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Online Puja, Digital Darshan, and Virtual Pilgrimage: Hindu Image and Ritual, 2007

Marsh, Natalie Renee
http://rave.ohiolink.edu/etdc/view?acc_num=osu1196276728

Abstract Details

2007, Doctor of Philosophy, Ohio State University, History of Art.
Since science fiction writer William Gibson first coined the term “cyberspace” in his 1984 novel Neuromancer shifts in identity developed through online communiction and new media have reached every corner of human life. Religious identity and practice is an important aspect that has undergone changes due to the reach of technology. Google the term “online puja,” “e-darshan,” or “virtual pilgrimage” today, among other similar terms, and you will find hundreds of references to a relatively new technological phenomenon that allows a Hindu devotee to “dial-up” the deities of South Asia over a web browser, perform an interactive ritual (puja) from a keyboard, mouse, (or even a cellphone), and engage in ritual visual exchange (darshan) of a deity while being hundreds of miles away from a physically “real” Hindu shrine—whether in the United States or India. In this dissertation, the transformation of Hindu image and ritual will be discussed in light of these new forms and practices found on the web. Through “field research” in cyberspace six major categorical types of website can be delineated—1) Hindu temple websites, 2) digital greeting card websites, 3) virtual community websites, 4) commercial websites, 5) cell phone companies and mobile devices, and, 6) video sharing sites. The images used as icons on these websites include 1) deity poster imagery, 2) Amar Chitra Katha graphic imagery, 3) photographs, and, 4) digitally designed icons. These deity images are “cut-and-pasted” into digitally designed virtual shrine spaces or pages, and often available for interactive ritual enabled through the computer’s peripheral devices. Digital devotional imagery and practice can be traced to earlier 19th and 20th century “new media” foms, from mechanically reproduced deity posters (also called god posters, calendar prints, and framing pictures) to Bollywood film imagery so popular today. Defined by Lawrence Babb, prior to the introduction of the web, these forms were noted for their expanded spatial mobility and social mobility leading to significant shifts in religious practice. Built on this, and wrestling with such issues as Hindu nationalism and post-colonial realism(s), and through considering the work of such theorists as Benjamin, Eco and Baudrillard, this study defines emergent perceptual and conceptual mobilities that have motivated a desire for a “mutuality of space.” This “mutuality of space” is the result of a maturing of the spatial and social mobilities defined by Babb, and are argued to reflect far larger human tendencies in which significant shifts in communications technology are tied to shifts in spiritual consciousness manifest in new religious practices. Such a theory is reliant on the work of Walter J. Ong. Ong’s theories are also interlinked with discussions of spatial schema and spirituality as articulated by Margaret Wertheim. The spatial schema of cyberspace is thus considered for its evocations of the sacred.
Susan Huntington (Advisor)
1198 p.
Art History
art; Hindu; digital; cyberspace; art; online; WWW; darshan; puja; ritual; pilgrimage

Recommended Citations

Citations

  • Marsh, N. R. (2007). Online Puja, Digital Darshan, and Virtual Pilgrimage: Hindu Image and Ritual, 2007 [Doctoral dissertation, Ohio State University]. OhioLINK Electronic Theses and Dissertations Center. http://rave.ohiolink.edu/etdc/view?acc_num=osu1196276728

    APA Style (7th edition)

  • Marsh, Natalie. Online Puja, Digital Darshan, and Virtual Pilgrimage: Hindu Image and Ritual, 2007. 2007. Ohio State University, Doctoral dissertation. OhioLINK Electronic Theses and Dissertations Center, http://rave.ohiolink.edu/etdc/view?acc_num=osu1196276728.

    MLA Style (8th edition)

  • Marsh, Natalie. "Online Puja, Digital Darshan, and Virtual Pilgrimage: Hindu Image and Ritual, 2007." Doctoral dissertation, Ohio State University, 2007. http://rave.ohiolink.edu/etdc/view?acc_num=osu1196276728

    Chicago Manual of Style (17th edition)

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© 2007, all rights reserved.
This open access ETD is published by The Ohio State University and OhioLINK.