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Sacred Songs of the Saints: Medieval and Modern Perspectives on the Tamil Hymns
Organizer: Leslie C. Orr, Concordia University
Chair and Discussant: Archana Venkatesan, St Lawrence University
This panel is devoted to verbal performances within the particular context of sectarian Hinduism in South India, exploring specifically the meanings and history of performance of the Tamil devotional poems which came to be important within the framework of the liturgy and theology of Srivaisnavism and South Indian Saivism, from the tenth century onward. The first presenter surveys the various types of chanting and singing that have been important for Srivaisnavas -- including the poems of the alvars, the Divyaprabandham -- analyzing these particularly in terms of the ways in which they contribute both to a notion of sectarian community and to contestation and negotiation within the community. The second paper examines the Saiva Agamas, whose primary focus is on a Sanskrit-based ritual program, and considers the ways in which the Tamil hymns, and the Saiva poet-saints who authored them, are accommodated within the framework of temple festivals. The third presenter employs the evidence of temple inscriptions to show the varieties of ways in which the theological and ritual perspectives of the medieval Srivaisnava and Saiva acaryas -- and other devotees -- may have been realized in practice. The final paper explores the propagation and popularity of the alvars' hymns in the twentieth century, as these devotional works find a place on the concert stage and the internet. Our discussant will draw on her expertise in both the literary and performative dimensions of the Tamil hymns in her response to the four papers.
Chanting and Singing: Markers of Srivaisnava Identities in Tamil Nadu
Katherine K. Young, McGill University
I will discuss types of chanting/singing as markers of identity in Srivaisnavism, based on medieval and contemporary sources such as the Vaisnava bhakti hymns; Srivaisnava stotras; hagiographies; and some brahmin and non-brahmin anthropological contexts. More specifically, I will ask who is chanting -- brahmins (identified by Vedic school and special roles such as acarya, araiyar, arcaka, jiyar, and purohita) or non-brahmins (identified as sattada; bhagavata/dasanambi; tirukkulattar; ekangi); sectarians such as Tenkalai or Vatakalai; and men or women. I will identify what is being chanted (the Vedas, Purusasukta, puranas, stotras; the names of the deity; part or all of the Divyaprabandham; mantras such as aum, gayatri, tirumantra, dvayam, etc) and in what language (Sanskrit, Tamil, Manipravala). I will note where something is being chanted (home, temple/divyadesa, processions, or in contemporary secular places such as schools or sabhas). Finally, I will ask when it is being chanted (daily, monthly, annual, or at the time of an individual's rite of passage). I am especially interested in questions of eligibility and entitlements (brahmin/non-brahmin; male/female); authority (charters) for these distinctions; their ritual contexts; conflicts among groups; and how all this changes over time. Although detailed information is not always available in the sources under consideration here, it is important to gather what exists and analyze it from a comparative, historical perspective to help us understand the regional, caste, and sub-caste complexities of Srivaisnavism.
The Festival of the Devotees
Richard H. Davis, Bard College
How were the Tamil devotional songs of the Saiva nayanmars incorporated into the Sanskrit liturgy of medieval South Indian temples? The Saiva Agama literature provides one important but partial perspective: that of Saiva priests committed to articulating and maintaining a Sanskrit-based ritual program. This paper examines the limited role that the Agamas allow to vernacular songs within temple worship. In particular, I will explore the development of the "Festival of the Devotees," an adjunct to major annual festivals, within which the hymns of Tamil saints could be sung and their icons honored. The Agamas give broad descriptions for the fabrication of icons of these saints, and valuable guidelines for the celebration of the Devotees' Festival. In conclusion, I will consider how this priestly perspective may fit with other historical sources concerning the ritual incorporation of the Tamil devotional tradition within temple institutions.
Singing Saintly Songs: Tamil Hymns in the Medieval South Indian Temple
Leslie C. Orr, Concordia University
The incorporation of Tamil devotional hymns into temple liturgy, in early medieval South India, was a significant development in ritual, theological, and sociological terms. The poems composed by the Saiva and Vaisnava devotees, the nayanmars and the alvars, in the sixth through ninth centuries began to be sung in temples in the immediately succeeding period -- and soon thereafter the message and the figures of the poet-saints were taken up as distinctive features of the emergent Saiva Siddhanta and Srivaisnava movements. The hymns were established as canon in both sectarian movements, but the Vaisnava teachers embraced more completely the notion that they constituted a Tamil Veda and accorded the hymns far greater theological significance than did their Saiva counterparts. My effort in this paper will be to use the evidence of the temple inscriptions of the tenth through thirteenth centuries to explore the identities of the performers of the Tamil hymns and the contexts of their performance, to uncover their relationships with other forms of chanting and recitation (notably Veda and mantra), to compare Saiva and Vaisnava performances of the hymns, and to plot the geographical and chronological patterns that may shed light on the interactions between temple practice, on the one hand, and unfolding sectarian, social and political developments, on the other.
Waves of Bhakti, Waves of Song: The Proliferation of Alvar Poetry in the 20th-Century
Vasudha Narayanan, University of Florida
Alvar poetry has traditionally been performed at Sri Vaisnava homes, temples, and temple processions. This paper will argue that two waves of dissemination have made the alvar songs enormously popular in the last fifty years in many parts of India and in diaspora temples and homes. The first wave in the mid twentieth century, led by musicians and dancers connected with Carnatic music and Bharata Natyam, made these songs prominent in public concert spaces. The second wave, in the late twentieth century, came about through the creation of Sri Vaisnava cyber-communities in the 1990-s. Ariyakudi Ramanuja Ayyangar (1890-1967), the musician who was responsible for both establishing the format for Carnatic music recitals and for setting the Tiruppavai to Carnatic ragas, is significant in the discussion of the first wave because the format he popularized created the space for the inclusion of alvar verses in radio and stage concerts. In the 1950-s with the choreographing of Andal's works for Bharata Natyam dance, Kamala Laxman and Vyjayanthimala (later Bali) starting a new trend of including alvar poetry in dance performances. The second wave began with the creation of the "bhakti" listserve in California in 1994 and has been instrumental in creating new awareness of the alvar poetry outside India. The local communities catalyzed by listserves have initiated festivals of recitation in domestic and temple spaces in the diaspora and the entire Divyaprabandham of the alvars is now available through the web.