Vallalar and Navalar: A History of the Literary Feud

In the nineteenth century, Tamil Nadu in South India and the Tamil-speaking regions of Sri Lanka were shaken by an extraordinary literary and religious conflict-a nearly fifty-year-long battle of wits that divided vertically Tamil scholarship across both societies.At the heart of this storm lay the collected hymns of Vallalar, titled Tiruvarutpa (Poems of Divine Grace) by his followers. However, t...