Devotional Visualities

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.

• List of IllustrationsList of ContributorsIntroduction: Looking Again at Devotion, Karen Pechilis (Drew University, USA) and Amy-Ruth Holt (independent scholar, USA)Part I: Materializing Memory1. 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 Portraits5. 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 Look10. 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

The content of the essays is quite sophisticated and offers nicely nuanced explorations of the visual component of bhakti. Scholars of Hinduism and the visual arts will appreciate this volume.