ART 4307 – 001: SPECIAL TOPICS IN ASIAN ART:
SEX, GENDER, & THE BODY IN INIDAN ART
Spring 2013
Melia Belli
W.3:00-5:50
Contact Information:
Office: FAB 297A
Office Hours: Tuesday 5:00-6:30, or by appointment
E-mail: meliabelli@uta.edu
Phone: 817-272-28911
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Text (recommended, especially if you are new to Indian art): Vidya Dehejia, Indian Art,
(London: Phaidon. 1997).
Devanganga Desai, Khajuraho, (New Delhi: Oxford, 2000).
This seminar class focuses on representations of the male and female body in Indian art from ca.
3,000 BCE to present. Classes are reading and discussion based, and include topics such as
historical notions of ideal masculine and feminine beauty, erotic temple sculpture, images of the
divine (particularly mother and wrathful goddesses), and the heroine in religious painting and
Bollywood cinema.
Requirements and grade breakdown:
ATTENDANCE: Students are permitted two undocumented absences. After this, absences not
documented by an official note from a doctor or other professional will result in a letter grade
deducted from your overall grade.
ELECTRONIC DEVICES: Cell phone (including texting), and laptop use is not permitted in
class. If you are caught texting or using a laptop during class, two points will be deducted from
your overall grade.
There are no exceptions to the two clauses above.
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Active class participation in class discussions on a weekly basis: 10%
Presentation of readings. Students will work in pairs to present readings in class: 15%
o Presenters should isolate the author’s thesis, how they prove it, major points in the
reading, optional: relate the topic to other art historical issues, comment on issues
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If you use this phone number, be sure to leave a detailed message stating my name, your name and the course
number/ name. Please note that this is a shared phone number. The best way to reach me is via e-mail.
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you would like clarification on, questions for me or the class. Presentations should
be approximately 30-45 minutes.
o NOTE: the presentations should NOT recap the readings.
Written/ typed questions/ comments on each reading: 5%
Group projects: students will work in small groups on course related topics (the many
forms of the goddess, Erotic Sculptures of Khajuraho, Women in pre-Modern Indian
painting, and “Bollywood,” and give a 45 min.-1 hour oral presentation with images to
the class: 15%.
o Students are expected to work together, and each member should participate
equally in the research and presentation.
The presentations should address the following:
o What these structures/ paintings are-their function
o Discussion of their formal and decorative programs
o Their evolution over time and space
o Brief discussion on the historiography of the topic
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Research paper addressing any topic we have covered in the class: 40%. The paper
should be 10-12 pages in length (text), with footnotes, bibliography, and images. No
internet sources will be accepted, except articles posted on JSTOR.
10-15 minute oral presentation of research paper: 10%
Submission of a paper proposal with annotated bibliography of at least 5 academic
sources AND proof of session at the campus writing center, where you will go with a
draft of your paper: 5%
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Basic Sources:
Catherine Asher and Cynthia Talbot, India Before Europe, (Cambridge: Cambridge University,
2006).
Richard Blurton, Hindu Art, (London: British Museum, 1992).
Vidiya Dehejia, The Body Adorned: Dissolving Boundaries Between Sacred and Secular in
India’s Art, (New York: Columbia University, 2009).
Diana Eck, Darsan: Seeing the Divine Image in India, (New York” Columbia University, 1996).
Gavin Flood, An Introduction to Hinduism, (Cambridge: Cambridge University, 1996).
J.C. Harle, The Art and Architecture of the Indian Subcontinent, (New Haven: Yale University,
1986).
Bradley Hawkins, Asian Religions, (New York: Person Longmen, 2004).
Susan Huntington, The Art of Ancient India, (New York: Weather Hill, 1993).
George Michell, Hindu Art and Architecture, (New York: Thames and Hudson, 2000).
Partha Mitter, Indian Art, (New York, Oxford University, 2001).
Schedule and Readings2:
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This section of the syllabus is subject to change, depending on the pace of the course, student needs, and length of
class discussions.
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Note: Weekly readings include basic historical background as well as book chapters and articles.
I also offer suggestions if you are interested in further reading on weekly topics. The list is not
exhaustive. Please let me know if you would like further suggestions.
Week 1, 01/16: Introduction to the course: Video.
Week 2, 01/23: Foundations: Seeing the gendered body in Indian art; Brief lecture by a member
of UTA’s writing center
 Dehejia, “The Body as Leitmotif,” in Dehejia, The Body Adorned.
Not for presentation, but write responses to the following:
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Berger, John, ch. 3, Ways of Seeing: Based on the BBC Television Series, (London: Penguin,
1990).
