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Circulation and the Historical Geography of Tamil Country

Published online by Cambridge University Press:  23 March 2011

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Tamil country, in the southeastern portion of peninsular India, has been an identifiable cultural region for almost two millennia. Tamil literary productions dating from the early centuries of the Christian era to the present time speak of Tamilakam (the land, or the abode, of Tamils)—setting out its boundaries by reference to mountains, rivers, and the sea, but making few distinctions within this macroregion and not specifying what lay beyond it. This paper is an attempt at more precise definition of the nature and development of this cultural region and its changing structure, by means of consulting a variety of evidence and by using the concept of “circulation.”

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Copyright © Association for Asian Studies, Inc. 1977

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References

1 Presented in modified form in a panel entitled “Circulation and Regional Identity in India,” AAS meetings. New York, 1972.Google Scholar

2 Homo Hierarchicus: An Essay on the Caste System, Chicago: Univ. of Chicago Press, 1970Google Scholar.

3 Zvelebil, Kamil, The Smile of Murugan: On Tamil Literature in South India (Leiden: E.J. Brill, 1973), pp. 11–12.Google Scholar

4 Relative Permanence of Former Boundaries in India,” Scottish Geographical Magazine, LXV, 3 (1949), p. 113Google Scholar. Note the slight variation of this tripartite division in Spate, O. H. K., India and Pakistan: A General and Regional Geography (London: Methuen, 1954), p. 148.Google Scholar

5 Day (n. 4 above), p. 114.

6 Bühler, G. (trans.), The Laws of Manu, II.17–22, in Müller, M. (ed.), The Sacred Books of the East, XXV (Oxford: Clarendon Press, 1886), pp. 32–33. [Transliterations in quotations modernized. Ed.]Google Scholar

7 Ibid., verse 23 (p. 33).

8 Sastri, K. A. Nilakanta, Cultural Contacts between Aryans and Dravidians (Bombay: Manaktalas, 1967), pp. 34Google Scholar; and Iyengar, P. T. Srinivasa, History of the Tamils: From the Earliest Times to 600 A.D. (Madras: Coomaraswamy Naidu, 1929), pp. 226–32.Google Scholar

9 Smith, Marian W., “Social Structure in the Punjab” in Srinivas, M. N. (ed.), India's Villages (Bombay: Asia Publishing House, 1966), p. 175Google Scholar

10 Cohn, Bernard S., “Regions Subjective and Objective: Their Relation to the Study of Modern Indian History and Society” in Crane, Robert I. (ed.), Regions and Regionalism in South Asian Studies: An Exploratory Study (Durham: Duke Univ. Program in Comparative Studies on Southern Asia, No. 5, 1967), pp. 67.Google Scholar

11 Joseph Schwartzberg, “Prolegomena to the Study of South Asian Regions and Regionalism” in Crane (n. 10 above), p. 89.

12 Schwartzberg (n. 11 above), pp. 90–91, discussion of “denoted regions.”

13 Sopher, , “Pilgrimage Circulation in Gujerat,” Geographical Review, LVIII, 3 (1968), pp. 392425CrossRefGoogle Scholar. And the following papers presented at the AAS meetings, New York, 1972: Steve Barnett, “The Criteria of South Indian Velalar Caste Identity at the Kindred, Subregional, and Regional Levels”; Surinder Bhardwaj, “Socially Differentiated Religious Circulation—A View from the Sacred Centers”; Bharat Bhatt, “Brahmans, Untouchables, and Regional Varna Systems.”

14 This conception is mentioned in several places: the pāyiram (laudatory preface) of Tolkāppiyam; Pu๟anāṉuru; Cilapadikāram, Canto 8; and Ahanāṉū๟u. See Pillay, K. K., A Social History of the Tamils (Madras: Univ. of Madras, 1969), pp. 1415.Google Scholar

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16 Hardgrave, Robert L., The Dravidian Movement, Bombay: Popular Prakashan, 1965Google Scholar; Irschick, Eugene F., Politics and Social Conflict in South India, Berkeley: Univ. of California Press, 1969.Google Scholar

17 Zvelebil (n. 3 above), p. 132, refers to the “Collatikāram” section of the Tolkāppiyam—the final version of which he dates in the fifth century, although he acknowledges (pp. 146–47) that its older, “nuclear portions” may be as early as 150 B.C.

18 See Ramanujan, A. K., “Form in Classical Tamil Poetry” in Sjobzrg, A. F. (ed.), Symposium on Dravidian Civilization (New York: Jenkins, 1971) pp. 7880Google Scholar; also the discussion by Kailasapathy, K., Tamil Heroic Poetry (Oxford: Oxford Univ. Press, 1968), pp. 188–91.Google Scholar

19 Note 18 above, p. 190.

20 Social Life of the Tamils: The Classical Period (Kuala Lumpur: Dept. of Indian Studies, Univ. of Malaya, 1966), pp. 171–82.Google Scholar

21 See the excellent work of Spencer, George W., “The Sacred Geography of the Tamil Shaivite Hymns,” Numen, XVII (1970), pp. 232–44CrossRefGoogle Scholar; also the older Chettiar, C. M. Ramachandra, “Geographical Distribution of Religious Places in Tamil Nad,” Indian Geographical Journal, XVI (1941), pp. 4250.Google Scholar

22 “Ancient Tamil Literature: Its Scholarly Past and Future”in Stein, B. (ed.), Essays on South India (Honolulu: Univ. Press of Hawaii, 1975), p. 46.Google Scholar

23 Kailasapathy (n. 18 above), pp. 13–17. He has explored this bardic tradition, and its implications, more than any other scholar has.

