The study by Kerstin Schier examines the big annual festival (mahotsava) at the Ekamranatha
temple in the South Indian town Kanchipuram which - among other things - dramatises the divine
marriage between god Siva (as Ekamranatha) and the goddess generally considered to be Kamaksi.
In the course of the festival's rituals gods and goddesses temples and religious traditions
relate to each other in many ways. These complex and multifaceted relations are studied by
taking into account different types of historical and contemporary sources and by combining
textual analysis with the observation and study of ritual performances interviews and oral
narratives.The book provides a detailed description and analysis of the divine marriage's
contemporary ritual practice and its associated myth in Sanskrit and Tamil texts. It also takes
into consideration the different views and interpretations of members of local communities
temple priests donors and other participants which leads to a multiplicity of perspectives
on the festival. Numerous photographs and maps supplement the descriptions of the rituals. A
concise day-by-day overview of the festival program and a list of the narrative themes of the
marriage myth are given as appendix.