Whitney Davis, “Gender,” in Critical Terms for Art History, ed. Robert S. Nelson et al.,
(Chicago: University of Chicago, 1996).
Margaret Olin, “Gaze,” in Critical Terms for Art History, eds. Robert S. Nelson et al. (Chicago:
University of Chicago1996).
Week 3, 01/30: The earliest bodies in South Asian Art; brief lecture on the Indus Valley
Civilization, Video on the Indus valley Civilization
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Dehejia, 4-32
Sharri Clark, “Material Matters: Representation and Materiality of the Harappan Body,”
Journal of Archaeological Method and Theory 16, No. 3, (Sep., 2009).
Yan Y. Dhyansky, “The Indus Valley Origin of a Yoga Practice,” Artibus Asiae, 48, No.
1/2 (1987).
Srinivasan, Doris, “The So-Called Proto-Siva Seal from Mohenjo-Daro: An Iconological
Assessment, Archives of Asian Art, 29 (1975/6).
Further Reading:
 Alf Hiltebeitel “The Indus Valley "Proto-Siva", Reexamined through Reflections on the
Goddess, the Buffalo, and the Symbolism of Vāhanas,”Anthropos 5, No. 6. (1978).
 Huntington, ch. 2.
 Jonathan Mark Kenoyer, “The Indus Valley Tradition of Pakistan and Western India,”
Journal of World Prehistory, 5, No. 4 (December 1991).
Week 4, 02/06: Gendered Paradigms and the case study of the enigmatic Didarganj Yakshi
 Dehejia, “The Idealized Body and Adornment,” in Dehejia, The Body Adorned.
 Doris Meth Srinivasan, “The Mauryan Ganika from Didarganj (Pataliputra),” East and
West 55, no., 1-4 (December, 2005).
 Tapati Guha-Thakurta, “For the Greater Glory of Indian Art: Travels and Travails of a
Yakshi,” Guha-Thakurta, Monuments, Objects, Histories: Institutions of Art in Colonial
and Postcolonial India (New York: Columbia University Press, 2004).
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Further Reading:
 Fredrick Asher and Walter Spink, Walter, “Maurya Figural Sculpture Reconsidered” Ars
Orientalis 19, (1989).
 Richard Davies, “Introduction,” in Davies, Lives of Indian Images, (Princeton: Princeton
University, 1999).
 Irene Gajjar, “Mauryan Sculpture: A Cosmopolitan Art with Ancient Roots,” Ancient
Indian Art and the West, (Bombay: Skilton, 1971).
Week 5, 02/13: Khajuraho; Brief Lecture on Hindu temples; Group Presentation on the erotic
sculptures of Khajuraho
 Dehejia, ch. 6,7
 Devangana Desai, Khajuraho: Monumental Legacy (Delhi: Oxford University Press,
2000), 1-78.
Further Reading:
 Gregory D. Alles, “A Fitting Approach to God: On Entering the Western Temples at
Khajurāho,” History of Religions 33, No. 2 (1993).
 Pramod Chandra, “The Kaula-Kapalika Cults at Khajuraho,” Lalit-Kalā 1-2 (1955-56).
 Dehejia, “The Sensuous through Sacred Boundaries,” in Dehejia, The Body Adorned.
 Thomas Donaldson, “Propitious-Apotropaic Eroticism in the Art of Orissa,” Artibus
Asiae 37, No. 1/2 (1975).
 Huntington, Ancient Indian Art, 466-480.
 Michael Meister, “Juncture and Conjunction: Punning and Temple Architecture,”
Artibus Asiae, 41, No. 2/3 (1979).
 Shobita Punja, Divine Ecstasy: The Story of Khajuraho (New Delhi: Viking, 1992).
Week 6, 02/20: The Sacred Body: Chola Bronze Sculptures; Group Presentation
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Crispin Branfoot, “Processions and Presence: Bronze Sculptures from the Temples of
Southern India,” Arts of Asia 36, no. 6, (November/ December 2006).
Dehejia, “The Age of a Pious Queen,” in Dehejia Art of the Imperial Cholas, (New York:
Columbia University, 1990).
Padma Kaimal, “Shiva Nataraja: Shifting Meanings of an Icon,” The Art Bulletin 81, No.
3 (Sep., 1999).
Further reading:
Branfoot, “Gods on the Move: Architecture and Ritual in the South Indian Temple,” The
Society for South Asian Studies, The British Academy, 2007.
Elane Craddock, “The Anatomy of Devotion: the Life and Poetry of Karaikkal
Ammaiyar,” in Tracy Pintchman, Women’s Lives, Women’s Rituals in the Hindu
Tradition, (Oxford, 2007).
