ABSTRACT

This inclusivism is not an isolated characteristic of academic discourse. The religiously inclusive character of much of Tamil nationalism and the engagement of Hindus, Muslims and Christians in Tamil nationalist discourses has often been remarked upon in discussions of Tamil nationalism, though it has rarely been investigated in depth.3 The religious inclusivism of Tamil literary historiography is thus clearly embedded in political discourse. Yet despite the visibility of this theme in nationalist discourse in Tamil Nadu, its implications for the writing of Tamil literary history have been largely ignored up to now.4 Only recently have scholars begun to investigate how the ‘politics of inclusion’5 operative in Tamil literary historiography have shaped our understanding of the literature of various religious communities. For instance, Anne Monius has claimed that scholarship of Buddhist Tamil texts has largely ignored the participation of these works in Buddhist discourse transcending linguistic boundaries in favour of discussing their position within Tamil literary tradition, thus in a sense failing to engage with these texts as Buddhist texts.6