Translating Āntāl's Tiruppāvai

In this thesis, I am exploring problems of translating a text such as Āntāl's Tiruppāvai which is largely known through the interpretation of the Śrīvaishnavas, South Indian Vaishnava sect, who were inheritors of the Ālvār culture to which Āntāl belonged. I am trying to unearth the layers of the text hidden behind their scholastic and Sanskritist approach and for that reason I also offer a new translation of Āntāl's poem. In order to shed light on the problems of this text's translation, I also provide a critique of some of the older translations. My approach to translation is mostly indebted to A. K. Ramanujan's theory of cultural translation.