“Bhakti Demands Biography: Crafting the Life of a Tamil Saint”

Blake Wentworth’s current work revolves around a central feature of south Indian political life in premodernity, the mapping of sexuality onto the political domain such that lordly power is beautiful. By tracing the genealogy of this trope, he explores the interplay between ancient Tamil poetics and the wider Sanskrit world.

Blake Wentworth is Assistant Professor of South and South EastAsian Studies at UC- Berkley.