Nine Ponds (navatīrthas) of Śrīraṅgam
Preliminary Notes
DOI:
https://doi.org/10.12797/CIS.24.2022.02.07Keywords:
Śrīraṅgam, tīrthas, Sanskrit māhātmyas, culture, natureAbstract
Water bodies, being elements of the natural landscape, are often connected with religious holy sites and provide ready examples of a mutual relationship between nature and culture. The present article introduces nine holy ponds—tīrthas of the Śrīraṅgam Raṅganātha temple—each with its characteristic features directly connected with a particular tree, residing deity, resident ṛṣi, and certain boons. Short descriptions of the ponds are given in Chapter 10 of the Sanskrit text, the Śrīraṅgamāhātmya, which praises the glory of the holy place, kṣetra, and constitutes my main source material. Even though the nine ponds play an important role in the religious landscape of the site and the life of the religious community, they have not been studied till now. The article presents descriptions of the tīrthas found in the Śrīraṅgamāhātmya and supplements them with a brief report and some photographic evidence from the field research of 2020.
PlumX Metrics of this article
References
Bhardwaj, S. M. 1983. Hindu Places of Pilgrimage in India: A Study in Cultural Geography. Berkeley: University of California Press.
Branfoot, C. 1999. Tiruchirappalli and the Sacred Island of Srirangam. In: G. Michell (ed.), C. Arni (photo). Eternal Kaveri. Historical Sites along South India’s Greatest River. Bombay: Marg Publications: 75–88.
Czerniak-Drożdżowicz, M. and R. Sathyanarayanan 2022. Importance of Water Bodies in the Māhātmyas in the Kāverī Region. In: M. Ambach, J. Buchholz, U. Hüsken (eds). Texts, and Networks: South Indian Perspectives.
Heidelberg: Heidelberg Asian Studies Publishing: 121–157.
Dębicka-Borek, E. 2022. Connected Places, Networks of Shrines: Ahobilam in the Nets of Spatial Relationships. In: M. Ambach, J. Buchholz and U. Hüsken (eds) Temples, Texts, and Networks: South Indian Perspectives.
Heidelberg: Heidelberg Asian Studies Publishing: 241–264.
Eck, D. L. 1981. India’s “Tīrthas:” “Crossings” in Sacred Geography. In: History of Religions 20(4): 323–344. https://doi.org/10.1086/462878. DOI: https://doi.org/10.1086/462878
Eck, D. L. 2013. India, A Sacred Geography. New York: Harmony Books. Reprint edition.
Eternal Kaveri: Historical Sites along South India’s Greatest River. 1999. G. Michell (ed.), C. Arni (photo). Bombay: Marg Publications.
Feldhaus, A. 1990. The Image of the Forest in the Māhātmyas of the Rivers of the Decan. In: H. Bakker (ed.). The History of Sacred Places in India as Reflected in Traditional Literature. Papers in Pilgrimage in South Asia. Leiden: Brill: 90–102. DOI: https://doi.org/10.1163/9789004646063_008
Feldhaus, A. 2003. Connected Places: Region, Pilgrimage and Geographical Imagination in India. New York: Palgrave Macmillan.
Hari Rao, V. N. 1967. The Śrīrangam Temple: Art and Architecture. Tirupati: The Sri Venkateswara University.
Hari Rao, V. N. 1976. The History of Śrirangam Temple. Tirupati: Sri Venkateswara University.
Hegewald, J. A. B. 2002. Water Architecture in South Asia: A Study of Types, Developments and Meanings. Leiden: Brill. https://doi.org/10.1163/9789004502666. DOI: https://doi.org/10.1163/9789004502666
Jacobsen, K. 2013. Pilgrimage in the Hindu Tradition: Salvific Space. London–New York: Routledge. https://doi.org/10.4324/9780203102510. DOI: https://doi.org/10.4324/9780203102510
Kalidos, R. 1981. Teppakuḷams of Tamilnadu. In: Proceedings of the Second Annual Conference of the South Indian History Congress. Trivandrum: University of Kerala: 205–210.
Knott, K. 2010. Religion, Space, and Place: The Spatial Turn in Research on Religion. In: Religion and Society: Advances in Research, 1: 29–43. https://doi.org/10.3167/arrs.2010.010103. DOI: https://doi.org/10.3167/arrs.2010.010103
Kramrisch, S. 1976. The Hindu Temple, Vol. I–II. Delhi: Motilal Banarsidass.
Rajarajan, R. K. K. 2018. ‘Tirukkuḷam’ or ‘Teppakkuḷam’ of South India: ‘Jalavāstu’? In: Pandanus, 10(2): 83–105.
Ramanuja Dasan Aranganagar Vasi. Nava theerthams of Srirangam, https://aranganagar.wordpress.com/2018/05/27/%E0%AE%85%E0%AE%B0%E0%AE%99%E0%AF%8D%E0%AE%95%E0%AE%A9%E0%AE%BF%E0%AE%A9%E0%AF%8D-%E0%AE%92%E0%AE%A9%E0%AF%8D%E0%AE%AA%E0%AE%A4%E0%AF%81-%E0%AE%A4%E0%AF%80%E0%AE%B0%E0%AF%8D%E0%AE%A4%E0%AF%8D%E0%AE%A4/ (accessed on 28 August 2022).
Rastelli, M. 2003. Der Tempel als Mythisierung der Transzendenz. In: G. Oberhammer and M. Schmücker (eds). Mythisierung der Transzendenz als Entwurf ihrer Erfahrung. Arbeitsdokumentation eines Symposiums. Wien: Österreichischen Akademie der Wissenschaften: 313–348.
Rastelli, M. 2006. Die Tradition des Pāñcarātra in Spiegel der Pārameśvarasaṃhitā. Wien: Österreichischen Akademie der Wissenschaften. DOI: https://doi.org/10.1553/0x001371d4
Sathyanarayanan, R. and M. Czerniak-Drożdżowicz. 2023 (forthcoming).
Glorification of the Holy Island: Critical Edition and Translation of the Śrīraṅgamāhātmyam.
Selby, M. A. and I. Visvanathan Peterson (eds). 2008. Tamil Geographies: Cultural Constructions of Space and Place in South India. New York: SUNY Press.
Spencer, G. 1970. The Sacred Geography of the Tamil Shaivite. In: Numen, 17(3): 232–244. https://doi.org/10.1163/156852770X00063. DOI: https://doi.org/10.1163/156852770X00063
Srirangam Today Community. 25 March 2021. https://www.facebook.com/SrirangamToday/photos/pcb.3537320769727589/3537320523060947 (accessed on 27 August 2022).
Visvanathan Peterson, I. 1982. Singing of a Place: Pilgrimage as Metaphor and Motif in the Tēvāram Songs of the Tamil Śaivite Saints. In: Journal of the American Oriental Society, 102(1): 69–90. https://doi.org/10.2307/601112. DOI: https://doi.org/10.2307/601112
Visvanathan Peterson, I. 1999. The Kaveri in Legend and Literature. In: Eternal Kaveri: 35–48.
Zapf, H. 2016. Literature as Cultural Ecology: Sustainable Texts. London–Oxford: Bloomsbury. https://doi.org/10.5040/9781474274685. DOI: https://doi.org/10.5040/9781474274685
Downloads
Published
How to Cite
Issue
Section
License
This work is licensed under a Creative Commons Attribution-NonCommercial-NoDerivatives 4.0 International License.
Funding data
-
Narodowe Centrum Nauki
Grant numbers 2018/29/B/HS2/01182
