from Sacred Utterances

Manikkavasagar

Ecstasy Brims and Cleanses
Verse 54
sages great have devoted lives 
to eternal penance forsaken bodily needs 
weakened themselves in bone and limb 
to see You. 

yet You chose me sinful devotee 
to inhabit possess claim.
i have not yet rid this misery of a body of its dirt 
i have not yet cleansed myself
i, who stand unworthy
of true love for You, 
the most precious
jewel amongst jewels,
how do i see You?

translated from the Tamil by Shobhana Kumar



Ecstasy Brims and Cleanses
Verse 54



in age after age 
saint after saint 
mortified flesh and prayed
to catch  
a glimpse of you

you stymied this
yet aberrant 
me 
you’ve clasped


my body’s rank longings glow 
while my passion 
for you pales 


gem 
how may i rise?

translated from the Tamil by Priya Sarukkai Chabria


 
Don’t Abandon Me 



181-184

as fly trapped      in  the jackfruit’s sweetness    i was       stilled 
by women’s soft sap       but discard me   and i’ll follow roaring 
reproaches   ‘black-throated’  ‘poison lover’   ‘unqualified’  ‘his 
crown jewel’s a waning moon’    i’ll hector you  ‘god gone wrong’ 



189-192

hero   with snake slithering through your piled starred hair    i’ll
do worse    if you abandon me       when people ask ‘to whom do you belong?’ i’ll  shout  ‘i’m bondsman to Uttarakocamangai’s king’   when 
i swear my allegiance    they ‘ll scorn you 



193-196

i’m not done with you             if you forsake me lord   i’ll make 
them laugh     by lampooning  us    ‘he’s the madman wrapped 
in elephant  hide’  ‘lunatic who drinks poison’      ‘insane  dancer 
of the burning ground’     ‘ the idiot who chose me to serve him ‘      

translated from the Tamil by Priya Sarukkai Chabria



Game of Repartee
Verse 9





the lover of the southern lands, ascetic manic dancer of Thillai holds a woman in his arm—
what lust in him, your lord




without his dance of love can we find release? without 
a loved, spent life can we be freed at all?  

translated from the Tamil by Shobhana Kumar and Priya Sarukkai Chabria



Mystic Meeting
Verse 4 
honey-milk-nectar 
such-sweetness-that-sourness 
of-the-sharpest-smallest-gooseberry 
brightens-to-ambrosia 
Light
surpassing 
intent-utterance-word-language

radiant-unchiselled-ruby
when-do-i-merge-with-you 

translated from the Tamil by Shobhana Kumar and Priya Sarukkai Chabria

Read the original in Tamil

Power-play is inherent in translation practice. We wish to replace the Western privileging of equivalence by drawing from Indic translation practices current at the time of the compositions to offer provocations on how these can challenge and enrich contemporary translation methods. Resistance and respect are thus intertwined in our work. 

Classical Tamil poetry is a condensed, complex form. The language is ornate, its music runs with assonance, alliteration, and varied rhyme schemes; it invites faceted, generative interpretations, especially when attempting to share elusive sacred poetry. 

Our translation strategies, intuited for the most part after research, rose from myriad grounds of meaning embedded in Manikkavasagar’s songs, and the godhead, Siva. This demands that various poetic possibilities be explored; that contradictory yet twinned aspects of the great god be held in the imagination: as, for instance, without form, and in multiple forms. Besides, in Manikkavasagar’s songs, even the apparently monologic outpourings are dialogues with Siva, now in conversation, now in separation. Each song contains not one, but two distinct personalities: his and His. This is the DNA of the opus; through our two transcreations we attempt to copy (but not contain) this spiral. 

Sometimes our two voices offer different versions, both of which we hold true in parallel. Sometimes voices are combined, at other times one chooses a song that keens more to her. It’s after thiruvilayadal, god’s play at unveiling, suggesting more lies beneath the apparent. 

Punctuation is sparse, for in close reading, one word is a vein exploding or morphing into others sometimes all at once. Priya uses dark and light inking to suggest the literal and its hidden significance; she occasionally adds her name to the verses as mark not of possession, but release: this is a version. Following the Tamil script, she offers no capitalization. Shobhana eschews all capitalization except those that belong to the ultimate—Him. The symbolism of feet speaks most to her for this is the highest offering of a seeker, the true pointer to humility. Her verses are intentionally aligned to the centre and adopted by Priya in their collaborative work, for this is Shobhana’s direct path to seeing the divine—in every temple of faith.

