ABSTRACT
This chapter deals with the transformations that Tamil Śaivism underwent at both the institutional and doctrinal levels in colonial modernity and beyond. By examining specific institutions and figures it hopes to show that Modern Śaivism came to be constructed by the many voices that were involved in interrelated or even contradictory discourses on Śaiva religion. Decisively undermining the assumption of a Śaivite population in the rural and semi-urban areas as somehow peripheral to the intellectual and religious musings of the urbanizing and metropolitan circles of Madurai or Madras, it shows that circles of discussion and impact were both in semi-urban and urban centres, facilitated through the nodal networks of Śaiva-centric sacred locations and publics both traditional and newly empowered in the colonial period.
