Reinventing Anti-Caste Identity: Early Buddhism in South India

Gajendran Ayyathurai, Reinventing Anti-caste Identity: Early Buddhism in South India This paper examines how, in the nineteenth century, Parayars relied on re-interpretation of their history (as against the brahminical valorizations) in order to create possibilities of emancipation, on the one hand, and to forge non-sectarian inclusive identity, on the other. In particular, Parayars re-interpreted the history of Tamils as Buddhist, even as they counterposed Buddhism as a humane and rational alternative to oppressive brahminical traditions and its dehumanizing, patriarchal, and dehistoricizing rituals. Using biographies of early Buddhists, Buddhist weeklies, Buddhist registers, pamphlets, invitations, and obituaries from the late 19th to mid 20th centuries this paper will analyze the interconnections between the emergence of early Buddhism and the formation of anti-caste identity in South India. Further, this paper will address the significant manner in which ethical-rationalism, enabling social transformation, became the interpretive focus of this rediscovery of early Buddhism.