Dehejia, Chola: Sacred Bronzes of Southern India, (London: Royal Academy 2007).
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Week 7, 02/27: Goddesses in Hindu Art; Group Presentation on Hindu Goddesses
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Kamala Ganesh, “Mother Who Is Not a Mother: In Search of the Great Indian Goddess,”
Economic and Political Weekly 25, No. 42/43 (Oct. 20-27, 1990).
Kaimal, Padma, “Seductive and Repulsive: The Deceptive Contrasts of a South Indian
Goddess,” Rotunda 35, No.1, (2003).
Cynthia Packert Atherton, “Chamunda and Early Hindu Tantrism in Western India.”
Orientations (October, 1995).
Week 8, 03/06:Contemporary Politics, & Divine Paradigms: Student update on their paper
progress and submission of annotated bibliography due.
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Guha Takurta, “Women as 'Calendar Art' Icons: Emergence of Pictorial Stereotype in
Colonial India,” Economic and Political Weekly, 26, No. 43 (Oct. 26, 1991).
Mary-Anne Milford-Lutzker, “The Politicization of an Icon: Durga/ Kali/ Bharat Mata
and Her Transformations, in Deepak Shimkhada and Phyllis K. Herman, eds., Constant
and Changing Faces of the Goddess, (Newcastle: Cambridge Scholars, 2009).
Patricia Uberoi, “Feminine Identity and National Ethos in Indian Calendar Art,”
Economic and Political Weekly 25, No. 17 (Apr. 28, 1990).
Further reading:
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Rachel Fell McDermott and Jeffrey Kripal, Jeffrey, Encountering Kali: In the Margins,
at the Center, in the West, (Berkeley: University of California 2003).
John Hawley and Donna Wulff, Devi: Goddesses of India, (Berkeley: University of
California, 1996).
Kaimal, Scattered Goddesses: Travels with the Yoginis, (Ann Arbor: Association of
Asian Studies, 2012).
David Kinsley, Hindu Goddesses: Visions of the Divine Feminine in the Hindu Religious
Tradition , (Berkeley: University of California, 1988).
June Mc Danial, “Come One, Come All, to the Fair of the Mother’s Transformations:
Some Glimpses of Kali and Her Temples in West Bengal, in Deepak Shimkhada and
Phyllis K. Herman, eds., Constant and Changing Faces of the Goddess, (Newcastle:
Cambridge Scholars, 2009).
Sumathi Ramaswamy, “Maps and Mother Goddesses in Modern India,” Imago Mundi 53,
(2001).
Ramaswamy, The Goddess and the Nation: Mapping Mother India, (Durham: Duke,
2010).
Week 09, 03/13:NO CLASS: SPRING BREAK!
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Week 10, 03/20: Love & Longing in Rajput Painting; Student Presentation on Rajput
Painting
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Molly Aitken, “Spectatorship and Femininity in Kangra Painting,” in Dehejia,
Representing the Body: Gender Issues in Indian Art, (New Delhi: Kali for Women,
1997).
Aitken, “Pardah and Portrayal: Rajput Women as Subjects, Patrons, and Collectors,”
Artibus Asiae 62, No. 2, (2002).
Week 11, 03/27: Scandal: Censoring the Body
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Guha-Thakurta, “Clothing the Goddess: The Modern Contest over Representations of
Devi,” in Vidya Dehejia, Devi: The Great Goddess (Washington DC: Arthur M. Sackler
Gallery, 1999).
Guha-Thakurta, “Art History and the Nude: On Art, Obscenity, and Sexuality in
Contemporary India,” in Tapati Guha-Thakurta, Monuments, Objects, Histories:
Institutions of Art in Colonial and Postcolonial India (New York: Columbia University,
2004).
“In Defense of Freedom in Art: Against the Hindutva Attack on M. F. Husain.” Frontline
(Nov. 15, 1996).
Week 12, 04/03: Love & Gender in Bollywood; student presentations on Bollywood
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Rachel Dwyer,'The Erotics of the Wet Sari in Hindi films.' South Asia: Journal of South
Asian Studies, 23, No. 2 (2000).
Dwyer, “The Hindi Romantic Cinema: Yash Chopra's Kabhi Kabhie and Silsila,” South
Asia: Journal of South Asian Studies 23, No. 2, ( 1998).
Week 13, 04/10: NO CLASS: I WILL BE AT A CONFERENCE
Week 14, 04/17: Hindi film- khabi kahbi
Week 15-16,04/24- 05/01: Student Presentations.
Student papers due 05/01
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