Lives of Indian Images

Richard H. Davis

Published by Princeton University Press 1997

Lives of Indian Images

Richard H. Davis

https://doi.org/10.1515/9781400844425

Overview
Contents

About this book

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 / Editor information

Richard H. Davis is Associate Professor of Religious Studies at Yale University. His previous publications include Ritual in an Oscillating Universe: Worshiping Śiva in Medieval India (Princeton).

Reviews

"This book offers a new way of discussing images in Indian history that goes beyond the formal analysis of traditional art history."

"Winner of the 1999 Ananda Kentish Coomaraswamy Book Prize, South Asia Council of the Association of Asian Studies"

"Davis writes with an elegance not common in scholarly books."

"Davis masterfully explores the intersections among possible frames for understanding Indian images.... Essential reading not only for anyone interested in the ways in which cultural interactions have changed over the centuries."

"This is the best kind of scholarly book: literate, not without a sense of humor, genuinely informative, pertinent and consequential, and accessible yet highly erudite. A triumph."

"Richard Davis has again produced a book that is rich with many layers of meaning and beauty, a book that causes the reader to give pause to previous notions about Indian art and the ways in which we view it.... This is a book that could only have been created with vigorous, meticulous research and the pulling together of sources not ordinarily converging in one study."

Topics

Frontmatter Publicly Available Download PDF	i
Contents Publicly Available Download PDF	vii
Illustrations Publicly Available Download PDF	ix
Acknowledgments Publicly Available Download PDF	xi
Translation and Transliteration Publicly Available Download PDF	xv
Abbreviations Publicly Available Download PDF	xvii
Introduction Requires Authentication Unlicensed Licensed Download PDF	3
1. Living Images Requires Authentication Unlicensed Licensed Download PDF	15
2. Trophies of War Requires Authentication Unlicensed Licensed Download PDF	51
3. Images Overthrown Requires Authentication Unlicensed Licensed Download PDF	88
4. Visnu's Miraculous Returns Requires Authentication Unlicensed Licensed Download PDF	113
5. Indian Images Collected Requires Authentication Unlicensed Licensed Download PDF	143
6. Reconstructions of Somanatha Requires Authentication Unlicensed Licensed Download PDF	186
7. Loss and Recovery of Ritual Self Requires Authentication Unlicensed Licensed Download PDF	222
Conclusion: Identities and Manifestations Requires Authentication Unlicensed Licensed Download PDF	261
Notes Requires Authentication Unlicensed Licensed Download PDF	265
Bibliography Requires Authentication Unlicensed Licensed Download PDF	293
Bibliographic Appendix Requires Authentication Unlicensed Licensed Download PDF	317
Index Requires Authentication Unlicensed Licensed Download PDF	319

Language: English
Publisher: Princeton University Press
Audience: Professional and scholarly;College/higher education;
Pages
- Main content: 352
Illustrations
- Other: 50 halftones
Keywords: Abraham; Alpers; Svetlana; art market; Bahmani Sultanate; Banks; Joseph; Bonaventure; biography; British Museum; cultural property; Delhi Sultanate; dispensation; Esalam bronzes; Everest Art Gallery; Festival of India; Gangas of Orissa; Gandhi; Rajiv; Hedges; William; Hussain; G. Magbool; idols; Jayalalitha; Kampana; Kampili kingdom; labels; Mecca; Mughals; navakalevara; Place; Lionel; Sambandhar; Skelton; Robert; taxonomic shift; temple Hinduism; Tirupati

eBook

Published: July 21, 2020
ISBN: 9781400844425