| Summary/Abstract |
Naṭaṉa Gopāla Nāyaki Svāmikaḷ (1843–1914), born Ramabadran, was a Vaiṣṇava poet, mystic and performer who belonged to the Saurashtra community of Madurai. Revered within his community as the ‘Saurashtra Āḻvār’ (poet-saint), he is arguably their most important literary and musical figure. Initially known only to his intimate circle of family, as Nāyaki Svāmikaḷ's fame spread, his simple devotional compositions (kīrttaṉai) written in Tamil and Saurashtra are purported to have attracted disciples from all classes and castes in Madurai. Today, Nāyaki Svāmikaḷ's fame is largely confined to the Saurashtra community of Madurai, although the annual celebration in December of his samādhi (death, final liberation) brings together both the Tamil and Saurashtra communities of Madurai. The samādhi (sacred sepulchre) just outside Madurai is the primary locus for his worship, where he is remembered through the daily performance of his kīrttaṉais. In this paper, I trace the making of a twentieth-century Hindu saint within a small, but visible, migrant minority community in South India along the intersecting vectors of his hagiography and the circulation and performance of his Tamil and Saurashtri kīrttaṉais. I argue that Nāyaki Svāmikaḷ's hagiography and music bring together the Saurashtra community of Madurai, while simultaneously seeking to broaden his appeal outside the spatial confines of Madurai.
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