GetWiki
murti
ARTICLE SUBJECTS
being →
database →
ethics →
fiction →
history →
internet →
language →
linux →
logic →
method →
news →
policy →
purpose →
religion →
science →
software →
truth →
unix →
wiki →
ARTICLE TYPES
essay →
feed →
help →
system →
wiki →
ARTICLE ORIGINS
critical →
forked →
imported →
original →
murti
please note:
- the content below is remote from Wikipedia
- it has been imported raw for GetWiki
{{short description| Idol, symbol, statue or icon in Hindu religion}}{{italic title}}{{Use Indian English|date=April 2020}}{{Use dmy dates|date=August 2020}}- the content below is remote from Wikipedia
- it has been imported raw for GetWiki
factoids | |
---|---|
Etymology and nomenclature
{{Hinduism small}}Murti literally means any solid body or form with a definite shape or limits produced from material elements. It contrasts with the mind, thought, and immaterial in ancient Indian literature. The term also refers to any embodiment, manifestation, incarnation, personification, appearance, image, idol, or statue of a deity.Monier Monier-Williams, Sanskrit English Dictionary, Oxford University Press, {{ISBN|978-81-208-3105-6}} (Reprinted in 2011), page 824The earliest mention of the term murti occurs in primary Upanishads composed in the 1st millennium BCE, particularly in verse 3.2 of Aitareya Upanishad, verse 1.13 of Shvetashvatara Upanishad, verse 6.14 of Maitrayaniya Upanishad and verse 1.5 of Prashna Upanishad.G. A. Jacob, A concordance to the principal Upanishads, Harvard University Press, Reprinted Motilal Banarsidass, page 750 For example, the Maitrayaniya Upanishad uses the term to mean a "form, manifestation of time". The section sets out to prove Time exists, acknowledges the difficulty in proving Time exists by Pramana (epistemology in Indian philosophy), then inserts a theory of inductive inference for epistemological proof as follows,{{Blockquote|On account of the subtleness of Time, this is the proof of its reality;On account of this, the Time is demonstrated.Because without proof, the assumption which is to be proved is not permissible;But, when one comprehends it in its parts, that which is itself to be proved or demonstrated becomes the ground of proof, through which it brings itself into consciousness (in an inductive way).Types
{{multiple image| direction = horizontal| width1 = 100| width2 = 105| width3 = 187- Raudra or Ugra - are images that were meant to terrify, induce fear. These typically have wide, circular eyes, carry weapons, have skulls and bones as adornment. These idols were worshipped by soldiers before going to war, or by people in times of distress or errors. Raudra deity temples were not set up inside villages or towns, but invariably outside and in remote areas of a kingdom.Gopinath Rao, Elements of Hindu Iconography Madras, Cornell University Archives, pages 17â39
- Shanta and Saumya - are images that were pacific, peaceful and expressive of love, compassion, kindness and other virtues in Hindu pantheon. These images would carry symbolic icons of peace, knowledge, music, wealth, flowers, sensuality among other things. In ancient India, these temples were predominant inside villages and towns.
Methods and manuals
File:Men carving stone idols or murti. Mahabalipuram. 2010.jpg|thumb|Men carving stone murti at MahabalipuramMahabalipuramFile:Creation of Durga Idol at kumartuli.jpg|thumb|Creation of Durga murti at KolkataKolkataMurti, when produced properly, are made according to the design rules of the Shilpa Shastras.For Åilpa ÅÄstras as a basis for iconographic standards, see Hopkins, p. 113. They recommend materials, measurements, proportions, decoration, and symbolism of the murti. Explanation of the metaphysical significance of each stage of manufacture and the prescription of specific mantras to sanctify the process and evoke and invoke the power of the deity in the image are found in the liturgical handbooks the Agamas and Tantras.Elgood, Heather. Hinduism and the Religious Arts. Cassell 1999. {{ISBN|0-304-33820-6}}. In Tantric traditions, a murti is installed by priests through the Prana pratishta ceremony, where mantras are recited sometimes with yantras (mystic diagrams), whereby state Harold Coward and David Goa, the "divine vital energy of the cosmos is infused into the sculpture" and then the divine is welcomed as one would welcome a friend.Harold Coward and David Goa (2008), Mantra: 'Hearing the Divine in India and America, Motilal Banarsidass, {{ISBN|978-8120832619}}, pages 25-30 According to Gudrun Buhnemann, the esoteric Hindu tantric traditions through texts such as Tantra-tattva follow elaborate rituals to infuse life into a murti. Some tantra texts such as the Pancaratraraksa state that anyone who considers an icon of Vishnu as nothing but "an ordinary object" made of iron "goes to hell".