Guwahati, Feb. 10 -- Archana Venkatesan, University of California, Davis

Valentine's Day often revives attention on romantic themes in literature. Stories are cited in media with the aim of helping people navigate the demands of the human heart on a day that has become intimately associated with romantic love.

One literary tradition rarely highlighted is that of Hindu "bhakti" or ecstatic devotion, which birthed some of the most stirring mystical poetry composed in the world. The earliest bhakti poems were composed in Tamil, a classical Indian language, in praise of the two great gods of Hinduism - Shiva and Vishnu.

While the poet-devotee adopts many attitudes in relation to their chosen deity, one of the most common is the relationshi...