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Vellalas in Transition: Caste, Religion, and Authority in South India, Medieval to Modern

Obiettivo

Between the 15th and 18th centuries, Tamil South India underwent major transformations in religion, language, and caste. Yet when considering the formation of regional identity, this early modern moment has been overlooked in favour of colonial and postcolonial histories. This project investigates these shifts through the Vellalas, a caste that rose from medieval agrarian elites to dominant intellectual and religious actors by the 19th century. While their role in colonial society is well documented, the institutions, texts, and practices that enabled their earlier ascent remain understudied. From the 15th century onwards, historical sources reveal that Vellalas claimed religious authority and the right to teach the Shaiva religion in Tamil, which challenged Brahmanical control over religious education and the privilege of Sanskrit. The project’s central hypothesis is that this shift was made possible by Vellala investment in Shaiva monasteries, the adheenams, which functioned as centres of learning, ritual power, and patronage. These institutions anchored dense networks of pilgrimage, scholarship, and economic exchange at a moment when South India was shaped by interaction with new actors such as Telugu warlords, Arab traders, Sufi lineages, or Christian missionaries. By combining philology, history, material and digital analysis, the project will offer the first comprehensive account of how Vellalas mobilised religious institutions to link Shaivism with Tamil literature and reconfigure caste hierarchies. It will show how these developments gave rise to new forms of authority and belonging before colonialism, laying the foundations for the region’s modern identity.

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Istituzione ospitante

ECOLE DES HAUTES ETUDES EN SCIENCES SOCIALES
Contributo netto dell'UE
€ 1 163 137,00
Indirizzo
54 BD RASPAIL
75270 Paris
Francia
Regione
Ile-de-France Ile-de-France Paris
Tipo di attività
Higher or Secondary Education Establishments
Collegamenti
Costo totale
€ 1 163 137,00

Beneficiari (3)