Lives of Indian Images

by Davis, Richard H.

• ISBN13: 9780691005201
• ISBN10: 0691005206
• Format: Paperback
• Copyright: 1999-04-12
• Publisher: Princeton Univ Pr

Summary

For many centuries, Hindus have taken it for granted that the religious images they place in temples and home shrines for purposes of worship are alive. Hindu priests bring them to life through a complex ritual "establishment" that invokes the god or goddess into material support. Priests and devotees then maintain the enlivened image as a divine person through ongoing liturgical activity: they must awaken it in the morning, bathe it, dress it, feed it, entertain it, praise it, and eventually put it to bed at night. In this linked series of case studies of Hindu religious objects, Richard Davis argues that in some sense these believers are correct: through ongoing interactions with humans, religious objects are brought to life. Davis draws largely on reader-response literary theory and anthropological approaches to the study of objects in society in order to trace the biographies of Indian religious images over many centuries. He shows that Hindu priests and worshipers are not the only ones to enliven images. Bringing with them differing religious assumptions, political agendas, and economic motivations, others may animate the very same objects as icons of sovereignty, as polytheistic "idols," as "devils," as potentially lucrative commodities, as objects of sculptural art, or as symbols for a whole range of new meanings never foreseen by the images' makers or original worshipers.

Author Biography

Richard H. Davis is Associate Professor of Religious Studies at Yale University

Table of Contents

List of Illustrations	ix
Acknowledgments	xi
Translation and Transliteration	xv
Abbreviations	xvii
Introduction	3	(12)
Living Images	15	(36)
Trophies of War	51	(37)
Images Overthrown	88	(25)
Visnu's Miraculous Returns	113	(30)
Indian Images Collected	143	(43)
Reconstructions of Somanatha	186	(36)
Loss and Recovery of Ritual Self	222	(43)
Conclusion: Identities and Manifestations	261	(4)
Notes	265	(28)
Bibliography	293	(24)
Bibliographic Appendix	317	(2)
Index	319