Kanchipuram is one of the "seven holy cities" of India, which plays a special role in Hinduism with regard to the `liberation´ (mokṣa) from the suffering-filled cycle of existence (saṃsāra). According to Hindu belief, there is a special connection in this city and its temples that connects the world of the gods and the human world through rituals. A curative quality is brought forth in the way the action of the gods is a model for human action. This makes the world of the gods accessible and experienceable by humans. The underlying medieval narratives are still popular today and have been handed down in many ways: written down as texts in the supra-regional language Sanskrit and the regional language Tamil, immortalized as inscriptions on the temple walls, pictorially depicted in stone reliefs, in sculptures and as wall paintings, orally transmitted by local temple priests who explain the significance of the site to pilgrims and tourists, but also in the temple festivals that stage these narratives. Using the example of the marriage of two gods, which is celebrated annually by the entire city and is also accompanied by the marriage of hundreds of human couples, this lecture illuminates the special proximity of the human and god world in Kanchipuram.

Lecture by Prof. Dr. Ute Hüsken (Heidelberg)

Tuesday, 18.07.2023, 18:15 Uhr, Heidelberger Akademie der Wissenschaften (Vortragssaal)

For more information please go here.

Tuesday, 10/10/23.

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