The Goddess's Embrace

The study by Kerstin Schier examines the big annual festival (mahotsava) at the Ek¿mran¿tha temple in the South Indian town Kanchipuram, which - among other things - dramatises the divine marriage between god ¿iva (as Ek¿mran¿tha) and the goddess, generally considered to be K¿m¿k¿¿. In the course of the festival's rituals gods and goddesses, temples, and religious traditions relate to each other in many ways. These complex and multifaceted relations are studied by taking into account different types of historical and contemporary sources, and by combining textual analysis with the observation and study of ritual performances, interviews, and oral narratives. The book provides a detailed description and analysis of the divine marriage's contemporary ritual practice and its associated myth in Sanskrit and Tamil texts. It also takes into consideration the different views and interpretations of members of local communities, temple priests, donors, and other participants, which leads to a multiplicity of perspectives on the festival. Numerous photographs and maps supplement the descriptions of the rituals. A concise day-by-day overview of the festival program and a list of the narrative themes of the marriage myth are given as appendix.