Performance, Procession, and Place: The Production of Sacredness During the Uthra Śīvēli Festival at Śrī Vallabha Temple, Kerala

Abstract This study examines the dynamics of embodiment, spatiality, and sacredness during the Uthra Śīvēli festival at Śrī Vallabha Temple, Kerala. Employing a multidisciplinary approach that integrates ethnographic fieldwork and theoretical analysis, it explores how rituals, processions, and performances create sacred spaces, transforming the urban landscape of Thiruvalla into a ‘religioscape’. The essay argues that the embodied interactions among devotees, deities, and spaces during the festival challenge existing binaries—corporeal versus spiritual, material versus nonmaterial, sacred versus profane—positioning the body as a site and medium of religious devotion and transformation. In doing so, the Uthra Śīvēli festival in Thiruvalla provides insight into the corporeal and spatial dimensions of Hindu devotional practices in contemporary Kerala.