Where are the Kings ? Sites of Birth and Death of Campantar

Résumé En

Secondary literature often presents Cōḻa kings as the great patrons of Tamil Shaiva bhakti textual tradition. For example, the ruling power is said to have established the ritual singing of the hymns, the worship of the saints in temples and the compilation of the Tamil Shaiva canon, the Tirumuṟai.Focusing on two unstudied high places of Tamil Shaiva bhakti textual tradition, Cīkāḻi and Āccāḷpuram, I would like to highlight the importance of local patrons in the development of Shaiva bhakti textual tradition in Tamilnad. According to tradition, Cīkāḻi and Āccāḷpuram are the birth and death places of one of the Tēvāram hymnists, Campantar. Two shrines of the 12th century are dedicated to Campantar in this two temple complexes.The study of the unpublished epigraphical corpuses of these two sites clearly emphasize the role of local actors and devotional communities in patronizing these two temples. There is even a differentiation of categories of donors within the complex: Siva temple patrons are not Campantar shrine patrons. The ruling power seems to be absent in promoting the Tamil Shaiva bhakti textual tradition in this two localy spread sites.