CONTENTS: Preface-E Annamalai Introduction: The Radiance of Tamil Constantine -V Nakassis and Francis Cody I. POLITICS AND POWER: (Post)Colonialism, Caste, Modernity Introduction to Part I: Modern Political Communities beyond Enumeration-Francis Cody, 1. Swadeshi Bharati: Protestant Textuality and the Poetics of Tamil Political Modernity-Bernard Bate, 2. Is this a Sudra Critique? Periyar and the Intermediate Castes-Karthick Ram Manoharan, 3. Birthing a Caste: The Gendered Political Origins of the Icai Vēḷāḷar in Modern Tamil Nadu-Davesh Soneji, 4. When Love Meets Death: ‘Honour’, Violence and Inter-caste Marriages in Tamil Nadu-Perundevi Srinivasan, 5. Law at Large: Notes on the Public Mediation of Community in the Juridical Field-Francis Cody, II. LANGUAGE AND LITERATURE: Poesis, Translation, Ideology: Poesis, Translation, Ideology: Introduction to Part II: On the Values of Language-E Annamalai, 6. Good Tamil: What Makes It Good and Why-E. Annamalai, 7. Ciṉṉattampip Pulavar’s Kalvaḷaiyantāti-David Shulman, 8. Meaning as Rescuer: Colonising the Coloniser, the Tamil Way-Govindarajan Navaneethakrishnan, 9. Crossing the Godāvari: Poetics, Translation, and Transformation in the Kamparāmāyaṇam-Whitney Cox, 10. Rendering the Word of God-Torsten Tschacher, 11. Shifting Worlds: The Obsolescence of the Nikaṇṭus in the Tamil Literary Tradition-Srilata Raman, III. MEDIA AND MEDIATION: Voice, Stage, Screen: Introduction to Part III: Sensorial Images and Sound and Murals-Swarnavel Eswaran, 12. Pāṭṭukku Oru Talaivar: Making a Dravidian Voice-Amanda Weidman, 13. Stars and the ‘Regional’ Blockbuster: Rajinikanth, from Baba to Enthiran-S V Srinivas 14. Signifying Tamil: DMK Rhetoric, Cinema and the Double Articulation of Sovereignty-Rajan Kurai Krishnan, 15. The Many Shakespeares of Rao Bahadur Pammal Sambanda Mudaliyar: Shakespeare in Colonial South India and the History of Modern Tamil Drama-Sascha Ebeling, 16. Motivated Reading: Text and Image in the Expanded Temple-Anna Lise Seastrand, Afterword: From the Sangam to the Forum-Amanda Weidman, References, List of Contributors, Chicago Tamil Forum Workshops, 2014–23, Photos from the Chicago Tamil Forum Workshops, Index.