|Gudrun Bühnemann, Puja: A Study in Smarta Ritual, Publications of the De Nobili Research Library, Gerold & Co., Vienna, 1988. p. 27 with footnotes The use of murti and particularly the prana protist consecration ceremony, states Buhnemann, has been criticized by Hindu groups. These groups state that this practice came from more recent "false tantra books", and there is not a single word in the Vedas about such a ceremony.Buhnemann, Gudrun, Puja: A Study in Smarta Ritual, Publications of the De Nobili Research Library, Gerold & Co., Vienna, 1988. p. 57 with footnote 354. "The mantras used for infusing the icon with life (pranapratistha) have come from false tantra books, which are opposed to the Vedas (p. 485.7-13)." [...] cf. Furquhar (1915), pp. 297-350"), page 520Sanskrit: (Source), pages 142â143 (note that the verse number in this version is 58.10â11)}}The artists who make any art or craft, including murti, were known as shilpins. The formally trained Shilpins shape the murti not following fancy but following canonical manuals such as the Agamas and the Shilpa Shastras texts such as Vishvakarma. The material of construction range from clay to wood to marble to metal alloys such as panchaloha.Lo Bue, Erberto (1991). "Statuary Metals in Tibet and the Himalayas: History, Tradition, and Modern Use", Bulletin of Tibetology 1â3, pp. 7â41.. weblink{{Dead link|date=April 2020|bot=InternetArchiveBot|fix-attempted=yes}} The sixth century Brihat Samhita and eighth-century text Manasara-Silpasastra (literally: "treatise on art using the method of measurement"), identify nine materials for murti construction â gold, silver, copper, stone, wood, Sudha (a type of stucco, mortar plaster), sarkara (gravel, grit), Bahasa (marble types), and earth (clay, terracotta).TA Gopinatha Rao (1993), Elements of Hindu iconography, Vol 2, Motilal Banarsidass, {{ISBN|81-208-0878-9}}, pages 76â77 For Bahasa, the texts describe working methods for various types of marble, specialized stones, colors, and a range of opacity (transparent, translucent and crystal).PK Acharya, A summary of the MÄnsÄra, a treatise on architecture and cognate subjects, PhD Thesis awarded by Rijksuniversiteit te Leiden, published by BRILL, {{oclc|898773783}}, pages 49â50Brihat Samhita, a 6th-century encyclopedia of a range of topics from horticulture to astrology to gemology to murti and temple design,Ariel Glucklich (2008), The Strides of Vishnu, Oxford University Press, {{ISBN|978-0-19-531405-2}}, pages 123â124 specifies in Chapter 56 that the pratima (murti) height should be tfrac{7}{8} of the sanctum sanctorum's door height, the Pratima height and the sanctum sanctorum room's width be in the ratio of 0.292, it stands on a pedestal that is 0.146 of sanctum room width, thereafter the text describes 20 types of temples with their dimensions.Brihat Samhita of Varaha Mihira, PVS Sastri and VMR Bhat (Translators), Reprinted by Motilal Banarsidass ({{ISBN|978-81-208-1060-0}}), pages 491â501 Chapter 58 of the text describes the ratios of various anatomical parts of a murti, from head to toe, along with the recommendation in verse 59.29 that generally accepted variations in dress, decoration, and dimensions of local regional traditions for the murti are the artistic tradition.Brihat Samhita of Varaha Mihira, PVS Sastri and VMR Bhat (Translators), Reprinted by Motilal Banarsidass ({{ISBN|978-81-208-1060-0}}), pages 503â518{{multiple image| direction = horizontal| width1 = 125| width2 = 110| width3 = 132Role in worship
File:6th century Mother Goddess Matrika murti, India.jpg|thumb|A murti of mother goddess Matrika, from RajasthanRajasthanMajor Hindu traditions such as Vaishnavism, Shaivism, Shaktism and Smartaism favour the use of murti. These traditions suggest that it is easier to dedicate time and focus on spirituality through anthropomorphic or non-anthropomorphic icons. Hindu scriptures such as the Bhagavad Gita, states in verse 12.5,{{cquote|It is much more difficult to focus on God as the unmanifested than God with form, due to human beings needing to perceive via the senses.WEB,weblink Bhagavad-Gita: Chapter 12, Verse 5, }}In Hinduism, states Jeaneane Fowler, that a murti itself is not god, it is an "image of god" and thus