Dr.

GARIGIPATI RUDRAYYA CHOWDARI ENDOWMENT LECTURE - 2

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CULTURAL - IDEOLOGICAL TRADITIONS AND LEGITIMIZATION PROCESS IN ANDHRA:

TWELFTH TO EIGHTEENTH CENTURIES

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..

BY'

Dr. A. Murali University of Hyderabad

16th Dec, '94 R3machandrapuram, E. G. Dla

,

To a great extent, we are told that the imperial subject in India had been shaped by the british intellectuals/officials anti, this process could be dated back to the eighteenth century. However. the construction of colonial Subject Was much more complex that it has been assumed so fari n the historioqrapxv. It was a joint cultural-ideological project executed by the Europeans and the Indian traditional intellectuals, though it was devoid of tension. The nineteenth century construction of colonial subjects and their .rooting in the 'new histories' invented by colonialism was preceded by two important cultural processes.

One process was related to the European intellectual guest to discover Indian civilization, in particular its Hindu religion'

This process, started in the seventeenth century took a new turn with the political triumph of the British over India in the second

half of the eighteenth century. During' this period the British interrogation of the secietv in the Madras Presidency was basic-

ally informed by the European classical tradition, the notion of

I

military and economic superiority, and their cultural and intellec-

tual experience with the tradition of semitic religious ideology. Apart from the cultural and ideological need for tile transposition

of European hegemony over the Orient, the East India Company's need to govern the colonies in accordance with indigenous

traditions necessitated the utilitarian task of codifying what was perceived to be the Indian classical literature, canonical law,

traditions and morality. From the 1790s, the British interrogation was ideologically intorrned by hostility towards popular cultural.

traditions and religion with a open incorporation of the Sanskritized culture, ideology and practices (language, literature,

religious and moral traditions and varna and jati system). One can illustrate this process with the case studies of three important British officials who contributed to the retrieval of so - called. 'authentic' Sanskritized Telugu tradition: Colonel Colin Mackezi., A. D. Campbell and C. P. Brown.

- Apart from the colonial need to translate th bi

I· . d I . e su ~l

peop e S society an cu ture Into known Europe .

. an categories'

there seem to be other Influences at work in so far" th .

d . f h II d h " 0$ e repro-

uctron 0 t e so-ca e aut entre Sanskritized can . I dl

. '. onlca tra 1-

tion was concerned, .1. ~., the. l,,!luences of ideological trends

that emerged from withinthe indlqenous society. The indigenous cultural .and ideological formation started from the twelfth

.centurv is the second important process which need to be anal _

zed in detail. V

Negation of Brahmanic Tradition

Thestarting point of our analysis is the twelfth century Andhra for two reasons: at one level while the abstract or tex tuallv constructed orahmanical ideology of varna system (chatur varna or the four fold division of the society into Brahman,Kshatrjya, Vaisya and Sudra) was increasingly coming under pressure in the context of widening material activity, and at another level, [atls and kulas (operated with a closed endogamy 7), t functional units of varna system !performing various materia. activities) were getting proliferated on the eve of emer . ,new professions (vruttulu). consequence of growth in artisan" production, agriculture and trade. In this fast changing seenario, the preceding cu!tu ra!- ideological tnldition with Srahfflafti cal supremacy and ritual hegemony articulated through a ~XU$ of land grants and temples was protested and sought to be Chafl ged. Between the twelfth and seventeenth centuries, startl from the followers of Virasaivism and culminating with V" na and Potuluri Veerabrahmam, the militant Bhaktl ideologies plaved a crucial role in legitimizing (ideologicalfy and cultura" three aspects of social life in Andhra, l.e., labour (krushi), t (vanidyam) and profession (vruttl),

The negation of Brahmanic tradi1fon h hs te

practices, belief svste n. notion of purity and potl ions among jatis (castes), the value sstemy a

