Programme
Margaret Trawick
Professor
Department of Social Anthropology
Massey University
E/ M.Trawick@massey.ac.nz
A Tamil Saiva Siddhanta Concept of Self and Personhood
Tirumular's Tirumantiram is a foundational Saiva Siddhanta text, written approximately 800 CE. Consisting of three thousand four-line verses, it is considered to show the way to bodily immortality – a fundamental concern of the cittarkal (siddhars) and of cittar poetry. Cittar poetry, starting with Tirumantiram, is often considered opaque and esoteric; however, much of this poetry is a clear set of meditations on the ephemeral beauty of life. A detailed portrait of the human body and spirit is drawn along the way. Some features of this portrait precede its verbal rendition and are found in the architecture of early stone temples of southern India. Other features are carried forward into modern poetry and common philosophy, resonating with the experiences of Tamil people today.
This paper will discuss Saiva Siddhanta views of human life, both those of ancient specialists and those of modern secular people, with the aim of understanding how certain culturally specific interpretations of personhood continue through many changes of time and place.
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Prof. Trawick has carried out four extensive fieldwork projects in southern
India, one extensive fieldwork project in Sri Lanka, and one fieldwork project
at her former home in New York State. Her publications address the status of
women in India, literate Chinese and Indian medical systems, South Indian poetry
and poetics, spirit mediumship and possession, the anthropology of emotion,
family and kinship, life histories, and the experience of untouchability in
India. Since 1995, she has conducted research on the conflict in Sri Lanka. Some
of her major and relevant publications include
Enemy Lines: Childhood, Warfare, and Play in Batticaloa (2007);
“Interviews with High School Students in Eastern Sri Lanka” in Everyday Life
in South Asia (2002); “Killing and Healing Revisited: On Sacrifice,
Warfare, and Cultural Difference” in Medical Anthropology for the New
Millenium Essays in Honor of Charles Leslie (2002); "On the Status of Child
Combatants." in Journal of Social Sciences 4:2 (2000); "Lessons from
Kokkaddichcholai" at International Conference on Tamil Nationhood and the
Search for Peace in Sri Lanka (1999); "Reasons for Violence: A Preliminary
Ethnographic Account of the LTTE" in South Asia Vol. XX (1997), and
Notes on Love in a Tamil Family (1990).