Puja and Piety

Santa Barbara Museum of Art

NOW CLOSED

The Gods Appeal to the Great Devi for Help (early 19th century), Folio from a Devimahatmya series with Sanskrit text in Devanagari script on reverse, India, Himachal Pradesh. Lent by Narendra and Rita Parson

Hindu, Jain, and Buddhist Art from the Indian Subcontinent

This exhibition celebrates the complexity of South Asian representation and iconography by examining the relationship between aesthetic expression and the devotional practice, or puja, in the three native religions of the Indian subcontinent. Drawn from SBMA’s collection and augmented by loans, the exhibition presents some 160 objects of diverse medium created over the past two millennia for temples, home worship, festivals, and roadside shrines. From monumental painted temple hangings to meditation diagrams and portable pictures for pilgrims, from stone sculptures to processional bronzes and wooden chariots, from ancient terracottas to various devotional objects for domestic shrines, this exhibition aims to examine and provide contextualised insights for both classical and popular works of art.

Preview the exhibition below | The top five exhibitions opening this week

Goddess Kali, Manifestation of Devi (Great Goddess) (late 19th century), India, West Bengal, Kolkata (Calcutta). © Santa Barbara Museum of Art

Shatrunjaya Pata, a Cartographic Overview of the Famous Jain Pilgrimage Center at Mount Shatrunjaya in Gujarat, (c. 1900), India, Rajasthan or Gujarat. © Santa Barbara Museum of Art