RT Article
T1 The Hindu pañcāyatanapūjā in the aniconism spectrum
JF Religion
VO 47
IS 3
SP 503
OP 519
A1 Aktor, Mikael 1949-
LA English
PB Routledge, Taylor & Francis Group
YR 2017
UL https://www.ixtheo.de/Record/1639462678
AB The Hindu pañcāyatanapūjā is the worship of five deities that can be in the form of five stones collected from various locations in South Asia. Each of these stones has visual properties which form points of reference to the iconography of the same gods’ anthropomorphic forms. And although the ritual use of these five stones is a clear example of an aniconic cult, their worship evokes anthropopathic properties and, depending on the specific context, anthropomorphic visual characteristics. These visual links and ritual movements between the aniconic, the anthropopathic, and the anthropomorphic are examples of a general fluidity that is characteristic of much of the material that has been described as ‘aniconic.’ Different categories of aniconic religious objects are therefore best understood within a spectrum that encompasses aniconic and figural, as well as theriomorphic and anthropomorphic, properties. The article attempts to situate aniconism within such a wider spectrum of representational options.
K1 Aniconism
K1 Anthropomorphism
K1 Hinduism
K1 iconism
K1 Material Religion
K1 Smārtism
K1 visual religion
DO 10.1080/0048721X.2017.1312740