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manual labour and the demeanino attitude towards women was an important contribution of Virasaivism to Andhra starting from the twelfth a :lj th irtesnth C9:1 turies. Pal kuriki Somanadha's Basava Purana and Panditara :f,ya Charitra are the two major Hterarv works in Telugu which vividly portray the sectarian religious Strife between Brahmanism and Virasaivism, especially in th s thirteenth century .. This sectarian religious strife cannot be explained, even by the theologians involved in the struggle in terms of. lithe ex r aordinarilv sub I~ philosophic differences between the teachinqs of their founders", though such attempts were made at several points of time in history. Instead, as D.O. Kosarnbi observe I in hiS caste -nd crass in Indt3 that "when one sect displaced another, OM has to look a nUJe closer In to such historical records as are available, and it will usually be clearthat there wasalso a change in the ownership of· the land." The emergence of rnilitantlv anti- Brahrnanical Viras-

aiva reliqious ideology was therefore closely entwined with the changes in the material activity of: the society. "The Virasaiva movement", argues Ramanujan, "was a social upheaval by and for the poor, thetow-caste urrd outcaste against the rich and the privileged; it was a rising of the un.ettered against the Literate pundit, flesh and blood against stone." It was also a revolt of Hn· materially prosperous jatis· or ku.as involved in trading and aqricultura! production against the degrading social and riiua position.

Vais·hnaviSr1l. Brahmanayucfu- and the attack on ·c.st.~ sy,s·te·m.

Th3 political destiny of Andhra, till the end 0 ' ntury was rn ark sd by the interncine warf'8re ai'nOn9 the n\ian",.1 kas or feudatories; the prominent among t~m ~re an Chodas, Kota chiefs of Dharanikora, KondaP~l1MlI." 1r.WIIoI_

N'adandl'a, ParichchediS of Omgerumarg-a and This political rivatrv among the Chalukya.Ch~tt TIHllrHI oPtiStt·

chad a tlashpolnt in 11 ~l A.D., in a battte at ICSfe In 11_

district. This war. ~dS immortalized in several folk-ballads a

also in Srin rtha's PJ.nltivira Cha:itram (TH tory

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Heroes of Palnad'). While the political conseqnences of the war was clearly the establishment of Kakatlyas' overlord ship in

Andhra, the social and religious ramifications were not so apparent. One can however, discern a broad pattern of social and religious changes that preceded and followed the Palnad war; In Palnativira Charitram and Kreedabhiramamu, the events that led the feudatories into a destructive battle were suggestively linked to the radical social and religious reform initiated by Brahmanayudu within vaishnava tradition. Though the rise of mili tant Virasaivism in Karnataka. under Basava was contemoraneous to Brahmanavudu-s Vaishnava reform, the influence of the former

•

on Andhra events was suggested in the oral and written tradition

at the level of hostility, for the Nayakuralu Nagam~a, who said to have brought war on Brahrnanavudu, was an ardent supporter of Saivism. What we are cor.cerned with however, is the changing material conditions and their relationship with the tradition of radical social and religious reform.

The central problem of the conflict was summed up by B.V.

Krishna Rao in his Heyihayas of palnad, which we quote:

The storm of social revolution that burst upon the Andhiadesa close on the hees of the religious revival appears to have been the root-cause of the internecine war in Palni • The new social orders created political dissensions and rivalry in the royal family and finally destroyed peace in the land. The adherents of the new form of Vir~vishnavism in Palnad atta mpted to do away with conventions of caste and comrnu in the same manner as Basava the founder of Vira aiva - __ did in Karnatadesa roughly a quarter of a-century 8 pioneer of soclo-rel igious reform in the Andhra Recharla Brahmanayudu of the Chaturt~akula, the nu .. minister of the Haihaya ruler of Pained

The Brahmanic. consructlon of social hi.rare

acquisition of specific characteristics by . eac

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from Brahman to Sudra, at birth, Though Brahmanayudu had done away with the traditional Brahmanic Jati ranking, his version of reformed Vaishnavism was still under the influence of Sanskrit notion of attributing ~.una (character) to each group, for each kulam that got welded Into the Padmanayaka warrior community had indirectly operated with an internal ranking. Was this a conscious policy followed by Brahmanayudu or an unconscious following of the cultural role models set in the traditional social structure is not clear There are however some indications in the oral narrative of the emergence of internal ranking.

