U.C.Berkeley Tamil Conference

Koyil: Invention, Imagination, Transmission

& the Temples of Tamil Nadu

April 30-May 1, 2005

Geballe Room

(Townsend Center for the Humanities)

The Tamil conference, the first of its kind to be hosted by U.C.Berkeley focuses on the temples of Tamil Nadu, South India as sites of cultural production and transmission. Some of the most important active temples and temple towns of India, such as those of Kancipuram and Chidambaram are located in Tamil Nadu. The temple as its Tamil name koyil (home of the king) suggests, was intimately connected to the affairs of the court. Often erected as performances of imperial power, they quickly became the loci for the production of elite urban culture—the performing arts, production of sculpture and bronzes, a more sophisticated ritual culture, and cults of saints were associated with these magnificent buildings. It is no surprise therefore, that the temple travels with Hindu-Indians as they move to North America and Europe and often becomes the site where a diaspora cultural identity is reimagined. But much earlier, the architectural forms, iconography and ritual texts associated with the Tamil temple move into Southeast Asia evident in the building of Angkor Wat in Cambodia. The ubiquitous presence of the Tamil temple as a symbol of elite urban culture both in India and in the diaspora has expectedly generated discourses of resistance as well. On the one hand, we witness an explicit rejection of the Tamil temple, by twelfth century poets and twentieth century politicians alike as a site of corruption, exploitation and oppression. On the other hand, the Tamil temple appears in more humble village settings, where traditionally disenfranchised groups recast it to suit their purpose. Despite the pervasive presence of the temple in Tamil Nadu, there has been little sustained academic focus on them. Largely, the temple has been the staple of Art Historians, who have contributed much to our understanding of the development of stylistic and architectural features and more recently, in the political implications of temple building.

The two-day conference brings together for the first time twelve invited North American scholars from a variety of Humanities fields (for example Literary Studies, Religious Studies, Art History) whose studies focus specifically on the Tamil temple. These twelve scholars will present on topics that range from temple epigraphy, significance of the royal cult of temples in Cambodia, newly emergent temple cultures (such as the temple-tomb) as imaginative ways of asserting Tamil cultural identity.*. Furthermore, the conference also brings into dialogue senior scholars in the field and junior scholars—it is often the case that the exciting new work of junior scholars, who are yet to be published, is not available to senior scholars. The Tamil conference bridges this gap, to facilitate a new kind of dialogue, while also linking junior scholars with senior scholars who can act as guides and mentors.  It is our hope that such a format will benefit all our participants and lead to fresh new ideas, perspectives and discussion. We aim to bring the papers presented at this conference together in an edited volume that will contribute to the literature on Temples of South India. Furthermore, we see this conference as the initial step to a larger research project that will eventually lead to yet another much larger conference on temples that brings together scholars from both India and Europe.

 While the immediate audience for the Tamil Conference, are South and Southeast Asianists in allied departments (for example, Art History, History, and Anthropology), the concerns of the conference for the ways in which cultural knowledge is transported will also appeal to U.C. Berkeley’s broader University Humanities community. In addition, the conference, which is free and open to the public, will also bring in the Bay Area’s Tamil community that raised the funds for the Tamil Chair. The Tamil Conference addresses a broad audience, comprised of the scholarly community, both at Berkeley and around the United States, as well as the Tamil diaspora community. 

    * To find out about the conference participants and the abstracts of the papers to be presented at the Tamil Conference please click here