Vishnu’s Manifestations in the Tamil Country Leslie C. Orr
T
hat part of South India known today as Tamil Nadu is often regarded as a stronghold of the god Shiva, yet the worship of Vishnu is deeply rooted there. For over fifteen hundred years, devotees have gathered at sites sacred to Vishnu spread across the Tamil country to honor this god in his various forms, in manifestations that have a special connection to the Tamil landscape. The image of Vishnu reclining on the serpent in the milk ocean has been for centuries close to the hearts of Tamil Vaishnavas, who regard this form of the god as being especially attached to Srirangam. Krishna is also completely at home in the Tamil country, and it seems, in fact, that many elements of the mythology of Krishna as cowherd— child and lover—first appeared in Tamil literature and iconography. Other aspects and avatars, and consorts, of Vishnu also found their place in (or emerged from) the Tamil landscape. As Vaishnava theology and temple worship developed, especially from the twelfth century onward, the teachers of the emerging tradition known as Shrivaishnavism paid particular attention to the significance and character of the image of the deity and its importance in making god present to his worshippers. In the course of time, certain sites gained prominence and great temple complexes were built up there, teachers and saints were enshrined, and festivals were established. To this day, these centers of architectural splendor continue to draw worshippers and to testify to the skill of craftsmen and the devotion of patrons who contributed to their beauty and to the elaboration of their ritual and imagery. But we should begin with an earlier and simpler time. Vishnu’s Early History—Literary Portraits
The first brief references to Vishnu in Tamil literature—in the classical “Sangam” poetry of the first to seventh centuries—are not at all concerned with temples constructed for him, but there are several specific places that are said to be his abodes, places that in later times are sites where major temples are built. The Sangam poems, and especially those composed later in the period (e.g., Silappadikaram, of perhaps the sixth century), also give us an idea of the Vaishnava myths that were then current in the Tamil country and suggest that Vishnu received worship in image form, although the earliest sculptures that have been preserved date only from the seventh century. The most explicit references to Vishnu’s physical presence describe him as reclining on the coils of the serpent—that is, in the form of Anantashayana—at Kanchipuram, Srirangam, and Thiruvananthapuram. It is significant that these three sites are strung across the
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