The Vernacular Veda: Revelation, Recitation, and Ritual (Studies in Comparative Religion)

One Hindu community's passionate commitment to a poem written for the masses

The Vernacular Veda explores the centrality of a tenth-century Tamil poem, Tiruvaymoli (TVM), to the daily worship of south India's Hindu Srivaisnava community. Vasudha Narayanan's comprehensive study profiles the author of the veda and reveals the impact this common-language text has had on the community for the past one thousand years.

Narayanan emphasizes Srivaisnava's pride in the TVM's accessibility, identifies the Hindu cultural norms collectively challenged by the TVM, and highlights the ways in which the TVM differs from other texts in the Tamil devotional canon. In the final section of the book, Narayanan translates 143 of the TVM's most recited verses, marking the Temple TVM's first publication in English.

Vasudha Narayanan is assistant professor of religion at the University of Florida and author of Bhakti and Prappatti in the Srivaisnava Tradition.