[INDOLOGY] Religious Literature with Political Purposes

[Sudalaimuthu Palaniappan]

I am going to present a paper entitled “From Priestess to Performers: Changes in Women’s Roles in Tamil Temples” at the SARII-SMU conference on October 10 in Dallas. See http://www.sarii.org/temples.html <http://www.sarii.org/temples.html> . My paper will trace the historical transition from non-brahmin female priests through brahmin female priests to brahmin male priests in the Tamil country. (Misunderstanding of the role and status of the female priests in the ancient Tamil culture has led to misinterpreting these priests as untouchables.)

You may also consult:
http://murugan.org/research/clothey.faces.of.murukan.htm <http://murugan.org/research/clothey.faces.of.murukan.htm> for the Murukaṉ cult.
http://www.abebooks.com/Ananda-Tandava-Siva-Sadanrttamurthi-Zvelebil-Kamil-V/857860691/bd <http://www.abebooks.com/Ananda-Tandava-Siva-Sadanrttamurthi-Zvelebil-Kamil-V/857860691/bd> for the Naṭarāja cult.

The Tamil epic, the Cilappatikāram, translated by R. Parthasarathy (The Cilappatikaram of Ilarilco Atikal: An Epic of South India. New York: Columbia University Press, 1993) may be very useful in this regard. See cantos 12 and 30 and the long postscript which refers to other works such as those by Obeyesekere. See also http://invokingthegoddess.lk/history/ <http://invokingthegoddess.lk/history/> . 

Regards,
Palaniappan


 

> On Jul 7, 2015, at 7:38 AM, Artur Karp <karp at uw.edu.pl> wrote:
> 
> > two poles: one "sanskritisation", the other "tribalisation".
> 
> The question is: who functions in the role of priests at Kamakhya Devi?
> 
> Priests of local tribal cults?
> 
> If not, I would rather see there not "tribalization", but rather "controlled Sanskritization" of tribal cultural elements, undertaken not by the tribals, but by the local representatives of Sanskritic culture. Motivated, as you have noticed, by the political need to communicate on one hand with the local population, on the other - with the broader network of sub-continental cult/pilgrimage centers. 
> 
> Artur K.
> 
> 2015-07-07 12:20 GMT+02:00 Paolo Eugenio Rosati <paoloe.rosati at gmail.com <mailto:paoloe.rosati at gmail.com>>:
> I complitely agree.
> But why "we" talk about "sanskritisation" phenomena if a goddess and her devotional cult are dominated by tribal elements? I would like to describe this goddesses as "tribalised", maybe because they represent a manipulation of the "mainstream" Hindu Devi, to whom are overimposed tribal elements.
>  
> If the sanskritisation (or brahmanisation) process can be described as a vertical axis where are different degrees of sanskritisation; maybe we could describe this axis with two poles: one "sanskritisation", the other "tribalisation"... obviously the dialectic between cultures bring to hybrid phenomenon, but in my opinion the Hindu-Assamese culture is widely dominated by tribal traditions, and this probably depend by ancient politic needs.
>  
> Best,
> Paolo
>  
> P.S.: Maybe someone has a pdf copy of Kunal Chakrabarti "Religious Processes: The Puranas and the Making of a Regional Tradition" (2001).
>  
> 
> On 7 July 2015 at 11:25, Artur Karp <karp at uw.edu.pl <mailto:karp at uw.edu.pl>> wrote:
> Dear Paolo,
> 
> > So that are we sure that Kamahya is a sanskritised goddess? Or should we consider the reverse process? Doesn't seem that were the Hindus to emulate the tribal-men incorporating tribal worship elements?
> 
> To my mind, both. 
> 
> A perfect example of a dialogic situation, whatever the motivation behind the move to set up a new, structurally enriched place of worship and a newly conceived object of veneration. 
> 
> Best, 
> 
> Artur
> 
> 
> 
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> 
> -- 
> Paolo E. Rosati
> Oriental Archaeologist
> PhD candidate in Civilisations of Asia & Africa
> Section: South Asian Studies
> Dep. Italian Institute of Oriental Studies (ISO)
> 'Sapienza' University of Rome
> paoloe.rosati at uniroma1.it <mailto:paoloe.rosati at uniroma1.it>
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