Varadarāja
The Varadarāja Perumāḷ temple is a large Viṣṇu temple in South-Eastern part of Kāñcipuram. Apart from the main deity Varadarāja the temple houses in separate shrines also Yoga-Narasiṃha and Lakṣmīdevī (Tamiḻ: Tāyār, or Peruntēvi), Varadarāja’s consort.
The Varadarāja Perumāḷ temple is a famous and important Viṣṇuite pilgrimage site visited throughout the year by tens of thousands of Hindu pilgrims from all over India. The temple is also physically a very large complex with more than 80 employees. Apart from the priests there are many more groups involved in the temple activities. Most of the temple employees as well as many other Viṣṇuites who are involved in the daily temple rituals reside in the vicinity of the temple. Many of them hold for many generations a specific relation to the temple and the deities worshipped therein. These specific relations are generally expressed through specific modes of participation in the ritual procedures pertaining to the deities, ‚ritual shares’. Not only is the number of individuals involved in regular worship very large, but also the ritual schedule of the Varadarāja temple is very tight: six times a day regular worship takes place in the sanctum sanctorum, and at an average every alternate day a temple festival is performed.
The temple’s rituals are performed according to the Pāñcarātra mode of worship and the three main images of the temple may only be touched by initiated male members of six hereditary families of temple priests (skt. arcaka).
The research on the Varadarāja temple centers on questions of ritual competence and agency of these temple priests under societal change. The aim is to scrutinize the definitions of ritual competence and agency and the transmission of competence and authority through initiation and vocational education, as well as their changes in relation to modern challenges.
Another aspect of the research regarding ritual competence is the negotiation of performances. Here, too, the analysis of the relations between text and performance will guide the study. Which texts are relied on in which way? What role do texts play in the (re-)construction of rituals? How are the texts enacted? Is it true that 'imprints' of ritual performances are activated and adapted to the new context (Wulf & Zirfas 2004)? Are ritual 'modules' reassembled as 'new' rituals (Gladigow 2004)?
|
