Creating images of the Hindu gods is an interesting activity because the visual representation of gods is a very important part of Hinduism, but is something that other religions like Christianity or Islam discourage to different degrees.
In class, we looked at how the second commandment in The Bible forbids the creation of graven images. This is now only mostly still upheld in relation to images of God with people frequently creating and admiring images of Jesus, Mary, apostles, disciples, and angels.
Islam forbids creating images of God or God's creations (the idea being that people should not try to create what God has already created). As a result of this, Islamic cultures produce art that incorporates language and intricate mosaic patterns.
This comparison is easy to see even with the most cursory glance into religious art. For reference, check out the first page of these Google image searches for "Islamic art," "Christian art," and "Hindu art."
We compared the role that visual art plays in religion to the saying that came up in Taoism where reading about the Tao is like having someone who is trying to show you the moon by pointing it out and you are looking at their finger instead of looking at the moon. For Christianity and Islam, looking at an image of God or God's creatures is a distraction from actually focusing on God.
For Hindus, however, looking at images of the Gods or creatures of the world is an important way to connect to and think about the gods. This is much like a Christian might focus their mind on Christ by looking at a picture of him or focus their mind on their spirituality by focusing on a stained glass window depicting Biblical scenes.
Our work for the next few classes will introduce us to the four principal Hindu gods (Brahma, Shiva, Vishnu, Lakshmi) through this visual tradition and so set us up to better understand the cultural background of The Ramayana.
In doing this today, everyone picked a god, read about them on the BBC's religion site and created a found poem from this image. Tomorrow, we will work with images of the gods via Google Images.
Resources:
BBC site on Hinduism
(expand the "Dieties" tab for specific information on any one of the four main Hindu gods).
Handouts:
Hindu Gods - Found Poem
Hindu Gods - Image Synthesis
Homework:
Finish the found poem on your Hindu god (if you did not do so in class).
Tomorrow we will complete the artist's statement for these poems.
Complete any missing assignments and revise assignments that scored below a 92.
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