Akka Mahadevi
Twelfth-century Kannada poet-saint of the Lingayat (Veerashaiva) tradition, one of the most radical female voices in medieval Indian devotional literature. Born in Karnataka around 1130, she was, by tradition, married against her will to a king but renounced her marriage and her clothing alike, walking through the world covered only by her hair, addressing all her vachanas (free-verse devotional poems) to her chosen lord, the formless Shiva called Chenna Mallikarjuna ("the beautiful jasmine-white lord"). Her work — direct, unornamented, defiant — has become a touchstone for both modern Kannada literature and contemporary feminist spiritual writing.
105
quotes in library
Quotes by Akka Mahadevi
105 quotes“O brothers, you do not know my Lord. He is jasmine-white. He is beyond form.”
belovedVachanas
“Why is your hair gathered? You should let it down to wear the world.”
freedomVachanas
“O snake without legs, dance for me. I will dance for the Lord.”
danceVachanas
“You can confiscate money in hand, can you confiscate the body's glory? Or peel away every strip you wear, but can you peel the Nothing, the Nakedness that covers and veils?”
nakednessSpeaking of Siva
“To the shameless girl wearing the white jasmine Lord's light of morning, you fool, where is the need for cover and jewel?”
shamelessnessSpeaking of Siva
“My beloved is white as jasmine. My body is white with the dust of his feet.”
intimacyVachanas
“Take these husbands who die, decay, and feed them to your kitchen fires.”
renunciationSpeaking of Siva
“Husband inside, lover outside. I cannot manage them both.”
divine-marriageSpeaking of Siva
“This world, this body, this husband — let him take them. The Lord of jasmine-white is mine.”
renunciationVachanas
“O Lord, white as jasmine, I have heard the sound of your bracelets in the marketplace.”
presenceVachanas
“Lord, the day you came I forgot the way home.”
absorptionVachanas
“All hands are his hands. All feet are his feet. There is no body, only him.”
unityVachanas
“What is the use of body, the body that has not danced for the Lord?”
danceVachanas
“My beloved is older than the gods, younger than the morning star.”
timelessVachanas
“O Lord of jasmine, take this body. I have no use for it without you.”
surrenderVachanas
“Whoever has the Lord in his heart has every wealth.”
wealthVachanas
“My body is the temple. My breath is the bell. My beloved is the deity.”
templeVachanas
“What is the use of marriage to a man who will rot? My groom is the unrotting Lord.”
groomVachanas
“Like a silkworm weaving her house with love from her marrow, and dying in her body's threads winding tight, round and round, I burn desiring what the heart desires.”
desireSpeaking of Siva
Page 1 of 6Next
Explore More Teachers
Discover wisdom from 500+ spiritual teachers across all traditions.
Browse All Teachers