A one credit Course on HSO-155: Woman, Goddess, Power: India’s Image of the Feminine By Professor Vidya Dehejia
-
GOA UNIVERSITY
Visiting Research Professors Programme
Mario Miranda Chair in Fine Art/Painting/Illustrative Cartooning etc., Goa University
and
Department of History, Goa University
Course on
HSO-155: Woman, Goddess, Power: India’s Image of the Feminine
Credit: 01 Credit (15 contact hours; 25 marks)
By
Professor Vidya Dehejia,
Participants: Any student at the Goa University is welcome to register. Course is open and free for students & general public, but registration is compulsory.
- Students at Goa University who would like to earn credit are requested to go through the syllabus, teaching and evaluation details.
- Participation certificate will be issued to all those who maintain minimum75% attendance for the course.
- Venue- Seminar Hall, Social Science Faculty Block B, Goa University.
- Duration of the Course: From 20.02.2017 to 01.03.2017.
Click here for ONLINE REGISTRATION
Sr. No
Date and time of session
Theme and Readings
1
Monday, 20 February 2017 2.30 pm to 4.30 pm
INTRODUCTION
Aspects of Female Imagery: The exhibition “Devi: The Great Goddess. Female Divinity in South Asian Art”.
Readings
Vidya Dehejia ed. Devi: The Great Goddess. Female Divinity in South Asian Art, Washington DC, 1999.
Annapurna Garimella, “Engendering Indian Art,” in Dehejia ed. Representing the Body:
Gender Studies in Indian Art, 1997
Gayatri Sinha ed. Woman/Goddess, 1999.
2
Tuesday, 21 February 2017
2.30 pm to 4.30 pm
Part I: WOMAN, FERTILITY & THE AUSPICIOUS
The Sensuous Woman and the Auspicious Couple in early Buddhist Art
Readings
TapatiGuha-Thakurta, “For the Greater Glory of Indian Art: Travels and Travails of a Yakshi,” in Monuments, Objects, Histories, New York, 2004
Vidya Dehejia, Chs. 1 “The Body as Leitmotif,” & Ch 2 “The Idealized Body & Ornament,” in The Body Adorned: Dissolving Boundaries between the Sacred and the Profane, Mapin Publications, 2009.
Susan Murcott, The First Buddhist Women. Translations and Commentary on the
Therigatha, 1991
Joanna Williams, “The Construction of Gender in the Paintings and Graffiti of Sigiriya”
in Dehejia ed. Representing the Body: Gender Studies in Indian Art, 1997
3
Wednesday, 22 February 2017
2.30 pm to 4.30 pm
The Sensuous Woman and the Auspicious Couple in Hindu & Jain contexts
Readings
Vidya Dehejia, Ch. 3 “The Sensuous within Sacred Boundaries,” in manuscript of The Body Adorned: Dissolving Boundaries between the Sacred and the Profane, 2009.
Wendy Doniger and SudhirKakar tr. Kamasutra, 2002
Daud Ali, Ch. 6 “Courtship and the Royal Household” & Ch. 7 “The Anxiety of
Attachment” in his Courtly Culture and Political Life in Early Medieval India
Cambridge, 2004.
4
Thursday, 23 February 2017
2.30 pm to 4.30 pm
Erotic Imagery of Khajuraho and Konarak
Readings
Michael Meister, “Juncture and Conjunction: Punning and Temple Architecture,” ArtibusAsiae, 1979
Devangana Desai, “Puns and Enigmatic Language in Sculpture,” in her The Religious
Imagery of Khajuraho, 1996
Vidya Dehejia, “Reading Love Imagery on the Indian Temple,” in Love in Asian Art &
Culture, 1998
TapatiGuha-Thakurta, “Art History and the Nude: Art, Obscenity and Sexuality in
Contemporary India,” in Monuments, Objects, Histories, New York, 2004
&
The Nayika in Indian Painting
Readings
Annapurna Garimella, “A Handmaid’s Tale: Sakhis, Love, Devotion, and Poetry in RajputPainting,” in Love in Asian Art & Culture, 1998
Molly Aitken, “Pardah and Portrayal: Rajput Woman as Subjects, Patrons, and
Collectors,” ArtibusAsiae, 2002.
