ABSTRACT
Processions are a central element of the ritual lives of Tamil temples, as occasions when portable metal images of the deities (utsavamurtis) are carried beyond the confines of their home shrine. Such processions are the ritual performance of spatially defined divine power, the deities sometimes making claims to contested space through their movement. The sponsorship of periodic festivals and the structures to which utsavamurtis were carried on these occasions became an important act of visible patronage for temple donors, enabling privileged access and proximity to deities and the rituals honouring them. In this chapter, the spatial and architectural dimensions of festival processions in Tamil South India will be examined, contributing to the burgeoning literature on the role of sacred architecture in the orchestration of performative ritual space (Wescoat & Ousterhout eds. Architecture and the Sacred, 2013, Kyriakidis ed. The Archaeology of Ritual, 2007, Inomata & Coben eds. Archaeology of Performance, 2006). Following an outline of the potential sources for examining temple processions from the 7th century and later—collections of portable bronze images, inscriptions and literature, paintings and modern ethnography—the discussion will focus on the architectural and material evidence for temple processions both within and beyond the temple walls. As a whole, the chapter aims to demonstrate the importance of festival ritual and processions to the interpretation of sacred architecture, sculpture and urbanism in Tamil South India.
