Name for Hindu god Siva in the poetry of Mahadeviyakka, a young woman poet of the twelfth century in southern India. She apparently took this name for him from the form worshipped at Udutadi, her birthplace.

Her poetry is of the most passionate kind, love poetry aimed at God, which recalls, for Westerners, some of the most passionate poetry written by St. John of the Cross in Europe a few centuries later.

Here's a sample:

Monkey on a monkeyman's stick
puppet at the end of a string

I've played as you've played
I've spoken as you've told me
I've been as you've let me be

O engineer of the world
lord white as jasmine

I've run
til you cried halt.

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