Tue. 08^th Feb., 2022
16:15-17:45 Hrs.

CATS, Building 4010,
Room no. 06, (010.00.06)

This is a hybrid event.

Online
━ ZOOM Link
Meeting ID: 832 6480 4133
Passcode: 737844

Abteilungskolloquium (WiSe 2021/22) | Colloquium (Winter Semester 2021/22)

▍As you said, as I said, as he said - Three mythological interpretations of Viṣṇu Yathoktakārī and the river Vegavati in Kanchipuram

Malini Ambach
(PhD Candidate)

There exist several Sanskrit texts from the genre of māhātmyas on the South Indian temple town Kanchipuram. In mythological narratives, they tell of the city and the origin of many sacred places within Kanchi. As a result of different approaches and sectarian affiliation, they present their unique interpretations of Kanchi's sacred geography, while incorporating both similar and dissimilar elements. My presentation focuses on the Vegavati river that flows through Kanchi. Its narrative is of Vaiṣṇava character and in different degrees linked in the māhātmyas to the myth of the origin of Viṣṇu’s manifestation as Yathoktakārī in Kanchi. I will discuss if and how the presentation of this place is incorporated into the overarching patterns of the texts’ designs of Kanchi’s sacred geography, how the Vaiṣṇava narrative motif is processed in the other texts that do not regard Viṣṇu as the supreme god, and what significance is ascribed to the river as sacred water body.