During the annual nativity festival of Rāmānuja (11th century) at his temple in Sriperumbudur, his tirumēṉi (sacred body), the metallic image conceived to embody his presence, is adorned in various ways and mounted on metallic vehicles (vāhanams). One such procession is called Veḷḷaiccāṟṟu (White Adornment), in which the ascetic mounts a golden horse, adorned in white garments. The festivities enact the hagiography of Rāmānuja fleeing a zealous Śaiva monarchs’ persecution. Upon returning to the temple, he is given a ritual shower, during which the 120-year-old monk's body is described in a near-erotic manner.
This paper examines the enactment of hagiographies in temple festivities. Its primary questions include how festive visual and material cultures enact hagiography; which hermeneutic tools are available to a participant expected to co-create hagiographic memory; and how we can understand the relationship between textual and festive narrations of history in the Hindu Traditions.