Kāñcīsthānamāhātmya: A Poetically Oriented Māhātmya Text

Abstract

Sthāna-māhātmya texts typically describe the glory of a holy place through a story involving gods and goddesses. Along the same lines, our text narrates a story of Lord Śiva and Goddess Pārvatī to describe the glory of Kāñcī. But, it does so in a pleasingly aesthetic manner, which is quite uncommon in texts of this genre. May it be the description of affectionate dealings between Śiva and Pārvatī, the description of the seasons, or even a general narration to further the story, it is done with a literary depth that betrays the author’s high poetic and scholarly acumen. Rasa, or aesthetic relish,which is central to a good poetic work, is effectively evoked in almost every description by the author. Such a dedicated focus on poetic depth is rarely seen in Sanskrit works of the māhātmya genre. This paper aims to elucidate the poetic orientation of this text.