Dr Suganya Anandakichenin
Suganya Anandakichenin did her PhD at the Universität Hamburg on Kulacēkara Āḻvār’s Perumāḷ Tirumoḻi. She published a philological translation of this work along with that of the whole medieval commentary in Manipravalam by Periyavāccāṉ Piḷḷai. After working for the NETamil project from 2014 to 2018, she is currently a postdoctoral fellow at the SFB 950, Centre for the Studies of Manuscript Cultures, Universität Hamburg. Her research interests include Tamil bhakti poetry, medieval Śrīvaiṣṇava writings in Manipravalam, commentary traditions in India, Tamil-Sanskrit interactions, and the transmission of texts via manuscripts in South India.
Her current projects are:
- A study of the Manipravalam commentaries (by Periyavāccāṉ Piḷḷai, Aḻakiya Maṇavāḷa Perumāḷ Nāyaṉār and Vedānta Deśika) on Amalaṉ āti pirāṉ by Tiruppāṇāḻvār. This includes a translation of all three commentaries.
- A study of the early commentarial traditions among the Śrīvaiṣṇava ācāryas. This project will be based on the translation of the entire āṟāyirappaṭi commentary by Tirukkurukai Pirāṉ Piḷḷāṉ, and a partial translation of the paṉṉīrāyirappaṭi by Vādikesari Aḻakiya Maṇavāḷa Cīyar and the īṭu muppattārāyirappaṭi by Nampiḷḷai.
- A translation and study of Cayamkoṇṭār's Kaliṅkattu Paraṇi in a common project that involves Nicholas Gordiychuk
- Working on two readers, a) a reader of Tamil Vaiṣṇava Poetry, b) A reader of Śrīvaiṣṇava prose in Tamil-Sanskrit Manipravalam
Publications
- a monograph: My Sapphire-hued Lord, My Beloved. A Complete, Annotated Translation of Kulacēkara Āḻvār’s Perumāḷ Tirumoḻi and Periyavāccāṉ Piḷḷai’s Medieval Maṇipravāḷam Commentary, with an Introduction, Collection Indologie, Pondichéry, EFEO/IFP, 2018.
- a volume edited with Victor D'Avella: "The Commentary Idioms of the Tamil Learned Traditions." Collection Indologie 141, NETamil Series 5. Pondichéry: Institut Français de Pondichéry/ École française d’Extrême-Orient, iv + 603 p.
and the following articles:
- “On the Non-Vālmīkian sources of Kulacēkara Āḻvār’s ‘Mini-Rāmāyaṇa’”published in The Archaeology of Bhakti I: Mathurā and Maturai, Back and Forth. Edited by Emmanuel Francis & Charlotte Schmid, Collection Indologie n° 125. Pondichéry: Institut Français de Pondichéry/ École française d’Extrême-Orient, 2014, pp. 249-288.
- “The ‘Sacred’ Hill in the Eyes of the Āḻvārs and the Śrīvaiṣṇava Commentators.” Journal of Vaishnava Studies. Vol. 23, No. 2, (2015) pp. 63-86.
- “A Note on the Importance of the arcāvatāra for the Medieval Śrīvaiṣṇava Acharyas.” Journal of Vaishnava Studies. Vol. 26(1), (2017) pp. 203-214.
For more information, see https://uni-hamburg.academia.edu/SuganyaAnandakichenin