A Hundred Measures Of Time

Tiruviruttam

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‘Look, my feet measure beyond earth and sky!’ he said
and touched the sky.
I have surrendered to my lord
who glanced at me with his large radiant eyes.

The Tiruviruttam is an iconic poem by Namma?var (c. ninth century CE), the greatest of the a?var poet-saints of the Tamil Srivai??ava tradition. Its hundred interlinked verses celebrate the love between an anonymous heroine and hero, who come to be identified with Namma?var and his beloved deity, Vi??u. The poet masterfully weaves the erotic and esoteric to reveal both the contours of love and the never-ending cycles of separation and union, of birth and death, from which only Vi??u can offer release.
In A Hundred Measures of Time, Archana Venkatesan has crafted a sonorous free-verse rendering and an accompanying far-ranging essay to delight poetry lovers and scholars alike.