Part III - Contemporary Hinduism in south India

Summary

As much as the south of India is culturally very unique and different from the north, the diversity within the south is as prominent as it is in the north. There is a significant temple culture in the south. It is a land that was once buoyant with devotionalism that gave rise to many of the present Śaivite and Vaiṣṇavite temple traditions. Famous philosophers and religious reformers such as Śankara and Rāmānuja lived in these parts of the south. As we shall see, some parts of the south such as Kerala claimed to be “God's own land”, and some of the temples such as Tirupati claimed to be “heaven on Earth”. With such intense devotional background, the south offers us great opportunities to explore the variety of contemporary Hindu practice. We present here narratives of snake goddesses by Amy Allocco in Chapter 14. Weaving the narrative around a highly educated urban woman, she offers an insight into the significance of this worship for the society and women. Chapter 15, by George Pati, is on Nambūtiri Brāhmans and Ayyapan devotees, and offers us an insight into the rituals, beliefs and the devotional life of Kerala. In Chapter 16, Archana Venkatesan constructs her narrative on the sacred life of Āṇṭāḷ around the story of an elderly woman in Srivilliputtur, a small town in Tamilnadu. Following on from this, Afsar Mohammad (Chapter 17) narrates the festival of Brahmotsvam and the various daily rituals at Sri Venkateswara temple in Tirupati.