1. PRIYA SARUKKAI CHABRIA’S books include speculative
fiction, cross-genre non-fiction, a novel and two poetry
collections. Awarded a fellowship for her Outstanding
Contribution to Literature by the Indian Government,
her work is translated into six languages. She has
experimented with the ancient Rasa theory of aesthetics,
learnt Pali to read the Jataka Tales, co-founded the silent
film society Friends of the Archive, collaborated with
filmmakers, dancers and artists and curated two seminars
for the Indian Academy of Literature. Her work can be
found in anthologies and journals including Adelphiana,
Asymptote, Breaking the Bow, Caravan, Indian Quarterly,
The Literary Review (USA), The HarperCollins Book
of English Poetry, Southerly, South Asian Review, PEN
International, Post Road, The British Journal of Literary
Translation, Pratilipi, Language for a New Century,
Another English: Anglophone Poems from Around the
World, South Asian Review, Writing Love: An Anthology of
Indian English Poetry.
RAVI SHANKAR, an award-winning poet, author, translator,
andfoundingeditorofDrunkenBoat(www.drunkenboat.
com), has appeared at many venues, including The New
York Times, The Paris Review, NPR, the BBC, and the
Chronicle of Higher Education. His many books include
W.W. Norton’s Language for a New Century, What Else
Could it Be, Instrumentality, and the National Poetry
Prize winner Deepening Groove, called the work of “one
of America’s finest younger poets”. Winner of a Pushcart
Prize, he has taught, held fellowships and performed his
work around the world.
A powerful expression of female sexuality in the Indian spiritual
tradition, in a breathtaking new translation
‘… a translation maven’s dream.’
John Stratton Hawley, Columbia University
‘This book is a gateway to a literature that dwarfs Western bookshelves,
an erotic metaphysics, a psychology of the absolute. To open these pag-
es is to enter “the holy city of Arankaram”, “Dvarka”, “that kingdom
of interconnecting lights”, the human mind refusing any limit. Priya
Sarukkai Chabria and Ravi Shankar, remarkable poets in their own
right, have taken us on a fascinating journey.’
Dennis Nurkse, poet
‘We emerge bloodied and honeyed by Andal’s surrender to her Lord.
Priya Sarukkai Chabria and Ravi Shankar, highly accomplished poets,
rise to meet Andal with grace and fire, and transport her words, her
worlds, to us, unafraid of its immeasurable depths. Theirs is as much a
feat of courage and love as of craft and ingenuity.’
Karthika Nair, poet
‘Priya Sarukkai Chabria and Ravi Shankar offer us a haunting chamber
of echoes, and a figure that segues between mystic and metaphor,
woman and deity. The result is verse that swirls between sensuality and
sacred delirium – and a profusion of Andals, edgy, erotic and
darkly ecstatic.’
Arundhati Subramaniam, poet
Ninth-century Tamil poet and founding saint Andal is
believed to have been found as a baby beneath a holy
basil plant in the temple garden of Srivilliputhur. As a
young woman she fell deeply in love with Lord Vishnu,
composing fervent poems and songs in his honour
and, according to custom, eventually marrying the
god himself. The Autobiography of a Goddess comprises
Andal’s entire corpus, composed before her marriage
to Vishnu, and cements her status as the South Indian
corollary of Mirabai, the saint and devotee of Sri
Krishna. The collection includes Tiruppavai, a song
still popular in congregational worship, thirty pasuram
(stanzas) sung before Lord Vishnu, and the less-
translated, rapturously erotic Nacchiyar Tirumoli.
Priya Sarrukai Chabria and Ravi Shankar employ
a radical method in this translation, breathing new life
into this rich classical and spiritual verse by rendering
Andal in a contemporary poetic idiom in English.
Many of Andal’s pieces are translated collaboratively;
others individually and separately. The two approaches
are brought together, presenting a richly layered reading
of these much-loved classic Tamil poems and songs.
andal
THE AUTOBIOGRAPHY OF A GODDESS
T R A N S L A T E D A N D E D I T E D B Y
P R I YA S A R U K K A I C H A B R I A A N D
R A V I S H A N K A R
andalTHEAUTOBIOGRAPHYOFAGODDESS
Jacket designed by Sunandini Banerjee, Seagull Books, using a reverse
acrylic by K. G. Subramanyan. Image courtesy The Seagull Foundation
for the Arts, Calcutta.