My Book of the Century

MY favourite book is actually a book of poems called Speaking of Shiva, translated byA.K. Ramanujan. This is a book of vachanas or 'sayings' of four of the most significantsaint-poets of the Karnataka region-Basavanna, Allama, Dasimayya and Akkam Ahadevi. Theyrepresent the beginning of the Veerasaiva movement, a kind of 'protestant' Hindu awakeningperiod where a deliberate attempt was made to make religion accessible to everyone. Thevachana poetry in the book spans the 10th to the 12th century A.D. Far from beingdogmatic, the poems are a celebration of the love for the divine. But unlike Vaishnavpoetry, they are extremely profound and complex in their understanding of human longingfor spirituality and meaning; they also lack the stiffness of Sanskrit slokas. Ramanujan'stranslation is musical, resonant, brilliant in its simplicity and free of antiquatedterms. I urge litterateurs, better read than I, to consider this the book of themillenium. Perhaps it will restore people's faith in 'Protestant' Hinduism and save itfrom the savages.