetrayya padamulu , pp. 7-9; Apparavu include s the ve rsion reporte d by R a lla pa lli Ana nta krsna Sa rm a . 15. For a tra nsla tion of this padam , see pp. 109-10. 16. O n the se cate gorie s, se e the a fte rword to Hank He ifetz a nd V. Na rayana R a o, For the Lord of the Animals Poems from the Telugu: The Kalahastisvara Satakamu of Dhurjati (Be rk ele y: Unive rsity of C alifornia P ress, 1988). 17. W e give the Te lugu origina l for those who wish to consult it: 18. The ve rse re a ds cinnappudu ratikelikan' unnappudu kavitalona yuddhamulonan vanne sumi rakottuta cennugano pusapati sitarama : se e Ve turi P rabha ka ra Sastri, ed., Catupadyamanimanjari (Hyde raba d: Ve turi Pra bhak a ra Sastri Mem oria l Trust, 1988 [1913]), ve rse 526. 19. Da vid Shulm a n, Songs of the Harsh Devotee: The Tevaram of Cuntaramurttinayanar (Phila de lphia : De pa rtm e nt of South Asia R e giona l Studies, University of Pe nnsylva nia , 1990), ve rse s 616 a nd 617. 20. Ibid., ve rse 490. 21. Venugopalasatakamu (Madra s: N. V. Gopal & Co., 1962), ve rse 33. For an e arlier ex a m ple from the padam corpus, see Anna m a yya 's poe m nimisam'eda tegaka . . . nidurace konnallu neramula konnallu . W e tha nk Sonthi Sarada purna for this re fe rence. 22. Se e Edward C . Dim ock , The Place of the Hidden Moon: Erotic Mysticism in the Vaisnava-sahajiya Cult of Bengal , 2d. e d. (C hicago: Unive rsity of C hicago P re ss, 1989), and "Doctrine a nd P ra ctice a m ong the Va isnava s of Benga l," in Milton Singe r, ed., Krishna: Myths, Rites, and Attitudes (Honolulu: Ea st-We st Ce nte r P re ss, Unive rsity of Ha wa ii, 1966), e spe cia lly pp. 60-63. 23. A. K. R a m anuia n, Speaking of Siva (Ba ltim ore : Pe nguin Book s, 1973), p. 81. R e produce d by perm ission of P enguin Book s Ltd.
153
NOTES TO THE SONGS

