The Realm of Gods
Throughout India, the divine may be venerated in simple roadside
shrines as often as in the huge temple complexes that have developed
over the past two thousand years. Much of premodern Indian art—sculptures
created for temple walls or home shrines, paintings produced for
ruling classes, or folk images created by villagers—focuses
on the plethora of gods and goddesses representing major theistic
cults and devotional practices that have evolved in the subcontinent.
From the fifteenth through the nineteenth century, the most popular
deities were Krishna and Rama, two incarnations of the Hindu god
Vishnu. In some regions, the Great Goddess (Devi) was also actively
worshiped. Most of the paintings seen in this section of the exhibition
were part of illustrated sets, depicting grand narratives or particular
themes. Nineteenth-century photographs of temple-related subjects
and select works of the Buddhist and Jain traditions provide a larger
context for the religious diversity of India.
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Ravana converses with a demon by the sea, Detail
Illustration to a dispersed Ramayana series
Kangra, Punjab Hills; ca. 1780
Opaque watercolor on paper
Metropolitan Museum of Art, New York, Gift of Cynthia Hazen Polsky
(MMA-1985.398.14)
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