Manikkavasagar ( மாணிக்கவாசகர் ) is one of the four samayak kuravar who were chiefly responsible for reviving Saivism in southern India, which, in the early medieval period, was largely Buddhist and Jaina. However, the bhakti  Tamil poet is considered more a contemplative mystic than a miracle worker or social reformer. Though his exact dates remain uncertain, tradition places Manikkavasagar in 9th century CE.  

His name (sometimes spelt as Manikkavacakar) translates as “whose words are rubies,” indicative of the profound power and linguistic beauty of his songs. Bhakti, devotional worship, emphasises personal dedication—as opposed to institutionalized religion—to a chosen god. Fittingly, these mystics sang in their mother tongues rather than Brahminic Sanskrit.

Manikkavasagar’s two collections of over 1,000 songs in Classical Tamil (cen) are Thiruvacakam ( திருவாசகம் , Sacred Utterances) and Thirukkovaiyar ( திருக்கோவையார் , Sacred Songs of Love). These constitute the eighth volume of the twelve-volume Thirumurai, of the scriptural canon of Tamil Saiva Siddantha. Its underlying philosophy pathi-pashu-pasam (Lord-finite beings-in bondage) stresses release (moksha) through the realization of divine grace.  

Followed by millions, his songs form a living tapestry of worship. They are still sung in temples and homes, and they proliferate across social media.

Priya Sarukkai Chabria is a poet, speculative fiction writer, translator from Classical Tamil, and Founding Editor of the decade-old online journal Poetry at Sangam.  She is the author of thirteen books, including EARTHRISE: Stories—Pasts, Presents, Potentials (2025), the chapbook Five Poems (2025), a reworking of Rabindranath Tagore’s Nobel Prize-winning Gitanjali as Sing of Life (2021), and the speculative fiction novel Clone (2018). She is co-editor of the anthology The Dragon’s Heart: World Poetry in Translation (2025).

Her awards include the Muse India Translation Prize for Andal: The Autobiography of a Goddess (2017), the Kitaab Experimental Story Award, recognition from Best Reads by Feminist Press, and the Outstanding Contribution to Literature Award from the Government of India. Widely published, Priya has held international residencies and presented programs at the Writers’ Centre Norwich, the Sun Yat-sen International Writers Program, the Commonwealth Literature Conference, Innsbruck, and the Indian Institute of Advanced Studies, among others.

Her creative praxis includes collaborative projects with visual and performance artists, informed by her deep engagement with ancient Tamil Sangam poetics and Sanskrit rasa theory. She works across poetry, fiction, non-fiction, and translation.

Priya serves on the Advisory Council of G100 (India) and WrICE (Writers Immersion and Cultural Exchange), Australia. Visit her website for more info.

Shobhana Kumar is a poet, translator, and nonfiction writer. Her book of haibun, A Sky Full of Bucket Lists (Red River, 2021), won the Rabindranath Tagore Literary Prize and received Honorable Mention in The Touchstone Distinguished Books Awards, established by The Haiku Foundation. She has two books of poetry published by Writers Workshop. 

K. Srilata and Shobhana Kumar’s work, I, Salma, Translated Poems (Red River, 2023) is the first collected poems of Salma in English. Their second collaboration is a collection of poems by iconic Tamil poet Subramania Bharathiar (Westland, forthcoming). Kumar is Associate Editor at Yavanika Press, an award-winning e-publishing house, and at cattails, a journal of haikai forms. OK 

Her work as a chronicler and archivist spans ten books covering regional histories and biographies, and is used actively by organizations in their culture-building initiatives. She also works in the space to corporate communication and branding strategy. She is mentor to the Centre for Leadership, Empowerment and Development (CLED) at Kumaraguru Institutions. 

In her non-work areas, she is founder of Small Differences, an NGO that works with the transgender community, vulnerable children, and the homeless. She serves as a member of the Board of Trustees of pioneering NGOs and institutions.