Vidya Dehejia, Ch. 5 “Inserting the Gods into the World of Men,” inThe Body Adorned: Dissolving Boundaries between the Sacred and the Profane, Mapin, 2009
5
Monday, 27 February 2017
2.30 pm to 4.30 pm
Part II: THE GODDESS & HER MANIFESTATIONS
Does the Goddess imply female empowerment?
Radha, Lakshmi, Saraswati
Readings
Alf Hiltebeitel& Kathleen Erndleds. Is the Goddess a Feminist: the politics of South Asian goddesses, 2000. (Read especially chapters by Kathleen Erndl, Rita Gross, Cynthia Humes, UshaMenon& Richard Shweder, and Stanley Kurtz), New York, 2000.
Vidya Dehejia ed. Devi: The Great Goddess. Female Divinity in South Asian Art,
Washington DC, 1999.
David Kinsley, Hindu Goddesses: Visions of the Divine Feminine in the Hindu Religious
Traditions, 1986
John Stratton Hawley and Donna Wulff, Devi: Goddesses of India, Berkeley,1996
TapatiGuhaThakurta, “Clothing the Goddess: The Modern Contest over Representations of Devi,” in Vidya Dehejia ed. Devi: The Great Goddess. Female Divinity in South Asian Art, Washington DC, 1999.
6
Thursday, 28 February 2017
2.30 pm to 4.30 pm
Shaivite goddesses: Uma-Parvati, Durga-Kali, and Ardhanari
&
Goddess as Consort
Readings
Vidya Dehejia, Ch. 4 “To the Divine Through Beauty” in The Body Adorned: Dissolving Boundaries between the Sacred and the Profane, Mapin, 2009.
Thomas Coburn, Encountering the Goddess: A Translation of the Devi-Mahatmyam
Albany, 1991
Ellen Goldberg, The Lord who is Half Woman. Ardhanarisvara in Indian and Feminist
Perspective, 2002.
7
Wednesday, 01 March 2017
2.30 pm to 4.30 pm
Class 7
Tantric Temples of the Yoginis
Readings
Vidya Dehejia, Yogini Temples of India: A Tantric Tradition, New Delhi 1986
For details and ONLINE REGISTRATION: www.unigoa.ac.in/vrpp
Course Coordinator- Parag D. Parobo, Assistant Professor, Dept of History.
Ramrao Wagh, Professor Pratima Kamat,
VRPP Coordinator ( [email protected]) Head, Dept of History
Vidya Dehejia: Biography
Vidya Dehejia is the Barbara Stoler Miller Professor of Indian Art at Columbia University, where she has taught since 1982. She holds a BA, an MA, and a PhD from Cambridge University and a BA from St. Xavier’s College, Bombay University. She is the author of many books, catalogs and essays on topics in the cultural and intellectual history of India. In addition to issues of gender and colonialism, she studies the theoretical basis for the portrayal of visual narratives of India’s sculpture and painting. Her background in classical Sanskrit and Tamil, and knowledge of a range of modern Indian languages has proved invaluable. Her writings have incorporated translations of ancient poetry, and material from unpublished manuscripts, in order to illuminate an artistic milieu. Her subjects have ranged from Buddhist art in its earliest centuries to the esoteric temples of North India and from the sacred bronzes of the south to the art of British India. Her work examines artistic agency through a study of craftsmen, workshops, teams, stone, and tools.
Professor Dehejia served as the director for the Southern Asian Institute at Columbia University from 2003 to 2008. From 1994 to 2002 she was acting director, deputy director, chief curator, and curator of south and southeast Asian art at the Freer Gallery of Art and Arthur M. Sackler Gallery, Smithsonian Institution. She was on the faculty of the School of Planning and Architecture, New Delhi, from 1973 to 1979. Professor Dehejia has received several awards and honours, including the Padma Bhushan Award for exceptional contributions to art and education (2012), a National Endowment for the Humanities Fellowship (2009 – 2012), a Guggenheim Fellowship (1990 – 1991), and the Hettleman Award from Columbia University (1990). She was a member of the Board of Advisors of the Center for Advanced Study in the Visual Arts, National Gallery of Art (1997 – 2000).
