Arumuka Navalar
Arumuka Navalar | |
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ஆறுமுக நாவலர் | |
Hindu reformer | |
Title | Navalar |
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Hindu philosophy | |
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Arumuka Navalar (
Navalar's birth name was Nallur Arumuka Pillai.
He was one of the first natives to use the modern printing press to preserve the Tamil literary tradition. He defended Hindu Shaivism, calling it samaya (Observance, Religion) of "True Being" (sat, soul), and he used the same techniques to counter Christianity that Christian missionaries used against Hinduism.
Biography
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Sri Lankan Tamils |
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Navalar was born in 1822 as Nallur Arumuga Pillai to a Hindu family in Sri Lanka.
Navalar's home was in the town of
Arumugam's father Kandharpillai was a Tamil poet and provided a foundation in Tamil literature to Arumuga Navalar.[11][14] His mother Sivakami was known for her devotion to supreme Saiva deity Lord Siva. Arumugam studied the Indian classical language, Sanskrit as well as Tamil grammar. Arumugam studied English in a Christian mission run school as a day student. After his studies, he was asked to stay on at the Jaffna Central College to teach English and Tamil.[11] The missionary school principal, Peter Percival employed him to assist in the translation of the King James Bible and other Christian literature into Tamil to further their missionary reach and objectives.[11]
Navalar immersed himself in the study of the Bible as well as the Vedas, Agamas and
Through his weekly sermons at Hindu temples, he also attempted to reform local Tamils of all practices that did not find sanction in the Hindu Vedas and Agamas. The lecture series and its circuit continued regularly for several years and produced a Saiva revival, helping informed piety grow among many Jaffna Saivas. This was a direct tactical response to confront what he called the "mockery" of the Hindus by Christian missionaries.[18] During this period, he continued to assist Percival to complete the translation of the Bible, as well as his study of the primary texts of both Christianity and Hinduism. When there was a conflict as to Percival's version and another competing translation, Arumugam traveled to Madras to defend Percival's version. In 1848 he founded his own school and finally parted company with Percival. Navalar believed that the Christian missionaries should be viewed as a gift from Shiva to help awaken his community to discover their own dharma path (puram) from "which they had departed" and away from the path of the "barbaric Europeans" (purappuram), states Hudson.[18][19]
Background information
The 18th and 19th century Tamils in India and Sri Lanka found themselves in the midst of intrusive Christian missionary activity and their polemics against Hinduism. According to D. Dennis Hudson, Tamil Saivas opposed Christian missions from the earliest days, based on indirect literary evidence. Printing press was not available to the Hindus in colonial era South Asia, and the Shaiva community used their oral tradition and handwritten notes for anti-missionary literature. Once Hindus gained access to printing presses, they mass-produced religious literature to condemn Christian propaganda in Jaffna and Chennai (then Madras) in the same way that Christian missionaries had used mass-produced literature to attack Hinduism. Arumuga Navalar was one of the first Tamils who became adept at this information war, and to undertake as his life's career the intellectual and institutional response of Saivism to Christianity in Sri Lanka and India.[21]
The 19th century Protestant missionaries from England and America in Jaffna believed that Hindu Shaivism was "evil" and in the struggle God and the Devil, they began to use publications such as The Morning Star to reveal the "falsity" of Hindu Shaivism and highlight texts such as the Skanda Purana in their schools for children. This angered the Shaiva community, who began their own efforts to counter the methods of the Christians.[21][22][19]
Response to Protestant propaganda
In September 1842 two hundred Hindu men gathered at a Siva temple monastery. The group decided to open up a school to study
When I heard the teachings by the gurus of the Christian path, my mind was very sympathetic and changed and I thought for a time that the Tamil sect might be false and the Christian true, and so I studied the Vedagama called the Bible.
