Lives of Indian Images

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The book explores the belief among Hindus that religious images in temples and home shrines are imbued with life through a ritual process conducted by priests. These rituals involve a series of daily activities that treat the images as divine beings, including awakening, bathing, dressing, and feeding them. Richard Davis presents a series of case studies demonstrating that these interactions indeed animate the religious objects, suggesting that the devotees' perceptions of their sacred images as living entities hold a deeper truth.