When Haradatta Met Kūreśa

This chapter examines how stotra (“hymn”) literature in South India functioned as a powerful vehicle for shaping sectarian memory and religious identity between the seventeenth and twentieth centuries. Focusing on stotra s attributed to two polemical figures—Haradatta, representing Śaiva traditions, and Kūreśa, from the Śrīvaiṣṇava fold—it demonstrates how the publication, circulation, and editorial framing of these hymns in print significantly affected their interpretation. By analyzing works such as the Hariharatāratamya , Ślokapañcaka , and Kūreśavijaya , the chapter uncovers the paratextual strategies—like prefaces, commentaries, and editorial notes—through which religious communities reinforced or recast each figure’s theological stances. These stotra s made sectarian arguments for the supremacy of Śiva or Viṣṇu. They also canonized their putative authors as heroic defenders in the face of ideological or political opposition. In highlighting how stotra publications were paired with narratives of each author’s life (e.g., the Haradattacaritam ), the study reveals how polemical content was integrally linked to the construction of the collective “public memory” of their accepted authors. Ultimately, it argues that the emergence of print culture allowed these liturgical-polemical works to reach new audiences and gain renewed authority, fundamentally shaping the ways South Indian religious communities engaged with theological debate and historical consciousness.