La légende des jeux de Çiva à Madurai, d'après les textes et les peintures

by R. Dessigane and P.Z. Pattabiramin and J. Filliozat

Madurai, capital of the kingdom of Pand?ya, with its famous temple, commonly known as the Minaksi temple, is considered as a vibrant centre of religion and a backdrop for the national legends of Tamil Nadu. A group of legendary deeds of siva, his ‘games’, have Madurai as their stage and constitute a marvellous story. The large temple describes this entire story to us in the form of a long series of modern mural paintings (19th century), while three literary works (two texts in Tamil entitled Tiruvil?aiyatar?puranam, dating back to the 12th and the 16th cent. A.D., and a Sanskrit text Halasyamahatmya) recount the story in detail. The present publication contains a photographic reproduction of the mural paintings and a summary of the texts in French.