Book Review: "The History of the Holy Servants of the Lord Siva: a Translation of the Periya Puranam of Cekkilar"

Journal of Hindu-Christian Studies Volume 21 Article 22 January 2008 Book Review: "The History of the Holy Servants of the Lord Siva: A Translation of the Periya Puranam of Cekkilar" M. Thomas Thangaraj Follow this and additional works at: https://digitalcommons.butler.edu/jhcs Part of the Religion Commons Recommended Citation Thangaraj, M. Thomas (2008) "Book Review: "The History of the Holy Servants of the Lord Siva: A Translation of the Periya Puranam of Cekkilar"," Journal of Hindu-Christian Studies: Vol. 21, Article 22. Available at: https://doi.org/10.7825/2164-6279.1421 The Journal of Hindu-Christian Studies is a publication of the Society for Hindu-Christian Studies. The digital version is made available by Digital Commons @ Butler University. For questions about the Journal or the Society, please contact [email protected]. For more information about Digital Commons @ Butler University, please contact [email protected]. Thangaraj: Book Review: "The History of the Holy Servants of the Lord Siva: A Translation of the Periya Puranam of Cekkilar" Book Reyiews 79 University Press, 2001 [Winner of the Best religious encounters across the boundaries of Book in Hindu-Christian Studies prize for 2000- tradition has taken them to the study of North 2002]). In the last chapter of Kerala Christian American Hinduism will find much to Sainthood, the author left us with a picture of appreciate in this book. A kind of symmetry herself overcome by grief at the apparently exists between the work people must do to insurmountable barrier preventing full indigenize Christianity in a non-Western land (a participation in an "other" religious prominent theme in Dempsey's previous book), community's most powerful rituals. She writes, and that required to transmit Hinduism in North "I felt as though I was watching a wonderful America, with its predominately secular and party from a distance but was not, in fact, invited Christian culture. I was somewhat disappointed to take part .... In other words, I was stranded not to see these parallels examined at greater outside of something I understood to be length. Yet in The Goddess Lives in Upstate profoundly rich but did not know how I could, New York, the encounter between Christianity ultimately, enter into it" (160). At the Rush· and Hinduism takes place more subtly, at the temple, in contrast, these barriers to full level of persons rather than abstract ideas or participation appear to have been broken. macro-level social 'processes. We see this, for Without losing her sense of belonging to the example, when Dempsey's own formation as a Roman Catholic tradition, Dempsey takes a Catholic with sympathies toward Liberation mantra from Aiya, marking her initiation into Theology gets challenged by the extravagance the Srividya path. Moreover, Dempsey herself expenditures undertaken in the rituals honoring experiences the Goddess' grace in the form of Sri Rajarajeshwari (pp. 16-22), and in Aiya's extraordinary sensations brought forth by the experiences of miraculous interventions by a temple's rituals. canonized Catholic priest named Padre Pio, In challenging scholarly conventions that whose . memory he still honors through the seek to preserve scholarly objectivity by installation of his· portrait in the temple office maintaining emotional distance from one's (pp. 188-190). subject matter, Dempsey joins the company of When Dempsey directly asks Aiya if there is recent anthropologists of religion like Meena an aspect of North American religions that he Khandelwal and Loring Danforth, who practice integrates into his own practice, he answers that a form of self-reflexive anthropology. The it is the testimonial, "a personal story geared to danger, of course, is that such intense se1f empower and increase the faith of the listener" reflexivity will collapse into the kind of (p. 75). Dempsey follows suit: the book is a academic navel-gazing aptly called "me garland of stories, deftly connected to one research." In my view, Dempsey completely another through analysis, comparison and avoids that trap. Rather, her attention to her own thoughtful self-reflection. The result is a and other people's complex emotional, physical delightful study of diaspora Hinduism·that will, and psychological responses to events and at minimum, increase the reader's faith in the people provides an immensely valuable window anthropology of religion. into the dynamics of guru-seshya and community relationships so central to Hindu Eliza F. Kent spiritual life. Colgate University Readers of this journal whose interest in The History of the Holy Servants of the Lord Siva: A Translation of the Periya Puranam of Cekkilar. Alastair McGlashan. Victoria, B.C. Canada: Trafford Publishing, 2006, pp. xii + 417. THE Saivite tradition of Tamil Nadu, India has mythological, and hagiographic literature in had a long history of hymnic, philosophical, Tamil language. In each of these literary Published by Digital Commons @ Butler