South Indian Temples: Nodal Points in Webs of Connections (SITes)

The project South Indian Temples: Nodal Points in Webs of Connections consists of five subprojects conducted in close cooperation by a German and a Polish team. All subprojects investigate Hindu temples as nodal points within webs of connections between sacred sites in South India, facilitating a new understanding of South Indian temples as participating in relationships with each other, rather than stand-alone monuments. These temple networks will be investigated in their transregional, regional, and local dimensions. Since the subprojects’ networks overlap with each other, and since individual temples are embedded in multiple temple networks, the project team will be able to view them from different perspectives.

Firmly based in the mythological narratives of the textual genre of temple legends (māhātmyas/sthalapurāṇas) in Sanskrit and in South Indian languages as primary source material, the project includes also the analysis of the same narratives’ ritual performances, and material and artistic expressions, such as murals in temples, reliefs, or statues. Conceptually, the project will look into these narratives from the point of view of spatial theories common for literary and cultural studies, e.g. literary cartography which is based on the idea of a mapping narrative (e.g. Tally 2014), as well as of ethno-Indology, which integrates philology, anthropology and ritual studies to investigate texts in conjunction with artistic expressions and ritual performances (e.g. Michaels 2004).

The main questions that the project seeks to answer are: Do the networks laid out in the texts inform pilgrimage practice? Are observable pilgrimage circuits, which connect temples, authorized by textual sources? What is the relationship between temples at the center, and temples at the periphery within such networks? What are the strategies of establishing links, how are these links articulated in various media (texts, iconography, rituals), how do these aspects differ in different regions of South India (Tamil Nadu, Andhra Pradesh) and how are these strategies differently articulated in various languages (Sanskrit, Tamil, Telugu)? Why and when do networks of temples appear, or disappear? Who are the agents behind such processes? By focusing on the dynamics between Hindu temples and sacred sites, the project will contribute to a new understanding of the role of mythological narratives as mapping space in the South Asian context.

Marzenna Czerniak-Drożdżowicz (principal investigator), R. Sathyanarayanan (co-investigator)

This case study will cover two main paths:

1. Within the framework of the first path, the subproject aims to inquire into the Srirangam-Tirupati connection, which is alluded in the story of the journey of the processional idol from the Raṅganātha temple in Srirangam to Tirupati in order to avoid desacralization by Muslim invaders (Spencer 1978, Branfoot 1999, Davis 1999). As such it will continue the previous research of Czerniak-Drożdżowicz on the biggest Vaiṣṇava spot, Śrirangam (e.g. Czerniak-Drożdżowicz 2019. Tradition has it (e.g. according to a Śrivaiṣṇava hagiography Prapannāmṛta by Anantācārya) that the Srirangam idol did not reach Tirupati directly, but was taken on the way to Madurai, to Kerala and Melkote (Karnataka). The role of this story in establishing relations between different places, among them some important divyadeśas, belonging to Tamilnadu and other regions of South India, will be considered in reference to the spatial aspect and topographical specificity of these interconnected places.
2. The second path of research, referring especially to linking several spots within one religious area, concerns the elaboration of the concept of navatīrthas of Srirangam, namely nine ponds associated with the Raṅganātha temple, which Czerniak-Drożdżowicz has already begun to inquire during her previous project. The spatial aspect of these water reservoirs, creating a net surrounding the temple tank of Raṅganātha temple, will be more thoroughly treated, considering also the more general context of the tīrthas understood as sacred places and as architectural creations.

The subproject will be based on the study of textual sources (mostly Sanskrit, but also Tamil texts) as well as chosen epigraphical sources (Hultzsch 1890–1913) and field research on both spots (Srirangam and Tirupati).

Ute Hüsken (German Principal Investigator)

Many South Indian temples are not part of just one, but of a number of networks, attesting to rivaling or parallel perceptions and constructions of sacred space. While in many cases these diverse layers of sacred space(s) are not in direct conflict with each other (see Hüsken 2017), economic resources are distributed differently, not the least through the agency of the corresponding pilgrimage routes. In this way, different networks can profit from each other, but also might be in conflict with each other. This relationship between temples and their networks is therefore contested and, over time, undoubtedly very dynamic.

