When Viṣṇu Became Śiva: The Tirumēṟṟaḷīśvara Temple and the Multimodal Transmission of Temple Legends in Kanchipuram

This talk examines the multilingual and multimodal transmission of temple legends (sthālamāhātmya /talapurāṇam) in Kanchipuram through a case study of the Tirumēṟṟaḷīśvara temple. Celebrated in the canonical Tēvāram hymns between the seventh and ninth centuries, this site belongs to the pāṭal peṟṟa talams or sacred places of Tamil Śaivism. The temple’s distinctive origin story tells how Viṣṇu attained Śiva’s form through the power of the poet-saint Tiruñāṉacampantar’s Tamil hymns. Drawing on Sanskrit and Tamil sources, the lecture traces how the motif of Viṣṇu’s transformation into Śiva was
reinterpreted and recontextualized across various textual versions.
Today, the version preserved in Civañāṉa Muṉivar’s Kāñcippurāṇam is regarded as authoritative and continues to shape local religious life. At the same time, contemporary oral versions and visual representations of the temple’s origin story adapt and extend the textual narrative, explaining distinctive features that temple visitors can encounter on site. The Tirumēṟṟaḷīśvara temple’s myth of origin thus illustrates the dynamic interplay between textual transmission and lived religiosity in South India’s temple culture.

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