University, 2008 1 Journal of Hindu-Christian Studies, Vol. 21 [2008], Art. 22 80 Book Reviews traditions one can detect the dominance of poetic presenting a metrical translation of Tiruvacagam imagination. Here poetics is not limited to (another Tamil Saivite classic) in 1900, hymnic tradition alone; philosophical expressed the same kind of sentiment with discussions are done through poetic discourse regard to the grace-filled spirituality of the saints and so are the biographies of the sixty three of Tamil Saivism. saints of Tamil Saivism, called the Nayanmars. The translation contains 78 chapters These saints made significant contributions to organized under 13 sections, followed by notes the maintenance and spread of Saivite faith and appendices. A helpful bibliography is given during the. time when Buddhist and Jain at the end.· McGlashan has organized the religious traditions were dominant in that part of chapters in such a way that the original format of the world. Periya Puranam of Cekkilar, who the work is not distorted but presented in a way lived during the reign of the Chola king that offers the reader easy access to the text and Kulottunka II (1133-1150), is one such epic greater facility with cross-referencing. The poem on the sixty three Nayanmars. translation is faithful to the text not only in the Alastair McGlashan, in this volume,. offers literal sense but also in capturing the tone and us an accurate, lucid, and readable translation of ethos of the narratives. There are several this magnum opus in exquisite English prose. photographic illustrations given throughout the McGlashan came to Tamil Nadu inthe 1960s as book, which enable the reader to visualize the an Anglican missionary and a theological setting of the Nayanmars. The map of the Tamil teacher. But he was, within a brief period of Nadu of Cekkilar's time is very helpful in time, able to master the Tamil language to such understanding the location of the hagiographic an extent that he wrote the first authoritative narratives. Perhaps a contemporary political book on Greek Grammar in Tamil, introducing map of Tamil Nadu by the side of this map New Testament Greek to Tamil theological might have been a greater help. students. Even today his book on Greek Periya Puranam is a great asset to any grammar is widely used by Tamil students. One serious student of Tamil Saivism.McGlashan can easily recognize his mastery of Taillil in the has, through this excellent translation, opened lucid translation of this complex Tamil poetical the doors for non-Tamil-speaking scholars to epIC. enter into the world of Tamil Saivite saints and In the opening pages of the book, experience the bhakti (devotion) of these saints. McGlashan offers us an excellent and highly Even those who are encountering Tamil Saivism informative introduction to the tradition of for the first time will be able to. understand and Tamil Saivism. He begins with an outline of the enjoy this epic, thanks to McGlashan's highly historical background, moves on to a description informative introduction. It is truly admirable of the religion of the Nayanmars and the literary that he is able to offer this substantive and character of Cekkilar's work, and ends with accessible introduction within the first eighteen some guidelines as to how one should read this pages ofthe book. epic poem in today's context. McGlashan is In offering this translation to the wider keenly aware of the insurmountable distance ill public, McGlashan has reminded us of the great time between Cekkilar and the post-modem tradition of Christian and Western scholars who readers, and therefore provides helpful pointers were fascinated with and admired Hindu to understand and appreciate traces of violence religious traditions. He rightly mentions at the both in the language used and in the devotional end of his preface that he stands in the great acts of the Nayanmars. He concludes this tradition of Christians scholars such as Beschi, section with the statement that Cekkilar "gives Caldwell, and Pope, and writes, "It remains for us a moving picture of the social and practical me only to lay the completed work, which has outworking of an exalted religious ideal, in truly been a lab.our of love, at the lotus feet of which it would be hard for the adherent of any the one Lord who rules over earth and heaven, religious faith to deny the operation of divine by whatever name he is known." (x). One grace and the moving of the divine spirit." (18) discovers in this work three important One is reminded of G. U. Pope, who, in milestones in Hindu-Christian relations. First, https://digitalcommons.butler.edu/jhcs/vol21/iss1/22 DOI: 10.7825/2164-6279.1421 2 Thangaraj: Book Review: "The History of the Holy Servants of the Lord Siva: A Translation of the Periya Puranam of Cekkilar" Book Reviews 81 this work forcefully reminds us that a helpful acknowledged, one is compelled to question any way to enter into the ethos of a religious particular and narrowly defined religious tradition is through .

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