FISHER | HINDU PLURALISM Luminos is the open access monograph publishing program from UC Press. Luminos provides a framework for preserving and rein- vigorating monograph publishing for the future and increases the reach and visibility of important scholarly work. Titles published in the UC Press Luminos model are published with the same high standards for selection, peer review, production, and marketing as those in our traditional program. www.luminosoa.org The publisher gratefully acknowledges the generous support of the Philip E. Lilienthal Asian Studies Endowment Fund of the University of California Press Foundation, which was established by a major gift from Sally Lilienthal. Hindu Pluralism SOUTH ASIA ACROSS THE DISCIPLINES Edited by Muzaffar Alam, Robert Goldman, and Gauri Viswanathan Dipesh Chakrabarty, Sheldon Pollock, and Sanjay Subrahmanyam, Founding Editors Funded by a grant from the Andrew W. Mellon Foundation and jointly published by the University of California Press, the University of Chicago Press, and Columbia University Press South Asia Across the Disciplines is a series devoted to publishing first books across a wide range of South Asian studies, including art, history, philology or textual studies, philosophy, religion, and the interpretive social sciences. Series authors all share the goal of opening up new archives and suggesting new methods and approaches, while demonstrating that South Asian scholarship can be at once deep in expertise and broad in appeal. Extreme Poetry: The South Asian Movement of Simultaneous Narration, by Yigal Bronner (Columbia) The Social Space of Language: Vernacular Culture in British Colonial Punjab, by Farina Mir (UC Press) Unifying Hinduism: Philosophy and Identity in Indian Intellectual History, by Andrew J. 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Fisher UNIVERSITY OF CALIFORNIA PRESS University of California Press, one of the most distinguished university presses in the United States, enriches lives around the world by advanc- ing scholarship in the humanities, social sciences, and natural sciences. Its activities are supported by the UC Press Foundation and by philanthropic contributions from individuals and institutions. For more information, visit www.ucpress.edu. University of California Press Oakland, California © 2017 by The Regents of the University of California Suggested citation: Fisher, Elaine. Hindu Pluralism: Religion and the Public Sphere in Early Modern South India. Oakland: University of California Press, 2017. doi: https://doi.org/10.1525/luminos.24 This work is licensed under a Creative Commons CC-BY-NC-ND license. To view a copy of the license, visit http://creativecommons.org/licenses. Library of Congress Cataloging-in-Publication Data Names: Fisher, Elaine M., 1984- author. Title: Hindu pluralism : religion and the public sphere in early modern South India / Elaine M. Fisher. Other titles: South Asia across the disciplines. Description: Oakland, California : University of California Press, [2017] | Series: South Asia across the disciplines | Includes bibliographical references and index. Identifiers: LCCN 2016046548 (print) | LCCN 2016048637 (ebook) | ISBN 9780520293014 (pbk. : alk. paper) | ISBN 9780520966291 (e-edition) Subjects: LCSH: Hinduism—India, South. | Religious pluralism—India, South. | India, South--Religion. Classification: LCC BL1153.7.S68 F57 2017 (print) | LCC BL1153.7.S68 (ebook) | DDC 294.50954/8--dc23 LC record available at https://lccn.loc.gov/2016046548 Contents Acknowledgments ix Introduction 1 1. Hindu Sectarianism: Difference in Unity 31 2. “Just Like Kālidāsa”: The Making of the Smārta-Śaiva Community of South India 57 3. Public Philology: Constructing Sectarian Identities in Early Modern South India 99 4. The Language Games of Śiva: Mapping Text and Space in Public Religious Culture 137 Conclusion: A Prehistory of Hindu Pluralism 183 Appendix 195 Notes 203 Bibliography 251 Index 269 Acknowledgments As was common wisdom in the classical genres of Sanskrit textuality, a book simply cannot be undertaken without a preliminary homage of reverence to the sources of inspiration to whom we owe our existence as scholars and human beings. Words cannot do justice to my gratitude for the unwavering support and the depth of enthusiasm I have encountered from advisors, colleagues, and companions alike. The first iteration of this book originated as a doctoral dis- sertation at Columbia University written under the mentorship of Sheldon Pol- lock, who first opened my eyes to the potential of philology to envision possible pasts both inside and outside of the text. What this book has become today would have been inconceivable without his unwavering confidence both in the project itself and in the intellectual freedom to take risks on new archives and archaeologies. My gratitude goes out to the members of my dissertation com- mittee, Jack Hawley, Sudipta Kaviraj, Rachel McDermott, and Indira Peterson, for their generous feedback and encouragement on every draft at each step of the journey. I owe my introduction to the textual canons of Śaivism and the world of digital philology to the generous mentorship of Somadeva Vasudeva during his time at Columbia. The majority of the revisions to the manuscript were completed with the sup- port of a Mellon Postdoctoral Fellowship at the University of Wisconsin-Madison from 2014 to 2016. Susan Friedman, director of the Institute for Research in the Humanities, deserves particular commendation for the remarkable collaborative community she fosters among fellows from diverse disciplinary backgrounds. My sincere thanks to Jessica Courtier, Megan Massino, and Sarah Guyer, and to my colleagues in the Mellon Fellowship program across three cohorts, Darien Lamen, ix x Acknowledgments Daegan Miller, Amanda Rogers, Jolyon Thomas, Darryl Wilkinson, Anthony Fon- tes, Anja Jovic-Humphrey, Patrick William Kelley, and Golnar Nikpour, for their thoughtful consideration of countless drafts during our Mellon seminar meetings. I am grateful for the mentorship of Joseph Elder and, in particular, André Wink, who generously subjected himself to a review of the entire manuscript, and to the collegial feedback of faculty across disciplines at UW-Madison, including Florence Bernault, Jill Casid, Preeti Chopra, Bill Cronon, Bob Frykenberg, Viren Murthy, Ronald Radano, Mary Lou Roberts, Ellen Sapega, Sissel Schroeder, Mitra Sharafi, Sarah Thal, Luke Whitmore, and many others too numerous to count. I thank the faculty of the Center for Early Modern Studies and the Center for South Asia, particularly Lalita du Perron, for allowing me to share my research with the UW community. I would like to express my heartfelt appreciation to Laurie Patton, who took the time to travel to