ABSTRACT
In this chapter, the author examines the goddess' genesis and transformations through an analysis of a religious mythological text, sculptural reliefs, and religious festivals connected to Minakshi and her Madurai temple. She focuses on the last of the three foci to contend that Madurai's seventeenth-century ruler Tirumala Nayaka used temple ceremonies dedicated to Minakshi to establish political legitimacy. The author explores her apotheosis from the soldierly daughter of her royal father, to the submissive wife of her god-husband, to the political instrument of an opportunistic king. The temple houses her consort Sundaresvara "the beautiful lord", who is similarly understood to be a local version of the pan-Indian deity Shiva. After a string of victories that involve plundering vanquished kings, she arrives with her army on Shiva's abode, Mount Kailasa, and does battle with his warriors. The ecological possibilities in ritual performance help situate Tirumala Nayaka's decision to invoke the Ennaik Kappu Utsavam in Madurai.
