ANNOUNCEMENT OF POST DOCTORAL FELLOWSHIP under THE TEMPLE AND THE MUSEUM: CONSIDERING THE PLACE OF ART AND RELIGION IN INDIA PROJECT SUPPORTED BY THE PARTNERGROUP OF The Temple and the Museum: Considering the Place of Art and Religion in India is a multi-year project that studies the places and meanings of art in India. Conventional histories tell us that pre-modern works of art were made for religious purposes – for the temple, let us say – and modernity secularised these objects, reconstituted them as 'art' and transferred them to the museum. In reality, the relationship between the 'temple' and the 'museum' is more complex than this unilinear narrative that traces a single line from premodern to modern times and from religious to secular frameworks. Thus, the museum has been analysed as the shrine to the secular cults of Art, or of the nation-state; while temples have been built in a spirit of aesthetic competitiveness and connoisseurly appraisal that we tend to think of as 'modern' attitudes towards masterpieces. If today, certain groups ask for the right to perform worship in front of precious objects in museums, others demand (and achieve) the repatriation of objects, from the museum into the temple; while other temples establish 'museums' or 'art galleries' within their compounds to display valuable or beautiful objects in their collections. And both the temple and the museum lay claim to being the prime site of heritage. For the duration of this project, one post-doctoral fellowship will be awarded each year in a shifting focus area. Likely focus areas are: the collection and organization of Jain bhandars in western India; contemporary practices of temple-making and repair and their relationship with archaeologically informed conservation architecture; and the contestations between temple authorities and state authorities over the proper use of ancient artefacts. The focus for year one (August 2010 to July 2011) is on the fate of Chola artefacts in the cusp between religious use and the state's governmental control over heritage. Applications are invited from fellows with the appropriate background, training (PhD in History, Art History, Archaeology or related subjects) and linguistic skills, who would like to spend one year studying the modern and contemporary fate of Chola objects and monuments as they become the subject of rival claims by religious authorities, local groups, and governmental organizations. The fellow will combine field study, museum visits, archival work and oral history work, to follow the fate of selected objects and monuments, and to map out the cognitive, legal and other kinds of status they occupy (eg, ritual efficacy, meaning as heritage, status as antiquities, value in art markets). For example the study would examine the status and fate of bronze icons that are occasionally dug out of the ground: what legal provisions determine whether a bronze so discovered becomes the property of a temple, and enters worship, or becomes the property of the state, and enters the museum? What is the history of such excavations? The study would also examine the fate of ancient temples that are under worship, and the history of contestations over its repair, use and control. The study might also extend to the valuable cache of historic artefacts present in temple treasuries, to study the way these are understood or treated as offerings to the gods, or artefacts in their own right. The fellow will submit regular progress reports and will participate in an annual workshop that may be organized by the project, and the fellowship will end with the submission of a long paper (approx 30,000 words) on the subject of the research, along with documentary materials. Application: Applications consisting of a CV, two samples of writing, and a 1000 word outline of the research to be undertaken under this rubric are to be submitted to kavising@gmail.com by August 5, 2010. Shortlisted applicants may be called to an interview in New Delhi, for which the partnergroup cannot bear responsibility of any TA/ DA. Fellowship terms: the fellowship carries a monthly stipend of Rs 25,000/ - for 12 months, as well as a contingency grant of Rs 30,000 p.a. |