In Religion, Caste, and Nation in South India, V. Ravi Vaithees explores the religious roots of Tamil nationalism and the Dravidian movement through a critical examination of the life and career of Maraimalai Adigal (1876Adigal ( -1950)), whose life not only intersected with the pioneer figures in the neo-aivite and Dravidian movement but also who played a central role in consolidating the intellectual and cultural foundation for non-Brahmin Tamil nationalism and the Dravidian movement.The book advances the argument that it was the anti-Aryan, anti-Brahmin character of Tamil nationalism and the Dravidian movement to the Neo-aivite movement that was firmly grounded in ancient Tamil and bhakti poetry and Tamil Saiva Siddhanta tradition ( 14).In highlighting the neo-aivite revival that played a significant role in shaping the character of Tamil nationalism and the Dravidian movement, Vaithees at a larger lever questions the "logocentric" assumptions of cultural solidarity across heterogeneous people and invites his readers to appreciate the role of religion at the grassroots level.The book is organized into an introduction, four chapters, and a conclusion.Through the introduction, the author provides the framework for the entire work demonstrating how anti-Aryan and anti-Vedantic imperatives informed the reimagining and reconstruction of a non-Brahmin Tamil nationalism.The first chapter, "Framing the Neo-Saivites Revival in Tamil Nadu," situates the neo-Saivite movement within its historical context discussing the various responses, intellectual, sociocultural, and religious, to the colonial impact and impacts of European Orientalists and Missionaries.Through the discussion of the life and contributions of various pioneers, it becomes obvious that there are two key intellectual developments that shaped and paved the way for the neo-Saivite revival movement: the philological researches of South Indian languages emphasizing the primacy of the Tamil language counter to Sanskrit and Indo-Aryan languages; and that Tamil Saivism and Saiva Siddhanta was the unique product of the Tamil Dravidians and not as an integral part of the Pan-Indian Hindu tradition (26-7).Importantly, it was the work and writings of early neo-Saivite pioneers that shaped the neo-Saivite revival, and the person who interacted
George PATI (Sun,) studied this question.