“South Indian traditions of Hindu Dharma have opposed Sanatana Dharma for over 2000 years”

The Tamil Shaivite tradition is antithetical to Vedic traditions, argues B. Jeyamohan, award-winning writer and expert on Tamil philosophical traditions, quoting texts starting from Purananuru and invoking Sree Narayana Guru.

Renowned writer B. Jeyamohan, who is also an astute scholar of Indian philosophy, especially its Tamil traditions, says that the way Sanatana Dharma has been under attack in South India for more than 2000 years is evident from literature such as the Purananuru, the classical Tamil poetic work as old as Jesus Christ or older. The collection of 400 heroic poems features remarks mocking the rigid Sanatana Dharma, which, in the South, is identified with Brahminism, not exactly the larger Hindu culture, he notes. Purananuru was composed by 157 poets, some of them anonymous and at least 10 of them women.  

His comments come in the wake of condemnations by Hindutva parties of DMK leader and Tamil Nadu minister Udhayanidhi Stalin’s remarks on September 2 comparing Sanatana Dharma to diseases such as Malaria and dengue. A day later, Udhayanidhi, son of state Chief Minister MK Stalin, stuck to his stand and insisted that Sanatana Dharma should be abolished, but he criticised a section of the media for suggesting that he had made a call for the genocide of Sanatanis. Reacting to Stalin Jr’s statement, Prime Minister Narendra Modi said on September 6 that it needed a “proper response”. By then, an FIR was already registered against Udhayanidhi and Congress president Mallikarjun Kharge’s son Priyank Kharge for allegedly outraging religious feelings.  

“In South India, Hindu Dharma and Sanatana Dharma are understood as two separate phenomena. Sanatana Dharma means Vedic tradition only. Sanatana is considered only a small part of the Hindu Dharma; there are many other important schools in it and they are not unified. They are naturally against Sanatana Dharma. In North India, they were taught Sanatana Dharma is Hindu Dharma itself,” says Jeyamohan, the Malayali-origin bilingual novelist and literary critic who has a cult following in Tamil. The opposition to Sanatana Dharma is a key characteristic of the Shaiva tradition of south India, adds Jeyamohan whose fictional works are mostly best-sellers. His essays often go viral, making him a well-known figure in all Tamil-speaking areas of the world. He has also collaborated with prominent names in Tamil and Malayalam movies writing screenplay and dialogues.

“I agree with what Udayanidhi Stalin said because Sanatana Dharma in the South is associated with the Vedic tradition, which has for many centuries been opposed by Tamil Shaivites as well as others, including nastika, Jain and Buddhist traditions that dominated the south for centuries until the Bhakti movement happened,” points out Jeyamohan whose stellar works such as Vishnupuram and Venmurasu (which is the world’s longest novel ever written) delve into serious debates in ancient Indian philosophies and the Mahabharata. Jainism and Buddhism were dominant in the South especially in the fifth and sixth century CE, a period known as the Kalabhra interregnum.

The Bhakti movement, too, was an anti-Vedic tradition and therefore against the teaching of Sanatana Dharma, states the 61-year-old writer who adds that the Vedic tradition had historically been looked down upon by Siddhas and Tamil saints over centuries. Sanatana Dharma is associated with a certain hegemony of Brahminism in the South, he adds, emphasising that it is the reason why any attack on Sanatana Dharma is not an attack on the whole of Hinduism.

In the North, though, perceptions are different since Sanatana Dharma is unfortunately equated with Hinduism, and they do not understand South Indian traditions well enough, the renowned writer adds.

Jeyamohan has been a die-hard critic of politicians and film icons on his vastly popular blogs. He had to go underground over his criticism of DMK and its leaders including M Karunanidhi. He had been assaulted by a DMK functionary on one occasion.

“The family of Karunanidhi comprises Dalits, Christians and people of various castes, including Brahmins. Some of them are also devout Hindus,” argues Jeyamohan who states that one can always see the image of Dakshinamurthy (Siva) in the homes of even DMK leaders. “The anti-Sanatana Dharma sentiment is part of the Shaiva culture of the South,” he stresses, adding that Advaitis were also opponents of the Vedic tradition. “Sree Narayana Guru (the great Kerala social reformer) and several such Advaitis were against Sanatana Dharma and the Vedic tradition,” he avers.

Santana Dharma celebrates the varna system and therefore sanctions caste supremacy by birth. It was on this issue that Sree Narayana Guru disagreed with Gandhiji when they had met in March 1925 at the Sivagiri Mutt in Varkala, which was then home to Narayana Guru.

Guru, who was deeply influenced by the Tamil Shaivite tradition, had never looked at Sanatana Dharma as a synonym for Hinduism. Like the Tamil saints and poets of yore, he, too, had treated it as one of the many branches of Hindu Dharma.

In a conversation with his disciple CV Kunjuraman (which was published in Kerala Kaumudi on October 9, 1925) Guru had categorically made it clear that it was one of the many streams of Hindu Dharma. Kunjuraman asked the following question (which was more like a statement) to Guru: “Those who would like to remain in Hinduism say that modern Hinduism does not meet their needs.”

Then Guru answered, “Then what they say is that both they and Hinduism need a change. There is no religion as Hinduism. The residents of Hindustan were named Hindus by foreigners. If the inhabitants of India are Hindus, what about the native Christians and Muslims? Should they also be called Hindus? No one would agree to it? Present day ‘Hinduism’ is a common designation for the religions which originated in India, except foreign religions like Christianity and Islam. That is why Buddhism and Jainism are also included in Hinduism by certain scholars. If Hinduism is a common name describing Vedism, Sanatana Dharma, Samkhya, Vaiseshika, Mimamsa, Dvaita, Advaita, Visishtadvaita, Saivism, Bhakti, Sakta and Vaishnavism, it is not unreasonable if all religions that advocate the ultimate goal of salvation are called one religion.” (Translated from Malayalam to English by VT Samuel and published in “One Caste One Religion One God – A Study of Sree Narayana Guru”)

Narayana Guru, who had initiated the setting up of several temples in South India since the early 1890s, had by 1917 proclaimed that temple building shouldn’t be encouraged and that it was time to build schools instead.

“The Hindu faith encompasses various schools of thought and is not monolithic,” Jeyamohan says. Labelling anyone critical of Sanatana Dharma as anti-Hindu is a denigration of the Hindu traditions in southern India, he sums up.

(This story was updated on September 6 to include Indian Prime Minister Narendra Modi’s comments on the subject)