What did we discuss last week in terms of divinity ad aesthetics, using the example

of Jupiter?
Aesthetics was the way in which an idea was expressed to and through the senses
So the idea of Jupiter’s power was known or expressed through the image
Aesthetics then lay in the devotion that the image was able to instill
SO display was never the sole function of art
It had an instrumental purpose
And what was it about objects, materials things that made it the ideal type to evoke
devotion?
Now Durkheim while also answering this question, also allows us to address the
question of devotion
His study is primarily one of epistemology – where he enquires into ‘what lies at
the root of religious behavior?’
And he begins his enquire by looking at what aboriginals in Australia consider
sacred
Because he is following the evolutionary model according to which the aboriginals
represent the natural and earliest condition of human history
And he finds that there are particular objects that they consider sacred
Totems
And these totems are significant at three levels:
1) They are objects that bear the name of things one found in the environment
– the name of a species of animals, species of plant, the sun, the moon, the
name of a wind

2) These totems needed to be made – either paintings on a surface, or a carved

piece of wood – creative engagement
 3) And societies (clans) who considered these named-objects sacred were also
named after the species of animal or plant
So Durkheim deduced that people from a clan associated themselves with a kind of
animal or plant, and hence decided to name their collective after the name of the
animal or plant
But surprisingly, the animal or plant was not considered the totem – they were the
totem of the group (totemic) but not the totem itself
The totem was the object that bore the name of the animal/plant
So the totem was essentially a material representation of the animal/plant
So representation is the primary focus
It is the representation of the animal/plant through the object that is the totem
So the ‘crow’ is the totemic animal of the crow clan. So every individual crow is only
a totemic animal. It is the object, which then stands for all the crows, that becomes
the totem. And only that object is the totem.
So a totem should have the ability to represent all the totemic animals
And it is this ability that makes it the totem of a clan
So a totem is an object that ‘gathers’
It represents all the crows, and because of this ability to represent all the crows it
is considered sacred
So the totem ‘relates’ all the crows
it is a manifestation of the imaginary bonds between all totemic animals
Its sacredness lies in its power to contain these relationships
It gives visible, complete and coherent form to fragments that are scattered in
space
If members of a clan associated themselves with the spirit of a crow, this spirit was
scattered everywhere
when the spirit is scattered and fragmented, there is no person
The totem then puts these fragments together and renders a whole personhood
And it is only as complete persons that they can relate to one another as kin
And where was this relationship manifest?
Through the ritual celebration of the totem
The ritual celebration of the totem was not possible unless everyone who shared
the name of the totem was present
It was only through a collective gathering that the ritual of worshipping the totem
could be complete
And this leads Durkheim to conclude that totems are considered scared because it
is a context for expressing collective consciousness
So by enabling collective consciousness, totems enable societies
So totem is the emblem of a society, because its materiality is the result of
gathering or containing fragmented relations
This materiality of the totem is also the source of the materiality or the reality of
society – that society is real
An archive contains – it contains documents that are about the past
The archive creates imaginary relationships between these fragmented pasts by
calling them Indian pasts
So the archive is sacred because it has the power to contain the relationships that
shaped India’s past
The archive is sacred because it gives visible, complete and coherent form to the
fragments of India’s past
It pieces India’s past into a whole
So an archive is more than the sum of its documents because in containing these
documents, it creates something larger – a coherent past
This materiality of the archive is also the source of the materiality or reality of India
– that India is real and physical entity

So through his study of totems and totemic societies, Durkheim was commenting
on:
1) The relation of society to objects

2) How symbolism is mobilized to communicate man’s relation with the

environment and social order
And it is symbolism which lies at the center of religion
The phenomenon of being able to represent or stand for something other than
itself was what Durkheim identified as the prerequisite for religion
And Religion Durkheim claims entails
1) objectification (the totem representing the species),

2) communicative interaction (the kinship imagined between people belonging

to the same totem)

3) social creativity (the different practices associated with totemism – body art,
engravings)

So now let us turn to the question we asked at the beginning:

what was it about objects, materials things that made it the ideal type to evoke
devotion?
How can we answer this from Durkheim’s study of totems?
Devotion Durkheim claims is what makes collective consciousness visible
What about objects?
Yes, objects are ideal because they have the power to contain the sacred
But more importantly objects also provide the perfect condition for the sacred to
spread
How? How do objects allow the sacred to spread?
Because an object is mobile in itself
An object circulates, and this circulation allows the sacred to be carried with it
So even though the object is able to evoke devotion because it contains the sacred
The sacred can be seen as the trace of the object
Religious paraphernalia of a temple town
replicas of gods, as taking away a soul of the place – the small statue of the gods
that one finds in temple towns – it has sacred power because it is conceived from
the center of the sacred power – and one can take it back – it creates a trace of
your pilgrimage – it represents that moment when you encountered the divine and
it captures that moment – the agency of objects – its mobility and physicality, its
volume allows it to be a container and its mobility allows it to be a messenger
What then does then the mobility of objects create apart from the mobility of the
sacred?
So the economy that build around a religious site
Let me give you a perfect example of the totem
What happens to a society if a totem is lost or destroyed?
Totems are sacred objects, which contain sacred power, and if a totem is lost, it
would mean an existential loss of the society
Does any of you have a totem?
Is there anything you can identify whose loss will lead to a breakdown?
Your phone/your computer/your hard-drive
It contains all your relationships – phone-numbers, history of your relationships (as
messages)
The moment you lose your phone, what do they say happens – you are off the grid,
you are not connected
You are no longer a part of the world
So from religion, it is technology that has become the context, the pre-requisite for
collective consciousness
Kwakiutl community – potlach
Potlach – gift giving
A potlatch was held on the occasion of births, deaths, adoptions, weddings, and
other major events
These involved the display and the celebration of ritual objects
It was an occasion where all the material wealth which the clan or family had gained
during the summer months were distributed among other clans
It was an economic exchange and inter-clan relationship
A ritual passing down of treasures, it symbolized a rebirth of tradition, a positive
affirmation of their identity, past and present.
In the 19th century as Canada expanded, they adhered to a number of ideologies at
the time, including converting their colonial subjects to Christianity. Correctly
seeing that the potlatch was at the heart of a non-Christian cultural system that
opposed colonization, the potlatch was targeted by missionaries and colonial
officials.

