Hindu Arati (Arti or Aarti) Lamp with Figure Riding on an Elephant
Hindu, 1700-1899
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Hindu Arati (Arti or Aarti) Lamp with Figure Riding on an Elephant
Hindu, 1700-1899
Physical Qualities
Metal alloy, 5 1/2 in. (14 cm.) H
Credit Line
Lockwood de Forest Collection
Object Number
1922.2.25
Lamps are used in Hindu temples and homes to purify and mark sacred space in mornings, evenings, or for the performance of a ritual. The lamp is the medium through which a deity is acknowledged and accessed by worshippers. For Hindu believers, fire is the earthly surrogate of the sun, the source of life and all knowledge. Light connects the mundane to the divine. The five reservoirs of this lamp held ghee (clarified butter) and small wicks to burn the oil. During a ceremony, the flame’s light is ritually waved and moved toward the deity or around the room, accompanied by singing or chanting.
The Baltimore Museum of Art by purchase, 1922; American Art Galleries, New York; Lockwood de Forest purchased in India, probably 1914
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Catalogue of the Rare and Valuable Examples of East Indian Persian and Syro-Damascan Art and Curios forming the private collection of the widely known artist and connoisseur Lockwood De Forest, Esq. of New York City, NY: American Art Association, 1922, no. 45.
Anne Suydam Lewis, Lockwood de Forest Painter Importer Decorator, Huntington, NY: Hecksher Museum, 1976, pp. 4-10, 12-32.
Roberta A. Mayer, "The Aesthetics of Lockwood de Forest," "Winterthur Portfolio," 31:1, The Henry Hrancis du Pont Winterthur Museum, Inc., 1996, pp. 1-22.
Fuller, C. J. The Camphor Flame: Popular Hinduism and Society in India. Princeton, NJ: Princeton
University Press, 2004.
Thomas B. Ellis, Evoked Puja: The Behavioral
Ecology of an Equatorial Ritual. Journal of the American Academy of Religion, December 2015, Vol. 83, No. 4, pp. 1108-1156
doi: 10.1 093/jaarel/lfv035
Advance Access publication on July 9, 2015
© The Author 2015. Published by Oxford University Press, on behalf of the American Academy of
Religion. All rights reserved. For permissions, please e-mail: journals.permissions@oup.com
Roberta A. Mayer, "The Aesthetics of Lockwood de Forest," "Winterthur Portfolio," 31:1, The Henry Hrancis du Pont Winterthur Museum, Inc., 1996, pp. 1-22.
Fuller, C. J. The Camphor Flame: Popular Hinduism and Society in India. Princeton, NJ: Princeton
University Press, 2004.
Thomas B. Ellis, Evoked Puja: The Behavioral
Ecology of an Equatorial Ritual. Journal of the American Academy of Religion, December 2015, Vol. 83, No. 4, pp. 1108-1156
doi: 10.1 093/jaarel/lfv035
Advance Access publication on July 9, 2015
© The Author 2015. Published by Oxford University Press, on behalf of the American Academy of
Religion. All rights reserved. For permissions, please e-mail: journals.permissions@oup.com
On View at the BMA
