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The University of Chicago Yearning for a Dreamed Real

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The University of Chicago Yearning for a Dreamed Real THE UNIVERSITY OF CHICAGO YEARNING FOR A DREAMED REAL: THE PROCESSION OF THE LORD IN THE TAMIL ULĀS A DISSERTATION SUBMITTED TO THE FACULTY OF THE DIVINITY SCHOOL IN CANDIDACY FOR THE DEGREE OF DOCTOR OF PHILOSOPHY BY BLAKE TUCKER WENTWORTH CHICAGO, ILLINOIS DECEMBER 2011 For my beloved parents, Carl M. Wentworth and Carolyn S. Wentworth அாாா காலயாரைடாள டலக லல கா வடலப லகற பா வாைல ாடல ரக ாாெட னாைய உடெட ென டெத டா. He wore a garland in his hair, the bees hummed around it while the new moon turned above as its light melted in the sky. A dark raincloud armed with a longbow, he took my soul that day filling his eyes and drinking it away, this is the truth in my heart now, to be in my heart always. பசர னா பற ாற ெவசரக ெணசரக ெவயகாம ெனயேவ சசலக லதா தயலாைர யவ தசலச ெலலாத வாைமெயன வாைமேய. Fierce Kāma took my soul when he raised his conquering longbow, his cruel arrow ripped my heart as a flame will rip through cotton. But the man who does not come when women are in turmoil and tell them, “Do not fear, do not fear,” what kind of manliness is that? —Sītā, alone after first seeing Rāma The Rāmāyaṇa of Kampaṉ, Pālakāṇṭam vv. 789–90 Contents List of Tables vii List of Figures viii Acknowledgments ix Transliteration Scheme xii 1 Introduction 1 1.1 The Command of Beauty in Movement . 2 1.2 Plan of the Dissertation . 11 2 Women’s Bodies, Earthly Kingdom 14 2.1 The Advent of the Tamil Processional Genre . 14 2.2 Moving a World in Motion . 30 2.3 The Feminine and the Earthly . 37 2.4 Forging Words of Place . 46 3 Sanskrit Models for the Power of Beauty 54 3.1 Preparatory Limitations . 55 3.2 The Seductive Allure of Heroic Men . 60 3.3 Poetry for Courtly Life . 74 iv 3.4 Expressions of Interiority . 88 4 Bringing the Naive to Order 92 4.1 Seduction is Violence . 92 4.2 Akam Eyes Upon the King . 106 4.3 Trials of the Self . 114 4.4 Life at the Interstice . 120 5 The Past in the Cōla̱ Twelfth Century 131 5.1 The Vernacular Turn in the Tamil South . 131 5.2 Critic of Poets, Confidante of Kings . .143 5.3 Building a Canon . 153 5.4 A Purāṇa to Capture the Past . 176 6 Oṭṭakkūttar Proclaims the Ulā for Kings 184 6.1 The Procession of Rule . 184 6.2 Women in a Living World . 201 6.3 The Staging Ground of Power . 218 7 Singing the Lord into Being 228 7.1 A Poet at Home in Tamil . 228 7.2 Tirukkaḻukkuṉṟam . 242 7.3 The Procession of Lived Time . 250 7.4 Insulating Text . 258 7.5 Surpassing the Self . 266 7.6 Moving God with a Woman’s Song . 274 7.7 Maturity . 281 v 8 Conclusion 291 8.1 Who is Pulling the Chariots? . 292 8.2 Staging Opposition . 297 8.3 Moving Forward . 304 Appendix A Muttoḷḷāyiram 305 Appendix B Tirukkailāya Ñāṉa Ulā of Cēramāṉ Perumāḷ 342 Appendix C Vikkirama Cōlaṉ ̱ Ulā of Oṭṭakkūttar 358 Appendix D A Selection from the Kulōttuṅka Cōlaṉ ̱ Ulā of Oṭṭakkūttar 387 Appendix E A Selection from the Irācarāca Cōlaṉ ̱ Ulā of Oṭṭakkūttar 398 Appendix F Ulāviyal Paṭalam in the Rāmāyaṇa of Kampaṉ 409 Appendix G Tirukkalukkuṉ ̱ṟattu Ulā of Antakakkavi Vīrarākava Mutaliyār 423 Bibliography 459 vi List of Tables 4.1 The Akam System of Categories . 104 5.1 Stipulations for the Ulā Genre After Paṉṉiru Pāṭṭiyal . 160 7.1 The Ritual Participants in the Tirukkaḻukkuṉṟattu Ulā . 261 vii List of Figures 2.1 Cuntarar and Ceramāṉ Perumāḷ travel to Śiva’s heaven . 24 5.1 Center detail, Bṛhadīśvara temple murals . 169 5.2 Upper detail, Bṛhadīśvara temple murals . 170 7.1 Vedagirīśvara shrine, Tirukkaḻukkuṉṟam . 245 7.2 Paṇṭāram feeding vultures, Tirukkaḻukkuṉṟam. 248 7.3 Woodcut of paṇṭāram feeding vultures at Tirukkaḻukkuṉṟam . 251 viii Acknowledgments I enjoyed writing this dissertation in large part because of the people it has allowed me to meet. The members of my thesis committee, through their instruction, generosity, and friendship, have given me the gift of an education that does not end. Wendy Doniger, my advisor, has supported this project from its inception, and it is to her I owe my deepest thanks. Her tireless intellectual stewardship has guided me at the University of Chicago, and her radiant spirit guides many of my thoughts about a life well lived. I am very grateful. My Sanskrit studies with Sheldon Pollock have been inspiring. His insistence on textual precision and disciplined study have always been paired with a rare ability to illuminate the contours and strategies of a vast literary tradition. He trained me to understand that the study of South Asia proceeds through the languages, and that is not a small lesson. David