HEGEMONY of RELIGIOUS TEXTS and DEVELOPMENT of TAMIL RITUAL SYSTEM CALLEDTHAMIḺ ARCCAṈAI Prof

HEGEMONY OF RELIGIOUS TEXTS AND DEVELOPMENT OF TAMIL RITUAL SYSTEM CALLEDTHAMIḺ ARCCAṈAI Prof. Dr. Vasu Renganathan University of Pennsylvania, USA Abstract divine/spiritual possession,conflicted with the later development of a Hindu ritual system Priesthood and the use of religious texts instigated by Vedic concepts of a North Indian in South Indian temples have undergone source. immense politicisation on various stages, and the evolution of related hegemonic traits Introduction into particular ritual systems has been fully dependent upon the dialogue produced by Rituals, priesthood and liturgical texts this politicisation process. As a result of this are integral elements of religion, and have textual phenomenon, the Sanskrit and Tamil played a vital role in shaping the Hindu way priesthoods emerged as two heterogeneous of life since the Vedic period.‘Priesthood communities that under went representation was the important carrier of intellectualism, and ‘re-presentation with enormous challenges particularly wherever scriptures existed, and by engaging in a discourse of Subject versus it would make it necessary for the priesthood subject. Representations of Tamil priests to become a literary guild engaged in originated mainly from Tamil nationalists, interpreting the scriptures and teaching their through re-presentations of Tamil bhakti content, meaning and proper application’ texts, whereas their Sanskrit counterparts, (Weber 1992, p. 118).Religious texts with which had been patronised heavily in the diverse forms, such as poems composed in past by both the British colonisers and India’s praise of God, liturgical texts, bhakti songs kings,used hegemonic ritual texts – written expressing poet saints’ devotion to God and in Tamil grantha script, but in the Sanskrit philosophical writings on a set of unique language – as the primary source of ritual themes from monism, dualism, meypporuḷ,the process in South Indian temples. The main ‘doctrine of denotation’, Śaiva Siddāntā,the objective of this work is to study the discourse definitive knowledge of Lord Śivaand other of Tamil nationalism and its development, related theological doctrines, not only shaped focusing on the hegemony of religious texts a strong community affiliation with divinities, of the past and how this shaped the current but also created diverse belief systems among ritual system in the temples of Tamil Nadu. religious practitioners, especially in the South In particular, an attempt is made to show Indian religious landscape. This system of how indigenous methods of worship from the religious edifices should be differentiated from ancient Tamil era,featuring predominantly earlier conceptions of a Sangam landscape, bodily performance, folk songs and the art of predominantly modelled on poems of war, love 7 and nature, didactic poems and to a lesser It can thus be said that Tamil nationalist extent religious poems on Tamil folk deities. sentimentarose from adesire to defend against the growing tendency to choose one As priesthood and methods of using text over another. What had emerged as religious texts in South Indian temples have Dravidianism turned into Tamil nationalism undergone immense politicisation on various with a focus on the hegemony of the Tamil stages, the evolution of any related hegemonic language, Tamil literature and subsequent trait into a particular ritual system has been religious developments based particularly on fully dependent on the dialogue produced by texts from the beginning of the Christian era. this politicisation process throughout history. The aim of this work is to show how Tamil A nationalist consciousness surfaced with literary and religious developments, more than the main objective of reconstituting the past the charisma of the poet saints or any other based on both religious and non-religious related group,were instrumental in forming Sangam literary texts – a process similar to a discourse of Tamilism, Tamil nationalism, that described by Uma Chakravartias follows: Tamilhood and Tamil bhakti – popularly known ‘perceptions of the past are constantly as Tamilar madham (‘the Tamil religion’) – being constituted and reconstituted anew’ relative to their Sanskrit counterparts. (Chakravarti 1990, p. 26). As a result of this exclusive textual phenomenon, In Michel Foucault’s (1983) terminology, the the two predominant linguistic groups, power relations between the two contesting Sanskrit and Tamil,were polarised, producing sects created a discourse designed to exert heterogeneous priesthood communities that power over the underprivileged class in the underwent representation, ‘re-presentation’ context of the religious mode of representation. and politicisation and overcame challenges by ‘Hegemony