Material in text, text in material: a tamil christian lullaby

Abstract In this article, I present a material-centered analysis of a Tamil Christian song titled Tiruchabai Tarattu, which was composed in 1813 by Vedanayaka Sastriar. Through this focused case study, I address the question of what is—or what ought to be—the relationship between material and textual analysis in the discipline of religious studies. Rather than positioning material religion as a discrete approach to the study of religion, one that is often contrasted with textual studies, I propose that textual studies finds in material religion an invitation for significant growth since texts are mediated through the material. I am especially interested in sensory experiences and objects, the mainstays of material analysis, as they are found embedded in texts. By focusing on the sensuous and material elements highlighted by the poet, a study otherwise focused within the bounds of textual sources can pivot and expand to include non-textual sources. My assembly, description, and analysis of sources and experiences that span across media in and outside of texts allows me to build what I call a sensory corpus by which we understand the meaning—better, meanings—of South Asian Christianity.