RAMAN, SRILATA
Associate Professor		 Contact Areas of Interest
Raman, Srilata Department for the Study of Religion & Centre for Diaspora and Transnational Studies
170 St George Street, Room 313
Toronto, ON M5R 2M8
t: 416-978-3189
e: s.raman@utoronto.ca@utoronto.ca
  • Sanskrit and Tamil intellectual formations in South India from pre-colonial times to modernity
  • Yoga and Ayurveda
  • Srivaishnavism
  • Sanskrit and Tamil commentarial literature
  • Religion and Colonialism
  • Colonial sainthood and Gurus
  • Gender and the Goddess
  • Modern Tamil and Dalit Literature
  • Bhakti

About

Professor Srilata Raman completed her BA in New Delhi, India, her MPhil at Oxford University,  and PhD in Tübingen, Germany. She is the author of Self-Surrender (Prapatti) to God in Srīvaiṣṇavism. Tamil Cats and Sanskrit Monkeys (2007), and Words and Deeds: Hindu and Buddhist Rituals in South Asia (2005).

Curriculum Vitae

cv icon

Select Publications

Books and Edited Volumes

Forthcoming (2015)  The Transformation of Tamil Religion. Ramalinga Swamigal and Modern, Dravidian Sainthood. Routledge.

Forthcoming  Kampaṉ’s Irāmāvatāram: War, Part One. Translation and Annotation for the Murty Classical Library of India Series, Chief Editor: Sheldon Pollock. Harvard: Harvard University Press. (Target release January 2015)

2007  Self –Surrender (Prapatti) to God in Śrīvaiṣṇavism. Tamil Cats and Sanskrit Monkeys. Routledge Hindu Studies Series. Series Editor: Gavin Flood. Routledge: London and New York.

2005  Words and Deeds: Hindu and Buddhist Rituals in South Asia. Harrassowitz.

Articles

2014  “Justifying Filicide. Ramalinga Swamigal, the Periyapurāṇam and Tamil Religious Modernity.” International Journal of Hindu Studies. 18.1.33-66.

2013  “The Spaces InBetween. Ramalinga Swamigal (1823-1874), Hunger, and Religion in Colonial India.” History of Religions. 53.1.1-27.

2011  “Tamil, Vaidika and Vaiṣṇava. Kiruṣṇacuvāmi Aiyaṅkār, Irāmānuja Tātācāriyār and Modern Tamil Literary History.” Journal of Indian Philosophy 39:647–676

2011  “‘Religion’, Religious Identity and the Frustrations of Modernity.” In Review Symposium of Religion and the Spectre of the West by Arvind-Pal S. Mandair, 2010 . Columbia University Press. Religions of South Asia 4.2.213-219.

2004  “Departure and Prophecy. The Disappearance of Irāmaliṅka Aṭikaḷ in the Early Narratives of his life.” Indologica Taurenensia, XXVIII. 119-135.

2004  “Soteriology in Rāmānuja: Bhakti or Prapatti?” ZDMG.154.1.85-129.

2009  “Who are the Velalas? Twentieth century Constructions and Contestations of Tamil Identity in Maramalai Adigal
(1876-1950).” In Kelly Pemberton and Michael Nijhawan (Eds.), Shared Idioms, Sacred Symbols, and the Articulation of Identities in South Asia. Routledge. 78-95.

2009  “The Tale of the Righteous King. King Maṉu in Ramalinga Adigal.” In N. Kannan and Jennifer Clare (eds.,), Passages: relationships between Tamil and Sanskrit. Pondicherry/Berkeley: All India Press. 237-250.

2007  “Initiation and Conversion in Medieval South India.  Pañcasaṃskāra as Historical Practice in the Śrīvaiṣṇava
Hagiographical Literature.” In Gerhard Oberhammer and Marion Rastelli (Eds.), The Relationship between Viśiṣṭādvaita and Pāñcarātra. Vienna: Austrian Academy of Sciences. 263-286.