Power, Gender, and Vocal Guising in Annamayya’s Śṛṅgāra Songs

Abstract

My paper focuses on the short lyrical songs known as saṅkīrtanas composed by the fifteenthcentury
Telugu poet Tāḷḷapāka Annamayya. The bulk of Annamayya’s saṅkīrtanas, which were
inscribed on thousands of copper plates and stored in the famous Tirumala temple, focus on
themes of śṛṅgāra (eroticism). In South Asian devotional poetry, śṛṅgāra is often expressed
through the convention of the male poet taking on the female voice to speak to his god, and this
trope was applied by a range of poets across many languages beginning with the Tamil Āḻvār
poets of the sixth to ninth centuries C.E. Drawing on and expanding this convention, Annamayya
placed a heightened emphasis on śṛṅgāra in his songs, but unlike the Tamil Āḻvār poets before
him, he shifted the focus away from love in separation to love in sexual union. In the paper
analyze the structure and content of Annamayya’s saṅkīrtanas, tracing distinct layers of gendered
voice—the female heroine, her friend, and the male poet. Each voice presents new possibilities
for interpreting śṛṅgāra within the boundaries of the text, as well as new avenues for displays of
poetic power. What does it mean for these erotic poems, which were authored by a maleidentified
poet, to feature intimate scenes of female-identified bodies? What kinds of erotic and
devotional domains do these lyrical poems create?