Money, Monasteries, and Monism: Fashioning Hindu Selves in Colonial South India

Presentation by Visiting Assistant Professor Eric Steinschneider.

This talk theorizes Hindu selfhood in modernity with reference to the Kovilur Atinam, a monastic institution in Tamil-speaking South India founded by the wealthy merchant Mutturamalinga Swamigal (1791-1847). Examining the significance of this figure’s life story for the local community, I explore how social aspirations, traditions of monastic authority, and vernacular religious literature participate in the formation of contemporary Hindu identities.