Ritual Art Of India

The splendour and diversity of India’s ritual arts are incomparable. The great gods and goddesses of India - ´siva and Krishna, Durga- and Lakshmi- and the countless local deities and forces worshipped in the countryside all have their own icons and symbols, their ceremonies and rites. Each thing that is offered, each object used for ritual, must be the finest and purest of its kind. Forms and colours are not arbitrary, but a distillation or concentration of meaning. From village wall-paintings and wayside shrines to classical icons with their complex and sophisticated iconography Ajit Mookerjee shows that the ritual art of India has deep historical roots, but also that it is, above all, a living tradition with a single, vital purpose - to harmonize self and universe. In thematic chapters Ritual Art of India conveys the meaning and the visual riches of the country’s worship.