Lives of Indian Images

The 1999 Ananda Kentish Coomaraswamy book prize, South Asia Council of the Association of Asian Studies. This book presents a new way to discuss images in Indian history. It goes beyond the traditional analysis of art history. Choice It is a triumph. –The Times Higher Education Supplement “Davis writes with an elegance that is rare in scholarly books.” Journal of Asian Studies “Davis expertly explores the intersections between possible frames for understanding Indian imagery …. This book is essential reading for anyone who is interested in how cultural interactions have changed through the centuries. Review of Religious Studies “Richard Davis once again produces a book rich in meaning and beauty that causes the reader ….to pause about their previous ideas about Indian art and how we view it. This book could only have been made with meticulous, thorough research and the gathering of information not normally found in one study. Critical Review of Books in Religion
Hindus have assumed for centuries that religious images placed in their temples or home shrines to worship are real. Through a complex ritual, Hindu priests bring the images to life. This involves invoking the god or goddess for material support. The priests and devotees maintain their enlivened image of a divine person by continuing liturgical activity. They must wake it up in the morning, wash it, dress it and feed it. Finally, they must put it to sleep at night. Richard Davis, in this series of case studies on Hindu religious objects, argues that these believers may be correct in a sense: religious objects can come to life through their interactions with people. Davis uses reader-response literary theories and anthropological approaches for studying objects in society to trace the history of Indian religious images across many centuries. He shows that images are not only enlivened by Hindu priests and worshipers. Others may bring with them different religious assumptions, political agendas and economic motivations. They could animate the same objects as icons or sovereignty, or even as “devils”, or objects of sculptural arts, or symbols for new meanings that were not anticipated by their original worshipers.