Gita V. Pai, U.C. Berkeley

Politics, Patronage and Piety at The Ramaswami Temple in Kumbakonam

At first glance, the Ramaswami Temple in Kumbakonam, erected during Raghunatha Nayak’s reign (1612-1634), is an easy example of a political-theological conflation: the royal sovereign Raghunatha is the royal deity Rama. However, a close examination of its sculptural program, steeped in Vaisnava iconography, reveals that it is reductive to limit the Ramaswamy temple to a mere kingship-divinity fusion scheme. This paper will suggest an alternative idea.