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Summary Of Diana Eck's 'Seeing The Divine Image In India'

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Summary Of Diana Eck's 'Seeing The Divine Image In India'
Art History Final Essay
May 1st, 2014
In the novel Seeing the Divine Image in India, Diana Eck’s interpretation of Darśan and the spirituality of Hinduism are quite extensive. Hinduism is a religion of great depth with many layers of symbolism, which are not always apparent to those who are unfamiliar with the religion. Hinduism places a lot of emphasis on the connection between nature and our five senses. A main part of Hinduism’s religious rituals is seeing one of the deities known as Darśan. It is important to be seen by deity and to see them.
Darśan in the novel is directly defined as “seeing” and in the Hindu tradition there is a main focus on religious seeing or visual perception of the sacred. When Hindus make a pilgrimage to
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Darśan involves more than just seeing the deity but worshippers receive Darśan from the locations they have occurred. Some worshippers walk or take transportation to where Darśan is held. Some locations are at the peak of Himalayas, the river of Ganga, or mystical places that have an association with gods and goddesses. Worshippers receive Darśan from spiritual people for example when Mahatma Gandhi travels through India people will stop to take his Darśan. Hindu worshippers have devoted themselves to the deity and fulfill their obligations by taking …show more content…
Iconography is literally using images to write visual texts before films and photography-entered media. Visual texts require more interpretation when being deciphered and this process provides more insight to the religion. The benefits of photography and film are that the images can be mass-produced and understood across the world. Many people can understand the wonders of Hinduism in a universal way.
01524000An interesting artwork that is in the Metropolitan Museum of Art is called Shiva as Lord of Dance. This artwork is from during the Chola period, 11th century and has a green copper color. The physical appearance of this art piece is the god Shiva has four extended arms and is surrounded by a symmetrical ring. The dimensions of the artwork are about 2 feet by 2

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