Songs of the Saints: Song Paths and Pilgrimage in London's Tamil Hindu Diaspora

Abstract

The songs of the Tamil saints are integral to ritual worship and musical and cultural practices in London's Tamil Hindu diaspora. Despite being written in the first millennium and detailing sites of pilgrimage in South India and Sri Lanka, the songs remain integral in Tamil Hindu diasporic rituals and in attaining a sense of Tamil cultural and religious belonging in London. This article examines the conventionalized order of the songs in performance, or "song paths," during the Maha Sivarathri festival in the London Sivan Temple in 2016 and how these song paths evoke sites of sacred geography in South Asia. I argue that the performance of song paths in diasporic settings constitutes a metaphorical pilgrimage, which simultaneously provides spatial, transnational, and spiritual encounters through the intrinsic crossing facilitated by the songs' performance.

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