a symbol and representation. A murti is a form and manifestation, states Fowler, of the formless Absolute.Jeaneane D Fowler (1996), Hinduism: Beliefs and Practices, Sussex Academic Press, {{ISBN|978-1-898723-60-8}}, pages 41â45 Thus a literal translation of murti as 'idol' is incorrect, when idol is understood as superstitious end in itself. Just like the photograph of a person is not the real person, a murti is an image in Hinduism but not the real thing, but in both cases the image reminds of something of emotional and real value to the viewer. When a person worships a murti, it is assumed to be a manifestation of the essence or spirit of the deity, the worshipper's spiritual ideas and needs are meditated through it, yet the idea of ultimate reality or Brahman is not confined in it.File:à¦à§. ডি. বà§à¦²à¦ সলà§à¦à¦²à§à¦ দà§à¦°à§à¦à¦¾ পà§à¦à§ ২০১৮.jpg|thumb|Goddess Durga and a pantheon of other gods and goddesses (Ganesh, Lakshmi, Sarasvati, Kartik) being worshipped during Durga PujaDurga PujaDevotional (bhakti movement) practices centered on cultivating a deep and personal bond of love with God, often expressed and facilitated with one or more murti, and includes individual or community hymns, japa or singing (bhajan, kirtan or aarti). Acts of devotion, in major temples particularly, are structured on treating the murti as the manifestation of a revered guest,BOOK, Gale Encyclopedia of Religion, 7493â7495, Lindsay Jones, Thomson Gale, 2005, 11, 0-02-865980-5, and the daily routine can include awakening the murti in the morning and making sure that it "is washed, dressed, and garlanded."Klaus Klostermaier (2007) Hinduism: A Beginner's Guide, 2nd Edition, Oxford: OneWorld Publications, {{ISBN|978-1-85168-163-1}}, pages 63â65{{Citation|last=Fuller|first=C. J.|year=2004|title=The Camphor Flame: Popular Hinduism and Society in India|place=Princeton, NJ|publisher= Princeton University Press|isbn=978-0-691-12048-5|pages=67â68}} In Vaishnavism, the building of a temple for the murti is considered an act of devotion, but non-murti symbolism is also common wherein the aromatic Tulsi plant or Saligrama is an aniconic reminder of the spiritualism in Vishnu.BOOK, Elgood, Heather, Hinduism and the religious arts, 1999, Cassell, 978-0-304-70739-3, Religion and the arts, London, 57-58, These puja rituals with the murti correspond to ancient cultural practices for a beloved guest, and the murti is welcomed, taken care of, and then requested to retire.Michael Willis (2009), The Archaeology of Hindu Ritual, Cambridge University Press, {{ISBN|978-0-521-51874-1}}, pages 96â112, 123â143, 168â172Paul Thieme (1984), "Indische Wörter und Sitten," in Kleine Schriften (Wiesbaden), Vol. 2, pages 343â370Christopher John Fuller states that an image in Hinduism cannot be equated with a deity and the object of worship is the divine whose power is inside the image, and the image is not the object of worship itself, Hindus believe everything is worthy of worship as it contains divine energy emanating from the one god.The Camphor Flame: Popular Hinduism and society in India, p. 60 at Books.Google.com According to the Agamas, the bimba murti ( / ) is different from the mantra murti () from the perspective of rituals, gestures, hymns and offerings.{{citation needed|date=October 2015}}Some Hindu denominations like Arya Samaj and Satya Mahima Dharma reject idol worship.BOOK, Naidoo, Thillayvel, The Arya Samaj Movement in South Africa, Motilal Banarsidass, 158, 1982, 81-208-0769-3, BOOK, Lata, Prem, Swami DayÄnanda SarasvatÄ«, Sumit Publications, x, 1990, 81-7000-114-5,Modes of worshipping
Worship of a murti involves various modes and rituals. Before a murti is worshipped, a ritual known as prana pratishta is conducted.BOOK, Rosen, Steven, Essential Hinduism, 2006, Praeger, 978-0-275-99006-0, 1. publ, Westport, Conn., 194, This ritual is performed to invoke the presence of the god or goddess into the physical form of the murti. In temples, this ceremony is a one-time event for a specific murti. In domestic rituals, the deity is invited to reside in the murti through avahana (invocation) each time a puja is conducted and then dispersed back at the end of the puja. Adorning a murti is mode that allows devotees to express love for the deity and visually and experientially connect with the nature of the god or goddess. In worship at a temple, the significant moment is when the adorned murti is revealed, and worshippers take darshan by witnessing the fully adorned murti.Role in history
missing image!
