“Be Careful and Survive”: The Body in Gopalakrishna Bharati’s Nantaṉār Carittirakkīrttaṉaikaḷ

Kōpālakiruṣṇa Pārati’s (Bharati; 1811-1896) composition Nantaṉār Carittirakkīrttaṉaikaḷ (1861) catalyzed the bhakta Nantaṉār’s popularity across Tamil country. Bharati reimagined the stigmatized saint’s story of union with Śiva as musical drama and agrarian struggle. In the narrative, Nantaṉār, the laboring aṭimai (slave), struggles to convince both his Brahmin master, Vētiyar, and Dalit caste kin of his desire to see Śiva. In this talk, I explore Bharati’s discourse on the body at three levels: (1) theological, grounded in popular and doctrinal Śaivism, (2) devotional, through embodied action, and (3) labor, the system of bonded labor and modes of punishment and supplication. Taken together, I argue that while Bharati, like many authors of bhakti literature, brings to the fore the inherent tensions of the exceptional individual’s devotional journey against societal structures and expectations, he explores the way caste and untouchability permeate the so-called worldly and other-worldly divide.