24 Ibid., p. 45.

25 Zvelebil, n. 3 above, pp. 56–57.

26 Ibid., p. 64; also Kailasapathy (n. 18 above), p. 46

27 Dēvāram sites are listed by Rajamanickam, M. in The Development of Saivism in South India (A.D. 300–1300) (Dharmapuram: Dharmapuram Adhinam, 1964), Appendixes A and B, pp. 337–47Google Scholar. For other mapping of these sites, see Spencer (n. 21 above); in Tamil, C. K.Mutaliyar, Cuppiramaniya (ed.), Tiruttondar Purānam (Koyamuttur: Kovai Tamil Sangam, 1943), III-1, p. 488Google Scholar. Neither map should be taken as final, since much yet remains to be done on the location of these sites. Moreover, it should be noticed that Map I combines the sites of 274 shrines actually celebrated by the songs (padal pe๟๟a talam) and 263 minor shrines (vaippu talam) merely mentioned therein.

28 Sastri, K. A. Nilakanta, Sources of Indian History (New York: Asia Publishing House, 1964), pp. 6566.Google Scholar

29 Hart, George L. III, The Poems of Ancient Tamil: Their Milieu and Their Sanskrit Counterparts (Berkeley: University of California Press, 1975), pp. 122–23.Google Scholar

30 Singaravelu (n. 20 above), pp. 171–79. The executive authority of such a chief was limited by the operation of clan assemblies and by the absence of special rights over human and material resources, even though he possessed the power symbols of the white umbrella (venko๟๟akkudai) and sceptre (kōl).

31 “The Segmentary State in Indian History” (paper originally presented to the American Historical Association, New York, 1971), in Fox, Richard (ed.), Regions and Realms in Pre-Modern South Asia, Durham: Duke Univ. Press, 1977.Google Scholar

32 Exceptions to this are Barrie Morrison's work on Bengal, and important work on South India by B. Suresh Pillai, N. Karashima, G. W. Spencer, and Y. Subbarayalu.

33 See Sircar, D. C., Indian Epigraphy (Delhi: Motilal Banarsidass, 1965), pp. 124, 135Google Scholar; for fuller discussion see Rao, N. Lakshminarayan, Journal of Oriental Research, XIX (1950), pp. 209ff.Google Scholar

34 Subrahmanian, N., Pre-Pallavan Tamil Ind ( Madras: Univ. of Madras, 1966), p. 628Google Scholar. Also his Śagam Polity: The Administration and Social Life of the ᕺangam Tamils (Madras: Asia Publishing House, 1966), pp. 112–13, in which he points out that the major mandalams were of the Cholas Chēras, and Pāndyans whereas Korigumandaam and Tondaimandalam were of a later age.

35 The best discussion of this institution is K. V. S. Aiyer (n. 15 above), passim.

36 Subbarayalu, Y., Political Geography of the Chola Country (Madras: Govt, of Tamilnadu, Dept. of Archaeology, 1973), p. 21Google Scholar; he estimates the average for the Kaveri basin (Chōlamandalam) to be 24 square miles.

37 Aiyer, K. V. S. (n. 15 above), XLVI, p. 9. Also Sastri, K. A. Nilakanca, The Colas (Madras: Univ. of Madras, 1955), pp. 538–39Google Scholar; Aiyer, K. V. Subrahmanya, Historical Sketches of Ancient Dekhan, I (Madras: Modern Printing Works, 1917), pp. 350–52.Google Scholar

38 Mahalingam, T. V., “The Citramēli Periyanāttār” in Dr. R. P. Sethupillai Silver Jubilee Commemoration Volume (Madras: Palaniappa Bros., 1961), pp. 195–99, and “Hemavati Pillar Inscription of Kulottungachola (III) Year 2,” Epigraphia Indica, XXXI, 37 (Govt, of India, Dept. of Archaeology), pp. 274–75.Google Scholar

39 K. V. S. Aiyer (n. 15 above), XLV, 2, pp. 70–76.

40 I have completed an analysis of 2,035 Tamil country temples that achieved importance between the fourteenth and eighteenth centuries; entitled “Temples in Tamil Country: 1300–1750,” this essay will appear in a forthcoming special issue of Indian Economic and ṡSocial History Review under my editorship. Among the most interesting facts to emerge from these data was the rise, over those 450 years, of substantial shrines devoted to independent goddesses (ammaṉs) and the relative decline of shrines devoted to Shiva deities.

