Saints, Goddesses and Kings: Muslims and Christians in South Indian Society, 1700–1900 (Cambridge South Asian Studies, Series Number 43)

South India is often portrayed as a land of Hindu orthodoxy, yet in fact three great "world religions" have interacted in the region over many centuries. This book uses a powerful combination of oral, literary, and architectural evidence to investigate the social and religious world of those large and influential groups of South Indians who came to identify themselves as Christians and Muslims, while retaining powerful links with the religion and culture of the wider society. The author shows how Christianity and Islam spread along the military and agricultural frontiers of southern India, and how certain beliefs and practices derived local force from an ambiguous relationship with the worship of existing Hindu goddesses. The book illuminates not only the meaning and history of religious conversion and the nature of community, but wider processes of social and political change within the sub-continent and colonial societies in general. South India is often portrayed as a land of Hindu orthodoxy, yet in fact three great 'world religions' have inter-acted in the region over many centuries. Saints, Goddesses and Kings uses a powerful combination of oral, literary and archival evidence to investigate the social and religious world of those large and influential groups of South Indians who came to identify themselves as Christians and Muslims, while retaining powerful links with the religion and culture of the wider society. Susan Bayly shows how Christianity and Islam spread along the military and agricultural frontiers of southern India, and how certain beliefs and practices derived local force from an ambiguous relationship with the worship of existing Hindu goddesses. Saints, Goddesses and Kings thus illumines not only the meaning and history of religious conversion and the nature of community, but wider processes of social and political change within the sub-continent and, indeed, colonial societies in general. Frontmatter List of plates (page vi) List of maps (page vii) Preface (page ix) Note on transliteration (page xiii) List of abbreviations (page xiv) Introduction (page 1) Part I 1 South Indian religion and society (page 19) 2 The development of Muslim society in Tamilnad (page 71) 3 The Muslim religious tradition in south India (page 104) 4 The south Indian state and the creation of Muslim community (page 151) 5 Warrior martyr pirs in the eighteenth century (page 187) 6 The final period of nawabi rule in the Carnatic (page 216) Part II 7 South Indian Christians in the pre-colonial period (page 241) 8 The collapse of Syrian Christian 'integration' (page 281) 9 The Christian Paravas of southern Tamilnad (page 321) 10 Christian saints and gurus in the poligar country (page 379) 11 Christianity and colonial rule in the Tamil hinterland (page 420) 12 Conclusion (page 453) Select glossary (page 464) Bibliography (page 466) Index (page 492) This chapter is intended as a broad introduction to the religion, society and pre-colonial political traditions of south India. Susan Bayly. Includes Bibliography (p.466-491) And Index.