Th9 story of "the game of, tops" in the oral version of Palnativ.ra Charitram is instructive of the process of interna I r.dnkil1g, apparently informed by guna of each community supposedly acquired at birth. Balachandrudu the son of Brahmanayu du and his <brothers" when wished to play tops, the mother of Balachandrudu, Aitamma said to have made multi-coloured tops for each of the boys individually, but with a ranking number; Balachandrudu gets 12,000, followed by other boys, Brahman 10,0JO, Velama 6,000, Kammari (blacksmith) 5,000, Karnsali (goldsmith) 4,000, Chakali (washerrnan) 3,000, Kumm, ari (potter) 2,000 and Mangali (barber) 1,000. Leaving Balachandrudu. who gets the top rank being the son of Brahmanayudu, it was the Brahman but not the Velama who 'gets the top rank. The main concern of Brahmanayudu was to forge a confederation of all communities in Andhra around his middle -ranked Velama kula (a warrior - cultivator 'caste'). Only the nucleus of Brahmanayudu and his family were on top of the hjerarchv being the 'spiritual' and political leaders of theconfederation of the communities, P2dmanayakas. This type of ra form and 'integrative process' in a way smacks of the tradItional Brahmanic ,construction of [ati ranking.

, The Kulas like Matas and Madigas (considered to be un touchables) were also integrated into the Padmanayaka Comm unity, albeit loosely, for they seem to have remained on the periphery during the war at Karempudi in 1182 A.D. One Kenn.

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ama, being a Mala cornpletetlv devotes himself to Brahmana, yudu, but his social position remains ambiguous throughout. There however was no denigration of any of the people of this community.

However in the twelfth century, Br ahrnanavudus reformed Vaishnavism may not 'have succeeded in creating enough cultural space to Intearate the Malas and Madigas (Pancha mas) into his new community. Moreover his endeavour to recreate altogether a new and -somewhat non-hierarchic social order different from that of Brahmanic varna and jati system, could not be characterized as a successful cultural discourse. For all that remained after the war at Karempudi in 1182 A.D. was only the Padrnanayaka warrior-peasant community basically comprised of Velamas and few other middle-ranking non- Brahman kularnutu. Yet One. must concede that it was this socio-religious reform movement within Vaishnavism which had a powerful influence on the popular cultural traditions in Andhra. T he question is how f(Jr this limited cultural space created by Branmanavudu was Igte, absorbed, and enlarged by the militant Virasaiva followers in Andhra? .

Origin Of Virasaivism and th& Nature Of Ideo1ogical attack

Virasaivism, as a philosophical movement and rel~gious sect took its birth in Karnataka' in the twelfth century A.D. TboUgh there are writers who argues that "'Ltnflayat religion taught by Basava has its beginfttng in the {lime past and i& equally old a"a consistent with Vedas" a eM caf look at context of lts birth and the sY$tem of idees would certaiRW

proves the eontrary. .

1:>011" in 110e A.D and died either in 1!6"7 or 1 '68' A. &.

The VifaeaivisM of Basavesvara- we8- rAG" . p.·iM_~

hv and monotheistic in , Jig-iOA. I miRtates· tural and r.~ligi.ous tradltlcns, especially the Ji.tu"Jj~ tionalized and hierarcbised (Js~ect~ of Hinduism and During. the tenth and twelfth cen1uri-tla' tern les aJld

have become vety, lmpcrtant relfgJQu~ centers. arQ"~

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revolved the life of people. With lncreaslnq land-grants, the temples and with the hegemony of the ideology of varna dharma the priestly class came to dominate the agrarian and artisanal production and social life. The popular classes resented the rigjd.i~ication ~f social. hleran, hy,. the. ~estrictionSQn social

, mobility, at a trme when the m aterial activity was expanding.

This was the social- religious and material Context in the Oecea'n which necessitated the birth' of nii I itant anti- Brahman rel.igious ideology. As an ideology. Virasaivism had sought to change all that was negative in Hindu euJture.

..

-Virasaivism propounds that each human should re!nte Siva through his/her kavaka (dedicated labour). "work is worship" (kayakava Kailasa) was the sacred' dictum for Vitasaiva

saints. Since Siva created this world through His inner power

,

no work is demeaning; even the meanest labour is I'worship",

However. the Vacanas advocated disinterested performance of work, for only.

