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Young World
Ancient tales
R. KRITHIKA
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The story of the 12 Azhwars.
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The Bhakti Movement in medieval south India was spearheaded by the 63 Nayanars of the Shaivaite tradition and the 12 Azhwars of the Vaishnavite tradition. These poet-saints were drawn from various social classes; the common link between them was devotion to either Shiva or Vishnu.
Lakshmi Devnath’s Poorva: Magic, Miracles and the Mystical Twelve tells the story of the 12 Azhwars as seen by a child of modern times. Poorva’s relation, a sadhu, takes her on a journey through time to teach who the Azhwars were and their importance in the religious history of south India.
Devnath’s retelling of these ancient stories in the language of today works quite well but there are times when the narration jars, especially when the writer underlines the fact that Poorva is a product of her times. Another aspect is that there is no reference to the socio-cultural ferment of the times that created the movement. This was a time when the various sects within Hinduism, Buddhism and Jainism were fighting for supremacy but there is no mention or only a passing reference in the book. In the final cut, the book seems like one more addition to the great mythological tales of India corpus when it could have been much more.
POORVA: MAGIC, MIRACLES AND THE MYSTICAL TWELVE; Lakshmi Devnath, EastWest Books, Rs. 195.
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