Concentration: Erudite grammars, philosophy of language, and Advaita philosophy; mural paintings from the far south.

Texts:

• Seventeenth- and eighteenth-century Tamil grammars: Ilakkaṇa-viḷakkam, Pirayoka-vivekam, Ilakkaṇa-kottu, meta-linguistic commentaries of Civañāṉa muṉivar. Tamil Kaivalya-navanītam and Sanskrit Varivasyā-rahasyam
• Tamil Laku-yokavāsiṣṭham
• Historiographical and natural-scientific works
• Major sites of painting:  Tirupputaimarutur, Ramnad, Sibi (Karnataka, Narasimhaswamy Temple). Andhra temple site: Tadipatri.).

Revisiting years 1 and 2:

Prabandhas in Persian and Marathi, selected Tamil sthala-purāṇas, Telugu Vasu-caritramu and Tamil Vasu-carittiram

Leading questions:  How did the Tantric theories of visible sound impinge on the painters and sculptors of the seventeenth and eighteenth centuries? How are temporality and space configured in the narrative murals? What are the dominant themes of the paintings? How do the paintings connect to the textual segments in colloquial language in the margins? What is at stake in the grammar wars and in the new grammars of poetics and aesthetics in Telugu, Sanskrit, and Malayalam?