denotes a transformation from engaging themselves in a discourse of what within, both the subject and of its environment. Gayathri Spivak terms a ‘S/subject dichotomy’ Moreover, it implies a change in the critical (Spivak, 1988, p. 280).Representations of perspective of the theorist, who is solicited Tamil priests arose from Tamil nationalists’ re- to look at political emancipation from the presentation of the relevance of Tamil bhakti point of view of the most subordinated’ texts, whereas their Sanskrit counterparts (Urbinati 1998, p. 370).The Tamil mode of were represented by the hegemonic texts of religious representation is assumed to be in a Āgama scriptures, mainly transcribed in Tamil subordinate position,relatively powerless, with grantha script, but composed in the Sanskrit the celebrated Tamil nationalist movement language, which have the greatest scriptural solely responsible for deriving a discourse that authority and form the basis of ritual systems generated a sense of Tamil hegemony. It is in almost all major South Indian temples necessary to determine whether this discourse (see Spivak 1988, p. 70on the senses of should be acknowledged as a prevailing ‘representation’ and ‘re-presentation’ in the feature of the Tamils, to be attributed to – in context of Deleuze’s arguments). a Gramscian sense – the hegemonic groups in society. The notion of Tamil nationalism emerged largely through a combinationof the hegemony The efforts of the British to understand and of Tamil religious texts of the past with the interpret the Vedas and the Upanishads were transformative effect of the formation of a new largely circumstantial, based on the belief ritual system through Tamil religious poems. that such texts represented authentic local 8 knowledge and thus needed to be incorporated according to Thurston (1975),were non- into the colonial process of constructing a Brahman priests recruited largely from the state. ‘A version of history was gradually Veḷḷāḷa and Paḷḷicastes; they were Śaivites, established in which the Brahmans were vegetarian and celibate. Despite their self- shown to have the same intentions as (thus perceived religious intellectual standing, providing the legitimation for) the codifying as noted by Weber, they were constantly British’ (Spivak 1988, p.255). But neither the engaged in contest with their Sanskrit bhakti tradition nor the localised cult practices super ordinates. In some cases, they were of the Tamils became part of this process of obliged to follow certain restrictions on their colonial production. Subsequently, the spiritual devotional practices to ensure that the scope and devotional engagement of the Śaiva of these practices did not exceed that of and Vaiṣṇava Tamil traditions, developing Sanskrit rituals and customs. For example, mostly from 7 to 9 AD, along with traditions some temples, especially Śiva temples, as belonging to the early Christian era in the in Chidambaram, had an ongoing custom form of cult practices,had very little impact on that permitted only Sanskrit priests to begin the process of knowledge production by the rituals, while Tamil priests had only the right British, especially compared with the impact of to end them (cf. Ishmatsu 1994, p. 21). Sanskrit Āgamic texts. Along with the British, the Pallava and Cōḻākings sought to patronise Tradition of Chanting Śaiva Hymns in Śiva the paṭṭars, Brahman priests, offering them Temples of South India and Evidence from power and scriptural authority. This is Stone Inscriptions apparent from many Tamil stone inscriptions. One such inscription records the Pallava king The chanting of Śaiva Tirumuṟai hymns Peruñciṅka’s establishment of an estate called in temples as part of rituals is attested MūvāyiraVaḷākam, ‘3,000Regions’,around the to in many inscriptions from the Pallava Naṭarājā temple of Chidambaram, and his period onwards,confirming that a dialogue designation of the temple as under the sole between the two contesting methods of ownership of its Brahman priests (paṭṭars)1. religious practice had occurred historically. This inscription may be of particular interest Although this tradition was in place from to those seeking to understand how the the composition of the Śaiva hymns by the legendary tradition of MūvāyiraDīkṣitarkaḷ, 63Nāyanmārsuntil recent times, references in ‘3,000Diksidars’,came to belong to the inscriptions to the establishment of permanent Chidambaram Naṭarājā temple. grants by both the Pallava and the Cōḻā kings indicate that the Tamils’ method of In parallel with the Sanskrit tradition, ritualisation with a community of hymnists those who mastered Tamil religious texts involved the use of Tamil texts as well as and approached God mainly through praise poet saints’ expression of their devotion to poems composed

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