Publications [Books]
Vidya Dehejia & Peter Rockwell, The Unfinished: Stone Carvers at Work on the Indian Subcontinent, New Delhi: Roli Books, 2015
The Body Adorned: Dissolving Boundaries between Sacred and Profane in India’s Art, New York: Columbia University Press, 2009.
Delight in Design: Indian Silver for the Raj, Ahmedabad: Mapin Publications, 2008.
Chola. Sacred Bronzes of Southern India. London: Royal Academy of Arts, 2006. Catalogue essay “Beauty and the Body of God,” and all Catalogue entries.
The Sensuous and the Sacred: Chola Bronzes from South India, New York: The American Federation of Arts, 2002.
India through the Lens: Photography 1840–1911, Washington D.C., Ahmedabad, Cologne: Freer Gallery of Art and Arthur M. Sackler Gallery, Mapin Publishing, Prestel Verlag, 2000.
Devi, The Great Goddess: Female Divinity in South Asian Art, Washington D.C., Ahmedabad, Cologne: Arthur M. Sackler Gallery, Mapin Publishing, Prestel Verlag, 1999.
Love in Asian Art and Culture (Asian Art and Culture Unnumbered), Sackler Art Gallery, 1999.
Indian Art. Art and Ideas. London: Phaidon, 1997, 1998, 2000, 2002. Japanese and Greek editions
issued; French and German editions forthcoming.Ed. Representing the Body: Gender Issues in Indian Art. New Delhi: Kali for Women, 1997.
Discourse in Early Buddhist Art: Visual Narratives of India. New Delhi: Munshiram Manoharlal Publishers, 1997.
Ed. Unseen Presence: The Buddha and Sanchi, Bombay: Marg Publications, 1996.
Ed. The Legend of Rama: Artistic Visions, Bombay: Marg Publications, 1994.
Art of the Imperial Cholas. (The Polsky lectures for 1987). New York: Columbia University Press, 1990.
Antal and her Path of Love: Poems of a Woman Saint from South India. Albany: SUNY Press, 1990.
Slaves of the Lord: The Path of the Tamil Saints. New Delhi: Munshiram Manoharlal, 1988.
Ed. Royal Patrons and Great Temple Art. Bombay: Marg Publications, 1988.
“Impossible Picturesqueness.” Edward Lear’s Indian Watercolors. 1873–1875. New York:
Columbia University Press, 1988.Yogini Cult and Temples. A Tantric Tradition. New Delhi: The National Museum, 1986.
With Pratapaditya Pal. From Merchants to Emperors: British Artists and India 1757–1930. Ithaca, New York: Cornell University Press, 1986.
Early Stone Temples of Orissa. Durham, North Carolina: Carolina Academic Press, 1979.
Looking Again at Indian Art. New Delhi: Publications Division, Government of India, 1978.
Things of Beauty. New Delhi: Publications Division, Government of India, 1979. [A book on Indian art for children, to mark the International Year of the Child.]
Living and Dying: An Enquiry into the Enigma of Life after Death. New Delhi: Vikas Publishers, 1979.
Early Buddhist Rock Temples. London: Thames & Hudson, London, 1972.
Namakkal Caves. Madras: Tamil Nadu State Department of Archaeology, 1968.
Approved Syllabus
Goa University
Visiting Research Professorship Programme
HSO-155: Woman, Goddess, Power: India’s Image of the Feminine
Credit: 01 Credit (15 contact hours; 25 marks)
Course Instructor: Vidya Dehejia, Barbara Stoler Miller Professor of Indian and South Asian Art at Columbia University and Mario Miranda Visiting Research Professor, Goa University
Objectives: This richly illustrated Course explores the representation of the female figure in the artistic tradition of India, making use of literary extracts from the major texts of ancient India, verses from inscriptions, as well as selected modern writings. While inter-disciplinary in approach, the emphasis is on the visual material. No attempt will be made to survey the material across the ages; rather the seminar will focus on specific periods and topics chosen because they present challenges to the viewer-reader. Emphasizing that there is no single over-arching way of presenting female imagery in India, nor indeed a single way of understanding or explaining it, each body of visual material will be placed within its specific socio-economic, historical, religious, and artistic milieu.
- I. Introduction: Aspects of Female Imagery: The exhibition “Devi: The Great Goddess. Female Divinity in South Asian Art”.
