Songs for Siva: Vacanas of Akka Mahadevi

'[Vinaya Chaitanya shows] an acute awareness of textual issues that never bothered earlier translators.' - From the foreword by H.S. Shivaprakash

Hailed as an early feminist literary voice, Akka Mahadevi was born in twelfth-century Karnataka. As a child she was initiated into the worship of Channamallikarjuna, her village's version of Siva. She was forced to marry her region's ruler, but because she had become so ardently devoted to the god, Akka abandoned her husband and all her possessions...