Religious Devotion and the Poetics of Reform: Love and Liberation in Malayalam Poetry

187 Pages·2019·2.002 MB·English

by  George Pati

Religious Devotion and the
Poetics of Reform
T he poetry emanating from the b hakti tradition of devotional love in India has been
both a religious expression and a form of resistance to hierarchies of caste, gender,
and colonialism. Some scholars have read this art form through the lens of
resistance and reform, but others have responded that imposing an interpretive
framework on these poems fails to appreciate their authentic expressions of
devotion. This book argues that these declarations of love and piety can
simultaneously represent efforts toward emancipation at the spiritual, political, and
social levels.
This book, through a close study of N aḷini (1911), a Malayalam lyric poem, as
well as other poems authored by Mahākavi Kumāran Āśān (1873–1924), a low-
caste Kerala poet, demonstrates how Āśān employed a theme of love among
humans during the modern period in Kerala that was grounded in the classical
Sanskrit and native South Indian b hakti understanding of love of the deity. Āśān
believed that personal religious freedom comes from devotion to the deity and that
love for humans must emanate from love of the deity.
I n showing how devotional religious expression also served as a resistance
movement, this study provides a new perspective on an understudied area of the
colonial period. Bringing to light an underexplored medium, in both religious and
artistic terms, this book will be of great interest to scholars of religious studies,
Hindu studies, and religion and literature, as well as academics with an interest in
Indian culture.
George Pati is the Surjit S. Patheja Chair in World Religions and Ethics and is
Associate Professor of Theology and International Studies at Valparaiso University,
USA. His research interests include religious literature in the Malayalam language,
South Asian devotional traditions, and the mediation of Hindu devotion through
texts, rituals, and performances of Kerala, South India.

