Puja and Piety: 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 contextualized insights for both classical and popular works of art.

Image credit: Himachal Pradesh, The Gods Appeal to the Great Devi for Help (detail), Folio from a Devi Mahatmya series with Sanskrit text in Devanagari script on reverse, India, Kangra, early 19th century. Color and gold on paper. Lent by Narendra and Rita Parson.