higher value than any individual’s
desires. Traditional Indian society was
highly status-conscious, a trait reflected
not only in the traditional hierarchical
conception of society, but also in similar
conceptions within the family. Based on
these assumptions, there are different
words for all sorts of relationships in the
Indian family. These words are based
partly on a person’s age in relation to the
speaker, whether he is related by blood
or by marriage, and whether blood rela-
tives come from the mother’s or the
father’s side of the family. Since a
woman’s devar is younger than her hus-
band, he is considered a person of less
exalted status, and thus someone with
whom she may have a more familiar
“joking relationship.”
Devara Dasimayya
Tenth-century devotee (bhakta) of
Shiva, who was much admired by
Basavannaand the other Lingayatlead-
ers. According to tradition Dasimayya
earned his living as a weaver, but spent
most of his energies propagating the
worship of Shiva. He encountered
particular opposition from the Jains
and the Vaishnavas, about which there
are many miraculous tales, but he
also served as a missionary to jungle
tribes. For further information see
A. K. Ramanujan (trans.), Speaking of
Siva, 1973.
Devaram
Name for the collected hymns of the
poet-saints Appar, Sambandar, and
Sundaramurtti. These were the most
important of the Nayanars, a group of
sixty-three Shaivapoet-saints who lived
in southern India between the seventh
and ninth centuries. Along with their
Vaishnavacounterparts, the Alvars, the
Nayanars spearheaded the revitalization
of Hindu religion versus the Buddhists
and the Jains. Both the Nayanars and the
Alvars stressed passionate devotion
(bhakti) to a personal god—Shivafor
the Nayanars, Vishnufor the Alvars—
and conveyed this devotion through
hymns sung in the Tamil language.
Appar and Sambandar were the first of
the Nayanars, and Sundaramurtti was
the last. Although the hymns in the
Devaram are devotional, they form the
basis for the philosophical school
known as Shaiva Siddhanta, and are
thus considered the holiest of the Tamil
Shaivite texts. The hymns are also
marked by opposition and hostility
to non-Hindu traditions, particularly
the Jains, with whom the Nayanars
were apparently contesting for influence
and patronage.Devasena
In southern Indian mythological tradi-
tion, Devasena is the wife of the god
Skanda, in his southern Indian form as
Murugan. Following the pan-Indian
custom of arranged marriage,
Devasena is given in marriage to Skanda
by Indra(king of the gods) and the otherDevasenaThe town of Devaprayag. It is considered sacred
because it lies at the confluence of the Bhagirathi
and Alakananda Rivers, the two largest tributaries
of the Ganges in the Himalayas.