Religious Devotion and
the Poetics of Reform
Love and Liberation in
Malayalam Poetry
George Pati
First published 2019
by Routledge
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and by Routledge
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© 2019 George Pati
The right of George Pati to be identifi ed as author of this work has been
asserted by him in accordance with sections 77 and 78 of the Copyright,
Designs and Patents Act 1988.
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from the publishers.
Trademark notice : Product or corporate names may be trademarks or
registered trademarks, and are used only for identifi cation and explanation
without intent to infringe.
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A catalogue record for this book is available from the British Library
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ISBN: 978-1-138-47799-5 (hbk)
ISBN: 978-1-351-10361-9 (ebk)
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Contents
Acknowledgments vi
A note on transliteration and translation viii
1 Introduction: themes, theories, and trajectories 1
2 Place: caste, colonialism, and reforms in Kerala (1870–1924) 16
3 Person: Mahākavi Kumāran Āśān (1873–1924) 34
4 Poetics of devotion: bhakti as devotion 52
5 Poetics of reform: bhakti as a movement 78
6 Conclusion 107
Appendix 1: transliterations of Malayalam poems 113
Appendix 2: translation of N aḷini or Oru Snēham (1911) 150
Index 175
Acknowledgments
This work embodies the love of God and humans, and I am immeasurably indebted
to a network of scholars, teachers, colleagues, friends, and family, both here and
in India. I fi rst learned about b hakti , devotional poetry, when I was studying at the
United Theological College, Bangalore, and I wish to acknowledge Professor
David C. Scott, who introduced me to the academic study of religion and b hakti .
Since then, I have been fascinated by b hakti poetry and its embodiment in different
forms. I take delight in acknowledging those who have supported and guided me
in understanding various aspects of bhakti, the Malayalam language, and Kerala
context.
The ideas for this book were generated during my Ph.D. research at Boston
University and submitted as dissertation. Since then the dissertation has gone
through a number of substantial changes before taking the form of this book. At the
outset, I wish to thank Frank Korom and Lucien Richard (Boston University),
Thomaskutty Lazar (University of Calicut), and Caroline Osella (SOAS, Univer-
sity of London), for their mentoring and support during the doctoral research.
My research in India was facilitated through various institutions: University of
Kerala, University of Calicut, Mahatma Gandhi University, Kumāran Āśān Memo-
rial in Thonnackal, Kerala Council for Historical Research, and Center for Devel-
opment Studies. I have benefi ted from the guidance of Professors M. G. S.
Narayanan, Scaria Zacharia, Samuel Nellimukal, D. Benjamin, K. N. Panikker,
P. J. Cherian, Venugopal Panikker, Rammohan Nair, V. J. Varghese, J. Devika, and
Ashok Alex Philip. I am extremely grateful to Shinoy Jesinth, professor at Malabar
Christian College, Kozhikode, and a friend, who has been a constant support dur-
ing my research trips to Kerala.
I am thankful to the many libraries and their staff who have gone beyond their
call of duty to help me acquire documents and artifacts necessary for this project.
In particular, I express my gratitude to the library and offi ce staffs at the Depart-
ment of Malayalam and Department of Oriental Studies and Manuscriptology,
University of Kerala, University of Calicut, Kerala Council for Historical Research,
State Archives in Trivandrum, Kerala Sahitya Academy, Trissur, Center for Devel-
opment Studies, Trivandrum, Sanskrit College in Kolkata, the British Library in
Trivandrum, Mugar Memorial Library, Boston University, and the Inter-library
Acknowledgments vii
Loan Department at Valparaiso University. I wish to record my thankfulness to M.
P. Subhash, Director, Kumāran Āśān Memorial; P. Chandramohan, Nehru Memo-
rial Library and Museum at Teen Murti Bhavan in New Delhi; and G. Priyadar-
shan, Malayalam Manorama in Kottayam.
D uring the writing of this book, I have benefi ted from the insights and wisdom
from scholars and colleagues at various occasions. I thank John Hawley, Rachel
McDermott, Knut Jacobsen, Tracy Pintchman, Corrine Dempsey, Diana Dimi-
trova, Jon Keune, Gil Ben-Herut, and Abhishek Ghosh. Karen Pechilis has always
encouraged my enthusiasm to study bhakti from the beginning of this project. I am
indebted to Anne Monius, who read an earlier version of this entire manuscript and
offered invaluable suggestions.
None of the research for this project would have been possible without the
generous institutional and fi nancial support of The University Professors Program
at Boston University, Research Fellowship and Summer Travel Grant at Valparaiso
University, and the Surjit S. Patheja Chair in World Religions and Ethics, Val-
paraiso University. In the course of writing this book, my colleagues at Valparaiso
University have encouraged me in this endeavor, for which I am thankful.
The editorial team at Routledge have been very encouraging of this project from
the very outset, and I am thankful to Joshua Wells, Editor for Religion at Rout-
ledge, and Jack Boothroyd, editorial assistant at Routledge, for their excellent help
patiently responding to my queries and in the preparation of this volume. I am also
very thankful to the many anonymous reviewers who offered constructive and
positive suggestions.
I thank a large network of family and friends in India and in the United States
who have supported and encouraged me from the conception of this project to its
culmination. My father, Sushil, who is no longer there to see this book, and mother,
Rachel have taught me the fi rst lessons of bhakti as devotion, and it is their love that
encouraged me on this path. My in-laws, G. M. John and Thankamma, have sup-
ported me in innumerable ways at different stages of this entire process of research
and writing. My wife, Suja, has shown unwavering support, and our children have
patiently endured with me through the writing of this book and always engulfed
me with their s nēham, love. I dedicate this book to this network of loving
relationships.
A note on transliteration and
translation
T his book includes Malayalam, Sanskrit and Tamil languages, and I have translit-
erated these languages as per the standard systems. However, in some cases
Malayalam transliteration can be challenging and in those cases I have followed
accepted forms of expression in accordance with the Malayalam lexicon. In the
case of proper names, I have used both with and without diacritics. For instance,
Śrī and Sree or Nārāyaṇa and Narayana. All the Malayalam translations are
my own.
1 Introduction
Themes, theories, and trajectories
snē hamā ṇ akhilasā ramū ḻ iyil
snē hasā ramiha satyamē kamāṁ ,
mō hanaṁ bhuvanasaṅ gamiṅṅ atil
snē hamūl amamalē ! veṭ iññu ñā n.
Love is the essence of everything in the universe,
nothing less than this essence of love is the only truth.
The world’s touch entices, but
O pure one, I renounce it for this deeper love.
—Kumāran Āśān, Naḷini , 136
The b hakti tradition of devotional love has been both a powerful religious
expression and an important form of resistance to hierarchies of caste and colo-
nialism among high-caste and low-caste Hindus in India. Histories of India writ-
ten in the 19th century and in most of the 20th century classifi ed regional b hakti
traditions as reform movements with a message of social equality. In the past
few decades, however, scholars have celebrated works like Mahākavi Kumāran
Āśān’s Naḷini (1911) exclusively as romantic, showing a lack of appreciation for
the lyric poem from a religious and resistance trajectory. Thus, while many
scholars have read low-caste art through the lens of reform, others have argued
that imposing an interpretive framework of resistance on regional low-caste
communities fails to appreciate their intended religious meaning and fails to
recognize b hakti as devotion and a movement toward liberation from the caste
system. I pay attention to these interpretive tensions in readings of the lyric poem
by Kumāran Āśān (1873–1924), a low-caste Kerala poet, composed during the
colonial period of Kerala.
T ucked into the southwestern tip of peninsular India is the small state of Kerala,
which natives call “God’s own Country,” a description used in tourist brochures,
due to the abundance of its natural resources, particularly spices. Kerala’s complex
trade, migration, and emigration histories, both inland and maritime, have added
complexity and diversity to its socioreligious, cultural, and literary realms. Kerala
was well connected with other parts of the world through sea routes, and trade con-
nections were well established, as well. As a result, there was an infl ux of Jewish,