Cosmic Doorway: Time, Space and Transformation in ‘Goodbye, Mokṣa’ at the Tirukkurungudi Temple

This lecture is given by Dr. Archana Venkatesan from UC Davis.​

On the eleventh day of the waxing moon in Mārkaḻi (December-January), the doorway to heaven opens, and Viṣṇu descends to earth. This is Vaikuṇṭha Ekādaśī, the most sacred day for Śrīvaiṣṇavas. Viṣṇu repeats this descent every evening for ten days, transforming himself into an earthly form, and earth into heaven. During these ten days, he listens to the sweet Tamil songs of Nammāḻvār, who petitions him for mokṣa. On the tenth and final day, Viṣṇu grants Nammāḻvār his desire, and god and devotee return to heaven, leaving earth and all her people, bereft. The temple of Tirukkurungudi in Tirunelveli district marks these ten days much like other important Tamil Vaiṣṇava sites—with the recitation of the Nālāyira Divya Prabandham, with spectacular ornamentations of gods and devotees, noisy processions and copious amounts of food. However, there is one significant difference. On the eleventh day, after the festival has purportedly concluded, Viṣṇu descends one last time, because his devotee (Nammāḻvār) has decided that heaven isn’t for him. He wants to return, back to earth, even if that earth is now absent the god. Viṣṇu accedes to this rejection of mokṣa, and goes back to Vaikuṇṭha, leaving his devotee behind. If the pretext for Viṣṇu’s descent following Vaikuṇṭha Ekādaśī is to grant mokṣa, what purpose does this festival, known as Vīṭu Viṭai (Goodbye, Mokṣa), which rejects that very goal, serve? 

In this presentation, she charts the temporal and spatial transformations of the Vaikuṇṭha Ekādaśī Festival at the Tirukkurungudi temple that continually destabilize the boundaries between god and devotee. In doing so, she demonstrates that the Vīṭu Viṭai (Goodbye, Mokṣa) ultimately resolves to vest authority in the stable body of the Maṭha attached to the temple and its titular head.

 

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