Un fer de lance sanskrit en pays tamoul : vēl et polysémie iconique

Abstract

This article brings to light the participation of Visual tradition to the enrichment of the semantic range of two terms. One is Tamil, vēl, the other Sanskrit, śakti. Both are used to designate the attribute of the emblematic divinity of southern India, Skanda-Murukaṉ. Understood as a kind of "spear", vēl and śakti are represented as a lightning in the sculptural tradition that has appeared in the 8th century in South India. In the world of texts, the meaning of lightning appears distinctly in the iconographic texts written in Sanskrit. What about Tamil literature? It is here proposed that the lightning is also alluded to in texts of the most ancient Tamil literature (Caṅkam). Taking into account the iconographic data allows to consider the polysemy of a Tamil term and locate the neosemantism induced by the rivalry between three deities, Indra, Śiva and Skanda-Murukaṉ, as well as by the encounter of two literary traditions.

Keywords

• Murukaṉ
• Skanda
• neosemantism
• iconography
• Hinduism