Loving Viṣṇu: His and Hers Perspectives from Sixteenth-Century South India

Abstract

Kṛṣṇadevarāya’s sixteenth-century Telugu poem, the Āmuktamālyada (Giver of the Worn Garland), includes the stories of two āḻvārs, Viṣṇucitta and his foster daughter, Āṇṭāḷ. Though the text does not quote from or paraphrase the historical āḻvārs’ poems, it presents two stutis of Viṣṇu’s incarnations—the first a celebratory praise poem sung by Viṣṇucitta, the second a blame-praise (nindā-stuti) uttered by Āṇṭāḷ. Comparing the two stutis in the Āmuktamālyada to the āḻvārs’ poetry in the Tamil Nālāyiradivyaprabandham (Divine Book of Four Thousand), this article explores the ways in which the Āmuktamālyada marks various shifts in understanding the respective roles of the āḻvārs and of Viṣṇu’s avatāras. A central claim of the article is that the poem tells the story of an ascendant Śrīvaiṣṇava community navigating the emotional relationship between the human and the divine and that the two stutis are set up to help negotiate emotional experiences of all those involved in a loving relationship with god—god himself, his consort, and his devotees.