By raising work to the level of worship of S'va, Bas8\f8Svara undermined the mediation of' pri.estlY class. Brahmans. For in the hierarchised, ritualized and institutionalized Hinduism it \/yJS ths Brahman who acquired the right to guide the mans

o t he God through an elaborate network of ~acrlfjces and ri .. tuals. But the Brahman religious mediation was 'caste'speci' ;

Sudras, especially those involved in the menial were .

access to deliverance. Reacting to these inhuman social condi tions, Viraseiva philosophers went qait\st tIM 'c.ate' B fixed occupation and undermined the link between them. 0 cana narrates that God, Siva dined in the house of 8" ",.IOIa. chable, Madara Chennaiah, for He did not ~OtlSid the ~~does, but his gQod conduct and devotion.

In anoth~r vacana, Basava'& contAtmpOI Mara iah telles that

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If a man is engaged in in work he may forget to see the uru; he may forget to worship Linga. Even if Jangamas are resent one should not worry about them. For, as work is wor ship God is present in the work which we perform.

Basavesvara and his followers rebelled against the practice of 'caste' distinctions, ritual purity and pollution and class hierarchy as articulated by Brahmans in, the Hindu religion. Basavesvara not only negated the 'castes' as assocciated with birth, but extolled the importance of saranas- grace to further his I ve for God. He considered himself, though born as a Brahman I sser than the untouchable saranas like Kakkayya. Cennavyaand Dasayya Whe else can but Basava capture the essence of t is secular philosophy,

•

To breack the 'caste' and class barriers and create a comm-

unity of Virasaivaites, Basavesvara and the other vacana - wr a vacated intermarriage and inter-dining among various 'casl:e~....::

The strategy was to delegitimise the Brahmanic construction s cial - cultural and religious-ritual notions of inferiority based 9 birth and occupation.

There are several legends in the Virasaiva tradition, dram - tizing the conflict between the bhaktas who observe inter-dinl a d the orthodox Brahmans who were fanatic about their v--s rarna dharma.

The emphasis on inter-dining and intermatrlao , in cohesion into the militant Virasaiva movement i undet •• tnClFJ ble given its social base. Most of its following w fr

called Sudra category, especially the arti .. n I ott ........

classes. The sadacara concept therefore, em a in the preceding pages, the dignity of labour and

those social groups who were not enga,- in arw GOt ..

work.

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Virasaiva philosophy repudiates not only varna dh but '

! h ", " irma, ut

also t 1e art odox Hindu Ism s deni at of sociat and , ..

I, re 'Qlous

aqua Ity to the s a-c alled Sudra iatls and wornsn I 8 •

. . ~. n atoava s

Sivachara as o,.J,J.)sej to. Brahmanic Varnachara wo lik

S d h ~ "'. ' men I e

u ras al/.., a ng It to se ak Siva. The breaking down of tl

. di . I . I . 1e two tra mona socia barriers constructed by Blahmans _ kula and

gender diviaion was .considered essential for the spread of Virasaivisrn.

To start with the Virasaiva phii osophv rejected the gender"

distinction in s sekinq Siva. worn m were allowed like every othe

'caste' to follow the path set by GtJru in seeking Siva. HON3ver, unlike male bhaktas, the women "followers 'seem to have been under a more rigorous scrutiny and "discipline." While the social groups from the chaturtha - kula were able "to move into Virasai, visrn with some what ease, the cr Jssihi of gender" barrier for woman bhaktas turned out to be an arduous task, for the later have to cross both varna/kula and g"ender boundaries. lnthe case' of male bhakta, hE' has to shed his kula and seek Siva through his unattached physical labour. A woman on the other hand has to demonstrate complete negation of her sexuality ~a this world" by surrendering herself to the God. Sex is to the bodv.not to the soul; for self-realization therefore, woman has to negate her sex and body in this world so that her soul can be liberated and merged with Siva, her true love. "

What is Important however is that Basava and th~ Virasaiva Gurus militated against Varnachara stressing the cond, uct and not the b'rth and gender, as the criterion to be a gOOd human being. The stress on' the mediation of Guru whO expected to replace the temple and the Brahman priest from the daily life of the people, later unfortunately turned b a be the undoing of the nonhlerarchicel charact.t of the saiva movement in the Deccan. By the 17th cenlt.fy, 8 au ... ved by C.P. Brown and Nicol Macmicol that the got divided into samanva. nlrabhara and visesa grq,ups re absorbed into the traditional Brahmanical varn

