Srilata Raman

Professor, Associate Chair and Undergraduate Coordinator, Department for the Study of Religion

Areas of interest

Sanskrit and Tamil intellectual Formations in South India from Pre-colonial Times to Modernity
Śrīvaiṣṇavism
Tamil Śaiva Siddhānta
Religion, Colonialism and Sainthood
Modern Tamil and Dalit Literature
Bhakti and Hagiography

Biography

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), The Transformation of Tamil Religion: Ramalinga Swamigal and Modern Dravidian Sainthood (2022) and the co-editor of Words and Deeds: Hindu and Buddhist Rituals in South Asia (2005) and Śaivism and the Tantric Traditions (2020).

Select publications

Books Authored

2022 The Transformation of Tamil Religion: Ramalinga Swamigal and Modern Dravidian Sainthood. Routledge, South Asian Religions Series.
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.

Articles

2017 Unlearnt Knowing (Ōtātu Uṇartal): The Genealogy of Wisdom in Ramalinga Swamigal (1823-1874) and the Tamil Śaiva Siddhānta. Journal of Hindu Studies.10.2.145-163.
2016 The Brass Bugle of Mantras: Vedānta Deśika’s Tirucciṉṉamālai. Journal of Vaishnava Hindu Studies. 24.2. 163-177.
2014 Justifying Filicide. Ramalinga Swamigal, the Periyapurāṇam and Tamil Religious Modernity. InternationalJournal 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, IrāmānujaTātācāriyār 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 Rāmānu