Shulman has been a most magnanimous teacher. His tremendous breadth of knowledge, his integrity, and his openhearted kindness have benefited me in powerful and subtle ways. The opportunities I had to study Tamil with him have shown me how South Asian texts can indeed be mirrors. I would also like to thank the late Norman Cutler (1949–2002), who first guided my study of Tamil. Though his gentle nature would never have boasted of it,hewas as sensitive a reader of classical texts as I have known. I hope that he would have enjoyed this project, for he did much to shape it. My research has brought me to India many times over the years, and there I have been for- tunate to work with distinguished teachers. Dr. R. Vijayalakshmy, my principal instructor in ix Tamilnadu, is a virtuoso. She brought Oṭṭakkūttar’s Mūvar Ulā to life as she guided me through the text, and she welcomed me into her home with singular warmth and kindness. She and her husband, Professor G. Rangarajan, are like family to me, and for that I am deeply fortunate. Pro- fessor Mu. Narasimhachary taught me a prodigious amount of Sanskrit as he led me through the intricacies of Rāmānuja’s Vedārthasaṃgraha with expertise and flair. At the Kuppuswami Sas- tri Research Instite, J. Lalitha introduced me to contemporary Tamil fiction. She and her family treated me as one of their own, and brought much happiness to life in Chennai. To call a scholar of his caliber a brother is self-aggrandizement, but A. R. Venkatachalapathy is surely my aṇṇaṉ. He, S. Anitha, and Kannal have offered the true naṭpiṟku vīṟṟirukkai in Chennai, invariably. In Madurai, C. Bagavathi Devanayagam introduced me to Muttoḷḷāyiram, and taught me so many things about Tamil language and culture that it is hard to know where to start. I admire her graciousness and integrity very much. To thank V. Chandrasekaran, Sharada, Siddharth, and Nishanth for their hospitality in Chennai is to say too little about all they have done for me over the years. They are dear friends whose encouragement has meant very much to me. Financial assistance for this dissertation was provided by a Fulbright-Hays Doctoral Disserta- tion Research Abroad fellowship, awards from the Committee on Southern Asian Studies at the University of Chicago, and a grant from the American Institute of Indian Studies. I am very grate- ful for their support. As universities increasingly question the need for the decade or so of study that a South Asia doctorate can entail, such funding has become the lifeblood for thorough schol- arship. During my fieldwork in Chennai, I was affiliated with the Kuppuswami Sastri Research Institute, and I would like to express my gratitude to the Institute’s director, Dr. V. Kameswari. At the Regenstein Library, James Nye—perhaps the busiest man at the University of Chicago—has been greatly helpful to me throughout my graduate school career. I am very grateful to him, and miss the South Asia bibliomania at Chicago that he guides with such care. Chicago was an extraordinary place to study. Manan Ahmed, Jeremy Biles, Whitney Cox, x William Elison, Pierre-Julien Harter, Rajeev Kinra, Richard Nance, and Richard Weiss have been brothers, not colleagues. I would particularly like to thank Whitney Cox for guiding me through so much along the way—Tamilnadu is at its best when we are there together. I would also like to thank Saud Al-Zaid, Dan Arnold, Matthew Baldwin, Bronwyn Bledsoe, David Emanuel, Amanda Hamilton, Amanda Huffer, Jesse Knutson, Ethan Kroll, Jeremy Morse, Katarzyna Pażucha, Ben- jamin Schonthal, Prithvi Datta Chandra Shobhi, Bulbul Tiwari, Jessica Vantine-Birkenholz, and Edward Yazijian for years of friendship and rich conversation. To find myself among such com- pany when I arrived at Chicago was a rare stroke of luck, and the best part was that I knew it at the time. Per che, se del venire io m’abbandono, temo che la venuta non sia folle. Se’savio; intendi me’ chi’i’ non ragiono. There have been several professors who, while not formally associated with this project, have done much to support it. First and foremost, I am grateful to Bernard Bate and Lawrence J. Mc- Crea, whose superlative language skills are matched by their generous hearts. I would also like to express my thanks to Yigal Bronner, Richard Davis, James Lindholm, Leslie Orr, and Samuel D. Sudanandha. Steven Collins, chair of the Department of South Asian Languages and Civi- lizations when I taught Sanskrit there, has supported me more than he may know. My under- graduate advisor, Hans Penner, has been a model of scholarly generosity and an exceptionally thoughtful teacher.
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