I am working on a project “Poetry Makes Worlds” on the Annual Festival of Recitation (Adhyayanotsavam). I’ve been interested in this festival ever since I read about it in Vasudha Narayanan’s Vernacular Veda almost twenty years ago. I observed the festival at the Āṇṭāḷ temple in Srivilliputtur, where it dovetails often (and in rather complicated ways) with the Nīrāṭṭa Utsavam (the festival commemorating Kōtai-Āṇṭāḷ’s) Tiruppāvai vow. At that time, my focus was really on Āṇṭāḷ, her temple, and I filed the Adhyayanotsavam at this temple in a side part of my brain. When I began my work in Alvar Tirunagari in 2007, the festival came roaring back to the forefront. Since then, the project has grown to include the entire Nava Tirupati network as well as Tirukkurungudi and Nanguneri. I am interested in all kinds of things–how space and time are managed, how poetry creates and unmakes worlds and gods, and devotees too. I am interested in the senses, and how the senses are heightened through recitation, music, percussion, scent, smell, food and the spectacle of alaṅkāra. I eventually hope to write a book about the Adhyayanotsavam, one that foregrounds poetry, feeling and experience.
