RT Article
T1 Agency and Affectivity of Paintings: the lives of Chitrajis in Hindu ritual contexts
JF Material religion
VO 1
IS 2
SP 198
OP 227
A1 Taylor, Woodman
LA English
PB Taylor & Francis
YR 2005
UL https://ixtheo.de/Record/1667280619
AB Numerous roles given to prints, paintings, and photographs in contemporary Hindu religious practices can be traced to changes in the ritual status of paintings. By advocating an ontological shift to a purified non-dualism called shuddhadvaita, the sixteenth-century religious philosopher Vallabhacharya established a new Hindu community who subsequently developed their own elaborate traditions of ritual that allowed devotees to personally interact with live images of Krishna. Within this new ontology of purified non-dualism, paintings were given roles normally reserved in Hinduism for sculptural images of gods and goddesses. This developed into a tradition of caring for and worshiping paintings considered live gods called chitra seva. The "picture turn" created by chitra seva led to other roles being given to paintings, where they were not only allowed agency, but could manifest affective powers within the classical Indian rasa system of aesthetics applied by Vallabhacharya to religious experience.
DO 10.2752/174322005778054294