Music and Temple Ritual in South India: Performing for Siva

Music and Temple Ritual in South India: Performing for Siva explores the musical practices of the periya melam, a South Indian instrumental temple ensemble of professional musicians. It investigates the role, function and meaning of these practices in a complex, highly formalised ritual of high-caste (Brahmanical) Tamil Hindu temples dedicated to the Pan-Indian god Siva - an important patron of music since at least the 10th century. The main themes are the meaning of music in Hindu culture and South Indian present-day, and its temple instrumental music and performance, in relation to Hindu ritual, devotion and the worship of divine images, as well as the sacred function of sound, music and performance in Hindu temple ritual practice. The book is much more than a rich and vivid ethnographic description of a local tradition. It also develops a comprehensive and original analytical model, in which music and performance are understood as both situated and creative practices and where the fluid relationship between humans and non-humans, in this case divine beings, is truly taken into consideration.