41 See my “Coromandel Trade in Medieval India” in Parker, John (ed.), Merchants and Scholars (Minneapolis: Univ. of Minnesota Press, 1965), pp. 4762Google Scholar. This is also treated in a recent doctoral thesis by Hall, Kenneth R., “The Nagaram as a Marketing Center in Early Medieval South India,” Dept. of History, Univ. of Michigan, 1975.Google Scholar

42 These include: Pāṇḍimaṇḍala śatakam by Aiyan Perumal Asiriyar of Madurai (Sirkali, 1932); Chōḷamạṇdala śatakam by Atmanathar Desikar Velur (1650–1728), ed. by Somasundaradesikar (Mayunar, 1961); Toṇḍaimaṇḍala śatakam by Paddikkasuppulavar (1686–1723), (Madras, 1913); Koṇgumaṇḍala śatakam by Kārmēgkkavinar of Vijayamangalam, ed. by T. A. Muthuswami Konar (Tiruchengodu, 1923); and Kārmaṇḍala śatakam by Araikilar of Avanasi, ed. by P. A. Muthuthanadavaraya (Madras, 1930).

43 (Note 15 above), pp. 191ff.

44 Krishnaswami, A., The Tamil Country under Vijayanagar (Annamalainagar: Annamalai Univ., 1964), pp. 98ff.Google Scholar; and Sastri, K. A. Nilakanta, A History of South India (Oxford: Oxford Univ. Press, 1955), p. 11.Google Scholar

45 (Note 42 above), verse 17.

46 (Note 42 above), verses 8, 37, 41.

47 Ibid., verses 58 and 60.

48 (Note 42 above), verses 10–25.

49 Mackenzie (born ca. 1753, died 1821) served in the Madras Infantry and Engineers between 1786 and 1819; he was Surveyor General of Madras 1810–15, and Surveyor General of India 1815–21. Throughout his career he collected these local accounts, part of which are now preserved in the Oriental Manuscripts Library in Madras and part in the India Office Library (Commonwealth Relations Library), London. The collection is indexed and summarized in two catalogs: Rev. William Taylor, Catalogue Raisonnee of Oriental Manuscripts in the Library of the (late) College, Fort St. George [Madras], III: The Mackenzie Manuscripts” (Madras, 1962)Google Scholar; and Wilson, H. H., The Mackenzie Collection: A Descriptive Catalogue of the Oriental Manuscripts and Other Articles Illustrative of the History, Statistics, and Antiquities of the South of India; Collected by the Late Lt. Col. Colin Mackenzie (2d ed., Madras, 1882)Google Scholar. Also see Mahalingam, T. V. (ed.), Mackenzie Manuscripts: Summaries of the Historical Manuscripts of the Mackenzie Collection, Madras: Univ. of Madras, 1972Google Scholar.

50 “Account of Kandava Rayan and Satu Rayan Who Ruled from the Fort of Triuvadaiccuram in the Arcot District,” Taylor (n. 49 above), III, pp. 427–29.

51 Wilson (n. 49 above), XLIII, p. 434; also Rev. William Taylor's translation in the Madras Journal of Literature and Science, XIV (1847), pp. 166.Google Scholar

52 For a recent and important discussion of this, see Appadurai, Arjun, “Right and Left Hand Castes in South India,” Indian Economic and Social History Review, XI, 2–3 (1974), pp. 216–60.CrossRefGoogle Scholar

53 The Baramahal Records, 13 vols. (Madras: Govt. Press, 19071933)Google Scholar, esp. Section III: “Inhabitants.” Of considerable use in making such an assessment are the part XI-D volumes of the Census of India, 1961, Vol. IX, Madras: Temples of Madras State (Madras: Govt. Press, 1966).Google Scholar

54 Indian Census of 1931, Madras, XV, 1, “Report” by Yeatts, M. W. M. (Madras: Govt. Press, 1932). p. 286Google Scholar; for discussion of Telugu settlement characteristics, p. 289.

55 Recently and staunchly documented by Washbrook, David, “Country Politics: Madras 1880 to 1930,” Modern Asian Studies, VII (1973), pp. 475531.CrossRefGoogle Scholar

56 Toṇḍaimandala śatakam, verse 97; Kārmaṇḍala śatakam, verses 31–33; Kongumaṇḍala śatakam, verse 30. Also see N. Sastri's general observation on this; note 37 above, p. 690, n. 25.

57 Rice, B. Lewis, Mysore: A Gazetteer Compiled for Government, I (rev. ed., London, 1897), pp. 308–09Google Scholar; Derrett, J. D. M., The Hoysalas (Oxford: Oxford Univ. Press, 1957), pp. 1314Google Scholar.

58 Chōḷamaṇḍala śatakam, verse 6.

59 The Civilization of Ancient Velalas (Vēḷāḷar Nāgarigam) (Pallavaram, 1927), p. 83.Google Scholar

60 Reported by Steve Barnett in “Approaches to Caste and Change in South India” in Essays (n. 22 above), pp. 149–80.