Abstract
This study examines the multiplicity of styles and heterogeneity of the arts created on the southern coasts of India during the period of colonial rule. Diverging from the trajectory of numerous studies that underline biased and distorted conceptions of India promoted in European and Indian literary sources, I examine ways in which Indian cultural traditions and religious beliefs found substantial expression in visual arts that were ostensibly geared to reinforce Christian worship and colonial ideology. This investigation is divided into two parts. Following a brief overview, my initial focus will be on Indo-Portuguese polychrome woodcarvings executed by local artisans for churches in the areas of Goa and Kerala on the Malabar coast. I will then relate to Portuguese religious strategies reflected in south Indian churches, involving the destruction of Hindu temples and images and their replacement with Catholic equivalents, inadvertently contributing to the survival of indigenous beliefs and recuperation of the Hindu monuments they replaced.
Highlights
The multiplicity of styles and heterogeneity of the arts created on the southern coasts of India during the period of colonial rule is a complex issue
Human–Serpent Hybrids on Goan Pulpits. Another example of polychrome wood carving executed by local artisans are the pulpits of Goan churches that exemplify the unique synthesis of Christian ecclesiastical artforms imported from Europe with indigenous iconography
As explained in my introduction, hybridity is used in this study as a comprehensive umbrella term
Summary
The multiplicity of styles and heterogeneity of the arts created on the southern coasts of India during the period of colonial rule is a complex issue. Good Shepherd example, for which there no pre-existing examthere isstatuettes, extensivefor scholarship dealing with theare exportation of Indian art ples in Europe, was produced by local carvers under the patronage of the missionary orworks and various goods to Europe , these polychrome wooden sculptures created for ders and the elite between late sixteenth and eighteenth churches of Portuguese the Malabarcolonial coast have been largelythe neglected. It has been shownintowestern share several common features with the doctrinal have not been accessible to scholars museums and art collections.
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