an extremely strenuous rite: Fully
loaded kavadis sometimes weigh one
hundred pounds. The carriers some-
times secure the kavadis by using
metal hooks stuck into the flesh of
their backs and chests. Carrying the
kavadi is seen as an act of devotion
and can be found wherever the wor-
shipof Murugan is popular: in south-
ern India, at Kataragamain Sri Lanka,
in Malaysia, and in South Africa.
Kaveri River
See Cauvery.
Kavi
A word that most literally means “wise
man,” but more commonly refers to a
“poet” or “bard.” This secondary mean-
ing comes from the pan-Indian assump-
tion that the purpose of such poetic
writers was not merely to entertain but
to educate and to uplift.
Kavikarnapura
(mid-16th c.) Author of one version of
the Chaitanya-Charitramrta (“Nectar
of Chaitanya’s Deeds”), an account of the
life of the Bengali saint Chaitanya.
Kavikarnapura’s text was written in 1542,
nine years after Chaitanya’s death, when
the effort to declare Chaitanya a saint
had already begun. Kavikarnapura freely
acknowledges his debt to an earlier bio-
graphy of Chaitanya, written by Murari
Gupta. He diverges from the earlier text
by portraying Chaitanya as an incarna-
tion of Krishna, descending to earth to
bestow graceon ordinary mortals. As
with the other traditional accounts of
Chaitanya’s life, the author does not
claim this to be an “objective” biography
but instead a hagiography written by a
passionate devotee (bhakta).
Kavitavali
(“series of poems”) The final poetic
work of the poet-saint Tulsidas
(1532–1623?). In the Kavitavali,
Tulsidas gives a condensed version of
the epic Ramayanaas well as poems
in which he clearly speaks in his own
voice. Evidence in the text indicates
that it was completed after 1615. The
poems are written in the savaiyaand
kavittmeters, which are longer, more
complex, and less accessible than the
meters used in most of Tulsidas’s ear-
lier works. The Kavitavaliis divided
into seven sections, paralleling the
internal structure of the Ramayana,
but the bulk of the Kavitavali’s poems
are in the last two sections. One of
these is the “Lankakhand,” which
describes the climactic battle symbol-
izing the struggle between good and
evil; in this section the kavitt meteris
used to render vivid battle scenes. The
final book is the “Uttarakhand,” com-
prising more than half of the entire
work. In this last section, Tulsidas has
written some autobiographical verses
and reiterates themes found through-
out much of his work: the degeneracy
of the present age (Kali Yuga), a stress
on devotion as the only means of sal-
vation, and the power inherent in
God’s name, through which any
obstacles can be overcome. Parts
of this latter section sound pes-
simistic, perhaps reflecting the trials
of advancing age, but through it all
comes a note of hope that the author’s
trust in God’s saving power will not
ultimately be in vain.Kavitt
A particular meter, or rhythm pattern,
in Hindipoetry. Verses composed in
the Kavitt meter have four lines of
thirty-one syllables each, with the
break in each individual line often
coming after the sixteenth syllable.
This is an unusually long meter, thus
lending itself well to extended
descriptions employing alliteration;
in his Kavitavali, the poet-saint
Tulsidasuses this meter with great
affect to describe battle scenes.Kavitt