Shipping the Mandir: Creating Stone-Crafted Temples in the Contemporary World

• In Event: AIIS Showcase on New Research: The Unexpected Functions of Temples: India, ca. 600 CE to the Present” - Sponsored by the American Institute of Indian Studies (AIIS)

Abstract

This essay focuses on a compelling group of monuments that expresses an unanticipated dynamic between tradition and modernity through material fabrication and cultural negotiation—the temples of the globally established BAPS Swaminarayan sect. Crafted in India from choice stone and shipped to BAPS diaspora communities block by block, these temples, or mandirs, present startling juxtapositions of ancient temple craft with modern means of production. Studies of Indian temples have enriched our understanding of India’s religious and artistic tradition in centuries past, yet little of what has been written on the subject of the Indian temple has prepared us to engage its continued life in current times. In recent years, the lavish stone towers of BAPS temples have pierced the suburban skylines of North America with ornately carved spires of creamy limestone. These contemporary works are dismantling scholarly preconceptions as to what large-scale temple production involves, and what it may signify in the extended context of Indian religious culture on a global scale. Indeed, new research in the field has increasingly demonstrated that the process of temple production—its methods, material means, and financial resources—has the ability to reveal just as much, if not more, about the contexts and communities it involves, moving us beyond singular narratives of religious history. By examining the mandirs of the BAPS community, this essay reveals the extravagant resources of burgeoning middle-class Hindu communities in India and abroad, and the motivations and methods that create such new sacred spaces.

Author

• Ankur Desai, Ohio State University