From Possession to Freedom (Hardback)  | Released: 15 Apr 2019

The Tamil text N?lakeci, dated around the 5th century CE (debated), is an unusual literary creation. It retrieves a violent, vengeful p?y (female possessing spirit) of Palayanur, transforming her into a Jaina philosopher. It was a profoundly subversive idea of its time, using the female persona and voice (for a hitherto disembodied being) to debate with preceptors of different schools of thought/religions of the time, all male, barring the Buddhist nun, Ku??alakeci. N?lakeci’s debates focus on questions of non-violence, existence of the soul, authorship and caste, among others. However, in order to truly appreciate this alter-texting, one has to unravel layers of other texts and traditions: the lesser known villupp?ttu (bow-song) and n?takam (theatrical) versions of the p?y N?li stories, as well as the story of Ku??alakeci’s own transformative journey. Umamaheshwari situates these in a comparative context, while maintaining the centrality of the debates within N?lakeci, using translation of selected excerpts.About the Author: R. Umamaheshwari did her doctorate in History from Jawaharlal Nehru University, New Delhi. She has been an independent journalist and historian for some years. She was Fellow at the Institut d’�tudes Avanc�es de Nantes (Nantes Institute for Advanced Study), France (2017-18), and the Indian Institute of Advanced Study, Shimla (2014-16). She is author of Reading History with the Tamil Jainas: A Study on Identity, Memory and Marginalisation and When Godavari Comes: People’s History of a River (A Journey in the Zone of the Dispossessed).