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When God Is a Customer: Telugu Courtesan Songs by Kṣetrayya and Others by A. K.

Ramanujan; Velcheru Narayana Rao; David ShulmanReview by: Stuart BlackburnBulletin of the School of Oriental and African Studies, University of London, Vol. 58, No. 2(1995), pp. 398-399Published by: Cambridge University Press on behalf of School of Oriental and African StudiesStable URL: http://www.jstor.org/stable/620921 .

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398 REVIEWS

publication will only serve in the long run todiscredit his cause, even if the seeminglyinnocuous title preserves it a place on thelibrary shelves as an indicator of the mood of

the early 1990s rather than as a history of themedieval period.

A. A. POWELL

A. K. RAMANUJAN, VELCHERUNARAYANA RAO and DAVIDSHULMAN (ed. andtr.): When odisa customer: Telugucourtesansongsby

K.etrayya

and others. 157 pp.Berkeley, CA: University ofCalifornia

Press,1994. $12.

The title tells it all: in these song-poemscomposed in Telugu in south India by littleknown poets such as Ksetrayya and sung bycourtesans, the local god seeks the sexualfavours of those accomplished women. But ofcourse, this is not the full story, and the threemen who produced this little gem of a bookcombine their talents to reveal what reallyhappens when the god is a customer.

These poems are padams, 'short musical

compositions of a light classical nature, inten-ded to be sung, and often danced' (p. 1).

Although sungin

manyIndian

languages,padams became especially popular in the six-teenth to eighteenth centuries in the templesand royal courts under the patronage of Telugukings in southern Andhra and the Tamil

country, where they were sung by professionalsingers and dancers (devaddsts);some are still

sung in the Carnatic music tradition of southIndia. The three translatorsplace these remark-able songs in their various contexts-bhakti

poetry in India generally, south Indian love

poetry, and Telugu poetics-in order to pointout continuities and contrasts. In particular,the authors detail a set of conventions and

allusions,continuous from the ancient Tamil

corpus through Vaisnava bhakti poems, that'frame' these later Telugu padams. But thecontrasts are more striking, especially in

Ksetrayya's poems, such as this one in whicha courtesan addresses Muvva Gopila, a localform of Krsna:

'Listening to my moans as you touchcertain spots, the pet parrot mimics me,and O how we laugh in bed!You say "Come close, my girl," and makelove to me like a wild man, Muvva Gopila,as I get ready to move on top' (p. 127).

This is not an allegory of the soul's desire

for god, and the translators reject any suchmystical interpretations which have habituallyreduced Indian love poetry to a thin theology.Even when these Telugu songs retain a meta-

physical dimension, they reflect a 'fascinationwith bodily knowledge of the god' (p. 18) thatreclaims the lost metaphor in divine love. Other

readings, including the devotional impulse andsofter unions with the god, are proposed forother poets and poems, but the translatorsreserve most of their commentary for a complexreading of Ksetrayya's bold lyrics. The cour-tesans in his poems bargain with god the

customer, handle cash, and sulk when they feelcheated. As is true of much of the bhaktitradition, the poems speak most often in afemale voice, of the courtesan, her friends, or

a married mother (but the speaker is occasion-ally a man, too). Frustrateddesire, the leitmotifof many ordinary bhakti poems, is replacedhere with fulfilment, often orgasm, controlledby the woman; she may be abandoned in somepoems, but she is never the victim of the god'swhims as in other bhakti poems; and it is she,not the god, who manipulates her lover.

Patronage and power in the poems, thetranslators argue, comment on those sameforces operating in the temples and courts inwhich they were sung. From about 1500 A.D.acash economy plied by traders and armies grewmore powerful in south India, and in this fluid

society, wealthy men could become little kings,and kings were conflated with gods. Thus,although the customer-gods in the poems areidentified as deities in local and regionaltemples, they might also be a local Nayak kingor wealthy patron.

These duplicities of voice, audience, andsexual identity circle through these poems inwhich male poets speak as females about theirmale lovers. Such cross-gender vocalizations,complicated by the fact that some of the poemswere sung by men playing female roles in

Kiicipiidi dance-dramas, invite further com-

mentary. It is noteworthy, for example, that

many of the poems are addressed to anotherwoman (colleague, friend, messenger) and onlyobliquely to the customer-gods; men are peri-pheral, except for their money. Were these

poems, then, first sung by women and laterwritten up by poets like Ksetrayya?

We can ask these questions precisely becausethe translations are themselves so evocative.Not only are they accurate (given the Telugutalents of Narayana Rao and Shulman), theyare poems in their own right (largely due tothe hand of the late A. K. Ramanujan). The

English poems attend to the structure of the

Telugu; the initial statement and its restatement

as a refrain, for example, is retained to greateffect. In a section entitled 'On reading aPadam', we are shown that the formal elementsof one poem (its stanzic structure, syntax,diction, and morphology) reinforce its themeof tension between pent up desire and fulfil-ment, ending with the orgasm in the stanza

quoted above. Added to formal structure is

performance context: when the courtesan,entertainingher customer in her bedroom, sangand danced to these the lyrics, she would imbuethem, especially the refrain, with a wide rangeof emotions.

Not surprisingly,later editors and comment-

ators in Telugu condemned the erotic contentof these poems, obscured them with vaguespiritual interpretations, and published them'with dots replacingobjectionable verses, some-times spanning whole pages' (p. 29). The socialreform movements at the turn of the century,epitomized by the anti-nautch (courtesan song-dance performance) campaign, killed off thepublic role of the courtesans, and their traditiononly resurfaced in the early decades of thiscentury with a reconstructed history and iden-tity as

Bharatan.tyam.