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ruct, In several studies it is shown that this slide back into varna system was due to the influence of Brahman smaria fol towers of vlrasaivisrn. whatever were' th~ causes, by the 17th century the Virasaivism as a 'militant ideoloqv of anti-varna, anti-

;: . J .

kula, anti-temple, anti - . Brahmanic ritualism, and anti-gender

distinction was pressed back into the fold of Brahmanical hierarchical paradigm of varna system. -But before the setting in of

this process, did Virasa ivism had any norlceable influence on the

culture and society' of Andhra?' '

," ....

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The Basava Pura na : Its ·Socit.I, andldeoloqlcal Cont~xt.

There are two traditions which are indicative of the local context that facilitated t.he growth of "Virasaivism in Andhra: one is polltlcal- institutional and the other 1extu~r- ideologital. Politically, the Kakatiya ru Iers, no doubt, patronized Saivlsm. out without uprooting themselves from 'the Puranlc and·ltihaslc traditions The Kakativas sought their political-cultural te I - macy both from Virasaivism and the' tradition of Palnad (the legacy left by Brahrnanavudu), particularly its hero cult. The uhderc .rr.ent in both the traditions is an r- Brahmanical anl:f a.n i, hierarch' cal. Yet the mi I itant tradition of Vii~aivism 'Seem to have baen transplanted in Andhra in a tamed form', unlrke theft earlier existence in Karnataka. tn Andhra, !Virasaivism de

ded heavily upon the political patronage and closely foUowed the pattern of' growth' of Vaishnavism : building massive refglous temples and mathas with a priestly class qependent t land grants, This is against the Karnataka traditi~n as Virasai • is anti-temple aed against the InstitutiQnalization of pr'Mi" NIP .. class. Politically, in building a broad social base dr.a~ing

alt anti-Brahrnanical 'casts' it confronted the state. ....,

to be missing in Andhra. In any case vlrasslv militated much more' against Jalnisrv thau V various reasons, patticuiarly in build),ng a" ldfl.D8QQ1I1M~lBIlIl' utional fra mework for itseif,

, "

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The religious teacher of Ganapatideva., Visveswara Siva (migrant from Orissa) found a Saiva matha and constructed a temple to god Visveswara in an agrahara formed by two villages (Guntur district) gifted to him by the: Kakativa rulers. He also established 'a' chowltrv for feeding all theclasses of persons, from the Brahman down to the Chandala, ageneral hospital ~ maternity homeand a colleqe for ·the teaching of the several branches of Sanskrit learning. "Around 60 Brahman families weresaid to have been brought here form the Dravida country. What is important is the incorporation of Sanskrit learning and the Brahman migrants well-versed in Grammar, Logic, Vedas, Philosophy,

.. etc., into this Saiva agrahara. One secular aspect however, is related to the legitimacy given to the people of all the communities ('C~stsL)-and 'professions 'in constructing and maintaininq the temples of Siva. In other words, the institutionali-

• T" •. •

zed Saivisrn which' 'took 'irs roots under Kakatiyas and other

subsidiary dynasties "during the' '13th and. 14th centuries is different from Virasaivisrn as such. It is a form which gave institutional framework for the Saivite Brahman followers of Pasupata, Kalmukha and Aradhya branches. lhe god Vishnu was souqht to be incorporated in a subordinate position to Siva or .in a well-balanced form as elaborated by poet Tikkana in, ~i.s. H,C!~i~aran.atha cult. Especially jhe Aradhya branch of Saiva Brahmans accept 'caste' ,system and the Vedas in thei bhakti. The vislble legacy qf militant 'v irasaivism from Karnata ka was mostly at the textual-ideological level.