—Arumuka Navalar, Quoted by D. Dennis Hudson[24]
While Arumugam Navalar was still working under Peter Percival and translating the Bible, he published a seminal letter in The Morning Star under a pseudonym in September 1841. It was a comparative study of Christianity and Hindu Saivism and targeted the weakness in the argument Christian missionaries had used against local Hindu Saiva practices. The missionaries had attacked the idol worship and temple rituals of the local Hindu Saivas as "devilish" and of "no value". Navalar, an avid reader of the Bible as he worked to translate it into Tamil, stated that Christianity and Jesus himself were rooted in the temple rituals of the ancient Israelites and that the reverence to the icons of Christianity such as the cross was akin to Shaiva's reverence for the icons of Hinduism such as the lingam. If Christians find their churches, rites and symbols as pedagogically useful, why shouldn't Shaiva Hindus have the same human rights and religious choices, argued Navalar.[24][25][26] His letter admonished the missionaries for misrepresenting their own religion and concluded that in effect there was no difference between Christianity and Hindu Saivism as far as idol worship and temple rituals were concerned.[27]
Circuit preaching
Using the preaching methods popularised by the
Emphasis on Agamas
In his weekly sermons, he attacked Christians and criticized the benighted practices of local Hindus. He specifically reprimanded the trustees and priests of the
Reformed school system
The school he founded was called Saivaprakasa Vidyasala or School of Lord Siva's splendor. The school did not follow the
As an owner of a pioneering new school with the a need for original publications in Tamil prose to teach subjects for all grades, Arumugar Navalar felt a need for a printing press. He and his colleague Sadasiva Pillai went to
Literary contributions
While in India he published two texts, one was an educational tool (teachers guide) Cüdãmani Nikantu, a sixteenth-century lexicon of simple verses and
Other notable texts published included The Prohibition of Killing, Manual of worship of Shiva temple and The Essence of the Saiva Religion. His first major literary publication appeared in 1851, the 272-page prose version of
The seminal work that was geared towards stemming the tide of conversions was printed in 1854. It was a training manual for the use of Saivas in their opposition to the missionaries, titled "Saiva dusana parihara" (The Abolition of the Abuse of Saivism).[34]
A Methodist missionary, who had worked in Jaffna, described the manual thirteen years after it had appeared as:
"Displaying an intimate and astonishing acquaintance with the Holy Bible. (the author) labors cleverly to show that the opinions and ceremonies of Jehovah's ancient people closely resembled those of Shaivism, and were neither more nor less Divine in their origin and profitable in their entertainment and pursuit. The notion of merit held by the Hindus, their practices of penance, pilgrimage, and lingam-worship, their ablutions, invocations, and other observances and rites, are cunningly defended on the authority of our sacred writings! That a great effect was thus produced in favour of Sivaism and against Christianity cannot be denied".
This manual was widely used in Sri Lanka and India; it was reprinted at least twice in the 19th century, and eight times by 1956.[34]
Legacy
According to D. Dennis Hudson – a World Religions scholar,
Navalar established the world's first Hindu school adapted to the modern needs that succeeded and flourished. While the school he established in Chidamharam in 1865 has survived to this day, similar schools seem to have spread only to two nearby towns. In Sri Lanka, eventually more than one hundred and fifty primary and secondary schools emerged from his work.
Arumuka Navalar who identified himself with an idealised past, worked within the traditions of Hindu Saiva culture and adhered to the Hindu Saiva doctrine.
Navalar and his followers have been accused by some such as Sivathamby of focusing on the religious literature "in their anxiety", and "openly keeping away" from the secular Tamil literature, as they opposed the Christian missionaries.[19][46] According to David Shulman, however, Navalar was among the pioneers who first located and printed the predominantly non-religious Tamil Sangam literature in 1851 (Thirumurukaattuppadai, one of the Ten Idylls) and the earliest paper editions of a palm-leaf manuscript on the ancient Tamil grammar text, Tolkappiyam.[47] According to Kamil Zvelebil – a Tamil literature scholar, Navalar was one of the key persons who identified, edited and published the secular and religious classical Tamil literature before 1879. He also inspired his fellow Tamils to publish Hindu texts and their translations.[30][47]
His critics state that Navalar was an example of a "hegemonic caste" and his hidden agenda was to promote his own caste. Arumuga Navalar found support from the Brahmins and his own literati caste of Vellalas in the Tamil community, according to Wilson, because he accepted and recognized their caste-based status.[48][49] His supporters state that Navalar had no such hidden agenda, and his active efforts to reform attest to Navalar's commitment to end social vices such as alcoholism, violence against animals and others.[49] According to Peter Schalk, Navalar has also been accused of despising the Vaishnava and Jaina community.[49]
Navalar's legacy has provoked negative reactions and criticism from the political left of South Asia. Navalar, states Schalk, was a theologian who used indirect "metonymic language" with "coded words" that metaphorically supported the traditional caste system privileges within the colonial era administration. His supporters, in contrast, interpret the same "coded words" differently and view him as an "organic intellectual" committed to religious growth through reforms and one committed to the human rights and freedom struggle of the Tamil people.[50]
References
- ISBN 978-0822349822.
- ^ ISBN 978-0-231-10779-2.
- ISBN 978-3-447-01582-0.
- ^ Sugirtharajah 2005.
- ^ Jones & Hudson 1992, pp. 27–35.
- ^ Pillay, Kolappa Pillay Kanakasabhapathi (1969). A Social History of the Tamils. University of Madras.
- ISBN 0-7914-0828-0. Retrieved 14 May 2020.
- ^ ISBN 978-0-230-59782-2.
- ISBN 978-81-317-1988-6.
- ISBN 978-0-231-10779-2., Quote: "Arumuga Navalar and Jnanaprakasha Muni belonged to the Karkatta Velala class" (p. 40). (For the legend on how Navalar's ancestor learnt Hindu texts and became accepted as learned in the Hindu community, and a part of Shaiva monastery tradition, see pp. 41–43)
- ^ a b c d e Kaplan & Hudson 1994, pp. 97
- ^ Jones & Hudson 1992, pp. 29
- ^ Sabaratnam 2010
- ^ Social Science Review. Social Scientists Association. 1979. p. 61.
- ^ Jones & Hudson 1992, pp. 33–38.
- ^ Jones & Hudson 1992, pp. 27–38.
