Temples and Worship in South Asia

Six paintings and 13 photographs illuminate contrasting approaches of depicting sacred Hindu sites. Indian artists, who created paintings for Indian viewers, emphasized the devotee’s intimate interaction with the divinity. Conspicuous are the offerings intended to please the living deity believed to reside in an object of worship, either in human or nonhuman form.   

When early British photographers documented Hindu temples in the mid-1800s, they focused on creating a visual record of impressive premodern architectural achievements, avoiding traces of devotional activity. Contemporary photographers, on the other hand, emphasized the bustling interiors in scenes that evoke an overwhelming multisensory experience. The colonial and contemporary photographs invite reflection on how non-Indians interacted with Hindu temples and projected their images to non-Indian audiences.