Temple Networks in Early Modern South India: Narratives, Rituals, and Material Culture

该项目探索了古老的南印度神庙镇Kāñcipuram的神圣空间是如何通过梵语和泰米尔语的神话与仪式实践和物质文化的互动来表达、协商和塑造的。Kāñcipuram是印度教徒的七大圣城之一，拥有无数的寺庙和神社。几个世纪以来，印度教的主要传统——Vaiṣṇavism、Śaivism和Śāktism——不仅共存，而且在Kāñcipuram相互作用和竞争。该项目采用寺庙网络的概念来描述城市各个寺庙之间的流动关系，以及它们相对于Kāñcipuram外部其他寺庙的位置。在Kāñcipuram中平行存在着几个相交的寺庙网络，它们的等级制度不断地被共享城市空间的不同宗教传统所重新协商。这种过程在当地神话文本（Māhātmyas / Sthalapurāṇas）中得到了体现，这些文本将Kāñcipuram视为一个神圣的地方。从15 /16世纪开始，一些这样的文本用梵语和泰米尔语写成。这些文本赞美特定的地方，当地的神灵和特定的仪式活动，经常将它们与其他地方，神灵和仪式活动进行对比，然后将其呈现为劣等。拟议的项目将调查Kāñcipuram的寺庙网络如何在神话文本中反映和产生。采用文本自己的Kāñcipuram作为神与人相遇的“场域”（kṣetra）的概念，它将Kāñcipuram视为不同宗教网络相互作用的动态节点。在神话文本中发现的许多叙述都是在寺庙节日期间进行的仪式，并在寺庙的图像中得到了实质性的体现，使这些情节在集体记忆中保持鲜活。与不同文本对基本叙事的不同解读类似，仪式表演和雕塑讲述故事的方式也不同，而且往往与文本叙事不一致。拟议的项目将密切关注相关的仪式表演和寺庙的图像程序，以评估仪式和材料与文本的关系。这个项目的团队将进行两个相互关联的案例研究。这两个子项目相辅相成：子项目1通过梵语的当地神话文本和寺庙节日期间神话叙事的仪式表演来访问Vaiṣṇava寺庙网络的动态。子项目2主要通过比较梵语和泰米尔语神话文本来研究Śaiva寺庙网络。在密切合作下，调查人员将评估文本、寺庙和不同宗教团体的仪式是如何相互作用的，它们代表着一个古老的南印度寺庙城镇的网络，但仍在不断地重新配置。

The proposed project explores how the sacred space of the ancient South Indian temple town of Kāñcipuram is represented, negotiated and shaped through mythology transmitted in Sanskrit and Tamil sources in interaction with ritual practice and material culture. Kāñcipuram is one of the seven sacred cities for Hindus with innumerable temples and shrines. The major traditions of Hinduism – Vaiṣṇavism, Śaivism and Śāktism – have for centuries not only co-existed, but interacted and competed in Kāñcipuram. The project employs the concept of temple networks to describe the fluid relations between the city’s various temples as well as their position vis à vis other temples outside Kāñcipuram. Several intersecting temple networks exist in parallel in Kāñcipuram, and their hierarchies have been constantly renegotiated by the different religious traditions that share the city’s space.Such processes find expression in local mythological texts (Māhātmyas / Sthalapurāṇas) that deal with Kāñcipuram as a sacred place. From the 15th/16th century onwards, several such texts have been composed in both Sanskrit and Tamil. These texts praise specific places, local deities and specific ritual activities, often contrasting them with other places, deities and ritual activities, which are then presented as inferior. The proposed project will investigate how the temple networks of Kāñcipuram are reflected and produced in the mythological texts. Adopting the texts’ own notion of Kāñcipuram as a “field” (kṣetra) of divine and human encounter, it looks at Kāñcipuram as a dynamic nodal point where diverse religious networks interact with each other.Many narratives that are found in the mythological texts are ritually enacted during temple festivals and are materially represented in the temples’ iconography, keeping these episodes alive in collective memory. Similar to the different interpretations of the basic narratives in the diverse texts, the ritual performances and sculptures also tell stories differently, and are moreover often at odds with the textual narratives. The proposed project will pay close attention to the relevant ritual performances and the iconographic program of the temples in order to assess how rituals and material relate to the texts.The team of this project will work on two interconnected case studies. The two subprojects complement each other: Subproject 1 accesses the dynamics of Vaiṣṇava temple networks through local mythological texts in Sanskrit and through the ritual enactments of mythological narratives during temple festivals. Subproject 2 investigates Śaiva temple networks mainly through the comparison of Sanskrit and Tamil mythological texts. In close collaboration the investigators will assess how the texts, the temples and the ritual practices of the diverse religious communities interact, representing, yet continuously re-configuring, networks within an ancient South Indian temple town.