FHS Poem of the Day
It is by Akka Mahadevi. She was born around 1130 in the Indian state of Karnataka. She is often hailed as an early feminist literary voice. It is difficult to locate precise features about her life, but a common claim is that she abandoned her husband, the regional ruler whom she was forced to marry, and she wandered alone without any possessions, including clothing, praising her revered God. She played a pivotal role in a new literary form: the ‘vacana’, a ‘saying’ or ‘prose poem’ meaning ‘to give one’s word’.
In ‘Would a circling surface vultureÂ’, the speaker highlights the importance of having in-depth knowledge. She concludes that only her ‘Lord white as jasmine […] would knowÂ’ in the deepest possible way, but we might run with her idea in relation to our own pursuits. How could we avoid having just a ‘surfaceÂ’ knowledge like the ‘circling […] vultureÂ’ or the ‘fly darting nearbyÂ’? Have some of us already felt the joys of having a detailed level of knowledge in our coursework research or EPQs? Why do we think many institutions have recently been focusing on taking time to read deeply to educate themselves, in relation to social and historical matters?
Do we think that we can ever truly ‘know such depths’? Does Akka Mahadevi, a woman writing in twelfth-century India, in fact convey similar ideas to Emily Dickinson, a woman writing in nineteenth-century America? Dickinson has one of her speaker’s claiming that she has ‘Finished knowing’, that she cannot truly comprehend the world. Should we celebrate the fact that two women living seven hundred years apart, from completely different cultures, could wrestle with the same ideas? Should we join them in a quest for at least some crumbs of knowledge?
Would a circling surface vulture
Would a circling surface vulture
know such depths of sky
as the moon would know?
would a weed on the riverbank
know such depths of water
as the lotus would know?
would a fly darting nearby
know the smell of flowers
as the bee would know?
O Lord white as jasmine
only you would know
the way of your devotees:
how would these
these
mosquitos
on the buffaloÂ’s hides?
By Akka Mahadevi
