Lives of Indian ImagesPrinceton University Press, 2.5.1999 - 331 sivua 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. |
Kirjan sisältä
Tulokset 1 - 5 kokonaismäärästä 52
... miraculous incarnations by which we encounter the thoughts and words of authors distant in time and place . I am particularly indebted to the library at Yale University , and to the wonderful superlibrary brought into xii ACKNOWLEDGMENTS.
Richard H. Davis. Yale University , and to the wonderful superlibrary brought into being through Inter - Library Loan . This book is dedicated to Matthew Davis , who wonders why his father has been working on just one book during the ...
... brought this long - buried piece of sandstone to the surface . Maulavi hoped to appropriate his find for household use as a grinding stone , but as he began to scrape and dig away the dirt , he discovered that the block was in fact the ...
... brought to the notice of any but the Police , who , however , reported it in due course in the proper quarter " ( Spooner 1919 : 107 ) . Unfortunately Spooner did not ask the local worshipers with just which Hindu deity they identified ...
Valitettavasti tämän sivun sisältö on rajoitettu.
Sisältö
Living Images | 15 |
Trophies of War | 51 |
Images Overthrown | 88 |
Visnus Miraculous Returns | 113 |
Indian Images Collected | 143 |
Reconstructions of Somanatha | 186 |
Loss and Recovery of Ritual Self | 222 |
Identities and Manifestations | 261 |
Notes | 265 |
Bibliography | 293 |
Bibliographic Appendix | 317 |
319 | |