TY - JOUR
T1 - The Yogi's human self
T2 - Tāyumān{combining macron below}avar in the Tamil mystical tradition
AU - Shulman, David
PY - 1991/1
Y1 - 1991/1
N2 - Although the dominant current of Tamil Hinduism is the temple-oriented religion of emotional devotion (bhakti), elements drawn from the classical school of Yoga have always been prominent within the bhakti canon. There is a fertile and dynamic opposition in this conjunction, an opposition arising out of starkly contrasting visions of the world and human goals-since bhakti aims at melting down the empirical personality, a process of 'liquefaction' through emotion and sensual openness, whereas Yoga seeks to arrest the flux of normal experience and to transcend emotions and sensory perceptions. The paper first sets out the contours of this opposition and points to its cultural and historical significance. In the later medieval period, however, when esoteric forms of Yoga became prevalent in southern India, new poets emerged who produced a more far-reaching synthesis of bhakti and Yoga. Most conspicuous among them was Tāyumān{combining macron below}avar Cuvāmi (early 18th century), a poet of Yoga and illuminationist mysticism and one of the outstanding figures in Nāyaka-period Tamil literature. In texts such as the Tāyumān{combining macron below}avar corpus, passionate theistic devotionalism of the earlier type gives way to a new blend of Yogic ideology, the address to an impersonal Absolute, and ecstatic visions, against the background of magical and alchemical transformations performed on the human body. This late Tamil poet shows us a south Indian transmutation of classical Yogic themes and helps us to characterize the inner development of the Yogic tradition itself from the austere programme of the Yogasūtra to the magically oriented path of the medieval Siddhas.
AB - Although the dominant current of Tamil Hinduism is the temple-oriented religion of emotional devotion (bhakti), elements drawn from the classical school of Yoga have always been prominent within the bhakti canon. There is a fertile and dynamic opposition in this conjunction, an opposition arising out of starkly contrasting visions of the world and human goals-since bhakti aims at melting down the empirical personality, a process of 'liquefaction' through emotion and sensual openness, whereas Yoga seeks to arrest the flux of normal experience and to transcend emotions and sensory perceptions. The paper first sets out the contours of this opposition and points to its cultural and historical significance. In the later medieval period, however, when esoteric forms of Yoga became prevalent in southern India, new poets emerged who produced a more far-reaching synthesis of bhakti and Yoga. Most conspicuous among them was Tāyumān{combining macron below}avar Cuvāmi (early 18th century), a poet of Yoga and illuminationist mysticism and one of the outstanding figures in Nāyaka-period Tamil literature. In texts such as the Tāyumān{combining macron below}avar corpus, passionate theistic devotionalism of the earlier type gives way to a new blend of Yogic ideology, the address to an impersonal Absolute, and ecstatic visions, against the background of magical and alchemical transformations performed on the human body. This late Tamil poet shows us a south Indian transmutation of classical Yogic themes and helps us to characterize the inner development of the Yogic tradition itself from the austere programme of the Yogasūtra to the magically oriented path of the medieval Siddhas.
UR - http://www.scopus.com/inward/record.url?scp=44949276559&partnerID=8YFLogxK
U2 - 10.1016/0048-721X(91)90028-O
DO - 10.1016/0048-721X(91)90028-O
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AN - SCOPUS:44949276559
SN - 0048-721X
VL - 21
SP - 51
EP - 72
JO - Religion
JF - Religion
IS - 1
ER -