The ‘Purana of sacred plays’ of Shiva at Madurai is the final version of an old tradition of legends. The sixty-four legends were arranged in the present sequence by Paranjoti (late 16th, early 17th cent.) and are considered one of the peaks of Tamil narrative poetry.
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Literary genre narrating the foundation myth of a temple. A mahatmya (glorification) may be composed in honour of the site, e.g. Chidambaramahatmya, as well as of a deity, such as the Devi Mahatmya.
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Tamil legendary poetic narrative of the life of the 63 Shaiva saints (nayanmars) compiled in the 12th century by Sekkilar.
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The most famous of the Puranas. The most important sections are those dealing with the life of Krishna, i.e. Bhagavata, from his birth to his death.
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Date: First half of the 16th century
Description: A sequence of scenes has disappeared. The narrative resumes when Indra in his divine form appears before Arjuna and encourages him to propitiate Shiva in order to obtain the magic weapon…
One of the two great Sanskrit epics of India, possibly the world’s longest poem. The core story narrates the rivalry between two related families. In the course of time, mythology, ethics, theology, folk tales and philosophic passages were added to it.
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One of the two great Sanskrit epics of India, the other being the Mahabharata. In its present form the epic consists of disparate elements, including romantic stories, myths, legends and vague historical information.
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