The poetry emanating from thebhaktitradition of devotional love in India has been both a religious expression and a form of resistance to hierarchies of caste, gender, and colonialism. Some scholars have read this art form through the lens of resistance and reform, but others have responded that imposing an interpretive framework on these poems fails to appreciate their authentic expressions of devotion. This bookargues that these declarations of love and piety can simultaneously represent efforts towards emancipation at the spiritual, political, and social level. This book, through a close study ofNaá¸-ini(1911), a Malayalam lyric poem, as well as other poems, authored by MahÄkavi KumÄran ÄÅÄn (1873-1924), a low-caste Kerala poet, demonstrates how ÄÅÄn employed a theme of love among humans during the modern period in Kerala that was grounded in the native South Indianbhaktiunderstanding of love of the deity. ÄÅÄn believed that personal religious freedom comes from devotion to the deity, and that love for humans must emanate from love of the deity. In showing how devotional religious expression also served as a resistance movement, this study provides new perspective on an understudied area of the colonial period. Bringing to light an under-explored medium, in both religious and artistic terms, this book will be of great interest to scholars of religious studies, Hindu studies, and religion and literature, as well as academics with an interest in Indian culture. | Religious Devotion And The Poetics Of Reform by George Pati, Hardcover | Indigo Chapters