OPEN STACKS | #17 Tamil Saints and Poets: David Shulman & Ravi Shankar
Tell him like the scrolls of leaves that fall unread
after prolonged rain has stripped the branches,
I too waste away, unread, waiting for the day
he might translate the secret letters of my limbs.
Andal, from Dark Clouds Be My Messenger
This week on Open Stacks, we explore the beauty of Tamil language and poetry. Preeminent Indian Studies scholars David Shulman and Wendy Doniger discuss Shulman's latest book Tamil: A Biography. Poet Ravi Shankar reads his translations of the ancient poet Andal, as featured in his new co-translated collection, Autobiography of a Goddess. Plus, a special performance of Dhrupad music, Indian classical singing, performed by David and Eileen Shulman.
Related Titles
Spoken by eighty million people in South Asia and a diaspora that stretches across the globe, Tamil is one of the great world languages, and one of the few ancient languages that survives as a mother tongue for so many speakers. David Shulman presents a comprehensive cultural history of Tamil--...
