Devotional Visualities
Seeing Bhakti in Indic Material Cultures
1st Edition
Published on 19. October 2023
336 pages
978-1-350-21419-4 (ISBN)
Description
This book is the first to focus on material visualities of bhakti imagery that inspire, shape, convey, and expand both the visual practices of devotional communities, as well as possibilities for extending the reach of devotion in society in new and often unexpected ways. Communities of interpreters of bhakti images discussed in this book include not only a number of distinctive Hindu bhakti groups, but also artisans, diaspora women, South Asian Sufis, businessmen, dancers, and filmmakers.
This book's identification of devotional practices of looking, such as materializing memory, mirroring and immaterializing portraits, and shaping the return look, connect material and visual cultures as well as illustrate modes of established and experimental image usage.
Bhakti is one of the most-studied aspects of Indic devotionalism on account of its expression through emotive poetry, song, and vivid hagiographies of saints. The diverse devotional visualities analyzed in this book meaningfully circulate bhakti images in past and present, generating their renewed relationship to contemporary concerns.
This book's identification of devotional practices of looking, such as materializing memory, mirroring and immaterializing portraits, and shaping the return look, connect material and visual cultures as well as illustrate modes of established and experimental image usage.
Bhakti is one of the most-studied aspects of Indic devotionalism on account of its expression through emotive poetry, song, and vivid hagiographies of saints. The diverse devotional visualities analyzed in this book meaningfully circulate bhakti images in past and present, generating their renewed relationship to contemporary concerns.
More details
Series
Edition
1. Auflage
Language
English
Place of publication
London
United Kingdom
Publishing group
Bloomsbury Publishing PLC
Target group
College/higher education
Illustrations
70 bw illus
File size
39,45 MB
ISBN-13
978-1-350-21419-4 (9781350214194)
Copyright in bibliographic data and cover images is held by Nielsen Book Services Limited or by the publishers or by their respective licensors: all rights reserved.
Schweitzer Classification
Other editions
Additional editions
Book
07/2025
Bloomsbury Academic
€45.20
Shipment within 15-20 days
Book
10/2023
Bloomsbury Academic
€117.80
Shipment within 15-20 days
Persons
Karen Pechilis is Distinguished Professor of Humanities and Professor of History of Religions at Drew University, USA. She is General Editor of A Cultural History of Hinduism (Bloomsbury, Forthcoming).
Amy-Ruth Holt is an independent scholar who holds a Ph.D. in South Asian art history from The Ohio State University, USA.
Amy-Ruth Holt is an independent scholar who holds a Ph.D. in South Asian art history from The Ohio State University, USA.
Content
List of Illustrations
List of Contributors
Introduction: Looking Again at Devotion, Karen Pechilis (Drew University, USA) and Amy-Ruth Holt (independent scholar, USA)
Part I: Materializing Memory
1. The Beginnings of Mass-Produced Devotional Prints in Calcutta, Richard H. Davis (Bard College, USA)
2. Expanding Meanings of Bhakti in Bengali American Home Shrines, Ashlee Norene Andrews (University of North Carolina-Greensboro, USA)
3. Merchant Patronage and Royal Hanumans: A Modern Devotional Visuality, R. Jeremy Saul (Mahidol University, Thailand)
4. Evolving Material Authority: Devotion, History, and the Svaminarayana Museum, Shruti Patel (Salisbury University, USA)
Part II: Mirroring and Immaterializing Portraits
5. Kabir in Indo-Muslim Visual and Literary Culture, Murad Khan Mumtaz (Williams College, USA)
6. The Devotional Role of Paintings and Photographs in the Pushti Marga, Shandip Saha (Athabascau University, Canada)
7. The Iconic Surdas, John Stratton Hawley (Barnard College, Columbia University, USA)
8. The Visual Multiplicity and Materiality of Guru Nityananda's Portraits, Amy-Ruth Holt (independent scholar, USA)
9. Darsan in Twelve Ways: Portraying the Divine in Early Svaminarayana Art, Ankur Desai (The Kansas City Art Institute, USA)
Part III: Shaping the Return Look
10. Bhakti and Looking at What We Do Not Want to See, Karen Pechilis (Drew University, USA)
11. Mira's Iconography: From Miniature to Movie, Heidi Pauwels (University of Washington, USA)
Index
List of Contributors
Introduction: Looking Again at Devotion, Karen Pechilis (Drew University, USA) and Amy-Ruth Holt (independent scholar, USA)
Part I: Materializing Memory
1. The Beginnings of Mass-Produced Devotional Prints in Calcutta, Richard H. Davis (Bard College, USA)
2. Expanding Meanings of Bhakti in Bengali American Home Shrines, Ashlee Norene Andrews (University of North Carolina-Greensboro, USA)
3. Merchant Patronage and Royal Hanumans: A Modern Devotional Visuality, R. Jeremy Saul (Mahidol University, Thailand)
4. Evolving Material Authority: Devotion, History, and the Svaminarayana Museum, Shruti Patel (Salisbury University, USA)
Part II: Mirroring and Immaterializing Portraits
5. Kabir in Indo-Muslim Visual and Literary Culture, Murad Khan Mumtaz (Williams College, USA)
6. The Devotional Role of Paintings and Photographs in the Pushti Marga, Shandip Saha (Athabascau University, Canada)
7. The Iconic Surdas, John Stratton Hawley (Barnard College, Columbia University, USA)
8. The Visual Multiplicity and Materiality of Guru Nityananda's Portraits, Amy-Ruth Holt (independent scholar, USA)
9. Darsan in Twelve Ways: Portraying the Divine in Early Svaminarayana Art, Ankur Desai (The Kansas City Art Institute, USA)
Part III: Shaping the Return Look
10. Bhakti and Looking at What We Do Not Want to See, Karen Pechilis (Drew University, USA)
11. Mira's Iconography: From Miniature to Movie, Heidi Pauwels (University of Washington, USA)
Index
