1st Edition

Pilgrimage and Politics in Colonial Bengal The Myth of the Goddess Sati

By Imma Ramos Copyright 2017
    138 Pages 10 Color & 28 B/W Illustrations
    by Routledge

    138 Pages 10 Color & 28 B/W Illustrations
    by Routledge

    138 Pages 10 Color & 28 B/W Illustrations
    by Routledge

    From the late nineteenth century onwards the concept of Mother India assumed political significance in colonial Bengal. Reacting against British rule, Bengali writers and artists gendered the nation in literature and visual culture in order to inspire patriotism amongst the indigenous population. This book will examine the process by which the Hindu goddess Sati rose to sudden prominence as a personification of the subcontinent and an icon of heroic self-sacrifice. According to a myth of cosmic dismemberment, Sati’s body parts were scattered across South Asia and enshrined as Shakti Pithas, or Seats of Power. These sacred sites were re-imagined as the fragmented body of the motherland in crisis that could provide the basis for an emergent territorial consciousness. The most potent sites were located in eastern India, Kalighat and Tarapith in Bengal, and Kamakhya in Assam. By examining Bengali and colonial responses to these temples and the ritual traditions associated with them, including Tantra and image worship, this book will provide the first comprehensive study of this ancient network of pilgrimage sites in an art historical and political context.

    Contents





    Introduction



    A myth of dismemberment



    Sati and her rise as a patriotic icon



    The formation of Hindu identity: From cultural to revolutionary nationalism



    Layout of the book





    Chapter One



    Kalighat souvenirs and the creation of Sati’s iconography



    Sati’s place in the visual rhetoric of motherland



    Sati’s portrayal in Kalighat pilgrimage souvenirs



    The invocation and reinvention of Sati



    The romanticisation of martyrdom



    Subverting Christian iconography



    Shiva, asceticism and Bengali masculinity



    Sati, suttee and the story of Padmini



    The enduring power of Sati





    Chapter Two



    Kamakhya’s erotic-apotropaic potency and the forging of sacred geography



    Martial and maternal: Kamakhya’s sculptures



    The promotion of fertility and protection: Kamakhya’s female archers



    Subversive sexuality: The reception of Kamakhya during the colonial period



    Colonial mapping versus sacred geography



    Bengal’s love affair with Kamakhya: Pilgrimage as a nationalist device





    Chapter Three



    Tantra’s revolutionary potential: Tarapith and Bamakhepa’s visualisation of Tara



    Understanding Tara



    Understanding Tantric ritual through Tara



    Bamakhepa, Tantra and revolutionary potential



    Terrifying and benevolent: Visions of Tara



    The sweetening of death





    Chapter Four



    Contesting the colonial gaze: Image worship debates in nineteenth-century Bengal



    Murtipuja, darshan and rituals of consecration



    Ram Mohan Roy and the Brahmo Samaj movement



    ‘Inconsistent with the moral order of the universe’: The Reverend Hastie’s views on murtipuja



    The backlash: Bengali responses to Hastie



    The Saligram idol case: Murti and artefact



    The Attahas and Khirogram Pithas: The charisma of antique murtis





    Conclusion





    Epilogue



    Reviving Sati’s corpse: Mother India tours and Hindutva in the twenty-first century





    Bibliography

    Biography

    Imma Ramos is curator of the South Asia collections at the British Museum in London. Her research interests revolve around the relationship between religion, politics and gender in South Asian visual culture.