. Palkuriki Somanatha-s Basava Puranam, a dvipada kavyam, written in desi (indigenous) Telugu literary style. against the dominant ,marga (Sanskrit) tradition set DY Nannayya, i$ an important Virasaiva text in the 13th century. Drawing from oral tradition, the Basava Purana sought to popufarlze the stories of Virasaiva bhaktas,· mostly belong to service and artisanal 'Castes' One could clearly see from Ve'cheru Naray Rao's English translation of Basava PUr ana tnat theM is no ..... !WtV Clearly associated with 'castes, lived on land ... reddis, V tiM , Kapus, etc. - and yet they were active donors and manager

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Saiva temples' mathas and other religious lnstltuu . h

. . . , . . Ions as IS S -

own In several mscnptions. This perhaps indicates th .... .

. . di f e nature.

of idelooqical me ration a Basava Purana in medieval Andhra

, n the words of velcheru :

. On,e, of the ~har~cteristics of artisan and trading castes is

their mO~lhty. Their skl!ls are always with them; as a part of the body, .skills can be carried wherever there are better opportunities

. to make a livino. There people are not like the land - oriented cases, tied to one place by their need to earn a livelihood on the land, which is entirely external to them and totally immobile, the tW0 groups of castes - those that live from the land and those that I ive by trade - have developed different styles of tife, belies. aspirations and world views ...• (The) traders and the artisans' who had no interest in land as such, would take their god with them. Like their skills, which were part of their bodies, their god. was internal" to them. A religion that endowed them with a [anqa-

rnalinqa. a mobile god, could perfectly symbolize their

\. .. .

aspirations.

Aspiring the .social and ritual status equivalent to that of the Brahrr-ans. unlike the landed -castes'; the artlsanal and service groups in Andhra might have sympathized with Virasaivism. The extreme form of violence practiced against the non - Virasaivas might have inhibited its social spread, if one reads evidence on

. strict retributive justice followed by the State in controlling crime and violence in civil soci-ety during the 13th and 1 qth centuries.

This however is not to minimize the ideolog.ical importance ~f Basava 'Purana in 'democratizing' and 'secularizing' Andhra culture. Three aspects should be highlighed in this context: <") its attack on Brahrnanical value system and hierarchical vaTn (rcaste') ideology and social framework: (2) elevation of desi tradition to that of an alternative literary stvle in T,lugu, as opposed to the' Sanskritized. Telugu literary tradition with its Vaish.nava id~ology, and (3) its transfcrmetive influence on the old form of Salvlsm, for the Saiva temples and mathes were opanad up for all the non - Brahman 'castes'.

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From the point of view of alternative/liberating Ideology the Basava Purana is full of stories of those militated against the Brahmanical practice of purity and pollution and degradation of physical labour. The Basava Purana extols manual labour and consider food cooked or polluted by saliva by a 'low-caste' Virasaiva devotee purest of pure. As a deliberate process of ideological inversion. the Basava Purana depicts the physical touch, gaze or food cooked by a Brahman polluting. Palkurikl-s purity of character is said to have been associated with his non:" association with bhavis (non- Virasaivas).

Erahm rntza tlon Of 'Protest' Tre ditons

The ideological attack from Virasa ivas was ingeniously and effectively blunted ov sanatana Brahman intellectuals by the 14th century itself. The ways by which 'they achieved this ideological legitimacy were; Sanskritization of Telugu language and literature and bringing orthodox ritulism and varna structure back into it. This process is aptly summed up by Velcheru: "Brahmin Virasaivas of Andhra called themselves aradhyas and maintained

. their own caste identity. With their literary superiority and their Sanskrit skills, brahmin Saiva came to dominate Saiva scholarly circles. In their hands, the Virasaiva texts composed by' Sornanathe underwent a process of significant brahminization, 'and the original .cornpositlons of Somanatha became 'less popular than the later brahminized versions." Such was the tragedy of this protest ideology and the power of the Brahman intellectual resources. Poet Srinatha's powerful Sanskritized lit&rary intervention in the 15th century and Dhurjati's Sri Kalahasthisvaramllhatmyamu in the 16th century brought in Bahmanic alements into the Virasaiva legends and thus rounded off the legitimizing trend at in the 14th century itself. This ~,orthodox Brahmanical tradition: could successfully re-establish its hegemony also because the ideological intervention of Palkuriki Somanatha was not accompanied by any mass social movement in favcur of Virasaivism in Andhra. No ideology can be translated by a popular movement,

