Akka Mahadevi Essay

Akka Mahadevi (also known as as Mahadevi or Mahadeviyakka) was a poet addressed with the honorific ‘Akka’, which translates to ‘elder sister’ in kannada her native language. Born in the 12th century, she belonged to the Veerashaiva community and played a significant role in the propagation of the tradition across the south of India.

The Veerashaivas, also known as Lingayats, are a Shaivite community that believes in worship of Lord Shiva in the form of a ‘Linga’ that is always carried on their body- the Ishtalinga. Veerashaivism propounds a form of qualified non-dualism in which God and the Soul are considered different and non-different simultaneously. It is comparable to the sufi concept of Wahdat al-Wujud that compares the God and the soul to the Sun and Earth respectively- the Earth does not have any light of it’s own, rather it borrows light from the sun just as the soul borrows its divinity from God.

Akka Mahadevi is considered by many to have played a significant role in female emancipation in South India, specifically Karnataka. She was outspoken and made decisions independent of social expectations in the midst of an extremely patriarchal society that afforded women little freedom and few rights. She rejected worldly pleasures and familial

Her reference to herself in one of her poems as ‘she who has no one’ illustrates this clearly. Another significant theme is that of sacrifice and transformation. The poem above uses the image of a silkworm sacrificing its life to wind its cocoon to portray sacrifice as well as transformation. A third equally important theme is shame. Akka Mahadevi explores social notions of shame and what is considered shameful. She “shamelessly” associates with people from lower castes than herself, gallivants around the kingdom naked and speaks her mind freely. All of these traits (excluding the nudity) would be considered normal in most cultures in today’s day and