TY - JOUR
T1 - Technophany and Its Publics: Artisans, Technicians, and the Rise of Vishwakarma Worship in India
AU - George, Ken
AU - Narayan, Kirin
PY - 2022
Y1 - 2022
N2 - The worship of Vishwakarma, a god long associated with India's hereditary artisans and their tools, has achieved new relevance with the rise of industrial capitalism in South Asia. No longer moored solely to artisanal caste interests, worship of the god heralds a range of publics in which techn (crafting, fabricating, or making) is an exalted activity and public concern. Using "technophany"as a conceptual framework, we argue that deifications of technology and technicity sit at the core of Vishwakarma worship. Rather than treat religion and technology as ontologically distinct modalities of being-in-the-world, we use this framework to show how artisans, technicians, mechanics, and engineers use Vishwakarma worship to bring industrial technologies into alignment with the cosmos. Drawing on historical and ethnographic materials, we push beyond earlier scholarship that has treated Vishwakarma worship as a holdover from peasant culture or as a set of practices pitted against industrial capitalism.
AB - The worship of Vishwakarma, a god long associated with India's hereditary artisans and their tools, has achieved new relevance with the rise of industrial capitalism in South Asia. No longer moored solely to artisanal caste interests, worship of the god heralds a range of publics in which techn (crafting, fabricating, or making) is an exalted activity and public concern. Using "technophany"as a conceptual framework, we argue that deifications of technology and technicity sit at the core of Vishwakarma worship. Rather than treat religion and technology as ontologically distinct modalities of being-in-the-world, we use this framework to show how artisans, technicians, mechanics, and engineers use Vishwakarma worship to bring industrial technologies into alignment with the cosmos. Drawing on historical and ethnographic materials, we push beyond earlier scholarship that has treated Vishwakarma worship as a holdover from peasant culture or as a set of practices pitted against industrial capitalism.
U2 - 10.1017/S0021911821001546
DO - 10.1017/S0021911821001546
M3 - Article
SN - 0021-9118
VL - 81
SP - 3
EP - 21
JO - Journal of Asian Studies
JF - Journal of Asian Studies
IS - 1
ER -