- Ganesha BhaktiFestWest 20170910.jpg -
A collection of modern-day murti featuring the elephant-headed God, Lord Ganesha
Murti and temples were well established in South Asia, before the start of Delhi Sultanate in the late 12th century CE. They became a target of destruction during raids and religious wars between Islam and Hinduism through the 18th century.Richard Eaton(2000), Temple Desecration and Indo-Muslim States, Journal of Islamic Studies, Vol. 11, Issue 3, pages 283â319Anthony Welch (1993), Architectural patronage and the past: The Tughluq sultans of India, Muqarnas, Vol. 10, pages 311â322André Wink (2004), Al Hind: the making of Indo-Islamic world, Vol. 3, BRILL, {{ISBN|978-90-04-13561-1}}, pages 160â161 with footnote 241During the colonial era, Christian missionaries aiming to convert Hindus to Christianity wrote memoirs and books that were widely distributed in Europe, which Mitter, Pennington, and other scholars call fictionalized stereotypes, where murti were claimed as the evidence of lack of spiritual heritage in primitive Hindus, of "idolatry and savage worship of stones", practices akin to Biblical demons, calling murti monstrous devils or eroticized bizarre beings carved in stone.Partha Mitter (1992), Much Maligned Monsters: A History of European Reactions to Indian Art, University of Chicago Press, {{ISBN|978-0-226-53239-4}}, pages 2â18Brian Pennington (2007), Was Hinduism Invented?: Britons, Indians, and the Colonial Construction of Religion, Oxford University Press, {{ISBN|978-0-19-532600-0}}, pages 62â64 The British Missionary Society with colonial government's assistance bought and sometimes seized, then transferred murti from India and displayed it in their "trophies" room in the United Kingdom with the note claiming that these were given up by Hindus who now accept the "folly and sin of idolatry".Richard Davis (1999), Lifes of Indian Images, Princeton University Press, {{ISBN|978-0-691-00520-1}}, pages 164â171 In other instances, the colonial British authorities, seeking additional government revenue, introduced Pilgrim Tax on Hindus to view murti inside major temples.Albertina Nugteren (2005), Belief, Bounty, And Beauty: Rituals Around Sacred Trees in India, BRILL, {{ISBN|978-90-04-14601-3}}, page 247Nancy Cassels (1988), Religion and the Pilgrim Taxes Under the Company Raj, Riverdale, {{ISBN|978-0-913215-26-5}}, pages 18â34The missionaries and orientalist scholars attempted to justify the need for colonial rule of India by attacking murti as a symbol of depravity and primitiveness, arguing that it was, states Tanisha Ramachandran, "the White Man's Burden to create a moral society" in India. This literature by the Christian missionaries constructed the foundation of a "Hindu image" in Europe, during the colonial era, and it blamed murti idolatry as "the cause for the ills of Indian society".Tanisha Ramachandran (2008), Representing Idols, Idolizing Representations: Interpreting Hindu Ima from the Nineteenth Century to the Early Twentieth Century, Ph.D. Thesis granted by Concordia University, Thesis Advisor: Leslie Orr, pages 57â71Robert Yelle (2012), The Language of Disenchantment, Oxford University Press, {{ISBN|978-0-19-992501-8}}, pages 79â82 By 19th-century, ideas such as pantheism (the universe is identical with God or Brahman), contained in newly translated Sanskrit texts were linked to the idolatry of murti and declared as additional evidence of superstitions and evil by Christian missionaries and colonial authorities in British India.The polemics of Christian missionaries in colonial India triggered a debate among Hindus, yielding divergent responses.Noel Salmond (2004), Hindu Iconoclasts, Wilfrid Laurier University Press, {{ISBN|978-0-88920-419-5}}, pages 2â9 It ranged from activists such as Dayananda Saraswati who denounced all murti, to Vivekananda who refused to denounce murti and asked Hindus in India and Christians in the West to introspect, that images are used everywhere to help think and as a road to ideas, in the following words,{{Blockquote|Superstition is a great enemy of man, but bigotry is worse. Why does a Christian go to church? Why is the cross holy? Why is the face turned toward the sky in prayer? Why are there so many images in the Catholic Church? Why are there so many images in the minds of Protestants when they pray? My brethren, we can no more think about anything without a mental image than we can live without breathing. By the law of association, the material image calls up the mental idea and vice versa.- Ganesha BhaktiFestWest 20170910.jpg -
