Dear colleagues,
This is a question for those of you familiar with the Periyapurāṇam (or
Tiruttoṇṭarpurāṇam), Cēkkiḻār’s hagiography of the Tamil Śaiva saints.
In the Māṇḍukarṇīśvara temple in Kanchipuram, there is a local tradition
according to which the Nandī in the temple turned his head on Śiva’s command in
order to allow Campantar and Appar have an unobstructed view of the god when
they visited this site. This story is recorded in a modern inscription in the
temple itself, where it is attributed to the “second part of the Civapurāṇam in
the Periyapurāṇam composed by Saint Cekkiḻār” (cekkiḻār perumāṉ iyaṟṟiya periya
purāṇattil uḷḷa civapurāṇam iraṇṭām pākattil). However, I have not been able to
locate this episode in the Periyapurāṇam, neither by conducting a full-text
search of the e-text on Project Madurai nor through reference to the indices in
Alastair McGlashan’s translation. As such, I start suspecting that the
ascription may not be factual.
My questions are the following:
1. Can anyone confirm the presence or absence of this episode in the
Periyapurāṇam?
2. How to understand the reference to the “second part of the Civapurāṇam in
the Periyapurāṇam”? I am familiar with Civapurāṇam as the title of the opening
section of Māṇikkavācakar’s Tiruvācakam, but it does not seem to make sense to
me in the context of the Periyapurāṇam.
Any insights would be appreciated!
Best wishes,
Jonas Buchholz
____
_____
Dr. Jonas Buchholz
Heidelberg Academy of Sciences and Humanities
Project “Hindu Temple Legends in South India”
Karl Jaspers Centre
Voßstr. 2 | Building 4400 | Room 004
69115 Heidelberg, Germany
P: +49 (0)6221 54 4095
E: [email protected]<mailto:[email protected]>
W: https://www.hadw-bw.de/htl
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