Building a Home for Viṣṇu in Tirukkurungudi

This hybrid presentation is given by Dr. Crispin Branfoot, from SOAS, University of London.

​Located in the far south at the base of the Western Ghats bordering Kerala, Tirukkurunkudi is the location of an impressive temple that is revered as one of the 108 Divya Desas by Srivaishnavas. The Aḻakiya Nambi temple encountered today is a product of three main building periods in the twelfth-thirteenth, fifteenth-seventeenth and late nineteenth to early twentieth centuries as structures were added, altered or replaced to intensify and revalorize the sacrality of the site. This presentation aims to examine aspects of the temple’s layout and design: the replication of shrines to Viṣṇu, dedicated to standing, sitting and reclining forms of the deity; the presence of a Śiva shrine in the heart of the temple; and the Śaiva alongside Vaiṣṇava imagery that appears throughout the temple, in small-scale relief sculpture as well as large monolithic columns. 

As one of the contributors to a forthcoming collaborative monograph, "Temple of the Heart: Imagining a Home for Viṣṇu at Tirukkurungudi", he will conclude with some reflections on our multidisciplinary and multipronged approach that explores how myth, poetry, ritual, architecture, sculpture and inscriptions work together to create and sustain a single Tamil temple site

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