Still, 'doubts andhesitations persisted' (p. 28). This book breaks

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JOHN STRATTON HAWLEY andGURINDER SINGH MANN (ed.):Studying the Sikhs: issuesfor NorthAmerica. (SUNY Series in

Religious Studies.) vii, 217 pp.Albany, NY: State University ofNew York Press, 1993. $16.95(paper).

Britishuniversity ourses n religious tudiesrarelyprovidemore than a fewlectureson theSikh religion,often as part of a surveyofreligionn the subcontinent r a studyof worldscriptures.A Sikhrecently raduatedrom oneof England'smost eminentreligiousstudiesdepartmentsaid that Sikhismhadnot featuredat all in the syllabus.It is difficult o explain

whythis situation should

prevailin 1994. It

cannot be lack of study materials,as mighthave been the case in 1974,or the absenceofSikhs. That never deterreduniversities romoffering ourseson otherreligions ong beforetheyestablishedhemselvesn largenumbersnBritain.Perhapsthe reason lies in the wellknowndifficultywhichsomethingnew has ininsertingtself nexisting ourses.For whateverreason, t remainsa fact that the third argestreligionntheUK, afterChristianityndIslam,is almost gnored.

Not so in Canadaand theUSA. It is taughtin many placesandby men and women,Sikhand

non-Sikh,for whom it is a

primaryacademic nterest.Severalof thesehave cometogetherto publishwhat they describeas a'basicguideand resource ook'. It targets ourareas: eligioustudies,history,world iterature,and ethnicormigration tudies. t is, however,muchmorethan a guidein any cursory ense.It directs the reader nto regionsas yet littleexploredwhichresearchersmight nvestigate.

Twoimportant evelopmentsave ed to thegrowthof Sikh studies and the need for thisbook. One is the Indianpoliticalsituation nwhichSikhs indthemselves. heconstitutionalcollapseof the Indianrepublicwhichseemedimminent n the

daysof the Gandhis,Indira

and Rajiv, may now be less likelyto happenbut many Sikhs still agitate for a separateindependenttate, Khalistan,or a newfederalconstitutionwhich will givegreaterautonomyto Punjaband other states and reduce theinterventionistowersof the nationalgovern-ment. Academicswho had scarcelyheardofthe Sikhsfoundthemselves,n 1984,expectedto explain hemto themedia.A secondreasonis the growthof awareness hatSikhism s notan aspectof Hinduism,but a distinctreligionwith its own scriptures,beliefs, values, andpractices.

This symposiumof eight essays, three bySikhsthe rest by non-Sikhswho specializenteaching hatreligion, s a corporate eflectionupon the experienceof teachinga varietyofaspectsof thereligion.Most mmediately sefulmaybe thecontribution f ProfessorGurinderSinghMannwhoprovidesa detailedoutlineofthe coursehe introduced t Columbian 1988,supplemented y self-critical eflectionsuponhow the course was received and studentevaluations.Sometutorscontemplatingntro-ducingSikh studies nto theirsyllabusesmightuse his model, othersmay preferto be lesshistoricaland focus on contemporarymani-festationsof thetradition.Whicheverpproachthey use they will certainly benefit fromreflecting n Mann'sexperience.

Each of the essays contains importantinsights.As ananthology hey ntroduceeadersto a variety of issues not coveredin mosttextbooks because they often lie in areasdemandingesearch.

This collection of essays will have lastingvalue for all who are interestedn Sikhism orthree reasons.First,it providesguidanceandextensivebibliographiesor those who, onehopes,will establish ourses n the near future.Secondly, t informs such tutors and depart-ments of the pitfallsthat can they may face.This is particularly rue of Hew McLeod'scontribution, ut is a recurringheme hrough-out the book. There is a tension between heapproachof Sikh scholarscoming from anIndianbackground nd non-Sikhs,plus someSikhswho have adoptedWesternmethodsofstudy. No one should be unaware of this.Finally,despite hegeneralack of undergradu-ate provision here arestudentswho work onthe Sikhtraditionat higher-degreeevel.Thosecontemplating uch studies are likelyto findmanyideasfor research.n fact,I wouldgo asfar as to suggest hat for them inparticulartshould be requiredpreliminaryeading.They,andanyotherreader,willlearnas muchaboutcontemporary ikhs and Sikhismas they willabout the studyof Sikhismn North America.In no respectshould the book be regarded sof only parochial alue,despite ts title.

W. OWEN COLE

REVIEWS 399

that silenceandopensa newchaptern bhaktipoetry with the publicationof these earthy,tenderTelugusongs.The threepremierrans-latorsof southIndian iteratureworked ollect-ivelyonthesepoems,anauspiciousonjunctionnever o recur,butwetake heart hat the voiceof the late A. K. Ramanujanwill be heardonce more in theseexquisiteranslations.

STUART BLACKBURN

NIKKY-GUNINDERKAUR SINGH: Thefeminine principle in the Sikh visionof the transcendant. 318 pp.Cambridge, etc. CambridgeUniversity Press, 1993. ?37.50,$59.95.

The authordescribes erstudyas a journeythrough the three differentphases of Sikhliterary history--scriptural, ransitionalandsecular.First she looks at the scriptures,heGuru GranthSahib and then Akal Ustat ofGuruGobindSingh.Forthe remainder f herworksheexamines omeof thewritingsof theSixth Riverof Punjab,as manySikhscall him,thepoetBhai VirSinghwhodiedin 1957.

The teachingsof the Gurus s clear.God isOne and is immanent n all creation.Thisnecessarilyeadsto theprinciple f onehuman-ity in which distinctionsof race and gender