47.15. Alamelu: A shortened form of Alemelumanga, a name for Venkatesvara's consort derived from the Tamil alar mel mankai , "the lady on a flower." This goddess, assimilated to Laksmi, is described as a woman standing on a lotus. Venkatesa is
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another name of the god Venkatesvara of Tirupati, in Andhra Pradesh.
60.1-9
When you fill my two eyes . . .: The last verse follows the text given in the Telugu kavyamala , ed. Katuri Venkatesvara Ravu (New Delhi: Sahitya Akademi, 1976), p. 148, rather than that of the Catupadyamanimanjari , ed. Veturi Prabhakara Sastri, pp. 81-82. For the various versions of this text, see Kandukuri Rudrakavi, Janardanastakamu (Madras: Anandamohana Kavyamala, 1966).
69.2.
Adivaraha: A name of Visnu alluding to his incarnation as a boar (varaha ).
89.2.
The marriage c hain: The mangalasutram , or tali bottu , which is tied around the bride's nec k by the groom at the time of their wedding.
94.1.
Varada: A short name, meaning "giver of boons," for Varadarajesvarasvami, a form of Visnu worshiped in the famous temple at Kanci, in South India.
97. 11.
Betel: Also c alled pan , a combination of betel leaf, areca nut, and other ingredients, chewed for pleasure. Contracts and ritual events are marked by an exchange of
154 betel, and here "gives me the betel" serves as a kind of "quit notic e," signaling that the affair is over.
111.14-16.
I hear he said my name . . .: This verse, which does not appear in the Apparavu edition of the Ksetrayya padamulu , has been taken from the Srinivasacakravarti edition, p. 115.
119.17.
When I sing with the tambura drone . . .: The text of this stanza follows the version that appears in the Sarangapani padamulu , ed. Puripanda Appalasvami (Rajahmundry: Saraswati Power Press, 1963), p. 13.
120. 5.
O Varada with the goddess: The original has the name of the goddess, Perundevi, another name of Laksmi, the wife of the presiding deity in Kanci, Varadarajesvarasvami, to whom this song is addressed.
123.4.
You who lifted the Mandara mountain: According to myth, Krsna lifted this mountain to protect cows from a hailstorm brought on by Indra, the king of the gods, who is also the god of rain.
125.1.
The betel girl: An adapakatte , a servant girl in the courtesan's house who carries betel in a spec ial box.
133.7-8.
Even Rambha in heaven: Rambha is the courtesan of Indra, the king of the gods.
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134.6.
Why would a picotta: A picotta is an old device for raising water from a well that continues to be commonly used in India, especially in farming. It consists primarily of a long horizontal wooden pole with a buc ket at one end. We have not been able to trace the referenc e to the story of the date-palm seed.
139.21.
He bets on cocks at the fights: One line from this stanza has been omitted because it is unintelligible.
155 146. 11. We thank Matthew Allen for supplying us with the original of this padam , which is cited by Jon B. Higgins in "The Music of Bharata Natyam" (Ph.D. diss., Wesleyan University, 1973), pp. 279-80. Higgins reports that the great danc er Balasaraswati taught him this padam in response to his request for a song about a samanya nayika (a courtesan). Balasaraswati noted that she did not danc e this padam !
157
INDEX OF REFRAINS
A
And grab the cash, 135 And he rules the worlds, 63 And pays you in rupees of lead, 131 Are you done with your anger?, 113 Ayyayyo, he's now sick of me, 121
B
Because I'm a good woman, 84 Better keep one's distance, 51 But why send an embassy?, 83
C
Can't stay too long, 102
D
Don't tell me what he did, 93 Don't you know my house?, 45
F
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Fate has put us apart, 106
G
Go ask him and make him swear to tell the truth, 100 Go ask him, he knows, 88 Go away, her house is not here, 123 Go find a root or something, 117
H
Handsome, aren't you?, 69
I
I didn't say a word, 81 If your mind is like mine, 119 I'm seeing you at last, the answer to my prayers, 77 It's morning already!, 127 It's so late, 75 I wouldn't wish it on my enemies, 87
J
Just go away!, 109 Just go bring that Muvva Gopala, to me, 115
L
Let him come like a princ e, 92 Let him go as he pleases, 111 Let me go for now, 89
M
My old husband is better than you!, 108 158
N
Now tell me, who is more wicked?, 91 Now you're circ ling his house, 141
O
O Janardana of Kandukuru, 57
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Only if you have the money, 145
P
Pour gold as high as I stand, 98
S
So my husband bec omes my pimp, 137
T
Tell me what to do, 139 That Varada, he loves you so, 94 There's always your sister, 133 This stupid heart, 104 Those women, they told me he was a woman!, 71
W
What are they but letters of love?, 49 What can he do worse?, 96 When she's with you, 47 Who was that woman?, 73 Who will bring her?, 67 Why are you so taken?, 79 Why c omplain to me?, 86 Wouldn't it be a scandal!, 125
Y
You lover of whores, why do you need a mirror?, 52 "Your body is my body," you used to say, 65 Preferred Citation: Ramanujan, A. K., Velcheru Narayana Rao, and David Shulman When God is a Customer: Telugu Courtesan Songs by Ksetrayya and Others. Berkeley: University of California Press, c1994 1994. http://ark.cdlib.org/ark:/13030/ft1k4003tz/
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What is the genre of the poems discussed in the text?

What is the genre of the poems discussed in the text?

What is the relationship between the devotee and god portrayed as in these poems?

What is the relationship between the devotee and god portrayed as in these poems?

02/11/2010

When God Is a Customer

for W e ndy Doniger

When God Is a Customer

The Three Major Poets of the Padam Tradition

When God Is a Customer

A Note on the Translation

When God Is a Customer

Editions Used as Base Texts

When God Is a Customer

When God Is a Customer

When God Is a Customer

When God Is a Customer

When God Is a Customer

When God Is a Customer

When God Is a Customer

When God Is a Customer

When God Is a Customer

When God Is a Customer

When God Is a Customer

When God Is a Customer

Or, in a manner verbally very close to Ksetrayya's formula:

When God Is a Customer

When God Is a Customer

A Woman to Her Lover

When God Is a Customer

The Other Woman to Venkatesa

Her Friends Tease the Woman in Love

When God Is a Customer

A Woman Talking to Herself

When God Is a Customer

A Woman to Her Lover

Eight on Janardana of Kandukuru

When God Is a Customer

you Janardanaof Kandukuru .

you Janardanaof Kandukuru .

you Janardana of Kandukuru .

When God Is a Customer

you crusher of demons,

you Janardana of Kandukuru ?

you Janardanaof Kandukuru !

When God Is a Customer

The Madam to a Courtesan

When God Is a Customer

A Woman to Her Lover

A Man Speaks of His Love

When God Is a Customer

A Courtesan to a Young Customer

When God Is a Customer

A Young Woman to a Friend

When God Is a Customer

A Courtesan to Her Lover

When God Is a Customer

A Courtesan to Her Friend

The Courtesan Speaks to Her Lover