Vachanas

Introduction

Vachanas (literally “sayings”) are short poems in Kannada free verse, the characteristic form of the Virashaiva or Lingayat devotional movement associated with Basava in 12th-century Karnataka. Akka Mahadevi’s vachanas are addressed to Chennamallikarjuna, her name for Shiva, and treat her love for him as a bond that outranks marriage, public shame and even clothing; tradition says she left her husband and wandered naked, covered only by her hair. Her life is known mainly from later hagiography, and the number of poems ascribed to her varies between collections. A. K. Ramanujan’s English selection “Speaking of Śiva” (1973) made her widely read outside India.