- ^ Jones & Hudson 1992, pp. 36–38
- ^ a b Jones & Hudson 1992, pp. 33–37
- ^ a b c Gupta, Basu & Chatterjee 2010, pp. 164–165
- ^ a b Jones & Hudson 1992, pp. 27.
- ^ a b c Jones & Hudson 1992, pp. 27–29
- ^ Jones & Hudson 1992, pp. 29–30
- ^ Jones & Hudson 1992, pp. 33
- ^ a b Jones & Hudson 1992, pp. 33–35.
- ^ Goodman & Hudson 1994, pp. 56
- ^ Sugirtharajah 2005, pp. 6
- ^ Jones & Hudson 1992, pp. 33–35
- ^ Kaplan & Hudson 1994, pp. 100
- ^ a b c d e f Jones & Hudson 1992, pp. 48
- ^ a b c d Zvelebil 1991, pp. 155–157
- ^ a b Jones & Hudson 1992, pp. 41
- ^ a b Jones & Hudson 1992, pp. 42
- ^ Zvelebil 1991, pp. 156
- ^ a b c d Kaplan & Hudson 1994, pp. 105–106
- ^ Jones & Hudson 1992, pp. 33–44
- ^ Prof. D. Dennis Hudson (1939–2007) was a Professor of World Religions at the Department of Religion, Smith College at SUNY.
- ^ a b Jones & Hudson 1992, pp. 27–48.
- ^ Zvelebil 1991, pp. 153–157
- ^ a b Jones & Hudson 1992, pp. 49
- ^ Schalk 2010, pp. 116
- ^ Schalk 2010, pp. 120
- ^ Wilson 1999, pp. 20
- ^ Schalk 2010, pp. 121
- ^ Balachandran, P.K. (24 June 2006). "Cutting edge of Hindu revivalism in Jaffna". Daily News. Lake House Publishing. Archived from the original on 21 October 2012. Retrieved 20 September 2011.
- ^ Hellmann-Rajanayagam 1989, pp. 235–254
- ^ Wikremasinghe 2006, pp. 83
- ^ ISBN 978-0-674-97465-4.
- ^ Wilson 1999, pp. 53–54
- ^ a b c Schalk 2010, pp. 119
- ^ Schalk 2010, pp. 119–121
Cited literature
- Goodman, Hananya; Hudson, D. Dennis (1994). Between Jerusalem and Benares:Comparative Studies in Judaism and Hinduism. ISBN 0-7914-1716-6.
- Gupta, Suman; Basu, Tapan; Chatterjee, Subarno (2010). Globalization in India: Contents and Discontents. Dorling Kindersley. ISBN 978-81-317-1988-6.
- Hellmann-Rajanayagam, Dagmar (1989). "Arumuka Navalar: Religious reformer or national leader of Eelam". Indian Economic and Social History Review. 26 (2): 235–257. S2CID 144692614.
- Jones, Kenneth W.; Hudson, D. Dennis (1992). Religious controversy in British India: dialogues in South Asian languages. ISBN 0-7914-0828-0.
- Kaplan, Stephen; Hudson, D. Dennis (1994). Indigenous Responses to Western Christianity. NYU Press. ISBN 0-8147-4649-7.
- Sabaratnam, T (2010). Sri Lankan Tamil Struggle. The Sangam.
- Schalk, Peter (2010). Michael Bergunder, Heiko Frese and Ulrike Schroder (ed.). Ritual, Caste and religion on Colonial South India -Sustaining the pre-colonial paste:Saiva defiance against Christian rule in the 19th century Jaffna. Franckesche Stifungen zu Halle, Halle. ISBN 978-3-447-06377-7.
- ISBN 0-521-82493-1.
- Zvelebil, Kamil (1991). Companion studies to the history of Tamil literature. Brill Academic Publishers. ISBN 90-04-09365-6.
- Wikremasinghe, Nira (2006). Sri Lanka in the Modern Age: A History of Contested Identities. University of Hawaii Press. ISBN 0-8248-3016-4.
- Wilson, A.J. (1999). Sri Lankan Tamil Nationalism. UBC. ISBN 0-7748-0759-8.
Further reading
- Ambalavanar, Devadarshan Niranjan (2006). "Arumuga Navalar and the construction of a Caiva public in colonial Jaffna (Sri Lanka, India)". Harvard University. Retrieved 20 September 2011.
- Pfaffenberger, Bryan (1982), Caste in Tamil culture:The Religious foundations of Sudra domination in Tamil Sri Lanka, ISBN 0-915984-84-9
- Rajesh (2003). "Research Theme: Mapping the processes of transmission, recovery and reception of classical Tamil literature in late 19th and early 20th century colonial Madras Presidency" (PDF). Institut français de Pondichéry (Department of Indology). Archived from the original (.pdf) on 17 July 2007. Retrieved 18 October 2007.
- Young, Richard; Jebanesan, S (1995). The Bible trembled : the Hindu-Christian controversies of nineteenth-century Ceylon. Vienna Inst. für Indologie. OCLC 243818092.