Aiyanar and his Devotees: A Glimpse into a South-Indian Village Religion
February 20, 2025 | 12:00 PM CST
Zoom Webinar
Presentation Description
Village religion, in contrast to Brahmanical Hinduism, is primarily concerned with issues and items crucial for the people’s survival and the smooth functioning of their daily life. Most of India’s villages are either agricultural settlements – where the village deities are concerned with agricultural life (guarding the fields and the cattle; being responsible for seasonal rains, etc.) – or fishermen’s villages – where the village deities are responsible for the climate over the sea, the availability of fish, the safe return of the fishermen, etc. The most important village-deity in the agricultural tracts of Tamilnadu is Aiyanar. His temples are situated at the border of the village’s land, outside the inhabited space. Aiyanar is always accompanied by several minor deities. The Velar of Madurai constitute a potters’ community deeply involved in the worship of Aiyanar. They are famous for the creation of clay-statues used in the worship of Aiyanar. Strictly speaking, without the work of the Velar, the worship of Aiyanar would not be possible. This paper introduces the religion of Aiyanar with its different rituals, and the deep involvement of the Velar-community herein.
About the Speaker
Prof. Dr. Ulrike Niklas (born 1954) studied Classical Indology, Dravidian Studies (mainly Tamil language and culture) and History of Asian Art at the Universities of Cologne (Köln) and Bonn in Germany (PhD 1986; Habilitation 1999). She spent many years conducting fieldwork and other kinds of research in South India with the help of stipends by DAAD (German Academic Exchange Service), and with an employment at the EFEO in Pondicherry. While concentrating on the study of Classical Tamil Language and Literature in Pondicherry, her fieldwork was mainly conducted in villages around the city of Madurai and focused on aspects of living Tamil Culture. After accomplishing her habilitation in 1999, she was employed as Assistant Professor at the National University of Singapore. In 2006 as full Professor, she took over the Chair for Indology and Tamil Studies of Cologne University (Germany) which she extended into an “Institute of South-Asian- and Southeast-Asian Studies” thus adding a comparative element with main focus on Cambodia, Indonesia (especially Bali), and Vietnam. She retired in April 2022. Since then, she lives in Siem Reap, Cambodia, from where she continues to teach online classes in Sanskrit, Pali, Tamil and religious and cultural topics comparing India and Southeast-Asia.