In 1921 the Kwakiut'l people of Alert Bay, British Columbia, held their last secret
potlatch.
The ritual objects since then were housed in the National Museum of Man, Ottawa
In the 1970s, a cultural group called Umista Cultural Center demanded that the
ritual objects be returned to them
In 1980 the cultural repatriation took place, and the Canadian government
returned these ritual objects to be housed in the Umista Cultural Centre which is
also a museum
The center also took up activities such as recording stories told by elders so that
some part of the past would always be alive and teaching children about their
heritage in order to make them feel connected to their ancestors.
Devnarayan was a Gurjar warrior from Rajasthan, India, Who founded Baisla Clan
10TH CENTURY
Devnarayan is known as the progenitor of the Gujar community

IMAGE

He is worshipped among the Gujar community

So the religious power of Devnarayan is very closely tied to be Devnarayan being

the father of all Gujars

Which then puts us in the realm of religious worship creating an endogamous

community based on identity and kinship

How is Devnarayan worshipped?

By a performative narrative of his life through a visual scroll

IMAGE

This scroll, Devnarayan phad, is used as a mobile temple

It is usually a 10meters long scroll, and about two meters tall

It is a horizontal scroll

The scroll is performed by itinerant Gujar priests called Bhopas who carry it with
them.

IMAGE

It is performed during the nights of the months, November to July in the villages
of Rajasthan and Malwa.

Bhopas carry it with them and travel through villages performing these scrolls

The Joshi families of Bhilwara and Shahpura are the traditional artists of
the Devnarayan phads.

The Bhopa offers prayers to it three times a day and lighting incense sticks. The Par
of Devnarayan is kept vertical against a wall in the temple of Devji.

It is not touched with unclean hands, and is only kept in holy places

the costume worn by bhopas is composed of signs or emblems of the god and his
wives:

IMAGE

the coat and turban represents the god himself;

the wrap of thin cloth worn around the coat represents the god’s mother ;
the ornament attached to the front of the turban Devnarayan’s first wife

the peacock feather pointer used for referring to his second wife

The scroll is a shrine which contains the god.

IMAGE

The narrative covers a large area extending over most of Rajasthan and Malwa, the
northwestern region of Madhya Pradesh.

The narrative of Devnarayan begins with an invocation of a number of deities,

whose images are depicted in the phads.

IMAGE

The first part called the Bagaravat Bharat is about the heroic deeds of
24 Gurjar brothers, who are born as the sons of the man-lion, Baghji Gurjar. The 24
brothers die after a preordained period of 12 years in a battle against a chieftain of
Ran city.

The second part is about Bhagavan's incarnation as Devnarayan, the miracles he

performs and the revenge he and his cousins ultimately take on the Ran city
chieftain

IMAGE

A phad consists of an image of Devnarayan in the attire of a king seated on his

"python" throne in his court faced by his four cousins at the centre.
The text is a mixture of history and mythology where Devnarayan is seen as an
avatar of Vishnu

Historical facts are merged or embedded in mythological world which tells the story
of Brahma and a lion-head king

But this ‘imagined’ history of the community is important for the articulation of
Gujar identity in Rajasthan

And the efficacy of this history lies in the way it is told and shown

The phad or the scroll is believed to be the presence of Devnarayan

But Devnarayan is present in the scroll only through the narration of the scroll

So through narration of his life, Devnarayan resides in the scroll

Devnarayan is already manifest in the par, the audience is witnessing the

manifestation through the way the images and words unravel one another

So the object in this case if not a representation

It is believed to be the tangible existence of God

The scroll is a map – both of geography and of relationships

Geography

It is composed of a number of regions

But the placement of regions within the scroll is not governed by geography, but
by psychological relations between places

Meaning their arrangement is based on their importance in Devnarayan’s life

So for example, I come to MCPH and then I go home, and then on my way back
home I visit More – so MCPH, home and More are close to one another

Relationships

Devnarayan occupies the center of the scroll

To his left is this past life and his ancestor and events related to them

To his right is his current life and his this-world relatives and events related to them

The closer a character is to Devnarayan in terms of kin relationships, the closer the
character is to the center of the par.

The less a character is related to Devnarayan in terms of kinship, the further away
he or she may be shown on the par.

The scroll after its life-span of 5-7 years is immersed

And a new scroll is then commissioned

Devnarayan phad is important to our discussion because it demonstrates the

importance of circulation and mobility of objects as containers of sacred power

The performance of a Devnarayan scroll across regions over Rajasthan was a way
to tie differently located Gujars into one sacred community of believers
So while we said that sacred was a trace of the object, we can say that kinship was
a trace of the sacred

The object was weaving together communities wherever it was going