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History seem to have come to the aid of Vaishnavism in medieval Andhra. After the fall of Kakatiyas and a brief Interlude by the rule of the local small ruling dynasties, starting fro~ the mid-14th century, the history of Deccan came to be dominated by the Vije yanaqara rule. The process of Sanskritiz.ation of Telugu language and literature and the creation of massive institutional framework for Vaishnavisrn was set in. during .the Vijayanagara period, particularly-under the rule of Krishnadevaraya. How far this precess o.f Sanskritization and Vaishnavization was related to Rava-s political strategy of constructinq social consent in the pe riphery zones of the empire is a different issue. What is not doubtful however is that Vaishnavisrn and Hamavana tradi~ipn were used as an effective ideological weapons by the Vijayanagara rulers in course of their cultural. 'isolation' and 'dernonization- of the. internal 'Hindu' and external Muslim enemieafn

~ ~ ~ , .

'consolidating theirpolitical power. lheoriginal militant lcee s of

Vlrasaivisrn, in particular' anti-caste, anti-temple and anti-sender hlstinction were completely negated

. .

. ,

As it turned out, the', chanqes in the' political econo~y during the 16th through 18th -~cEfnturies brought certain changes in the :social and cultural life' of the people of Andhra. The recent. historiography showsthat there was expansion in internal Material production and "a 'progressive integration of this reg .. ion into international marlttmetrade.and commerce which Urt ubtsdlv had a p'psitive social consequence. The c.h~nges on" duction and th. emergence and .eccnomlc expansion of 18

rat artisanal classes brousht pres8UfOS GO the .xistlrtg "'(0.\ ral system, as it closed the internet· ~Ilty.. the b8 . cteristics of any sy tern which Js op)· . up econo,N.I~

needs an onen, dvnarnlc aad fairly 2 18f Jtural

It is in this context one must locate .tbe orowdt of cri ....... Vaishnavism cum verna system by tefotmers nice erabrahmam and Vemana.

" 'The Virasaiva tradition 'of the tr

, . ,.

social order with its distinction of hi 'nutcaste' once again revived In the

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acked everything which was held holy and inviolable by the Brahmanical elite. In a way Vemana replicates, at a popular level' tile pattern of earlier ideological critique of 'varna', -jan', ',kula' Vedic sacrifices and mora,' precepts, codes of law elaborate~ ~Y ~.harmasastra~, mediation of prjestly class, idolatry and Hin, dureligious beliefs.' He did not even spare Virasaiva,s worshipping of Lingam. He affirms the need to honour different artisanal and other economic activities, as did Virasaivas, He however makes an advance on earlier tradition by seeing God in humen being and negating any mediation of gurus in real

life. To quote Narla: ' ,

J

It will. be wrong to conclude that Vemana is irreligio-

us. On the contrary he is very rei igious, more truly religious than any other old .poet.' His reliqious' faith makes him fors-

o •

ake his wife, his children, his hom} and hearth,' in fact, eV-

rvthinq mundane, and as a, gesture of ultimate enunciation, even His Clothing. In quest of his god he wanders naked and alohe. He is: generally, unkempt' often hungry, always ridiculed, and occasionallv pursued by hostile 'crowds, bent on doing him physical haem. How can' such a man be called irreligious? Only his 'retlqion is not of "the traditional kind. It repudiates polytheism; it pours scorn on idol- worship: it condemns- alt ritualism. it discourages pilgrimages, it castigates priests who claim to be intermediaries between a man and his GOd; it denounces the notion· of a heaven and e hell apart frol"A our earth and it reviles sectarian exc1usiveness and the fanaticism

which it engenders. in its positive aspects, Vemena- igi

places man right in the centre of the Universe; it pro la (touse the Christian phraseology) that "the Kt goo", of od is' within you" and affirms that 'man is one with 9 ,naV, himself God, provided he attatns perfect elf-reefl'281Oft. 8 ause of this central place of man in Vem~rra's re)i dn,.., ..... if one is not in agreeme'nt with its metaphy~' a. aonnOMtf~ it is basically humanistic ...•.•••.