This subproject takes as its starting point those temples which are simultaneously part of two distinct sectarian networks. These are investigated on three levels: local, regional, and transregional. The temples are on the one hand part of the network of “108 (Vaiṣṇava) divine places” (divyadeśa), and at the same time they are situated in or close to the places where the “five (Śaiva) elemental liṅgas” (pañcabhūtaliṅga) are situated. This subproject will investigate the connections between these two temple networks, which converge at specific places, by starting at the sites of the pañcabhūtaliṅgas (Kanchipuram, Srirangam, Chidambaram, Kalahasti, and Tiruvannamalai; see Eck 2012: 253–256), yet focusing not on the Śaiva temples and their Tamil sthalapurāṇas, but rather investigating the Vaiṣṇava sites that are listed as part of the 108-divyadeśa-network and their representations. Three of the five places with a pañcabhūtaliṅga are also home to one prominent divyadeśa (these are Srirangam, Kanchipuram, Chidambaram), and one pañcabhūtaliṅga-location (Kalahasti) is not more than 35 km apart from the maybe most important divyadeśa in contemporary times, the Veṅkaṭanātha temple on the Tirumala hill in Tirupati, which is of enormous regional and transregional relevance. The fifth pañcabhūtaliṅga-location (Tiruvannamalai) stands out insofar, as there is not even one Viṣṇu temple in the entire town, which is extremely rare and can serve as a test case for the other four sites, where the sacred space is shared between these two sectarian traditions.

Ewa Dębicka-Borek

This case study concerns the issue of temples’ interconnectedness in regard to the complex of Narasiṃha shrines in Ahobilam (Kurnool district, Andhra Pradesh), administered by the Ahobila maṭha. Despite hosting ten temples of Narasiṃha, each representing different, locally rooted aspect of the god, the site is traditionally known as the site of nine Narasiṃhas (navanarasiṃhakṣetra). This path of the project will focus on several so far undiscussed aspects of Ahobilam’s involvement in various relations shared with other temples/religious centers of the region and beyond, as well as on its internal web of connections between individual Narasiṃha shrines in Ahobilam. Such an approach seems crucial for filling the gaps in our knowledge of Ahobilam’s role on the pilgrimage and political map of South India.

Olga Nowicka

The subproject investigates the arithmetic and algebra of place (Feldhaus 2003) based on the example of the nālampalam – the Vaiṣṇava temple clusters of Kerala.

Nālampalam (from Malayalam “four temples”) is the concept of cluster of four temples dedicated to the sons of Daśaratha – Rāma, Lakṣmaṇa, Bharata and Śatrughna. The most famous cluster consists of the Śrī Rāmasvāmi temple in Tṛprayār, Kūṭalmāṇikyam temple dedicated to Bharata in Iriññālakkuṭa, Śrī Lakṣmaṇapperumāḷ temple in Mūḻikkuḷam, and Śatrughna temple in Pāyammal (Vaidyanathan 2011, 123-134). The temples have adopted a particular pilgrimage pattern (nālampala-darśanam) that prescribes to visit all shrines during one day in the Karkkaṭakam month (July-August) – also referred to as Rāmāyaṇa māsam “Rāmāyaṇa month” in Kerala. Apart from the above mentioned temples, there are said to be at least three more sets of nālampalam that are located across the state of Kerala.

The case study aims at paying particular attention to the issues that appears to come to the forefront while examining the nālampalam phenomenon i.e. the arithmetic and algebra of place (Feldhaus 2003). Within the framework of the project analysis, the arithmetic of place shall concern the creation of the numbered sets of places and their multiplication, while the algebra of place shall refer to the geography replication and relations between the particular elements of the discussed groups/sets of places (Feldhaus 2003).

Feldhaus, A. 2003. Connected Places. Region, Pilgrimage, and Geographical Imagination in India. New York: Palgrave Macmillan.
Vaidyanathan, K.R. 1982. Temples and Legends of Kerala. Bombay: Bharatiya Vidya Bhavan.