Book on SwAmi DESika's poems ...

[Guest guest]

SrI:

namO nArAyaNa!

 

SrImatE nigamAnta mahAdESikAya namaH

 

Dear all,

 

This is to share with you reg the recently published book titled :

 

" Singing the Body of God - The Hymns of Vedanta

Desika in their South Indian tradition " by

Steven Paul Hopkins [Associate professor of

religion at Swarthmore college in Pennsylvania,USA].

 

The publisher is Oxford University Press [www.oup.com].

It is priced at Rs.595/- for India.

 

Its review appeared in " The Hindu " around one Or two months

back. It will be helpful if Sri Malolan Cadambi can dig that out.

 

After random reading and browsing, I feel that the author has

done an excellent job. Ofcourse, the author has limited his

scope and has dwelled well over it - the entire range of

poems by Swami Desikan can't be covered in one book.

 

The author uses the traditional commentaries and adds his own

observations and comparisons. This book is certainly worth

enough esp. for all those who depend upon English as the

source of knowledge. Those who already know can dwell on

the way an outsider has commented upon the richness of

our thuppul kulamani's poems. This is a very important book

to be let known to public - the genius in Swami Desikan

has been well brought out by the author to the extent he

can within the scope of his study. In my humble opinion,

this is a good collection for anyone interested in Swami

Desikan's poems - Not that one can learn only the

traditional commentaries/views here - but one can have a

good spectrum of thoughts of an outsider, structuring them

well based on the traditional commentaries and how he

is fascinated by these divine poems.

 

From the book cover :

 

" This is the first full-length study of the devotional poetry and

poetics of the fourteenth century poet-philosopher Vedantadesika

one of the most outstanding and influential figures in the Hindu

tradition of Sri Vaishnavism (the cult of Lord Vishnu). Despite

their intrinsic beauty and theological importance, the poetry

and philosophy of Vedantadesika have received very little

scholarly attention.........

 

Steven Paul Hopkins here offers a comparitive study of the

Sanskrit, Prakrit and Tamil poems composed by Vedantadesika,

the philosopher and logician, in praise of important Sri -

Vaishnava shrines and their icons poems that are considered to

be the apogee of South Indian devotional literature. He examines

the varied ways in which Vedantadesika's works his thought

through the distinctive at times antithetical medium of the

poem. He also gives particular attention to the poems' emotional

and visionary center of gravity : the different temple icons of

Lord Vishnu, referred to by the poet simply as the various

'lovely bodies' of God......... " .

----------------

 

rAmAnuja dAsan,

Anand

[Guest guest]

Dear All,

 

The book " Singing the body of God : the hymns of Vedantadesika in

their South Indian tradition / Steven Paul Hopkins " is available in

the UT library.

 

It is checked out at the moment. I can order it back. Usually the

public libraries or university libraries of which you might be a

member have a department called " interlibrary loan " where you can

borrow a book from any library across the united states.

 

Most univ libraries have a courtesy membership option where you can

become a member for about $10-$20 per year or so.

 

Please write to me if you need that book.

 

There are many many books in the UT library, even ones in TAMIL and

kannada and Telugu.

 

Please visit http://www.lib.utexas.edu if you need any book. Please

let me know, I can borrow them in my name and send it to you for a

specified period (about 2-3 months).

 

Regards,

 

Malolan

 

 

 

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[Guest guest]

Dear All,

 

Here is the review printed in the newspaper " The Telegraph " from

kolkata, India.

 

http://www.telegraphindia.com/1021206/asp/opinion/story_1448139.asp

 

Regards,

 

Malolan Cadambi

 

 

 

Everything you'll ever need on one web page

from News and Sport to Email and Music Charts

http://uk.my.