மஹ்திதாசன்

Many, many years ago (I mean back when I was maybe seven years old) there was a bit of a local buzz about a Triplicane Muslim who became initiated under the Thenkalai tradition. Knowing Triplicane's blend of Vaishnavite and Muslim culture, this is not extremely surprising. But looking back, the idea was weirdly exciting to so many people only because the bearded Muslim presence in the temple, wearing namam and all, was considered "strange" enough to be fetishized; it was seen almost as a mishmash of "opposites," rather than as a proper conversion where the subject was offered any sort of seamless integration (at least not immediately). This is complicated upon first look, because where did Sri Vaishnavite treatment of Muslims as the "other" (and, of course, vice versa) really begin? Despite Islam's presence in South India during the very heyday of many organized Sri Vaishnavite theologians (meaning Ramanuja and onwards), there is not a lot of docum...