Tamil Culture: More sweet than celestial nectar, more precious than one’s breath
Vasudha Narayanan
India Studies Lecture
April 3, 2025, 8 PM
Spurlock Museum
Abstract:
Tamil is a language with speakers and devotees. It has a vast secular literature as well as Hindu, Muslim, Jain, Christian, and Buddhist texts. Focusing on specific verses, artifacts, and stories, this lecture presents the story of this classical language and also its social and geographic connections.
Speaker Bio:
Vasudha Narayanan is Distinguished Professor in the Department of Religion at the University of Florida and a past President of the American Academy of Religion (2001-2002). She was elected to the American Academy of Arts and Sciences (opens in new tab) in 2023. Vasudha Narayanan was educated at the Universities of Madras and Bombay in India, and at Harvard University. Her fields of interest are the Hindu traditions in India, Cambodia, and America; visual and expressive cultures in the study of the Hindu traditions; and gender issues.
Narayanan is the author or editor of seven books and numerous articles, chapters in books, and encyclopedia entries. In addition, she is also the associate editor of the five-volume Brill’s Encyclopedia of Hinduism. Her books include The Life of Hinduism (co-edited with John Stratton Hawley, 2007), The Vernacular Veda: Revelation, Recitation, and Ritual (1994), The Tamil Veda: Pillan's Interpretation of the Tiruvaymoli (co-authored with John Carman, 1989), and The Way and the Goal: Expressions of Devotion in the Early Srivaisnava Tradition (1987).