A collection of modern-day murti featuring the elephant-headed God, Lord Ganesha
Significance
Ancient Indian texts assert the significance of murti in spiritual terms. The VÄstusÅ«tra Upaniá¹£ad, whose palm-leaf manuscripts were discovered in the 1970s among remote villages of Orissa â four in Oriya language and one in crude Sanskrit, asserts that the doctrine of murti art making is founded on the principles of origin and evolution of universe, is a "form of every form of cosmic creator" that empirically exists in nature, and it functions to inspire a devotee towards contemplating the Ultimate Supreme Principle (Brahman).Alice Boner, SadÄÅiva Rath ÅarmÄ and Bettina Bäumer (2000), VÄstusÅ«tra Upaniá¹£ad, Motilal Banarsidass, {{ISBN|978-81-208-0090-8}}, pages 7â9, for context see 1â10 This text, whose composition date is unknown but probably from late 1st millennium CE, discusses the significance of images as, state Alice Boner and others, "inspiring, elevating and purifying influence" on the viewer and "means of communicating a vision of supreme truth and for giving a taste of the infinite that lies beyond". It adds (abridged):{{Blockquote|From the contemplation of images grows delight, from delight faith, from faith steadfast devotion, through such devotion arises that higher understanding (parÄvidyÄ) that is the royal road to moksha. Without the guidance of images, the mind of the devotee may go astray and form the wrong imagination. Images dispel false imaginations. [... ] It resides within the consciousness of "Rishis" (sages), who possess the ability to perceive the essence of all created things in their manifested forms. They observe the various attributes, the divine and the demoniac, the creative and the destructive forces, engaged in their eternal interplay. It is this vision of Rishis, of the gigantic drama of cosmic powers in eternal conflict, from which the Sthapakas [Silpins, murti, and temple artists] drew the subject matter for their work.See also
References
{{reflist|30em}}Further reading
- "Idolatry and The Colonial Idea of India: Visions of Horror, Allegories of Enlightenment" by Swagato Ganguly. Routledge.
- Prasanna K Acharya, Indian Architecture According to Manasara-Silpasastra, South Asia Books, {{ISBN|978-81-86142-70-7}}, {{oclc|296289012}}
- Prasanna K Acarya (1927), A dictionary of Hindu architecture : treating of Sanskrit architectural terms, with illustrative quotations from silpÄÅÄstras, general literature, and archaeological records, Oxford University Press (Out of Print), {{oclc|5709812}}
- Alice Boner (1965), Principles of composition in Hindu sculpture, BRILL, {{oclc|352681}}
- TA Gopinatha Rao (1993), Elements of Hindu iconography, Vol 1 and 2, Motilal Banarsidass, {{ISBN|81-208-0878-9}}
- Vidya Dehejia (1997), Indian Art, Phaidon, {{ISBN|978-0-7148-3496-2}}
- P Mitter (2001), Indian Art, Oxford University Press, {{ISBN|978-0-19-284221-3}}
- Vinayak Bharne and Krupali Krusche (2012), Rediscovering the Hindu Temple, Cambridge Scholars Publishing, {{ISBN|978-1-4438-4137-5}}
External links
{{Commons category}}- Divine Images in Stone and Bronze: South India, Chola Dynasty (c. 850â1280), Aschwin Lippe, Metropolitan Museum Journal, Vol. 4, pages 29â79
- The Sculpture of Greater India, Aschwin Lippe, The Metropolitan Museum of Art Bulletin, New Series, Vol. 18, No. 6, pages 177â192
- The Arts of South and Southeast Asia, Steven Kossak, The Metropolitan Museum of Art Bulletin, New Series, Vol. 51, No. 4
- content above as imported from Wikipedia
- "murti" does not exist on GetWiki (yet)
- time: 3:25pm EDT - Thu, Apr 25 2024
- "murti" does not exist on GetWiki (yet)
- time: 3:25pm EDT - Thu, Apr 25 2024
[ this remote article is provided by Wikipedia ]
LATEST EDITS [ see all ]
GETWIKI 23 MAY 2022
The Illusion of Choice
Culture
Culture
GETWIKI 09 JUL 2019
Eastern Philosophy
History of Philosophy
History of Philosophy
GETWIKI 09 MAY 2016
GetMeta:About
GetWiki
GetWiki
GETWIKI 18 OCT 2015
M.R.M. Parrott
Biographies
Biographies
GETWIKI 20 AUG 2014
GetMeta:News
GetWiki
GetWiki
© 2024 M.R.M. PARROTT | ALL RIGHTS RESERVED