Richard Davis, Bard College

Aghorasiva's Guidelines for a Perfect Temple Festival

Aghorasiva's Mahotsavavidhi, or "Rules for the Great Festival," is a twelfth-century Sanskrit text that provides step-by-step guidance for a priest officiating in a nine-day Saiva temple festival.  In my talk I will discuss what this work might tell us about the historicaldevelopment of temple festivals in Tamilnad during the Cola period, and what it cannot tell us.