Vemana-s intervention at popular cultural level .was not cacompanied by any textual elaboration of Ideas, Of ~b

16

an ideological elaboration the alternative tradition cannot hege monize the social life. The success of 8 hegemonic struggle alwavs rests .on the theoretical elaboration of ideas and their grip over social consciousness. Though made in a diffe rent context, the comment of karl ,Marx on ideos is illuminating;

We are firmly convinced that the real danger lies not in practical attempts, but in the theoretical elaboration of communist ideas, for practical attempts, even mass attempts, can be answered by cannon as soon as they become dangerous, whereas ideas, which have conquered our intellect and taken possession of our minds, ideas to which reason has fettered our conscience

,

are chains from which one cannot free oneself without a brok

heart, they are demons which human beings can vanquish only by ubbmittinq to them.

. ,

While Palkuriki Sornanatha-s ideological Intervention was not accompanied by any popular social movement, Vema08'1 popular cultural' intervention had not rested on any theoretical elaboration of the reform ideas. What is crucial in our cont-

ext is Vemana's . a time when the Andhra region was drawn into international trade !and commerce. quickly follqwed 1W

British colonial intervention. '

As we have argued in the beginning it was prectsety th long tradition of struggle to reform popular culture whieh very important bearing on the NATURE of the mediation of r tional (Brahmanical) intellectuals for coloniali m in Andhra, the mid-f Bth 'century. Though space does not permit me

nto a detailed exposition of this. issue, I wish briefly- ...... -

the nature of this indigenous med~ation 90 that my rgument

be rounded off meaningfully. To start with we mu was not the colonial intellectuals/admitt trators but

nous Brahmanical elite who r&vived the erthode cultural practices and ideological system - as whenever and wherever the Britishe(s tried to - ...... ~~

he traditional knowledge system. The Jdaofo,lUftj-Ii •• "".

17

all the pre-colonla: protest ideas and cultural traditions, which threatened Brahmanical hegemony as alien.to Indian civilization and religion is apparent. The consequence has been the revival of Sanskritized language and literature, cultural practices, hie r .. chized social relations and traditional canonical law (based on Manu). This tendency had not only negated the pre - colonial secular ideas. struggles and traditions in constructing what ought to be the colonical civil societv.but also contributed to the process of rigidification of -caste-svstern in Andhra after the 19th century. While the mediation of indigenous elite was broadly cultural in essence the political and economic expression to this process was given by colonialism through the introduction of bourgeois form of individual private property right in land and the mid-19th CAn. tury census operations. It was this later process associated with colonial policies which had given a rigid [uridical expression to the present day 'caste' system, the disastrous consequences of which we are experiencing ever since. Moreover, the limitations of the social reform ideas and movements during the '19th and 20th centuries should also be analyzed in this background.

History Still Continues:

History is a contested terrain. It is through the appropriation of history one finds the reproduction of different knowledge systems, whether it is in favour of the dominant or the oppositional ideology. Our exercise is aimed at illustrating this complex btstortca! process at work in Andhra by way of narrating the past. efforts at secularization and democratization of our cultura. life. As history is a continuous process, the historiography hould always illuminate the present day struggles by highlighting the past secular and democratic traditions.

*

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.r

Dr. Atluri Murali .did his post-graduation in History in V S· M College, Ramachandrapuram during 1975-77. He did his M. Phil and Ph·D under the guidance of Prof. 'Blpancbandra at Centre for Historical

Studies Jawaharlal Nehru university, New Delhi bet-

, '

ween 1977 and 1985. The title of his Doctoral thesis is

"Social Change and Nature of Social Participation in National Movement in Andhra, 1905-1934~'· He Work-

ed for Two years as Asst. Research officer inJawaharlal Memorial Fund and also taught at Department of History, School of Correspondence courses and countinuing Education, Delhi university, Delhi. At present he is working as Reader in History, University of Hyderabad, Hyderabad. He hr s presented number of articles at the national and international seminars.

Presently he is finalising two mancescripts of publication:

'Culture, Ideology and Politics in India: Andhra, 1740s to 1934' and "Tribals in Revolt: Alluri Sitarama Raju and Manyam Rebellion, 1922-24".

He has been working since on a major U. G. (". project on environmental history and history of medi. cine with particular emphasis on Andhra.