The Center for the Study of Hindu Traditions (CHiTra) at the University of Florida presents a virtual book launch of
Stories of Shiva’s Saints: Selections from Harihara’s Ragales ((Oxford University Press, 2025)
By Gil Ben-Herut and R.V. S. Sundaram
After Professor Ben-Herut’s presentation, there will be a discussion by
Laurie Patton, President American Academy of Arts and Sciences
Paula Richman, William H. Danforth Professor Emerita of South Asian Religions, Oberlin College.
Harshita Mruthinti Kamath, Visweswara Rao and Sita Koppaka Associate Professor in Telugu Culture, Literature and History at Emory University
Meeting URL: https://ufl.zoom.us/j/98629106386?pwd=g9j6mb3H2oVKDhlCL1oa6vDLnQcBEv.1
Meeting ID 986 2910 6386
Passcode 563158
At the end of the twelfth century, Hampeya Harihara composed the Shivasharanara Ragalegalu ("Stories of Shiva's Saints Written in the Ragale Meter") and inaugurated a new era in Kannada literature. Harihara's work is of major historical significance for its innovative literary form and as the first text to narrate the lives of important religious figures and vachana poets of the time, such as Allama Prabhu and Akka, and in particular Basava, the most well-known leader of the nascent tradition today identified with the Virashaivas/Lingayats. As the first English translation of eighteen stories from this work, this book serves as an invitation to contemporary readers to enjoy and appreciate a text that is rich with religious fervor, antinomian social agendas, raucous characters, and gripping drama—but also delicate poetry and significant historical importance.
Gil Ben-Herut is a Professor in the Religious Studies Department, University of South Florida. He has published books and articles about religious literature in the Kannada language and South Asian bhakti (devotional) traditions, and his current research on Vachana poetry is supported by the Nehru-Fulbright Fellowship, the American Institute of Indian Studies, and the National Endowment for the Humanities.
R. V. S. Sundaram retired as the Director of the Institute of Kannada Studies at the University of Mysore in 2008. He was also a Visiting Professor of South Indian Languages and Literatures at the University of Pennsylvania and other universities. He is a polyglot who has published more than 100 books and monographs in Telugu, Kannada, and English.
Laurie L. Patton is the president of the American Academy of Arts and Sciences and previously served as the president of Middlebury College from 2015 to 2024. She is a scholar, poet, translator, and leader who has spent a life in letters and in service to higher education. Dr. Patton works on South Asian history, culture, and religion, and on religion and the public sphere. She is the author or editor of eleven books and more than seventy articles in the field.
Paula Richman is the William H. Danforth Professor Emerita of South Asian Religions at Oberlin College. She has written several books on Tamil texts and has edited several books on the Ramayana, including Many Ramayanas, Questioning Ramayana, Ramayana Stories in Modern South India, and Performing the Ramayana Tradition.
Harshita Mruthinti Kamath is the Visweswara Rao and Sita Koppaka Associate Professor in Telugu Culture, Literature and History at Emory University. Her research focuses on textual and performance traditions of the South Indian language of Telugu. Her current monograph, Sanitizing Sex: Erotic and Devotional Entanglements in Telugu South India, traces the relationship between eroticism and devotion in the short lyrical poems of the Telugu poets Tāḷḷapaka Annamayya and Kṣetrayya.