Dear list members,

We are very happy to announce the publication of

Malini Ambach

Multifarious Sacred Geographies: Kanchipuram Through Its Sanskrit Sthalamāhātmyas, Heidelberg: Heidelberg University Publishing, 2026 (Sacred Sites of South Asia Series 2).

The monograph is available online in Open Access https://doi.org/10.17885/heiup.1444  and as hardcover.

It is part of the Sacred Sites of South Asia Series , a book series by the Academy of Sciences project Hindu Temple Legends in South India

Abstract:

Multifarious Sacred Geographies takes an in-depth look at the sacred geography of the South Indian temple city Kanchipuram. Kanchipuram's particularly diverse religious landscape, with over four hundred temples, is attested to in numerous Sanskrit and Tamil texts that glorify the city. Malini Ambach investigates for the first time three of these glorifying Sanskrit Sthalamāhātmyas in detail and comparatively with regard to their literary geographies of Kanchipuram. These texts link mythology with the local physical landscape and each coloured by a sectarian perspective, they describe the same sacred space, Kanchipuram, by constructing shared and contradictory notions of the temple city.

Enjoy!

Ute Hüsken

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Prof. Dr. Ute Hüsken

Head of Department, Cultural and Religious History of South Asia (Classical Indology)

Project Leader, „Hindu Temple Legends in South India“, Heidelberger Akademie der Wissenschaften

South Asia Institute

Heidelberg University

Voßstrasse 2
Building 4130, Room 130.02.21
69115 Heidelberg • Germany

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