- II. Part I: Woman, Fertility and the Auspicious
- III. Part II: The Goddess and Her Manifestations
- The Sensuous Woman and the Auspicious Couple in early Buddhist Art
- The Sensuous Woman and the Auspicious Couple in Hindu and Jain contexts
- Erotic Imagery of Khajuraho and Konarak; The Nayika in Indian Painting
- Does the Goddess imply female empowerment? Radha, Lakshmi, Saraswati
- Shaivite goddesses: Uma-Parvati, Durga-Kali, and Ardhanari and Goddess as Consort
- Tantric Temples of the Yoginis
Teaching and Evaluation: Students who have not taken formal classes in this material should acquire a basic level of familiarity with the artistic heritage of India by reading Vidya Dehejia’s Indian Art (Phaidon Press). Teaching will consist of a discussion during the contact hours of each of the readings. Participation in class discussion is strongly encouraged. Continuous evaluation: 10 marks (short one-two page statement and discussion on the readings on assigned themes), and written exam (15 marks) at the end of the course– students will be expected to prepare their answers to the questions handed out on the last day of class, and write them out in the classroom on the day of the exam.
Suggested Readings
1. Aitken, Molly. “Pardah and Portrayal: Rajput Woman as Subjects, Patrons, and Collectors”, Artibus Asiae, Vol. 62, No. 2 (2002): 247–280.
2. Ali, Daud. Courtly Culture and Political Life in Early Medieval India (New York: Cambridge University Press, 2004).
3. Coburn, Thomas. Encountering the Goddess: A Translation of the Devi-Mahatmyam (Albany, NY: State University of New York Press, 1991).
4. Dehejia, Vidya. Indian Art (London: Phaidon, 1997).
5. –––––––––––––––––. Yogini Cult and Temples. A Tantric Tradition (New Delhi: The National Museum, 1986).
6. –––––––––––––––––. The Body Adorned: Dissolving Boundaries between Sacred and Profane in India’s Art (New York: Columbia University Press, 2009).
7. –––––––––––––– (ed.). Devi: The Great Goddess. Female Divinity in South Asian Art (Washington, D.C.: Arthur M. Sackler Gallery, Smithsonian Institution in association with Mapin Publishing Ahmedabad, and Prestel Verlag, Munich, 1999).
8. –––––––––––––– (ed.). Representing the Body: Gender Studies in Indian Art (New Delhi: Kali for Women, 1997).
9. –––––––––––––– (et al.,). Love in Asian Art and Culture (Washington, D.C. : Arthur M. Sackler Gallery, Smithsonian Institution in association with the University of Washington Press, Seattle and London, 1998).
10. Desai, Devangana. The Religious Imagery of Khajuraho (Mumbai: Project for Indian Cultural Studies, 1996).
11. Doniger, Wendy and Sudhir Kakar (tr.). Kamasutra (Delhi: Oxford University Press, 2003).
12. Goldberg, Ellen. The Lord who is Half Woman. Ardhanarisvara in Indian and Feminist Perspective (Albany, NY: State University of New York Press, 2002).
13. Guha-Thakurta, Tapati. Monuments, Objects, Histories: Institutions of Art in Colonial and Postcolonial India (New York: Columbia University Press, 2004).
14. Hawley, John Stratton and Donna Wulff (eds.). Devi: Goddesses of India (Berkeley: University of California Press, 1996).
15. Hiltebeitel, Alf and Kathleen Erndl (eds.). Is the Goddess a Feminist?: The. Politics of South Asian Goddesses (Sheffield: Sheffield Academic Press, 2000).
16. Kinsley, David. Hindu Goddesses: Visions of the Divine Feminine in the Hindu Religious Traditions (Berkeley: University of California Press, 1986).
17. Meister, Michael. “Juncture and Conjunction: Punning and Temple Architecture”, Artibus Asiae, Vol. 41, No. 2/3 (1979): 226–235.
18. Murcott, Susan. The First Buddhist Women: Translations and Commentaries on the Therigatha (Berkeley: Parallax Press, 1991).
19. Sinha, Gayatri (ed.). Woman/Goddess: An Exhibition of Photographs (New Delhi: Multiple Action Research Group, 1999).