that are associated with the “eternal” goddesses of the Hindu pantheon, espe-
cially Devı ̄, the paradigmatic mother-goddess. So, in his poetry, her ardent
devotee places Tamil
̄
tta ̄y at the very beginning of time itself and in the company
of the gods, and deems her to be “everlasting” and “boundless.” She is the source
of everything in the world – of knowledge and happiness, of wealth and pros-
perity, of bliss and light, indeed of life itself. In poem after poem composed on
and about her since the 1890s, she is declared to be the destroyer of darkness
and of false illusions. She cures her followers of anger and jealousy, and grants
them true vision. She rids them of afflictions and weeds out their troubles. At
her feet, even the worst sinners find salvation. By her very presence, she destroys
the sins of her devotees. She is indeed their ultimate refuge (Ramaswamy 1997:
85–97). Listen to one such devotee, the poet Mudiyarasan (b. 1920), who
addresses Tamil
̄
tta ̄y thus:Residing in my heart that is your temple, offer me grace;
Adorned in your garland of poetry, offer me protection; Resting on my tongue,
grant me good sense;
[so that] In verse and word, I will be strong.
...
I worship you every day and talk about your fame everywhere...
(quoted in Ramaswamy 1997: 85)And compare this to a random verse from the Devı ̄ Ma ̄ha ̄tmya, the paradigmatic
text which marks the enshrinement of the idea of the Goddess in Puranic
Hinduism:
O Devi, we bow before you, who are yourself good fortune in the dwellings of the
virtuous... intelligence in the hearts of the learned, faith in the hearts of the
good, and modesty in the hearts of the high-born. May you protect the universe!
(quoted in Jagadiswarananda n.d.: 53)So, by praising her in terms that have been used over the centuries to praise
goddesses in this society, Tamil
̄
tta ̄y, although she is a product of a late colonial
imagination, is eternalized and transformed into a timeless divinity. Further, she
is not only praised in a manner befitting goddesses, but some well-known genres
of praise used over the centuries to praise deities – genres such as the
tirupal.l.iyel.ucci, the tirutaca ̄n.kam, the pil.l.aittamil
̄
, the tu ̄tu, and so on – are now
deployed in praise poetry around Tamil
̄
tta ̄y. Through the deployment of such
poetic genres and praise strategies, her devotees have endowed their language
with the powers and charisma that have gathered around deities over the
century in this society. In turn, Tamil speakers are encouraged to relate to
Tamil
̄
tta ̄y as they interact with their gods – with a mixture of adulation, rever-
ence, and deep love.
Much the same can be said of Bha ̄rat Ma ̄ta ̄ who, from early on, was not just
consciously modeled on the goddesses Ka ̄lı ̄, and Durga ̄, but even imagined as
their incarnations, as I noted earlier. So, soon after Bhudev consciously recast
the Puranic Satı ̄ as his motherland, another of his contemporaries, Akshaya
the goddess and the nation 561