Re-Visiting the ‘Narratives of Violence’ in the Literary Cultures of Early Tamil Society

Abstract

After a long period of coexistence, there was an intense power struggle between S̃ramanic groups and Puranic Hindu sects. In contrary to the existing scholarly assumptions, these conflicts were not taking place in the realm of cultureal one where Jain-Buddhist groups had been reviled for being alien to the Tamil cultural ethos and its language. On adeeper analysis wecan see significant ruptures in the terrain of economy as well. As peasant society expanding on its grain frontiers, it faced acute challenges from non-peasant, warrior communities. In an ironical reversal of roles, some ofthese warrior ‘tribes’ themselves were the followers of Jain religion. Due to the growing ruralisation of the society, the contemporary laity was too poor to feed the monks and to support the elaborate establishment of mendicants. This led to further intensification of conflicts over resources. Since, S̃ramanas have left no accounts of these conflicts of their own; we have to rely on the texts like Mattavilasa Prahasana, Bhagavadajjukam, Periyapuranam, and the Tevaram. They all were telling this story from the side of bhakti religions. Clearly, the repertoires were profoundly one-sided and often partisan in their reflections. The question is how could someone construct a pattern from these one-sided narratives? This study argues that this conflict also needs to be seen in an ethical context. The absence of any ‘claim of moral superiority over their rivals’ by the victorious (which were mostly the Saiva sects) could clearly suggest the regression of absolute ethical standards in the early medieval Tamil society. There was a pervasive presence of violence in the texts and traditions in this period. This paper aspires to unravel the contours of ‘historical reality’ submerged within these narratives of conflict.