Kāmākṣī
One part of this research project focuses on Kāñcīpuram's temple of the goddess Kāmākṣī. Its tradition is special because of the prominence of inner oppositions between supposed 'high' and 'low' traditional strands.
The worship of the goddess, called Amma, in Tamil Nadu has an old and strong tradition. Its spreading took place between the 14th and the 18th centuries and seems to be closely related to the migration of groups of warriors (Poligars and Nayakas) to Tamil Nadu und the Malabar coast. Images of Amma goddesses were part of these groups' cultures. These local goddesses are usually understood as 'blood and power goddesses'. They are of high relevance to popular worship and often invoked to avert suffering or illness, e.g. smallpox. However, the goddesses' firstly purely local relevance expanded with the identification with high gods' spouses. Since these rural mother goddesses are thus often incorporated into the traditional pantheon by being interpreted as aspects of sanskritic gods, these 'low' traditions with their local shrines, ecstatic dances, possession, animal sacrifices and extensive oral mythological lore are somehow legitimized and included into orthodoxy.
The Kāmākṣī temple of Kāñcīpuram has very likely been part of this development since it reached a high regional relevance already in the 14th century. Until now, the historical impact on the temple's tradition has not been studied sufficiently.
At the centre of this study will be a comparison between the ritual praxis of 'high' and 'low' Hinduism. This will be done in comparison with the work on the Varadarāja temple, where mainly the brahmanical perspective on the non-brahmanical social environment and its history is studied.
We aim to analyze the brahmanical environment including the changes that the neo-brahmanization has brought about since the 19th century. Then, the 'non-brahmanical' elements of the tradition shall be studied in detail. Especially the relations between the brahmanical orthodoxy and other local goddesses are expected to be of high importance.
In this case ritual dynamics and ritual change can possibly be understood as an endeavour to convert a 'low' ritual into a 'high' ritual. Here, questions of ritual dynamics and research on the merging of caste and sectarian identity intersect and the study of the interdependence of social and ritual change seems very promising.
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