Gods in the Bazaar: The Economies of Indian Calendar Art

449 Pages·2007·12.5 MB·English

by  Kajri Jain

Gods
GODS IN THE BAZAAR
in the Bazaar
OBJECTS/HISTORIES:
CriticalPerspectivesonArt,MaterialCulture,andRepresentation
AserieseditedbyNicholasThomas
PublishedwiththeassistanceoftheGettyFoundation.

©2007DukeUniversityPress
Allrightsreserved
PrintedinCanadaonacid-freepaper(cid:2)
DesignedbyHeatherHensley
TypesetinAdobeJensonProby
TsengInformationSystems,Inc.
CONTENTS
NotesonStyle vii
Acknowledgments ix
Introduction:CalendarArtasanObjectofKnowledge 1
Part1.Genealogy
1.VernacularizingCapitalism:SivakasiandItsCircuits 31
2.WhentheGodsGotoMarket 77
3.NaturalizingthePopular 115
Part2.Economy
4.TheSacredIconintheAgeoftheWorkofArtand
MechanicalReproduction 171
5.TheCirculationofImagesandtheEmbodimentofValue 217
Part3.Efficacy
6.TheEfficaciousImageandtheSacralizationofModernity 269
7.FlexingtheCanon 315
Conclusion 355
Notes 375
WorksCited 409
Index 427

NOTES ON STYLE
WhereverHindiwordsandtermsspecifictoSouthAsiaappearforthe
firsttime,Ieitherprovideabrieftranslationimmediatelyfollowingthe
word,or,wherealongerexplanationisrequired,inafootnote.
Transliterated spellings of Hindi words generally followaccepted
conventionswherevertheyexist(asinthecaseofbhava),whileothers
have been kept as simple as possible in order to provide an accurate
senseofthewaytheysound(asinshringarordarshan).
Inthecaptionsaccompanyingthefigures,titlesofimagesassigned
bypublishersareinitalics,whilemyowndescriptorsareinquotation
marks.Artists,publishers,anddatesareonlyspecifiedwhenknown.
Everyattempt has been made to locate and obtain permission from
copyrightholdersofimageswhereapplicable.Unlessspecifiedother-
wise,imagesarefromthecollectionoftheauthor.

ACKNOWLEDGMENTS
FirstIwanttothankmyteachersattheUniversityofSydney.Laleen
JayamanneandIsharedmanysessionsofwhatshecalls‘‘loosetalk,’’an
epithetthatbeliesherexampleoftightthinkingandbeautifulwriting.
Herinterventions(or,moreaccurately,thecontagionofherintensity,
whichisallthemorepowerfulforitsunobtrusiveregister)wereimpor-
tanttome.JohnClarkhasbeenunfailinglysupportiveandgenerous;
MickCarteralwaysreinjectedmythinkingwithdelight;andYaoSou-
chouprovidedthecritiqueandongoingengagementonlyagoodfriend
can.WithoutJulianPefanisandTerrySmithIdon’tthinkIwouldhave
embarkedonthisprojectatall.GyorgyMarkuswouldprobablybehor-
rified,butImustalsoacknowledgemydebttohislegendarycourseon
Germanaesthetics.
Another person without whom I would not have started any of
thisisShaliniPuri:sheandCarlosCañuelashavebeenconstant,af-
fectionate mentors and compañeros. As with them, merely to thank
PatriciaUberoiwouldbeatravesty:shehasbeenagodmothertothis
project,along-distanceguardianyakshiwatchingoveritfromDelhi.I
havealsobenefitedgreatlyfromthecommentsofmythesisexamin-
ers,JohnFrow,TapatiGuhaThakurta,andMichaelTaussig,aswellas
otherswhosharedtheirworkandideasortooktimetocommenton
mine:CanBilsel,ChristianeBrosius,RichardDavis,WhitneyDavis,
LauraDiamond,SandriaFreitag,JacquelineLichtenstein,PhilipLut-