The Oduvar temple singer and the performance of Śaiva bhakti devotional hymns in modern Tamil Nadu
Indira V. Peterson
Professor of Asian Studies, Emerita, Mount Holyoke College
The Tamil devotional (bhakti) hymns of the early medieval saints form the core of Tamil Śaiva scripture and are sung in temple ritual. My 1989 book Poems to Śiva illuminates the sustained role of Oduvar temple singers as key interpreters of the hymns for lay devotees. This talk examines the recent rise of the Oduvar as a performer of tirumuṟai (sacred music) concerts outside the temple and as an authoritative mediator of Śaiva devotion to wider urban publics. The focus is on the elevation of Oduvars, and on their agency in developing distinctive musical and other strategies for performing Tamil Śaiva devotion in the context of changing media and conceptions of bhakti song, as well as of competing Tamil and nationalist identitarian discourses regarding religion, caste, and the performing arts.
Indira Viswanathan Peterson is David B. Truman Professor of Asian Studies, Emerita, Mount Holyoke College. She has been Professor of Sanskrit at Columbia University, and Fortieth Anniversary Professor in the Five College Consortium of Western Massachusetts. Dr. Peterson specializes in Indian literature in Sanskrit and Tamil, Hinduism, and South Indian cultural history and performing arts. especially Karnatak music and early modern dance drama. Other interests include translation, European-Indian culture contact, and comparative literature.
