When Blame Turns into Praise:Śiśupāla’s Soliloquy in Villiputtūrār’s Pāratam

This article examines how Villiputtūrār’s fourteenth-century Pāratam, the most important Tamil retelling of the Mahābhārata, focuses on Śiśupāla’s tirade against Kṛṣṇa at Yudhiṣṭhira’s sacrifice. This passage, which has fascinated many poets across the subcontinent over many centuries, is dealt with interestingly by Villiputtūrār, an erudite Śrīvaiṣṇava scholar and possibly a court poet. While his knowledge of the Sanskrit texts clearly shows in his verses, there is also something very peculiar in his treatment of Śiśupāla and his speech that is unique, and which could be the result of the Āḻvārs’, and perhaps even the Śrīvaiṣṇava Ācāryas’, compositions. This article will examine the words of Villiputtūrār’s Śiśupāla in light of a selection of texts, and will also assess his impact on the later Tamil poets, notably on the two poets who rendered the Bhāgavatapurāṇa into the vernacular language barely a century or two later.